You can find a short description of the last session followed by some information on the city Cinnibar here.
I'd like to do a short online section before the next live session. This is not critical but will ensure that the next session starts with some action. Otherwise, we will pick up at Trasutha's place.
It is worth approximately 500XP for those who participate (perhaps more if the discussion goes in interesting ways).
__________________ Marc
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Certain death, small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
The party has entered Cinnibar and found it to be overrun with Ebolan (aka Pyrrhus)'s minions, a magical creation called a harvester.
Attacked by harvesters while battling fire giants, you and the giants dropped your quarrel to fight the greater threat. You are now holed up in the Fire giants' heavily fortified lair. They have told you that each of the two mine heads is now home to a smart type of harvester, one that apparently Ebolan did not anticipate and no longer takes commands from him. Ebolan himself is in the citadel, surrounded by more harvesters (these under his control).
The fire giants indicate that between them and the other clans, there is enough mercury to meet Castelleon's needs.
The party seems to have these options:
1) Kill Ebolan without the aid of the giants and others in order and get paid in mercury.
2) Kill Ebolan with the aid of the giants and others and then negotiate for mercury.
3) Kill one of the special harvesters at the mine head, gather your own ore and reduce it.
4) Other options?
__________________ Marc
___
Certain death, small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
Ebolan is clearly a threat to this place, but his powers would seem to be beyond our ability to deal with (fire giants or not). So, I don't think options 1 or 2 are particularly viable.
I would suggest we explore option 3. If the harvesters appear too strong to deal with as well and if they are intelligent (and I'm expecting that they are), we may be able to enlist their aid in taking out Ebolan ... that may or may not allow the mines to be re-opened, but they may be the only thing in this place powerful enough to deal w/ Ebolan.
On the other hand, if it appears that we can defeat them, that may be the easiest route to mercury.
Both would require some investigation before we make a final decision.
What does everyone else think?
Princep
__________________ "Get her? ... That was your plan? ... Get her?"
Azz and Gel agree with Princep. Confronting the wizard directly sounds like a bad idea.
However, it sounds like this wizard has a pretty good grasp on what is happening in Cinnibar. We would be foolhardy to try anything without the help of the fire giants and dwarves. We don't know this place well enough to make a very good plan. Perhaps if we could convince both parties to put aside their differences and join us in a combined assault one or both of the mineshafts we would have a better chance of gaining control of one of the mine shafts.
It seems likely that the wizard is not going to let us take one of the mineshafts. So we will need to be ready to deal with him or have some sort of plan of escape. We don't think we can get enough ore out of this place or even refined without having the help of the inhabitants.
What can Suchet tell us about Ebolan? Does she think it is possible for us to defeat him with the help of the fire giants and dwarves. Does she have any thoughts as to what he is doing down here?
__________________ Luck often will save a man,
If his courage holds.
What can Suchet tell us about Ebolan? Does she think it is possible for us to defeat him with the help of the fire giants and dwarves. Does she have any thoughts as to what he is doing down here?
Suchet on Pyrrhus (who is currently going by the name Ebolan):
Pyrrhus is ruthless and evil. He plots only for power and revenge. As to whether we could take him with the aid of the others here, that is impossible for me to say. My suspicions are that he is quite a powerful wizard and that we would be foolhardy to attack him unless there is no other solution available.
I do not know why Ebolan is here but I can think of a few reasons. He might simply have come here seeking a base of operation that provided wealth in the form of mercury. He might be here to test out his harvester monstrosities. Or perhaps he needs mercury for the same reason we do: he thinks he can fly a fortress. Perhaps for a combination of all three reasons.
We never asked Trasutha if she made control rods for anyone else. Even if she did not make one for Pyrrhus, perhaps he can make his own. He might now be strong enough. His existence in the Misty Isles has been hard and long. 700 years down here might have given him the skills necessary to work this greatest magic. if so, we would have no chance in battle against him.
__________________ Marc
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Certain death, small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
Well seeing how Ebolan, or whatever he is calling himself these days, is some one to stay away from. Our only viable option is to take a mine shaft and recover as much ore as possible.
Even though asking for help from the FG's and Dwarves is not to my liking, they might prove useful in acomplishing our goals. we need to proceed with as much haste as is prudent. every day we spend here is a day more Mottul is plauging our lands.
__________________ Luck often will save a man,
If his courage holds.
Last edited by Chris the Bigger; 29th December 2004 at 06:05 AM..
Azz...
Even though asking for help from the FG's and Dwarves is not to my liking, they might prove useful in acomplishing our goals. we need to proceed with as much haste as is prudent. every day we spend here is a day more Mottul is plauging our lands.
As ref: You are with the FGs and can carry out any negotiations you wish with them. The one dwarf you are with can't negotiate for his clan; you'll need to make contact with someone more important.
Also, for metagame reasons (i.e., ease of running an interesting combat), it would be best if you tried to come up with a plan that requires mostly "off-scene" attack or support by the FGs and dwarves rather than just getting together a large group and making a frontal assault. While that might have some appeal, combat will go rather slowly if we are running 10 FGs, 40 dwarves, the party, and a zillion harvesters.
__________________ Marc
___
Certain death, small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
What's the topography of the mineshafts? Are they literally just a big cave or are there various entries / exits? If it's just a single entry, it's going to be pretty difficult to have anything but a frontal assault kinda plan.
Princep
__________________ "Get her? ... That was your plan? ... Get her?"
What's the topography of the mineshafts? Are they literally just a big cave or are there various entries / exits?
For each of the two main mines, there is a primary shaft that is about 30' across and satellite shafts that are about 10' across. However, the Fire giants say that they think the harvester lair, at least in one case, is in the refinery building, not in the mine itself. The shafts lead to subsurface galleries at various levels, the first one being about 400' down. But your winged companions can attest to the difficulty of flying up a shaft only 30' wide (it is impossible for the larger creatures) so they think the harvesters are mostly at the mineworks ontop of the shafts.
Each of the mines has an extensive mineworks about 1/4 the diameter of the city. The mineworks house a refinery, ore crushers, smithies, plus the mine head cable works.
The mineworks are miniature versions of the city proper. Like the city, they are walled and covered with a stone ceiling. Unlike the city, they have don't have the big tenement blocks projecting above the roof but a few buildings project like the mineshaft-head and the refinery. There are also many chimneys from smithies and other works. There are also holes in the roof in the section.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sivousplay
If it's just a single entry, it's going to be pretty difficult to have anything but a frontal assault kinda plan.
You can go with a frontal assault with the FGs and dwarves but there wont be anyway to make it fast enough for the gals to enjoy the game so I'd prefer to do it without them if that is what you want to do.
The problem will be that regardless of who runs the NPCs, it will be a lot of time between PC actions and the gals will get bored (based on previous experience) waiting for their character to act again.
__________________ Marc
___
Certain death, small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
I'd like to find out more about these "rogue" harvesters ... do the fire giants or dwarves know anything else about them? What have they done? Why hasn't Pyrrhus taken them out? Do they seem to be intelligent? Do they interact w/ the other harvesters? Is there any chance that we could speak w/ them and try to convince them to help us take Pyrrhus out?
If we can't get much data, I'd at least like to try and scout them out before we take them on. I'd suggest FGs and dwarves to keep the other harvesters off our backs and we deal w/ the big harvesters.
Also, we should definitely send a yes to Draeca to get her, Kestrel, and Brom into the fight and if things get dicey, I'm planning to use my bracelet of friendship to summon Leonus ... we HAVE to get the mercury ... therefore, the mission on Cinnibar HAS to be a success.
Princep
__________________ "Get her? ... That was your plan? ... Get her?"
I'd like to find out more about these "rogue" harvesters ... do the fire giants or dwarves know anything else about them? What have they done? Why hasn't Pyrrhus taken them out? Do they seem to be intelligent? Do they interact w/ the other harvesters? Is there any chance that we could speak w/ them and try to convince them to help us take Pyrrhus out?
While the FGs think that most of the harvesters are quite stupid, they think that the rogue ones, as you call them, are very intelligent. They have observed them driving the rest of the lot ahead of them in battle and seem to be able to direct them. These rogue harvesters also seem to be able to cast at least a few spells (magic missile for one).
The FGs do not know why Pyrrhus has tolerated the rogue harvesters. He doesn't seem to have been out and about as of late (last few weeks at least). The rogue harvesters have been around for at least a month or more.
The FGs say that no harvesters, including the rogue harvesters, have ever indicated a willingness to communicate with them. However, they are fairly sure that Pyrrhus directs them in some manner so communication must be possible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sivousplay
If we can't get much data, I'd at least like to try and scout them out before we take them on. I'd suggest FGs and dwarves to keep the other harvesters off our backs and we deal w/ the big harvesters.
Are you suggesting a "reconnaisence in force" where the FGs and dwarves provide a diversion and the party tries to sneak around the diversion to see what the rogue is up to?
Quote:
Originally Posted by sivousplay
Also, we should definitely send a yes to Draeca to get her, Kestrel, and Brom into the fight and if things get dicey, I'm planning to use my bracelet of friendship to summon Leonus ... we HAVE to get the mercury ... therefore, the mission on Cinnibar HAS to be a success.
I'll assume that Azz answered Draeca's sending in the affirmative (that is, the party wants her to join them & Kestrel is implied). You'll need to use your cap of sending to tell them how to find you or wait until next day when Draeca can contact you with her sending to arrange a meeting place. (Draeca and company do not know exactly where you are in the city.)
A probe with the dwarves and FGs providing a distraction seems like a reasonable way to go. To prepare this prior to Friday night, we'll need to do the following:
1) Negotiate a deal with the fire giants for their aid. If you just want them to do a distraction, you can probably convince them to do that. But if you also want them to give you mercury or ore, that might be more difficult.
2) Contact the dwarf clan and negotiate any deals with them as well. Remember that at present, you are only in contact with a low level fellow who can't speak for the clan.
3) Describe how you are linking up with Draeca and Kestrel if you want them to be part of the probe. (Since Dan should be present, it would be best if Brom at least was their early in the evening.)
4) Describe the basic plans for the probe.
Marc
__________________ Marc
___
Certain death, small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
First, we definitley need to speak w/ the dwarves ... they probably know a lot more about the mines and we need to know anything that might help us. We should be as polite as we can with the FGs (we don't want them to think we don't appreciate all of their input but if we're going to re-open the mines, we'll need all the help we can get) but we need to find a way to spend some time w/ the dwarves and find out what they know.
As far as meeting up w/ the other members of the party, we need to find out what we're going to call our base ... the FG or dwarven place ... once we decide, we should use the cap of sending to let them know where to meet us ... if it takes a couple days, so be it ... we don't need them getting lost and killed before they ever get to us.
I think using the dwarves and FGs as a diversion to keep the other harvesters away so that we can deal w/ the big harvesters is the best from both a planning perspective and a gameplay perspective ... having to run all the FGs and dwarves against 100s of harvesters would be a no go.
After we have info from the dwarves, we can formulate our attack strategy.
Princep
__________________ "Get her? ... That was your plan? ... Get her?"
After we have info from the dwarves, we can formulate our attack strategy.
Sounds reasonable. How do you want to go about contacting the dwarves? Renthorp is the dwarf you have met. You could:
1) ask Renthorp to take a subset of you to the clan
2) ask Renthorp to take all of you to the clan
3) ask Renthorp to fetch someone who can negotiate for the clan
4) try to conduct the negotiates using Renthorp as a courier
5) other?
Marc
__________________ Marc
___
Certain death, small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
How far is it from the FG stronghold to the dwarven stronghold? We can't risk a small portion of the party getting hit by harvesters ... so, we either need to send the entire party or hope Renthorp can bring a negotiator. I think we'd get better terms if we didn't force the negotiator to risk his life to get to the negotiations.
So, my first choice would be to send the entire group and find out what we can from the dwarves and plan that we might need to go back-n-forth once to firm up a plan of attack w/ the FGs and dwarves ... I know that moving around is risky, but better to do so with our full numbers as opposed to splitting up the group.
Princep
__________________ "Get her? ... That was your plan? ... Get her?"
So, my first choice would be to send the entire group and find out what we can from the dwarves and plan that we might need to go back-n-forth once to firm up a plan of attack w/ the FGs and dwarves ... I know that moving around is risky, but better to do so with our full numbers as opposed to splitting up the group.
Splitting up doesn't seem too wise to me, either.
Anything you want to arrange or discuss with the FGs before you head out? Or will you return to the FGs after seeing whats up with the dwarves?
Marc
__________________ Marc
___
Certain death, small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
Making sure that they are willing to work in concert with us and the dwarves to remove the large harvesters seems in order. Once this is complete, we would expect to be able to use the mines and refineries to get the necessary mercury that we need.
If they agree to that, we will plan to have a final meeting between the party, the FG leaders, and the dwarven leaders before the final assault (and after meeting w/ the dwarves).
Princep
__________________ "Get her? ... That was your plan? ... Get her?"
Making sure that they are willing to work in concert with us and the dwarves to remove the large harvesters seems in order. Once this is complete, we would expect to be able to use the mines and refineries to get the necessary mercury that we need.
If they agree to that, we will plan to have a final meeting between the party, the FG leaders, and the dwarven leaders before the final assault (and after meeting w/ the dwarves).
Princep
The fire giant leader Ragimbold likes your proposal. In return, he offers to travel with you to the dwarf clan to negotiate the matter as quickly as possible. He asks only that he can take 2 warrios with him.
Marc
__________________ Marc
___
Certain death, small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
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