Discussion for a Kingdom of ashes OOC II

[The_Universe]

I'd reccomend scrying at the Tower of the Red, Apectan Cathedral, Army Barracks, City Watch, Amastacian Temple, and Navy Base, as well as various locations along the docks.

The Tower of the Red is in ruins. The stepped pyramid that formed the central tower has had the red stone stripped from the ancient brick. The four surrounding towers have fallen, and laborers who at least appear to be elven, driven by hulking draconids, move the stone to somewhere else in the city. You see several new kinds of draconids...as well as a far larger gangs of undead than before. The undead seem restrained, as they do not appear to be feasting upon the slaves. In fact, they seem to be working side by side.

The Apectan Cathedral still stands. All of the statuary, and any markings identifying it as a church of the light have been stripped from it's surface. A huge block of basalt, easily as large as the statue of the centurion king, stands in front of the church, and workers appear to be carving something out of the black stone. You're not sure what.

The Army barracks are abandoned. The walls have been demolished, the stone then carried elsewhere. You see a few elven squatters hiding in the abandoned buildings. Even as you watch, a squad of draconids enters, grabs half of them, and carries them towards the center of the city.

The City watch is full of humanoids, once more mostly elves. There are a few draconids guarding the place, but the cells seem to be used as a kind of holding pen. Every once in a while, a few more of the elves are taken out of the cells, only to be replaced by other, captured townsfolk. None taken out return (that you can see).

The amastacian temple has also been stripped of its statuary, markings. Workers of varying races, driven by a draconid, gather on scaffolding built up around the welcoming statue of the Amastacia. They are reshaping the statue somehow, but you are unsure what the result will be.

The navy base has been demolished. Stone stripped and used for the wall around the city, you'd guess. Any armaments therein have been moved elsewhere, but you have not seen where.

The docks have been rebuilt. Draconids now operate the great pulleys, sometimes driving elven slaves. Sleek-hulled draconid ships rise and fall along with more "normal" ships. The great Bone Ship still sits in the bay, far too large to be brought to the docks.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Nazis!!!

Hmmm... the Evil Dragon people are vicious undead nazis cleansing Oceanus of all the elves left over... not cool at all.
In fact, I would go so far as it say that it is absolutely deranged and sick.

Kennon, how common is slavery in our world-- or does it exist at all?

... also-- do the vicious undead in Oceanus speak with something that could be considered a ridiculous german accent???

 

[Xath]

Hmmm... the Evil Dragon people are vicious undead nazis cleansing Oceanus of all the elves left over... not cool at all.
In fact, I would go so far as it say that it is absolutely deranged and sick.

Kennon, how common is slavery in our world-- or does it exist at all?

... also-- do the vicious undead in Oceanus speak with something that could be considered a ridiculous german accent???

I don't like the theory about the germans, because that makes Oceanus France. France! And if we come to save them, that makes us the Americans, and who wants to be american for crying out loud?

Can we analogize with something like the Great Schism of the East and West, or how about the Hundred Years War? Yeah, something like that...

 

[Archon]

hard choices require hard people to make them

Kat has asked me to lead. i never said Archon didn't want to lead, he just didn't think you guys wanted him to. if in fact he is asked in game, then he will take on the responsibility. in fact a part of him does want to lead because he doesn't want Justice, L'Aurel or Xath to have to make decisions that may lead to the deaths of soliders, the innocent or friends. they are too young and such a burden will kill a small part of them. it will dampen the light that shines so brightly within them. Archonus is willing to abandon that possible light within himself so that we as the Army of the Phoenix may lead the world into a brighter future, yet he would ask the same of no one. he sees the group struggling but says nothing. Archon has been silent too long. and if you let him lead you, you'll be giving him the trust and the possibility of redemption that he has always sought
think about it.
mik aka "Optimik"

 

[The_Universe]

I e-mailed everybody. Please read it. Please respond to it. Please be shiny, happy people.

I have spent much of the day today with a pounding headache, and mild nausea, I'm guessing because of the additional stress of trying to hold a group of friends that I care a great deal about together.

*weak, tired, headbutt o' love*

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Kat has asked me to lead. i never said Archon didn't want to lead, he just didn't think you guys wanted him to. if in fact he is asked in game, then he will take on the responsibility. in fact a part of him does want to lead because he doesn't want Justice, L'Aurel or Xath to have to make decisions that may lead to the deaths of soliders, the innocent or friends. they are too young and such a burden will kill a small part of them. it will dampen the light that shines so brightly within them. Archonus is willing to abandon that possible light within himself so that we as the Army of the Phoenix may lead the world into a brighter future, yet he would ask the same of no one. he sees the group struggling but says nothing. Archon has been silent too long. and if you let him lead you, you'll be giving him the trust and the possibility of redemption that he has always sought
think about it.
mik aka "Optimik"

In all of the time that Mik and I talked-- he never told me that-- he simply said that he wouldn't want that. And so, Justice stepped up... and was supported by Archon.

If having Mik as the leader will make everyone stop bitching, go for it.

Over the past several days, I have thought about little outside of finding a way to bring the group back together. We had no purpose, so I attempted to give us one. I put a lot of thought and time into it-- but, apparently y'all had problems with it. If that was the case, I wish that you would have come to me... instead, I had to learn about them through the grapevine and it put me and Kennon in a very uncomfortable position as I do not particularly like yelling at my husband or being yelled at by my husband-- especially about a game that it seems to me we are all taking far too seriously.

I apologize for upsetting you guys. I am truly sorry. In the future, it will be easy to prevent things like this by simply asking questions of the other players instead of making assumptions about their actions.

 

[AIM-54]

Okay kids, here's my thoughts:

1) Leadership is good. Either Justice or Archon would be fine. Kaereth would have no problem with either choice. I think we should also remember that, if I'm interpreting this correctly, a leader will not mean the rest of us simply follow their dictates, rather, when we're lost, confused or otherwise fighting about what course of action, they will provide direction and, dare I say it, leadership so that we can get on with the meat of the game, killing bad guys. I mean enjoying the story! Whatever decision the group comes to I am fine with.

2)Planning. If I recall correctly, the current plan is to raise an army, take back Oceanus and head off after swords and Jain. I'm going to concentrate on the taking of Oceanus part, because it's military and that makes me happy. Looking back over previous posts of mine regarding Oceanus etc, I think parts of that plan can and should still be used. Namely, the forces arrayed against us are too much for us to take in a stand up, conventional fight, no matter the size of the army we have. At least to start with. Therefore, it seems to me, especially as we're taking this 5 week hiatus or so, where many of us are working on training interested parties, that we begin our campaign with a guerrilla effort. We train several squads of quick, stealthy troops (I'm thinking teams of 10-12) to go in, do a quick strike, and come out again. We'll need several, independently operating groups that will also need to be very careful about coming back to Hyrwl, as leading the bad guys to us before we're ready would be bad (although hopefully we'll have some defenses up by then so that we have a shot if the worst happens). One of the first goals might be to rescue those squatters in the barracks as they are on the edge of the town. This also gives us some flexibility in that, if we lead the first few skirmishes and train up teams that can operate without us, it means we could possibly run off to the Isle of Mourning, find the blade there and come back in victor, boosting morale, hopefully recruiting and with the work of the guerrilla teams, maybe leading to a better shot at a conventional campaign. Our own party would be brilliant at such a task, but that may not be in the cards. Hopefully this all makes sense and perhaps allows us to narrow down/tighten up the plan.

3)Let's look at our own resources or what we all bring to the table in the military aspects (in alphabetical order)...this is also capabilities, not expertise:

Archon: Stealth, archery, close-combat
Arfin: Close-combat, tank. Some ranged.
Fareathir (apologies if I butchered that): Archery, Cavalry, close-combat
Justice: Close combat, aerial cavalry, some ranged
Kaereth: Close-combat
Laurel: Stealth, archery, Yoshi
Xath: Deception, misdirection, some archery, some close-combat

If I missed anything feel free to add, hopefully having this in black and white is useful to thinking about planning and the battle for Oceanus.

So, in a nutshell:
Leader=good
Plan=good
Known Resources=good

Go Team!

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Okay..

So, Archon or Justice?

This needs to be decided ASAP and with no conflict, guys.

 

[AIM-54]

Couple more things, once again relating to The Plan!TM

We need to train warriors for this army etc, so what we need to train:

Archers
Footsoldiers
Cavalry
SOF (Special Operations Forces for the uninitiated )

That's an overall look.
What we need to concentrate on right now is the guerrilla forces, meaning:

Archon and L'aurel teach the sneakery and with Frarathir archery.
Kaereth and Archon teach unarmed fighting.
Justice and Arfin teach melee weapons.
Xath teaches the arts of deception, misdirection and such skills.

In terms of conventional forces, all of that, plus Frarathir can teach Cavalry skills.

With this framework in mind, we could, in fact, open up a Warrior Academy of sorts, to bring in outsiders who want weapons training. And their payments can serve to fill the coffers of the refugees, as we've discussed the 17000 is probably not going to be enough to keep this place going for very long. Thus, we train and raise an army to take back Oceanus AND with new students' donations, we help the refugees settle successfully in Hyrwl and vicinity.

It's an idea at least.

 

[The_Universe]

Kat has asked me to lead. i never said Archon didn't want to lead, he just didn't think you guys wanted him to. if in fact he is asked in game, then he will take on the responsibility. in fact a part of him does want to lead because he doesn't want Justice, L'Aurel or Xath to have to make decisions that may lead to the deaths of soliders, the innocent or friends. they are too young and such a burden will kill a small part of them. it will dampen the light that shines so brightly within them. Archonus is willing to abandon that possible light within himself so that we as the Army of the Phoenix may lead the world into a brighter future, yet he would ask the same of no one. he sees the group struggling but says nothing. Archon has been silent too long. and if you let him lead you, you'll be giving him the trust and the possibility of redemption that he has always sought
think about it.
mik aka "Optimik"

A note on this:

Archon WAS asked to lead several times. I was in the room when Justice asked him to. Mik, citing a different direction he wanted to take the character, refused. So, for accuracy's sake, he was asked. We can't be the martyr in everything.