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Message: <blockquote data-quote="coyote6" data-source="post: 62712" data-attributes="member: 1225">1. Well, if a gnome town got in a war with a lich, and the gnomes were truly a challenge (e.g., they might win; this would seem to require some decent mid-to-high level types & plenty of magic of their own, or some funky tech-type stuff), an all out war might just lead to threats to the dragon's progeny, or even his discovery. If the lich & the gnomes start spraying magic all over the place, who knows what could happen? So it might behoove him to get a hand in, to control the flow of events. 2. Fighting both is probably a bad idea. Even if he is capable of handling it, why bother? Best case: he whomps both sides. Well, somebody might just become curious as to what wiped out the gnome town *and* the lich (either more followers of the lich's god, more gnomes, or just curious high-powered types). Since the dragon doesn't seem arrogant enough to think he can handle any-and-everything that might come after him, it's not worth risking unknowable threats to whoop ass. Instead, I think he'd be better off trying to keep the peace! Try to get the two sides to come to some kind of settlement; if (when) that proves impossible, pick one side or the other (the one least likely to be a problem in the future), and help them slaughter the other side. Lich ogre mage serving a deity sounds like the kind of guy likely to have arrogance issues of his own, so I think I'd pitch in and help the town -- after all, they're a known quantity, and being gnomes, can probably be trusted to be relatively stable. Plus, if they later become a problem, they'll probably be easier to handle.3. If he wants a covert war, then he needs agents -- multiple layers of them, so that no one knows who they really work for. He needs to use shapechanging & illusion magics to hire & work a network of agents. Through them, hire mercenaries & adventurers and such, and send them to help the gnomes. Pretend to be some reclusive monastic-type who has had a vision from some god that's an enemy of Chern the Plague Lord; this prophet saw Chern moving against the town, and sends help. The dragon might consider actually tipping off Chern's enemies ("Psst, check out Gnomeville") -- this could be dangerous, though, as it might bring in a horde of uncontrolled self-righteous do-gooders with access to divination magics, and they might accidentally uncover the dragon and decide to "do something about the evil beast." So it might be best to leave them out of it, at least as an organized force. Better to get a few independent clerical types (to turn undead, cure diseases, etc.). Then he should consider feeding the gnomes info about their enemy -- that way, the gnomes don't need to go mucking about blindly looking for data on their own. Keep 'em from accidentally finding out Too Much.</blockquote>

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