Discussion for a Kingdom of ashes OOC II

[Laurel]

Sort of as follow up to the end of my last post and given the direction of Liz's last one...

We could just do a mayhem run (possibly in support of a concurrent recon mission) where we tear through the city (by which I mean going maybe a block or two into it ) killing bad guys, breaking stuff, maybe setting some traps if we have people that are good at that kind of stuff and otherwise making nuisances of ourselves, before getting out. The teleport on command spell thing would be ideal for that, though a conventional "going over the wall" method might be better for entry, just because it allows us to engage more enemies and make more noise. The teleport would also mean we could go a little farther into the city (if it doesn't look suicidal to do so and we're still in decent condition) burning and killing before teleporting out.

Just an idea.

YEAH to killing and mayhem!!!!! Good diversion, but I am just not sure how far or even if we could breech the wall to do actual damage...

 

[The_Universe]

structuring the ideas.

Naval action: Capture ship/cannons
Objective achieved: Obtain serious proof that the King is involved with the invaders. Also, daring naval raid boosts morale, may have positive affects on recruiting.

Ground action: Free slaves/recon palace/capture cannonballs
Objectives: Freeing elves looks good, feels good, good for morale, may affect recruiting. Recon palace good for info "know your enemy". Capturing cannonballs some possibly circumstantial evidence of connection between king and invaders.

The question is, what do we need to do first? Once we prioritize, we can make better decisions about how we go about achieving the goal. Chances are we'll have more than one opportunity to go in and go after other objectives.

These are PRECISELY the questions that you need to answer. You have already committed yourselves to this quest, and rather than trying to back off of it, you just need to figure out a plan for how to do it.

Naval action as stated above is focused, and achievable if you did it right.

Ground action, on the other hand, still seems a little scattered. Hoping to free slaves, capture cannons, AND recon the palace may be too much to ask for a single mission. You can spend as much time here in Oceanus as you have to--you're not much good to the people of the kingdom if you try to do too much too fast, and just end up dead. Focus this mission a little bit. Right now, you're really looking at 3 or 4 options, not 2.

Nonetheless, this seems like a good track to be on.

As for "At best, you could find a place in the city to hide them," Don't take every word I say as gospel. I built (in my mind) the defenses of this city, and as FAR AS I KNOW, there's no reasonable way that you could get them out of the city without raising alarms like crazy. But, could 5-7 people outsmart me? Why yes....yes they could.

 

[AIM-54]

So, what can we assume our army will be when it is complete? This may have been posted before... but, I'm not really sure...

How many fighters/warriors do we have with us right now?
How many will we have when the training is complete? (or at least, as complete as it is going to get)

How many monks is Kaereth training?

Current estimates based on numbers Kennon gave us earlier:

Right now: ~600-650 regular warriors from Oceanus' Army detachment
Future: ~1200-1300, once those with current basic training complete more advanced regular army training

There is also 200-250 with the half-orc paladin whose status is as yet undetermined (correct me if I'm wrong)

There will also be another 500-1000 from among the single, healthy males that will be trained up as militia (or to the stage prior to regular army training), although there's no reason some of those couldn't be fast-tracked to the regular army.

I'm going to have to go back and look at some of the earlier posts on this topic for more precise information, but I believe I'm pretty close on this.

This means we probably need another 10-12000 recruits before we consider a serious conventional attack on the city. Hence the need for our ShadowPhoenix company to conduct guerrilla war while we build that up and the PC's possibly pursue other goals.

Kaereth will be training no more than 12 monks at this time, possibly more in the future, but that's up to The Universe.

Hope that helps.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

YEAH to killing and mayhem!!!!! Good diversion, but I am just not sure how far or even if we could breech the wall to do actual damage...

This doesn't accomplish much, though. Unless the distraction proves some purpose, it does little outside of risk our butts.

So, mayhem may be a good option, if during it, we are actually DOING something... but, I don't think that particular task can be to free the elves-- it's just too obvious at this point...

Objectives are important-- yes... still think that finding Syvattagor's boss is very important... but-- if we want to drop that for the time being, it'll have to work... however, I think that is a key piece of information that we need as soon as possible.

Getting the cannon is a great idea. I agree it should be high on the priority list... but, the reality of trying to lug a cannon is what is going to slow us down... literally.

Thane cannon carry it. Some of the stronger members of the group could drag it... but, it would take EONS to get of the city...

What other options do we have to get it out of the city?

 

[AIM-54]

YEAH to killing and mayhem!!!!! Good diversion, but I am just not sure how far or even if we could breech the wall to do actual damage...

The idea is not to breach the wall, but to go over it. And if we do it through a guard post, we can take out 8 guys there, with another 16 inbound in a couple rounds. If we have the teleport thing all set up we don't even have to engage all of them before we zap away. The trick is not to win the war in one or two engagements, but to understand that this is a long term strategy aimed at slowly draining their resources.

As per The Universe's last post: It seems then that the naval mission might be our best bet as our opening salvo, it's straightforward, we have the know-how and it accomplishes a key goal. We'll probably want to take some people that know how to use cannons (Steel Dragons? I can't remember the in-game term) as they might be useful if there is a pursuit...or just to wreak havoc as we leave

Finally, are there shipwrights in the encampment that could help us out with some small assault boats (ie robust rowboats )?

 

[The_Universe]

I wish I were on oscar meyer wiener

NOTICE:

Nothing is impossible. Almost everything you're going to try is hard. Suck it up, keep planning, and move on. I will enjoy losing to you.

Now, on to some of Jeremiah's questions:

There are some people who can build rowboats. That's no problem at all.

Cannons are called Steeldrakes. You were close.

Captain Seaborne is happy to help. He also would note that leaving the thing in a harbor (at the moment), even a friendly harbor, would be dangerous with the draconids so clearly dominating the seas in this area. If you take it, you're going to have to bring it inland to preserve your "proof." However, it'd make a great recruiting tool...

 

[Laurel]

Just to state it, I like the boat/naval idea and think we should work with this. Through scrying we can see which has the cannons, least people, easiest to liberate. At least as a possible to go in with, but that mind set should be flexible.

As for land stage, I am not advocating the mass attack- I do like the burning and havoc and killing though. But as I stated before, this is risky and proably would not accomplish much at all.

What about sticking to the draconic disguise idea for land mission. Xath can ask about the dragon leader, and others. Generally though it would be to see defenses, and figure out where the elves are being kept. In mass land battle it would be nice to know where they are before bambardment. The basic thing is to get the information from other guards or people inside city without going into the palace.

Ways out of the city- Get onto a small ship and say we have orders to take it somewhere.

 

[AIM-54]

Getting the cannon is a great idea. I agree it should be high on the priority list... but, the reality of trying to lug a cannon is what is going to slow us down... literally.

Thane cannon carry it. Some of the stronger members of the group could drag it... but, it would take EONS to get of the city...

What other options do we have to get it out of the city?

There's no need to carry it if we steal the ship that it/they are on. Which has been my entire idea since I brought it up, thus my dangerous obsession with Seaborn, the folding boat and shipwrights. Thus, we sail away from the city, to that other city whose name I cannot remember because I don't have a map here at work and can't remember if there's a copy lost somewhere earlier on this thread. There we can take a cannon, rent a wagon, harangue some crowds, grab some recruits, give Seaborn the ship and encourage him to become the center of a new Phoenix Navy. Or not, but we'll have the damn cannon, Xath can write some songs about its daring capture and I'm sure the refugees that ended up there will be happy to hear about us tweaking the Draconids and maybe we'll win a few recruits. It's not a perfect plan, it may not be an ideal plan, but I like it, I think it gives us a lot more in terms of the intangibles (as well as some very nice material gains...heck, we could take multiple cannons down to Hyrwl to help defend it) than just finding out who the leader of this particular army is. I'm not sure why that's become such a priority, other than it's nice to know who you're fighting, but I think the naval option gives us much, much more all around at this time.
Besides reverse amphibious assaults are fun!

 

[Laurel]

sorry server slow... so triple posting by accident

 

[Laurel]

Trying.... really I am....

massive mess-up with triple posting.. sorry....