>>24569177
Could you give a quick recap of the situation? What we know about the city, enemy forces, our own forces, etc?

Huh. Thought you'd disappeared for good. Gonna need a few minutes to remind myself what we were doing.

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>>24569253

Sure. We could use a recap for new players anyhow.

Your forces are about 750 strong, gathered up from a total of four different villages spread throughout the relatively primitive lands of Dorrik. They are a savage and warlike band with great ferocity, but many of them lack discipline and their equipment is non-standardized, scattershot. A good many of them are now wearing chainmail looted from your Golgothan enemies, however. Your daemonic allies are Olberek, a nature spirit with armor-like barkskin and a mossy beard who commands wolves and speaks with trees and has contributed an additional fifty dire wolves and two massive dire eagles to your forces, and Girdin, who looks something like a rhinocerous made entirely of stone and who is nearly invulnerable and absurdly strong. Plus there's Mari, the mortal child who for some reason has Fleshshaping powers, but she's not really a huge asset (yet).

>cont with Golgothan forces

>>24569411

The Golgothans are a force to be reckoned with. 1100 of them stand entrenched in the port city of Westercoast. Making matters worse, the city of Westercoast is also currently home to about 600 able-bodied men. Since you burned Golroute to the ground and slaughtered the inhabitants at the request of Olberek, these will are now willing to fight to the death to stop you. The women and children, meanwhile, have been taken into the catacombs, supposedly to keep them safe, but in truth a daemon pus blob has been using his Fleshshaping powers to transform them into shambling monsters, planning to unleash them on your army as you attack the gates. There are over a thousand of these in addition to the other forces mentioned, but perhaps with their creator defeated the Golgothans will be unable to command them. In any case, their blood is now the same acidic pus the blob daemon was composed of. The only daemon left on the Golgothans' side is "Ivan," a tall daemon with leathery black hide and a single massive eye where his face should be. You suspect he has the Talents of Clarity and Alchemy. A few dozen of the Golgothan soldiers are covered head to toe in enchanted armor and carry enchanted swords, which previously have cut through even Girdin's impenetrable hide. It has been theorized that these may not be soldiers at all, but golems. Likewise, there are the blood guards, religious enforcers not too dissimilar to 40K commisars, who wear long red cloaks and cattle skull masks. They're expert duelists, but lightly armored and do poorly against multiple opponents. Their main trick is the ability to summon a blood golem when a pair of them ritually kill themselves. These blood golems grow larger by absorbing more blood and are basically invincible since they're made of liquid and thus can't be properly stabbed at all, but they burn through their supply of blood and eventually die on their own.

>>24569378

My internet access is unfortunately very volatile lately. I've been trying to get it more stable. We'll see whether or not it works (I was able to post consistently for several months for Super Villain Quest, so it's not out of the question).

>>24569378
From last thread:

1. Girdin will use his biggynstrongness to smash the tunnel entrances, hopefully cutting off any zombie ambush.
2. Girdin will then charge the gate break it down. The army should follow a short while after him, so that he will have time to get it down before they get there. They will stay back until he charges to avoid unnecessary casualties from catapults.
3. Olberek prepared some dire hugebirds which hopefully will be able to disrupt the catapult crews for some time.
4. The main threat to Olberek is the soldiers with enchanted weapons. Either we ask Mari to kill them via fleshshaping, putting her at some risk of triggering a ward, likely to lead to her getting tons of attention and deaded, or we ask the army commanders to tell their soldiers to focus on those, which might have limited effect since a soldier will be most worried about whichever dude is tying him up atm.
5. As long as we're keeping Girdin alive we're winning.

There was also mention of trying to sway the enemy plans towards gathering at the soon-to-be-breach where Girdin can trample them most efficiently. How much time do we have left though? We also need to rest up before the battle proper, you don't send a sleeping daemon to fight.

>>24569422
Okay well from what I remember the basics of the plan were to have Girdin smash the tunnel entrances and to prevent the acid zombies flooding the battlefield, then either punch a hole somewhere in the walls or the main gate. Probably the latter. We've asked Mari not to use her fleshshaping except to save her life, so we won't be able to rely on that, and we know Ivan can drop anti-us wards across the city so we'll need to be conservative about where and when we fire off our own powers.

Our primary targets are Ivan and the enchanted soldiers/golems. Ivan isn't a huge threat to us personally as long as we're incorporeal, but he makes it his business to disable our shadow form. Blood guards are next on the ladder, if only to kill them before they drop blood golems. We may also need to do something about the Golgothan catapults before they do too much damage to our own forces.

If we can get close enough we can delude the enemy commanders into misreading the situation with delusions like "The gates are secure and don't need reinforcing". The blood golems can be blinded to make them murder indiscriminately but it won't stop them killing our own guys also so it won't swing the battle too much either way. No idea how to get rid of the enchanted soldiers, but as they're capable of doing serious damage to Girdin we need to keep them away from him/it at the very least.

That's all I can remember off the top of my head.

>>24569527
Unless the blood guards march right into the middle of the battle before summoning a blood golem, we could blind it quickly and it would be mainly tearing through their own ranks. If they try to get close to our troops before summoning, perhaps they can be killed before being able to summon. Archers keeping an eye out specifically for those, maybe?

>>24569527
See the main problem was my particular plan was to personally tie up the armored guys so they dont go after Girdin. He can take them 1v1 now that he's fought one before and is used to it, but they can fuck him up. Problem is, I thought there were only a handful. There's actually a couple dozen apparently so that plan goes right out the window.

Also, those "golems" are pretty much fleshless. When Girdin smashed the first one in half no blood leaked out and it didn't seem affected by the damage beyond not being able to use its legs. Mari definitely wont be targeting them.

Aside from all that, the general plan of misdirecting officers to make stupid decisions is a sound one. We just need to keep an eye out for Ivan (pun not intended).

>>24569631
>pun not intended
Nobody is going to believe you.

Didn't our blinding ability work on the guy back in Golroute? Do these look the same as him? If so, we could help him out by blinding them. If they ALL come at him at the same time, he'd still be fucked, but in a huge battle we could probably blind 6 or so at a time.

>>24569618
Telling Dorriki archers to keep an eye out for blood guards seems like a valid tactic. Perhaps we should enlist the services of the Clarbel veterans, archery was their elite talent from what I remember, and they might be able to seriously snipe quite a few blood guards.

>>24569669
Problem is we'll be attacking during the day I believe, so we cant maintain that much blinding. Have to ask TM.

To answer your question yes blinding darkness does work on them, however it also works on blood golems that have no "eyes". Its a physical obstruction of darkness in their path of vision so that's why its able to work on constructs afaik.

>>24569697
We've used the fact that hundreds of soldiers on a field cast tons of shadows to our advantage before. I think ~6 is a fair estimate.

>>24569724
True, that's worth noting. Probably a fair estimate then as you said.

So blinding the armor golems and misdirecting the commanders to concentrate troops at the gates, that sounds solid in terms of basic strategy. If we can get Clarbel's archers to KoS the blood guards, even better.

Anything else you all have in mind?

>>24569679

Clarbel archers are a bit better than usual, but it's a stretch to call them elite.

>>24569697

It's during the day, but you'll be fighting in the shadow of a giant wall, so blinding six guys at a time is doable.

>>24569751
The only hole left in our plan that I can think of is that the zombies can also be released directly into the city. We don't really have any particular way to defeat them, since I think that their blood will harm even Girdin. On the upside, if they DO release them directly into the city, they've probably already lost. We just need to avoid losing as well.

Okay, so final answers: what's the plan?

>>24569925
Girdin on tunnel, then gate, then send in soldiers behind him, eagles to disrupt catapults during charge, ask for Clarbel archers to be especially on the lookout for blood guards (not to the point of not doing anything else, but focus on any blood guards they see). Blind armormen to help Girdin (hopefully we can pick a spot that isn't warded), pray they don't come at him in too huge numbers at a time.

Did I forget anything?

>>24569980
Oh right, we also still need to rest up before battle. We have time, right?

>>24569833
Too bad we dont have flamers, purging the unclean isn't really an option here.

If they do release them they're pretty much fucked anyway since they attacked the soldiers before. I'm perfectly okay with ordering the retreat once they've lost hardcore and made the city zombieville if it all goes south. Personally, that is.

>>24569980
Supporting this. Seems like we've made a solid plan.

>>24569985

Plenty. So much so I probably should've just gone ahead and put you back at full to begin with, it's not like you've got anything else to do at camp. But yeah, you'll be fine going into the battle.

>>24570003
Good. I don't expect to fire all the missiles again, but the battle could be long and unexpected things happen that require our efforts.

>>24570031
>ALL THE MISSILES.

Damn that was glorious. I still cant believe it actually worked.

>>24569986
Flamers? In the event that we've forced them to release the monsters, we may have enough freedom to just set the city on fire?

>>24570038
Of course it worked. It was awesome, and awesome stuff always work. Rule of cool etc etc

>>24569980

Very well. You head to the usual council of mortal leaders. Vierre was killed by Mari in an ultimately futile attempt to prevent an attack on the Golroute refugees, and she's been replaced as the leader of Estercoast by Kadis, a younger man than the rest who's inherited the enchanted sword Vierre looted from the armor creature at Golroute.

None of them have any idea how they're going to tackle this monster. So much so that Dekker and Gant advise a retreat and Lent is undecided. It doesn't take much to persuade them to press on, fortunately, as Kadis and, more importantly, Jens, who has won the respect of Dekker, are convinced that this war isn't over until Golgoth is forced from the island completely. Although all agree that the spirits will have to be the ones to win this war. The mortal army hasn't enough men to win it on their own.

The sun has already risen high when the army arrives, well-rested from a light march and unchallenged by Golgothan skirmishers. A restless army watches, the dire wolves snapping and snarling to one side, the warriors of Estercoast, as ever in the van, waiting to begin the charge.

Girdin heads out first, of course, while the Dorriki hold the line. The Golgothan commander of the walls shouts a command, officers down the line repeat it, and a volley of arrows shoots out, falling well short of Dorriki lines and plinking uselessly off of Girdin's stone body. It takes him the better part of a half-hour to march over to one tunnel, scout around until he spots it, collapse it, then cross the field to do the same to the other. After the first four volleys the Golgothans realize that no amount of arrows will make this monster give a fuck and give up.

>cont.

Then he backs up to give himself some space to pick up speed and charges towards the gates. The army lets out a chorus of warcries and charges in behind him, raising shields to deflect the inevitable hail of Golgothan arrows, but alas, Kadis is one of the unfortunate ones. He collapses from his horse, an arrow through his eye, while Estercoast surges on without him. The dire eagles swoop down on two of the catapults, carrying their operators off the edges of the walls, but the other two rain down a devastating artillery on the advancing Dorriki army.

With an earsplitting crack, the doors of Westercoast are flung wide, rocking off their massive hinges as Girdin splits straight through them. Dorriki cavalry follow immediately behind, spilling into the breach and smashing into the ranks of Golgothan soldiers waiting for them just behind. The Golgothan line is disciplined and organized, but no amount of discipline can make up for the fact that Girdin is both invincible and capable of tearing through armor like wet tissue paper, and thus the line is breached, Estercoast warriors spilling into the ranks in Girdin's wake. Pulling up soon after, the Deepwell villagers arrive, giving battle to the mob of Golgothans inside. The Golgothans soon realize that there is no headway to be made against Girdin, but the enchanted armors make their way down the staircase to confront him, close to a half-dozen. As planned, you blind them and shout a warning. Girdin pounces on them while they're still incapable of properly fighting back. His vicious jaws are halted by their enchanted armor, but the soldiers within shriek with pain as he crushes their chests, leaving six-inch dents in the plating, blood leaking from the gaps. Looks like there are people in these ones.

>cont again

>>24570367


Fortunately, spread out as they are across the wall, the soldiers in enchanted armor arrive no more than two or three at a time, and you're able to blind and kill them as they arrive. The Estercoast warriors begin to wane in the face of the Golgothans's superior numbers, but Elmwood and Deepwell arrive to support them. Dekker is shot in the arm by the archers on the advance, by grits his teeth and fights on, he and Elmwood charging into the breach. The Golgothans are forced back into the city and Dekker leads his warriors up to clear the walls and provide relief from the archers while Jens and Lent pursue into the city with the warriors of Deepwell and Clarbel. Girdin trundles off to support Deepwell and Clarbel, while Olberek's wolves pour in and spread themselves out eratically throughout the city and walls. The forces pressing into the city meet heavy resistance as the citizens of Golroute take to the streets, fighting with axe and hammer. Poor warriors they may be, but they're still Dorriki and can handle themselves in a fight.

>wat do?

Oh, worth noting that although Mari camps and marches with the Clarbel Villagers, she fights with the Norfin Villagers because that's where everyone sticks their archers. Clarbel, being a mixed skirmisher sort of unit, has archers of their own, but they're also expected to hold their own on the frontlines. Being thirteen, Mari can't do that.

>>24570387
Well that went surprisingly handily. Good to see Dekker is holding his own on the battlefield, Jens must've instilled some courage into him after all.

Righto, lets head up to the walls where assumedly the captains are organizing a defense. Keep an eye out for Blood Guards and their ilk as we try to find a leader we can exploit.

Do we still have forces outside the walls the catapults are targeting? And how are the dire eagles holding up?

>>24570521

The dire eagles are basically untouched and have been able to keep the catapults' rate of fire down. They can't take them out completely because the Golgothans can always just have another soldier turn the crank, and they don't especially need to aim since they're just hurling artillery, but the constant need to replace guys means they aren't shooting nearly as fast. The Norfin warriors are moving into the kill zone now, though it's a lot less dangerous now with the archers thinned by dire eagles and distracted by the attack on the walls, plus some of the archers have turned around and started firing at the Dorriki inside the city, who are a closer and more pressing target.

Not many blood guards up top, though you do spot one or two. Looks like the walls are clear of the enchanted armor guys, though. Doesn't take too long to find one of the captains leading the defense of the walls.

>>24570604
Okay, approach the commander in shadow form and delusion him with "Abandoning the walls is the only way to ensure you can hold the city."

We need to force these archers and catapult operators off the walls so they lose the high ground, and put them on even footing with our troops. If that delusion does the job, then we can support Dekker and his force by blinding groups of defenders in their path.

Golgoth is being disturbingly mundane. No blood golems, no new tricks from Ivan, no zombies unleashed. If they don't pull some supernatural card, we will win even if the casualties will be significant. At some point we may want to visit the nearest tunnel entrance we know, to see if Ivan is releasing the beasties.

The citizens in the streets we probably have no chance of turning, so they'll have to die. Almost tragic. If our warriors are assisted by Girdin, they shouldn't last long and only inflict minimal casualties.

Do >>24570670 first though

>>24570670

You find the commander of the defense and fire off your delusion. The soldiers nearby look around, searching for the source of the voice, but are unable to find your Unnoticed form. "We need to pull off the wall and head to the city below," the commander says, "they're past the field already and the narrow wall means we can't bring our numbers to bear."

"No, sir," one of the nearby soldiers says, "it's a trick. Some spirit has laid a spell on you, didn't you hear it?"

"Hear what?" the officer responds.

"A voice with no body commanded you," another soldier says, "it's a trick from one of the Dorriki spirits."

The commander is indecisive for a moment. "Their spirits, our gods," he says finally, "we won't know until we're dead, whether that's in bed or the battlefield. Get off the wall and down to where our numbers can do some good!"

The soldiers reluctantly obey and begin heading down into the city below. You head down as well while the Dorriki pursue the Golgothans and clear the walls, and duck in to check the catacombs. The grates are still in place, and slipping past them it looks like this place is still overrun with the pus monsters. No sign of Ivan, but you've only checked one entrance. Searching the entire catacombs would take a good long while, and the battle rages on above.

>wat do?

>>24570995
Again, that went surprisingly well. Let's peel off the search for Ivan since we didn't immediately pick up on any oddities and head towards the Temple. Perhaps we'll catch something interesting there to see. Also as usual keep an eye on the battlefield and pick out any trouble spots.

>>24571071
Alternatively, we should perhaps simply stick close to the battle for now so that we can quickly respond to unexpected threats against Girdin or Mari. After all, as long as we have Girdin up and kicking, any force he's with should progress without too heavy losses.

>>24571123
Well yeah, we can just do a quick stop by the temple to see if anything's going down there then do this.

>>24571179
Alright, then. I suppose it shouldn't take to long, and hopefully he can't counter us if we don't actually use any powers.

>>24571271
>>24571179

Depends on what you mean by "take too long." It will only be about ten minutes there and back, but a lot can happen in ten minutes when hundreds of people are trying to murder every named ally in the quest.

The consensus is to swing by the temple and look for Ivan, though?

>>24571304
Ten minutes? Nah, too long then. We gotta protect our assets. Mari for her assumed potential, Girdin because if we lose him, we most likely lose the battle and war outright.

>>24571325
Agreed. It was merely a convenience suggestion on my part that we do so. Let's keep tabs on the battle.

>>24571382
>>24571325

Alright. You head back to the battle. Progress is slowing, the twisting streets making Girdin easier to avoid and thus more of the Dorriki are caught in battles with an overwhelming number of Westercoasters and Golgothans. On the bright side, the surviving wolves (only a few dozen now) spread out through the city and begin savaging the defenders. The walls are cleared and Norfin Village heads into the city, taking up position on the walls to rain arrows down on the defenders below.

The battle on the front lines is not going as well, though. The Elmwood warriors are being cut to pieces as the Golgothans attempt to punch a hole through the Dorriki flank through alleyways and side streets. Dekker is fending off multiple soldiers in the enchanted armor along with his best warriors, but there's no way they can win against enemies whose armor is impenetrable and whose swords leave inch-deep nicks with every parry.

On the other end of things, Girdin has run into a posse of enchanted warriors of his own. Abandon Girdin, and he *might* be seriously injured, possibly badly enough to take him out of the fight. Abandon Dekker, and he's nearly guaranteed to be killed, and the Dorriki surrounded.

>wat do?

>>24571447
Fuck. I'm sorry Dekker, but our daemon ally is simply more important. Help Girdin by blinding his foes and letting him crumple them. I dont think our allies could possibly hurt those armored soldiers with conventional weapons anyway.

>>24571490

If the armored soldiers were blinded Dekker and friends could stab them through their visors.

>>24571447
Mari was with Norfin, right? That's a damn shame, we could have her murder the armormen, now that we know they are in fact men.

We need to prioritize Girdin. We simply cannot afford to lose him. Our troops will simply have to break through if they get surrounded, probably in the direction of the gate so they can regroup with Norfin.

>>24571562
That changes things then. Other anon, what is your take on the situation knowing this?

>>24571573
You in particular. Also, Dekker's men are on the walls I believe. Retreat will be difficult.

>>24571447
girdin is obviously more important

>>24571447
whichever we help, pick one of the armor guys and delusion him with "your commander is possessed. you need to kill him"

>>24571599
Sorry, still think Girdin needs to stay up. We seriously have no backup plan for losing him, it is simply not an option.

>>24571573

Yes, Mari is with Norfin on the walls.

>>24571599

No, Dekker's with Elmwood, his men are holding the parts of the city immediately outside the gate. If he falls, Norfin's trapped on the walls and Deepwell/Clarbel/Estercoast are trapped in the city, cutting the force in half. Which is rather the point of a flanking maneuver, after all.

>>24571682
I had a plan where we might be able to convince Olberek to rally his wolves and buy Girdin time. He's nowhere to be seen though, so that isn't an option.

What if we told a nearby soldier that "telling Girdin to let our soldiers buy time for him while Anomaly assists another front momentarily is crucial to us winning", and then delusion him with it being necessary or we lose, then letting him run off to rally the troops while we help Dekker?

There's a lot of shit its riding on, but it could work.

>>24571731

And by outside the gate I meant inside. Sorry. Dekker and the Elmwood warriors are definitely inside the gate.

>>24571739
Switch "Girdin" for "the stone behemoth" and you might have a chance of him actually delivering the message. He won't have an easy time actually delivering the message, being corporeal and everything in the middle of a battle, and Girdin may just ignore the words of a mortal outright. So... It's a pretty big risk, Girdin is our entire battle plan. I don't want to risk it, personally.

>>24571903
I was afraid of that. Unless anyone else has a avenue of helping both for the time being, I'm afraid I'll have to stick with abandoning Dekker.

Sounds like abandoning Dekker is the plan. You turn your attentions towards the mob of enchanted armor soldiers hitting Girdin, and blind them. Unable to see, Girdin is able to mash through them, and nearby Dorriki soldiers are able to help by toppling the blinded soldiers and stabbing them through the visors. Behind, one of the enchanted soldiers cuts Dekker's sword in half and then decapitates him. Figures that the one time he takes a risk it kills him.

You turn your attention to blinding the enchanted soldiers in the rear as soon as the ones up front are dead, but by then the damage is done and Elmwood is routing, Golgothan forces spilling in to seize the gate and the parts of the city immediately inside. A lieutenant begins setting up troops at the gate, but the captain of the force orders him to abandon it and throw everything up at the walls.

No longer threatened by the enchanted soldiers, Girdin plows ahead. Jens has come through the battle unscathed, though Lent, the leader of the Clarbel warriors, has taken a wound to his thigh. He's patched it up, and the cut looks worse than it is, but he's walking with a limp and has sheathed his sword and resorted to archery from just behind the frontlines.

Girdin's progress is slowed by the Golgothans' ability to just go around him in the twisting city streets, but nevertheless they are forced to steadily give ground before the advancing army. Girdin smashes through the barricades on the main square not too long after and the Dorriki pour in, fighting for control of the center of the city. There's a few more enchanted soldiers here, who begin hacking their way towards Girdin, determined to bring the beast down and turn the tide. The temple is still here, surrounded by its honor guard of thirteen blood guards, but no sign of Ivan on the outside. It looks like someone has set a fire in the direction of the ports, smoke curling up into the sky. And, of course, there's still the walls being attacked.

>wat do?

>>24572080
Great, another horrible choice must be made. They're sending soldiers up to the wall where Mari is now, an equally valuable asset.

I'm in favor of defending the walls, I think Girdin can handle himself against these particular ones if he's cautious. Find this captain and delusion him with "The enemy has moved a surprise force to the port and are burning down everything". Hopefully this will temporarily save the walls and Mari, so we can rejoin Girdin.

>>24572080
Are they... Are they trying to trap us between a fire and their own troops?

>>24572154
I agree that we need to get to the walls, tell Girdin to be cautious in our absence. I'm not sure about that delusion however. They don't care what happens to the city as long as they win it.

How many troops are we dealing with at the wall?

>>24572247
I think that the fire might've been set by Clarbel's sneaky skirmishers to draw an ambush, that's why I suggested the delusion possibly.

>>24572273
That'd be horribly sneaky, and without telling us even. Even so, I don't think that'd draw these guys away from the walls, they'd let someone else handle it. Perhaps we can scare them somehow, or if their numbers are modest, perhaps defeat them outright with help from Mari.

>>24572247

You've got about 400 troops, mixed Golgothan and locals, between you and the wall. You've got about double that bunkering down in and around the main square. Looks like the port side of the city is guarded by a skeleton crew at most. You've got about 400 troops in the city and 100 up on the wall, plus a few wolves here and there and those eagles are still flying around but can't do much since they'd crash through buildings if they tried to divebomb through the city.

I'll give this another ten minutes since I just revealed a bit of new information,

>>24572524
Well fuck, that's a lot left. Perhaps if we had the local commander believe "the walls are severely weakened and will collapse at any moment" he'll call back his attack.

>>24572597

You fire off your delusion at the captain of the attack. He orders his men to pull back off the wall, sending archers into buildings, onto rooftops, and into alleys to begin sniping at the Dorriki archers on the walls, apparently planning to just harass them until the walls come down. The Norfin warriors are still taking some casualties to the arrows but they're no longer being stormed off the wall, so crisis averted for now. Since most of the militia and even a lot of the Golgothans have no ranged weapons, the fight between Norfin and Golgoth is actually quite even so long as they stay on the ground.

>now what?

>>24572855

Blind the archers

>>24572918

Which archers? There's over a hundred firing up at the wall and you can blind about six or seven people at a time under current circumstances.

>>24572855
Mari is safe for the time being hopefully. Head to where Girdin is and help him defeat the last group of enchanted soldiers with blinding. Hopefully once they are dead he is home free to slaughter unless the zombies get released.

Then we can focus on saving Mari for real and dealing with Ivan.

>>24572995

Indeed

>>24572995
We'll keep the soldiers off Girdin, but if we get a chance, tell him to yell "Keep away from the temple". I'm assuming the soldiers aren't dumb enough to ignore the giant rock monster that's basically carrying the battle, even if they're panicked. Reason being, if those blood guard summon a golem, it's going to spiral out of control, and quickly.

Then we book it and go check on Mari.

>>24572995
Before leaving, perhaps her position for wards with a blind, and if safe, tell her that "now is a good time". Can't really state explicitly to use fleshshaping, since that might reveal her, but she should get the message.

>>24572995
>>24573106

By the time you've made it back to Girdin, he's already begun fighting with the armored soldiers, and has taken several cuts and given a lot of ground. He isn't hurt terribly bad, but the battle is clearly not going his way. Up until the shadows fly into the eyes of his opponents. Things go swimmingly after that.

Nevertheless, Girdin is breathing heavily as he finishes stamping the last of them into paste. The armor is still mostly in its shape, really resilient stuff, but the guy inside is juice. The fires from the port are growing, meanwhile, and the fighting for the square has only intensified. Badly outnumbered, the Dorriki make little headway even with Girdin's aid. They hold the line at the main road leading from the gate to the square, using it as a chokepoint as best they can to nullify the Golgothans' numerical advantage. Unfortunately, the Golgothans have been in this city for months and know plenty of sideways to get around.

The Golgothans manage to break through the Dorriki lines on several occasions. Every time they are pushed back, but at one point the wounded Lent is run through. Jens commands the remaining two hundred and fifty men alone, now, but the Golgothan casualties are far steeper. They finally give up on pushing the Dorriki out towards the 400 Golgothans fighting at the wall, and instead they retreat back into the square, heading into the manors and court houses and other large buildings to hole up. Some even head towards the temple, but the blood guard cut down those who approach.

Jens looks towards the smoke from the growing pyre at the docks, towards the four hundred or so Golgothans entrenching themselves, and to his own exhausted, demoralized, and spent force. Girdin charges forward towards the manors, but Jens sighs and mutters to himself "if we go forward, we'll never be able to get back out." Then he turns to his men and says "turn about, we need to punch through and get out of this city!"

>wat do?

>>24573477
get them all to back out. then go to the blood guards and make them summon another blood monster

>>24573560
Wait. We can take advantage of the Golgothans being suppressed by Girdin. I think we've killed off everything that can hurt him, so we tell Jens to redirect the remaining men to the 400 Golgothans battling Norfin on the walls. They can help crush them, and save Mari at the same time.

Then once our mortal evacuate, we can summon up some blood golems to decimate the remaining forces IF the blood guards stray away from their wards. I guarantee you that whole courtyard and the temple proper are warded.

It's our best option, and Jens has sound judgment when it comes to battles mortals cannot win. We have to know when to back off the Dorriki and leave it to the spirits.

>>24573560
The temple is bound to be warded. Trying to delusion the blood guards there is a very bad idea. It may however not be a bad idea for the troops to regroup, but actually fleeing the battle? Not, fucking, acceptable. I'd suggest politely informing Jens that if he pulls out of the city before given our explicit permission we will personally hunt down and devour the hearts of every last Dorriki.

>>24573682
I think as I said; having them liberate Norfin from the walls and waiting for our signal to begin another attack could possibly work. If we could rally our forces there while Girdin/Us/Wolves crush the Golgothans holed up in the manors, it would be ideal.

>>24573682
The ward only triggers if we're standing on it; directly at that. Unless Ivan warded the entire courtyard we can delusion the blood guards from a reasonable distance. Just sit up in a tree or something.

>>24573738
Jens intends to retreat though. We need to stop that.

>>24573744
The ward has a small range, but we have reason to believe that Ivan can in fact spam up ridiculous amounts of them to cover an area like the temple entirely. Not sure how the wards range deal with vertical distance however.

>>24573780
I get that, and I agree given that said. Amending my original idea is perfectly fine. Rallying at the gates/walls will work instead of full retreat, we just need to convince him. Without delusions preferably, but if we have to we have to.

>>24573780
>Not sure how the wards range deal with vertical distance however.

We asked about it on Skype and the short answer is they don't. You can throw a bedsheet over the floor and stand on it, and it won't trigger the ward. Anything you're wearing doesn't count mind, so shoes, socks, or bedsheets wrapped around your feet won't protect you from the ward.

>>24573833
However, I would imagine sitting on Girdin as he smashes into the temple would work. For what that thought is worth.

>>24573806
Way, way back at the beginning of this quest, Jens commented on not being particularly impressed by spirits and not afraid of our threats at all. That's why I badly want to use intimidation to get our way with him here. This war ought to have changed his perspective a little.

>>24573850
Bonus: Girdin probably has no blood.

>>24573864
>Without delusions preferably, but if we have to we have to.

Badass commander and strategist or no, he's still a mortal and perfectly capable of being thralled by our delusions if necessary.

>>24573881
But can we try the hearts devouring thing first? It would be so fun!

>>24573901
Only if you behave at the doctor's Jimmy.

>>24573682

The Dorriki have already begun heading back towards the wall, so you act quickly. "Jens, no, we need to regroup, not retreat."

"No," is all Jens says in response.

"Jens, if you leave this city I'll-"

"Shut up," he says flatly.

>now what?

>>24574025
Did we just get treated like an annoying bitch? I think we did.

Gloves are off, delusion time.

"If you don't save the Norfin detachment on the walls, your forces will be cut off and killed."

>>24574073
Perhaps I should also clarify that once the Dorriki get closer to the hunkered-down Golgothans at the wall we release the delusion on the Captain we delusioned back there, so we aren't maintaining two.

>>24574073
Doesn't stop him from just running away with them, plus he already needs to go through the forces engaging Norfin. I'm not really sure why we're letting him interrupt us when we're talking. If we didn't need him to give these troops the RIGHT commands I'd just kill him right here.

>>24574160
Might betray the trust of allied forces if we kill him, and could rout them entirely without their star leader.

I'm banking on the engagement with the forces on the walls taking long enough that we can support Girdin for a bit then bounce back and change our delusion to rally.

>>24574073
Supporting this; Jens should not be giving us a "I-don't-have-time-for-you" attitude when he outright admitted that this battle basically depends on the spirits.

>>24574192
Bah, we don't even need them for much longer anyway. In either case, subjects don't actually hear the delusion so he can't use his skills at interrupting us. So it is delusion time.

>>24574273
He shouldn't be giving that attitude at any time. The moment his usefulness expires...

>>24574073

There's no immediate impact from the delusion. You can feel it taking hold, but Jens doesn't actually change anything. Then again, the force attacking the Norfin Villagers on the wall is directly between him and his objective, so it's not like he wasn't going to do that anyway.

The Dorriki, now fighting for their lives, prove able and vicious foes against the Golgothans, particularly since nearly half of their number are the native militia rather than proper warriors or soldiers. Gant has the presence of mind to sally forth and lead a charge down the walls while the Golgothans are distracted by Jens' own attack. Caught between the two forces, the Golgothans are scattered and the Dorriki begin pouring out of the city. Girdin, meanwhile, smashes things up in the square. You can't really tell what he's up to at this distance but there's definitely still a battle going on over there. That fire hasn't stopped either.

>wat do?

>>24574365
Switch to delusion: "If the army doesn't regroup and press to the square, every last Dorriki will be slaughtered by Golgoth."

>>24574602
Unnecessary. I thought about it, and just us and Girdin can handle this now. Basically:

1. Blood Golems cant harm Girdin. We ride Girdin to the temple to circumvent the wards, use our dual delusion to summon one and blind it, hop off him and watch the fireworks.

2. Ivan is likely holed up in his temple thinking he's perfectly safe from us in there. Girdin is just gonna smash that temple to pieces so everyone inside is buried in it. Forces Ivan into worse territory for the fight or he gets crushed.

3. The rampaging blood golem will tie up the blood guards and might prevent exit from the temple. Also no real way of dispelling it with ooze daemon gone.

Also, we find Mari real quick and tell her to wait by the gate should we need her.

>>24574639
You'll let all these mortals escape after this? At the very least we'll want to keep them as back up. Plus, if Mari has no cannon fodder around her, she'll get cut down fast.

>>24574674
Like Golgoth is gonna pursue our forces. Let's take advantage of the moment and give the mortals a rest.

>>24574697
Then hold the gate or something. If we let them run away now, that's a routed army. They're going to all fuck off back to wherever they came from and for Golgoth to come kill them unless someone stops them.

>>24574674

Again: Mari is with Norfin Village. If they retreat, so does she. She is not a lemming who will charge mindlessly forward and impale herself on 200 Golgothan swords unless someone is there to babysit her.

>>24574745
Which is why we can't let the Dorriki escape! We need them to be her meat shield, we may need them as back up for not-yet-known reasons, and it'd be a HUGE insult to us, personally.

>>24574823

What part of "Mari will retreat when the Dorriki do" are you not getting? Mari will be in the middle of 350 Dorriki warriors regardless of whether those warriors are heading to safety or going back into the fight. She is not going to try and storm Westercoast on her own.

>>24574920
If she retreats with them, we can't use her if a need for her pops up. That is the problem.

>>24574823
I agree with >>24574639

We don't care about the Dorriki, and we can go find Mari later. Ivan is our main objective and we want him pasted; we only initially drove the army here because we don't have any combat prowess ourself, and we needed the meatshields. now that we're allied with Girdin, who is several magnitudes beyond mortals to the point they can't even slow him down without enchanted weapons and armour, they're basically just tying us up in their personal struggles and we're strictly about fucking up the court of Dominion. We go after Ivan.

>>24574639
>>24574966

Okay, sure.

---

You hop onto Girdin, who is busy wrecking one of the mansions you darted through when you were still sneaking around this place, and tell him you need him to bring you over to the temple so you can use your Talents without tripping a ward. Girdin shrugs and trundles over, and you hit the blood guards with the standard "only a blood golem can save you now!" delusion. After they finish the summoning, you blind the thing, and it starts chasing after the other blood guards. Then Girdin plows straight through the temple.

It is empty.

>wat do?

>>24574966
Bah, you guys have no sense of petty vengeance at all.

>>24575007
What a surprise. He probably already fled by ship or something. Maybe we should go see what's actually burning.

>>24575007
Apologise to Girdin for using him as a mount (I think we at least owe him some courtesies), then make a beeline for the catacombs and bring him with us. Ivan is probably down there, if he hasn't fled at all.

>>24575091
Oh don't worry, we'll do some petty vengeance but the middle of a crucial fight is not ideal for it. I personally want to mail those Deeprock cowards a letter inscribed with explosive runes.

>>24575114
Right, son of a bitch ran off from his temple. I agree that we should check the catacombs first, then the docks.

Friendly reminder that zombies blood probably hurts Girdin. He's probably not the most well suited to engaging those.

>>24575175
Course, but he can stomp the ground until we bury the fuckers wherever Ivan is hiding potentially. The support pillars in the military HQ probably weren't meant to handle Girdin's prodigious strength stomping repeatedly.

>>24575196
If only we knew for sure where every entrance/exit was, we could just smash those and let everyone inside rot there.

>>24575196
>>24575231

I think this is what we're going with.

You're able to locate roughly where the war room is, and then you have Girdin pound the ground until it collapses. It takes a beating. This is supposed to hold the weight of dozens or hundreds of people, after all. But it does give after a while. The general is holed up there along with a bunch of guards, including two in enchanted armor. You blind those two, Girdin murders them, then murders everything else. No sign of Ivan.

A visit to the docks reveals that what was burning was the fleet. The fires have spread to the docks in places, but the ships themselves are starting to go out from lack of fuel. Charred hulks sink into the waters below, and in the distance you can see a single retreating boat, by now far outside the range of any Talents. There's probably still some Golgothans left lying around, but their leadership has been decapitated along with their connection to the homeland and in a worst case scenario you can always just have Girdin smash a grate down immediately before getting the Hell out of Dodge, and let the pus zombies finish the job for you. With Ivan having escaped, however, it's something of a hollow victory. To say nothing of the fact that you're now stuck on this rock.

[X] You dealt with Westercoast City
[ ] You created the beginnings of an empire in Dorrik
[ ] You secured the fleet at Westercoast City

>>24575414

Select one power from the following:

OBFUSCATION

Those Who Have Eyes To See: You can selectively allow others to see through your Obfuscation powers.

Don't You Remember?: Impose false, bland memories of yourself in others, even if their true memories are more exceptional or non-existent.

Always Hidden: You can use the Unnoticed, Hidden, and Invisible powers while moving.

TENEBRIETY

Grasping Darkness: You can command shadows to reach out to others and hold them in place.

Shade: You can turn your own shadow into a powerful minion. You can see and hear what your shade does, and control its actions directly.

DEMENTATION

Unknowable: Anyone attempting to read your mind will find it a shifting sea of madness, unknowable and insanity-inducing if they aren't wise enough to abandon the endeavour fast.

Terror: Panic a single person.

CELERITY

Too Fast By Half: You are about half again as fast as normal, giving you a decisive edge on mortals.

>>24575459

Further, select one new Minor Talent you've regained from before you were sealed in the oubliette:

Glamour
Oneiromancy
Majesty
Animalism
Witchcraft

Note: In retrospect you may want to select your new Talent first, just in case you roll a really good power for it.

>>24575478
Majesty, Majesty, Majesty. Mind controlling is something we desperately need in the future.

>>24575478
Brief description of these?

>>24575517

Sure.

Glamour is illusion and beguiling the senses. It also includes a bit of things like making someone feel drowsy.

Oneiromancy is dream magic. It allows you to send visions to people across any distance so long as you know their name and face, invade dreams for information, and Freddy Kreuger people.

Majesty is basically charm person, suggestion, dominate, etc. etc. It also includes a few super charisma type powers.

Animalism is what Olberek uses to create and command dire animals. You can also use it to do things like turn into a war form that's way big and strong.

Witchcraft is a weird smorgasbord of powers. You can concoct herbal brews, talk to plants and animals, cast hexes and curses that are basically debuffs on an opponent. Basically Wicca on steroids and without any new age philosophy attached.

If Shade turns our shadow into a minion, does that mean we can't be in shadow form while using it?

>>24575632
Well then, I suppose Majesty is the most useful of those, though Glamour could also help make our dementations more effective. Oneiromancy on the other hand sounds like it is by far the most fun. Honestly I'd give that my vote, but I think people will be really mad at me for missing the chance for majesty, so I suppose that'll be it.

>>24575632
Reinforcing my pick for Majesty. It fits our tactics like a glove.

>>24575459
gonna go for Animalism

>>24575634

You can use Shade while corporeal, then use Shadow Form, and your Shade will still be a thing. You can't use Shade while already in Shadow Form, though.

>>24575632
Ah, well I agree on Majesty then.

>>24575459
Voting for Shade

>>24575759
>>24575738
>>24575735

Majesty seems popular.

MAJESTY

Hypnosis: By speaking in a monotone voice or looking someone in the eyes for a minute or so, you can put them into a suggestive trance. While tranced, they will do whatever you (or anyone) tells them to, so long as it does not violate deep personal beliefs. This power requires no energy to use.

>>24575932
Nope.

Too Fast By Half. Gotta have that extra combat viability.

>>24575932
I'm settled on Shade then. Its tied between Always Hidden and that, personally. However, we have a higher chance of it appearing again on the next roll around.

Also note: Shade can use our Tenebriety Powers on its own power supply, which Blinding Darkness consumes basically none. It'll get much stronger when we pick up Shadow Steel.

Confirmed via skype.

>>24575932
Aha. Still voting for shade then. Creative enough delusions serve us well enough as-is.

>>24575955
agreeing with you

>>24575967
I think this is a good point, Shade seems like an effective power. Wish we had more selections.

>>24575955
>>24575994
We don't have any combat viability. We don't engage in direct combat; the few times we have has been out of sheer desperation. The extra run speed really wouldn't make us all that much faster; at most if we ever trip a ward again we'll be somewhat better at running away. But with Shade, we won't even have to go into areas we think are warded.

>>24576086
I had the impression that 'faster' meant faster as in actually moving faster, not just running. If it's exclusively running it's a shit power. And we DO have some combat viability, even if we're not comfortable fighting large groups.

>>24576118
I advocated getting Celerity powers a long time ago, but only if we had spare choices to make. We kinda fucked up with our decision to let Olberek kill the Golroute villagers, and it cost us 1/2 objectives.

The reason I picked Shade is because it was wonderful utility and perks, and gets massively more useful with subsequent tenebriety upgrades. More or less, with shadow steel it becomes a blood golem level near-impervious Assassin you cant escape from. That's not even talking about the other potential powers that synch with it.

Also, Celerity behaves in a similar fashion where the more you have the better it is in general. Celerity is a Minor Talent, so we'll be stuck with limited options for some time.

>>24576118

Yes, Celerity powers make you faster at everything. Six-armed sword lady used her Celerity powers to play Will It Blend? with a few dozen Dorriki soldiers and perpetually evade Girdin's attacks until Mari distracted her by growing a new bone through her lungs.

>>24576086

While passive Talents won't trip anti-magic wards, they ARE nullified by them. Unlike the Talent-cancelling thing that Thaumaturges can do, which only works on active Talents.

I think Shade is ahead by one vote right now. I'll give it five more minutes before locking the decision in.

>>24576174

Rabaddon
Known as the Mindbreaker or the Anomaly, sometimes uses the alias of Anna Malle
Talents: Obfuscation+, Dementation, Tenebriety, Celerity-, Majesty-
Powers: Delusion (Dementation), Extraordinarily Insane (Dementation), Unnoticed (Obfuscation), Hidden Party (Obfuscation), Blinding Darkness (Tenebriety), Shadow Form (Tenebriety), Shade (Tenebriety)
You feel fine
>Trickster Daemon Primer: http://pastebin.com/NXXFJGEH
Archive: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Trickster%20Daemon%20Quest

Waves crash against the sand. Here, a few hundred yards down the shoreline from what's left of Westercoast, they are the only sound to be heard. Girdin is here with you, and Olberek. Mari is with the rest of the Dorriki, but time enough for her (and them) later. For now, it's time to plan your next move.

"The battle has gone well so far!" Olberek says. "Tulivinen has some interesting wildlife to recommend it, I'm sure. The people there are properly wild and fierce, living as people should! As predator one day, and prey the next, and if they are lucky, predator again the day after!"

Olberek's idiotic ranting aside, Tulivinen is full of angry barbarians who hate Golgoth and that's worked out...Decently well for you so far. You didn't exactly stick the landing, but you still won. Golgoth as an organized force no longer exists on Dorrik. Getting there will be an issue, though. No boats the Dorriki know how to make will take you farther than the islands on the outskirts of Margell.

Margell was caught in a war, you gather, split three ways between three feudal kings each of whom sought to reforge the long fallen but never forgotten Margellian Empire. Not nearly so powerful as Golgoth is now, it was still one of the largest empires in this region's short history. Their ambitions have been tempered by the invasion of Golgoth, however, who invaded the three kingdoms while they were drained from war with one another.

>cont.

Arkas is also hypothetically a possibility. You could catch a ship there if you can manage to make it from Dorrik to those Margellian islands. But Arkas is covered in Golgothans and terrible weather. The people there have been conquered for over a century and while basically none of them consider themselves Golgothans, plenty would rather fight for Golgoth than against.

Girdin's opinion on this is, as usual, indifferent. He figures that with or without you he'll get where he's going sooner or later.

>where to?

Of course, there's also the issue of getting off this rock. There's still a few fishing villages left standing on Dorrik. Maybe you can persuade one of the locals to take you on a field trip. You still have some business to clean up on Dorrik in the meantime. You promised Mari she could go see Leson before you left, and you still have to murder Deeprock Village for ditching out on you.

>>24576415
Frankly speaking, Olberek really fucked us over with his aggression even if we were foolish enough to give into it. That and he doesn't like to get his hand dirty, which has been very inconvenient.

I don't trust his opinion for shit, so I think Margell is a good choice for both practicality's sake and that potentially ditching him and just being buddies with Girdin sounds fine to me.

Bonus points if we can convince him to fuck off to Tulivnien alone to stir up rebellion.

>>24576465
We'll go get Mari and find Leson. We want that out of the way soon as possible.

>>24576415
>more barbarians
Nah, a change of scenery would be nice. Margell should be our next target.

As for Dorrik, we should indeed punish Deeprock. In addition, I believe Jens has officially ceased to be useful and a bit of punishment for his poor attitude would also be in order. With regard to Leson, I'm thinking that Clarbel (whatever's left) should be somewhat welcoming of him, and perhaps the rest of Greatoak as well.

>>24576571
>>24576602
Agreeing with the gist of these two secondary priorities. Our minion first, then we tend to the fun stuff.

>>24576571
Oh and I forgot to say, while we're travelling with Mari, when we've got time between the three of us (I assume Girdin will be coming with us, dunno about Olberek mind) we'll tell her a little about fleshshaping. What it is (a daemon talent), what we know about what it can do (we probably don't know much), that it's a dominion court power (we can elaborate a little on daemon courts if she wants to hear it) and that we have no idea why she has that power because she shouldn't do. Try to talk about it as much as possible before we get to Leson. Discuss the finer points of it with Girdin; I'd like his opinion on it.

>>24576705
And yeah, I'm down for this level of explanation and exposition too. Strictly with our minion and Girdin though. Olberek isn't in the cool entities club.

>>24576738
>>24576705

Okay. One thing: Most of what you know about Fleshshaping comes from the Red Queen and Razag having used it a bunch against you. Do you want to tell her how you know (it'd make the limits of your knowledge easier to explain, certainly), or keep her in the dark as to who exactly the real masterminds are?

>>24576966
Probably leave her in the dark, for now. Girdin should be tactful enough not to mention it if he even knows about them.

Woah woah woah, I leave for a short while and now you want to introduce our secret little fleshshaper to our allies? Why?

>>24577005

Very well. The Dorriki army splits apart, each heading back to their own village to lick their wounds. Scouts confirm that the Golgothan aggressors are devastated, but this was not the triumphant victory they were hoping for. Opportunistic looters take the chance to rifle through Westercoast and come away with more loot than they could possibly carry. Large chunks of the manors are still intact, but of more interest to the Dorriki are the guardhouses and armories. "The silver's worth more," one looter says as he pockets the cutlery. "Only if you have a buyer," another points out. What economy Dorrik had revolved around Golroute and Westercoast. There's no one left on the island who wants a tea cosy.

Olberek never liked you and you never liked him. The request to travel separately is happily acknowledged. Girdin comes with you, as he'd made the deal with you and not Olberek, but Olberek cares little so long as he's still pointed at Golgoth.

>cont

>>24577622

And along the way you give Mari a bit of proper education. All spirits and gods and a good portion of monsters are all really daemons, you explain, who live in thirteen Courts. A Court is both a nation and a clan. A bit like Dorrik, but with much less infighting. "So daemons live in palaces like they have on the mainland?" she asks. Well, some, but the Courts are organizations, not locations.

Daemons have powers called Talents, you say. These include your own powers of Obfuscation, Dementation, and Tenebriety, as well as Mari's own Fleshshaping powers. "How many mortals have Talents?" she asks. Mortals don't normally develop Talents of their own at all, you explain, usually it takes decades of study under a daemon. "Am I a daemon?" she asks. You ask her if she remembers growing up. She does. Daemons don't grow up. "My hair doesn't even grow," you explain.

Fleshshaping, when fully trained, can be terrifyingly powerful. Like most Talents, its range can be expanded with practice. You've seen Fleshshapers warp dozens of people to death with a casual wave of the hand, stitch together Frankensteinian abominations of terrible power, and create entire armies of perfectly obedient deformed monsters. But it's not all body horror. You've seen Fleshshapers stitch together mortally wounded bodies in seconds and modify their own bodies to better suit the situation at hand. Or their own whims. "How long will it take to learn all that?" Mari asks. A normal mortal sorcerer could study for a hundred years and still not learn half of it. A daemon usually grows into the power by strengthening their concept or quickening enemies. Mari doesn't seem to be attached to any particular concept, but her power grows in leaps in bounds nevertheless. She is a puzzle.

And she IS growing. Her stamina grows week by week, and while the gains are gradual, her precision is getting better, too.

>Note: Intentionally leaving it ambiguous as to whether Girdin knows about Mari. Does he?

>>24577649
Yes. Girdin has earned enough of our trust and has proven himself to be a wise ally. Let's trust him with the information, not only because he might raise a question as to why the three of us are traveling together, but because of that.

>>24577711
Trusting others is also the quickest way to get fucked over. He could attempt to use her against us, he could betray our secret, he could take offense to her nature. So many things that can go wrong. Besides, he hasn't really shown signs of NOT disliking us. We seem to be bound by pact and a common enemy far more than trust.

>>24577823
True, and I do have a slight fear of that. However Girdin does not seem like the type to be unduly vengeful or betray his friends. He seems to be quite fond of those he knows, and I think strengthening our friendship with him is more important if we intend to make him a long term ally.

He also seems like a curious sort, so I doubt he'd be utterly disgusted of Mari, but intrigued.

>>24577910
But then, what are the benefits of befriending a Stone anyway? Once he's fulfilled his promise, he'll most likely go right back to sleep for a few thousand years. So at most, friendship might just make it less likely for him to abandon us entirely. But is it worth a precious secret?

>>24578006
I dont think Girdin will easily temper his curiosity for staying awake once he's seen more of the world. He's been asleep for ten thousand years, there's a lot he's missed.

Also, this is entirely speculation, but I'm hoping that due to his nature he keeps secrets well. He's a lot smarter than he looks, and tactful as I said. Not easily intimidated into submission.

Looks like we've got one on each side. Let's roll for this, d100 highest wins same as always, so I can wrap up chapter 2.

>>24578138
Still, I'd rather keep her secret, but I suppose if we're bringing him with us it'll be difficult to explain why we're bringing a mortal child with us. So... I guess he can know, but we should stress the importance of secrecy.

Rolled 63

>>24578240
Rolling for telling him then.

Rolled 49

>>24578247
>>24578252
Or well, unnecessary now. Glad you could see my side of it, even if you're uncomfortable with it. I am too a little, but I just think it would hurt us more if we didn't tell him until she had to use her powers in front of him.

>>24578247
The importance being that our enemy as well as other mortals would likely target her if they learned of her special properties, in case that isn't clear to him.

>>24578240
I switched.

So you end up deciding to tell Girdin. You wait on explaining everything to Mari until the second day of your trip, and when Mari is bedding down for sleep you explain to Girdin that she's a mortal who inexplicably has the inherent Talent of Fleshshaping. Then you leave him alone so he can do that thing where he sits staring into the middle distance thinking for like six hours. Come morning he has come to the decision that there's no reason to be spreading the secret around when he doesn't even know what it means. He does say that his silence is conditional to your keeping him informed on the issue, though. It's particularly bothersome that Mari's Talent is Fleshshaping. Could she be some kind of Dominion sleeper agent daemon? Could the Red Queen have created some sort of Fleshshaped minion who is just human but can mimic her Fleshshaping powers, like a blood golem mimics its creators' Thaumaturgy or a shade mimics Tenebriety? He doesn't understand her and he doesn't like that he doesn't understand her. He's not going to squander a rare opportunity out of reactionary paranoia, though. The decision as to what to actually do with her is obviously something that will take him at least like five years.

On the way back, you pass through Golroute's ruins. The Clarbel warriors have taken up residence there, for now at least, since it's got more bounty left to pillage than their own village. Still, they're not sure what to do longterm. Mari is welcomed as a guest and comrade when she turns up.

"You plan on rebuilding here?" Mari asks their new leader. He's a tall, young man who won himself the respect of the others in the fight for Westercoast, who goes by the name of Arnel.

"Winter here, probably," Arnel says, "plenty of shelter left. But longterm...We can't rebuild. Thirty-four men. Five women. You do the math."

"If only it were the other way around," one of the Clarbellers offers, to chuckles from the others.

>cont

>>24579020

"Yeah, well it can be. Sort of," Mari says. The Clarbellers are suddenly very interested. "A lot of Greatoak women survived the attack on my village. Dozens. Enough for all of you and then some."

"Where?" Arnel asks, leaning forward.

"Yeah, there's the catch," Mari says, "I can't tell you until you make me a promise that you won't take any of them as bondsmaids." The Clarbellers collectively scoff at her, and Mari hastens to add "you're all proven warriors and you'll be the only men around. I'm sure they'll pair off with you given the chance and maybe a few months to get used to you all."

"Aye, lass," one of the other warriors says, "but why wait a few months when we can bed them the same night we find them? I understand they're your kin, distant or not, but your bravery on the battlefield doesn't earn more than one bondsmaid's freedom. Pick whoever you like but the rest are fair game, I say."

"You don't know where they are," Mari says, "and until I have a solemn oath on all your honor that you'll set them free, I'm not telling any of you."

>>24579033

"Well," Arnel says, "I don't much care for a free woman who can't even fight. But she's still better than nothing and that's what we get if we refuse. You have my oath, Mari of Greatoak, that I will take no bondsmen or maids from your kin. What about the rest of you?" There's a general murmur and the occasional shout of consensus. "Do any of you refuse this oath?" There is silence. Arnel allows it to drag on for several minutes before turning back to Mari. "Seems we have a deal."

"Thanks," Mari says. "And hey, I'm sure one or two of them know how to hold their own. It's just some of them have kids to take care of, you know?"

"Yeah, I guess," Arnel says, turning away for a moment, and then pivots back, "say, you're blooded in battle already, where were you ten years ago?"

"I was three," Mari says.

"Well grow up faster next time," Arnel says and turns away again, heading back towards the house he's taken. "Come on, we'll talk inside, it's getting late and we found a lantern that's not broken."

---

And that is Chapter 2 fin. Chapter 3 will open up with us resolving a few things on Dorrik and then shoving off for Margell. I'll be taking the usual weeklong hiatus except this time it's planned. I need to fill in Margell for one thing (which does mean you can't change destinations after the hiatus). Trickster Daemon Quest will be back on Wednesday the 8th.

In the meantime, feel free to post your Skype information so I can add you to the Daemon Quest conversation, which mostly exists to discuss the quest when it's not running.

>see you then