In reply to Carmen Gorgon (msg # 215):

I don't need tunnels, i can burrow through solid rock. I showed you this when i helped stash the loot from the Frosthamar inside a cliff wall :P

You are correct in that i can't use it to get people past the ravine (or my clan would have taken Balentyne decades ago), but the ravine's on the north side of the Keep, not the south where we currently are so there shouldn't be any issues. The tunnel is useful though as it's essentially a point where she can emerge without anyone seeing her.

As for asking for help, sure. Would it be OOC lines in the IC threads though, or here in the OOC? I'd need to point out though that the telepathy thing has the benefit of being able to do this ICly, correct? It's just that its hours are limited, and (i think) it's currently unavailable because we're switching from renewing the network in the morning to renewing in the afternoon?

I was also under the impression we don't have Carmen's "group chat" available right now, and I keep forgetting exactly what the limitations are on my telepathy with regard to its range and stuff but I think I at least vaguely need to know where someone is in order to initiate it. Plus also that last point - it needs to be me initiating it, at least on a non-telepath. If Adrika wanted to engage Nothing in a telepathic conversation, for example, she'd need some way to indicate it to them so they can "start the call", as it were. And right now I'm pretty sure I'm in the tunnel that links from that cellar in the town to the underbelly of the fort.
That's a thought - if the overground route from the town to the fort is blocked off by a (presumably very deep and wide) ravine, how does the tunnel get there? :D

Anyway, didn't realise we were down to just three players already - seems so recent that there was a huge group of like, seven of us. Three is at least much more manageable. I suppose it's the nature of our current in-game task that has led to the silence, what with us having decided to split the party in multiple different directions and therefore no longer being able to all communicate with each other. Since I had assumed we don't have the benefit of Carmen's link right now, I was kind of waiting for her to get back and tell us what happened so we can act on it. Can't do much without that information but Nothing isn't exactly going to starve to death waiting so they have no issue with sitting around in a nice dark tunnel for however long it takes :D.

In reply to Nothing (msg # 218):

The tunnel doesn't go through the ravine. We're currently on the south side, where the village, tunnel and majority of Balentyne is. On the Frozen North side it's just a massive wall and a gatehouse, the river actually flows through the ravine on the map, which is why swimming across isn't an option for us Northeners -- inherent problem with non-isometric topdown view i suppose. :)
This message was last edited by the player at 20:43, Thu 23 June 2022.

Oh, for some reason in my head I had this image of the ravine (with a bridge across it) with the fort over on the other side, hence the reason it was so well-defended and needing us to sabotage it somehow because an army would have great difficulty thanks to said ravine and bridge bottlenecking any potential invasion attempt from that direction. If the fort is over the same side of the ravine we are, why haven't we already just teleported in through a window at night or something?

In reply to Nothing (msg # 220):

The fort is on BOTH sides of the ravine. The larger castle is on your side, the smaller castle is on the northern side, the bridge is INSIDE the fortress. So, an army would very much need to take the fort to go through, as would anybody trying to cross. Aside from how large the ravine is, actually trying to fly or teleport across would very much expose people to a ton of attacks from the soldiers safely protected by the fortress. Who'd also raise alarms and warn people of any approaching enemy group.

As for why you didn't yet try to approach the forth openly, such as by trying to teleport in the middle of the courtyard or try to phase through the walls, first of all, you don't actually KNOW that you'll be able to do this - you haven't tested the defenses. Secondarily, I imagined you were being prudent and trying to avoid being discovered, which a direct assault very much would cause you to be.

But you can certainly try to get within line of sight of the fortress' walls and try to cast magic at it, if you feel confident that you'll manage to do it undetected; just keep in mind that I will make the NPC react as they should to anything they notice.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:32, Fri 24 June 2022.

Yep, the goal we were given is to take Balentyne and very specifically not have them raise the alarm before the Northern Army can get there. Thorn's agents can delay the mass mustering of troops for a short while (long enough for the army to make it across the ravine) but if we're discovered early... yeah, forces getting caught out while crossing is a bad thing.

Thorns agents meaning. . . us?

Correct me if Im wrong"

1) The ravine basically means passing through the fortress is the only option realistically
2) The fortress is literally designed to defend the bridge with bottlenecks, archers nests, etc etc
3) To tunnel from one side means tunneling THROUGH the bridge itself
4) Aint no one got the teleport range to go across that ravine
5) The Tower has a raven messenger that can get the army here before our army can get here


soooooooooooo how are we going this again?

In reply to Carmen Gorgon (msg # 223):

You're not wrong about anything that I can see, although of course the bridge isn't actually big enough to tunnel through it, nor would it help if you somehow did. So, your analysis of the situation is perfectly correct, and I think you, Carmen, have the best understanding of the local geography out of the three of you.

As for how you solve the problem, that's what I'm most interested into as well. :)

In reply to Carmen Gorgon (msg # 223):

Thorn's agents being those not us that have been tasked with ensuring the Northern Army doesn't break its teeth against massed cavalry charges less than a few weeks in :P

I think we need to figure out the bridge tbh

sorry if Im coming off harsh Ive just been wracking my brains for months now and Im a littttllee frustrated.


Tunneling through the bridge is a no, there a big fat ravine to deal with (unless we go UNDER it but Adrike can you tunnel that far?) so we either need to fly (no one has the ability to) or go ON the bridge.

So the main issue is: we have a fort of 100+ people to beat up who can and will bottleneck us.

So to defeat THAT we need to take out ALL archery points FIRST, get people over the bridge, then get through the fort specifically made for 2 people to defend against an army at several points.



. . . idea? Adrika, do you think you could melt through the interior walls so those chokepoints are much lessened? Nothing, do you think your darkness could take out the tower so no ravens and no snipers?


Then we just need to figure out the bridge. . . <tr></tr>

We're coming in from the south, the fortress side, which has the messenger raven towers and the troops and the Captains and the archers and all that fun. It's built to protect against anything the North can throw at it, but what works in our advantage is that it's built to withstand attacks from that specific direction. From 'our' side of the ravine, it's a fairly normal Keep.

From the North, taking the Keep wouldn't be impossible, but they'd take massive losses. There's a wall that's kept magically slick, a portcullis with more magical enchantments than the Royal Throne Room and several machines at the top designed to lob boulders hundreds of feet onto attacking armies.

Beyond that there's a bridge where you can only walk a few people abreast, with murderholes on both sides, and another thick gate at the end designed to hold invaders long enough so that the gate will eventually be unreachable because of the dead bodies stacked up in front of it. And of course archers everywhere.

The raven messenger towers (that transport messages of an attack to the hinterlands so they can have an army up should Balentyne fall), the Captains commanding the troops, the armory and such are all on our side of the ravine, and we're essentially tasked with taking out the commanders and keeping the doors open so the Northern Army can run in without delay. Key points are the ravens (so that the Northern Army has more time to push south before meeting resistance), the Commanders keeping morale high and of course opening both gates and clearing the murderholes on the bridge and the siege crews on the wall on the other side of enemies so they take little to no losses in their initial advance.

We can signal for the attack to begin, so we won't have to fight every single person ourselves, but those goals will need to be achieved so they can actually help us when it's time to fight everyone else in the fortress.

That's my understanding of it.

This is my Burrow:



With movement bonuses applied that comes down to 20 ft/round through solid rock, so 40 ft/round when double moving, and since i have high CON i can hold my breath long enough to essentially swim a lap around Balentyne without suffocating. I'd move the 20 ft. when 'grappling' someone to take them along with me, but they would need to hold their breath as well. Still, i should be able to go back and forth from the Balentyne basement to the tunnel, but i'd need to know what a safe place to emerge in is, as opposed to a mess hall filled with guards watching me phase out of a wall. ;)
This message was last edited by the player at 21:29, Fri 24 June 2022.

With regard to dealing with all the dudes in the fort, I'd lean heavily toward just poisoning their water supply or something, or otherwise employing some subtle, non-openly-violent means to screw them up without needing to be there and/or be noticed. I dunno if they have a well within the fort or if all their supplies are brought in, but I suppose that's exactly why Carmen is busy scouting the place out right now :D.

I can basically teleport people through the tiniest of gaps now, thanks to a synergy of some of my skills, though it costs mana to do it so I'd have to pick and choose whom I used it on, if someone needed to be on the other side of a locked door or something.

Also, if I can get within range of these raven towers I can deal with them just as easily as I conked those two old people that Carmen and Carver are now impersonating, even if it would make me feel bad as a player because ravens are cool. Any humans up there might be trickier but the birds themselves...well, they're hardly gonna have hundreds of hitpoints, are they? And they're probably gonna be enclosed in a big ol' aviary or individual cages or something, so they won't be able to flee the darkness...which they won't even notice if I do it at night (which I think we all know is when I'm gonna be doing pretty much anything :D).

If we can't subtly kill a bunch of people, we could also just attempt to sow discord somehow, so they start arguing/fighting amongst themselves and making themselves easier targets to whatever other shit we want to throw at them. I'm not sure what we could do to enact that, but it's one possible tactic, at least. Nothing is never going to be one to suggest open violence (or whatever) or anything else that would draw attention when it comes to dealing with enemies, not as a first (or even likely second, third...) option anyway.

In reply to Nothing (msg # 228):

You can certainly discuss possibilities with each other. One of the last few posts in the main thread had Carmen learning the eating patterns of the soldiers, which would be relevant for trying to poison them.

Speaking of Carmen and the main thread, it'll likely take no more than six posts before her castle exploration is over and she can have a pause from being the lone main character, which I think she both needs and deserves, and that'll likely mean that you'll be up next, Nothing, even if only after your team can discuss what Ashaia mostly discovered in her thread - I'll be delivering it to you on her behalf, since she's not around.

It would be nice to not be the main player, its a little exhausting XD

I have an idea, but Id need more info--I think this performance might be a weak point. The place is gunna be in chaos with the performers and if we can take advantage of the change in routine we might get people taken out en-masse by being sneaky.

In reply to Carmen Gorgon (msg # 230):

Somebody would need to investigate things in town to get a sense for how the performers will affect things. I would suggest that Ashaia takes the task up, but since she's not currently around, Adrika is probably the best suited to investigate this aspect of things - it'd certainly be a good way for her to help contribute to the plan.

Lay it on me, Keanu :P

In reply to Adrika (msg # 232):

...that's not really the case though? It just seemed like something useful for you to do, since otherwise you'd be stuck doing nothing for who knows how long. It's not like Carmen isn't going to be doing something, and Nothing will be up with exploring the fortress next, at night, which should give them some spotlight time.

Also not sure I get what the reference is to in your comment there. If feels like I should, but I don't.

Sword Art Online Abridged: https://youtu.be/Ak8cY6Cd63k?t=174

Nothing really relevant to the game, just had that in my head at the time, don't worry.

Anyhow, i could investigate it no problem, i think i did mention it in post #103:



So basically, yeah. I'm working for the blacksmith, doing something for the librarian on the side and it wouldn't be out of the ordinary to talk to the performers to see if they need a hand, possibly for passage to the next town or village since that's what i claimed my ultimate intent to be anyway.

Oh, it's been a while since I saw that particular episode of SAOA.

You'll also have more time to interact with the villagers, I think; it's not hard for me to contrive a few opportunities for that, and it's necessary to push things along now that Ashaia isn't able to do her part on that front. I think it'll be interesting.

Well, go right ahead. They should be at the very least familiar with me from staying at the shelter, visiting the Inn every morning (so Carmen could renew the link) and helping out the blacksmith.

They could also have heard i'd be telling their kids a story tomorrow :P

hi guess who procrastinated till today on replying okay Adrika plan B doesnt work

Walls are made anti-Earth Glide

Not through the walls, but the tunnel goes under it, so it can be assumed that i can still tunnel under it, correct?

It's what the actual tunnel is doing, right? :P

It's good information though, important for tactics if i can't just walk through a wall and open a latched door.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:27, Fri 01 July 2022.

Ya I finally got around to posting the details but in short, its rebar stone, so its tougher and anti-Adrika.

The tunnel I feel like is made intentionally--it seems to me like either an evacuation point or a way for some of the captains to get their liquor from the inn in secret. Might be forgotten, might not.

In reply to Carmen Gorgon (msg # 239):

Remember how you found the secret passage: Barhold was using it to steal the fortress' wine to sell it to Ashaia. He would not have taken the massive risk of stealing from Lord Havelin himself (as the fortress Lord and ruler), with the potential consequences a rule-abiding Paladin with enormous political power would dish out if he realized, unless he felt very confident nobody would notice the theft.

So, even if the secret passage was almost certainly built intentionally, the likelihood of people in the fortress knowing about it isn't very high... with one very obvious potential exception, given that Barhold's sister is one of the four Captains. You might remember the rumor about her and her brother arguing about wines, that you collected at your arrival, although you weren't able to get any details about the argument other than "it was about wine".

:)

GM, if i climb the wall, can i use the rebar as handholds by phasing my fingers through the stone? :P