OOC Kingdom of Ashes IV - Who's yo' daddy?

[The_Universe]

heheh - No matter what happens, you should dedicate your battle to the fallen St. Arfin Kegsplitter, founder of the Arfinian Order.

On a more serious note, offering Caer Albion help with evacuation is probably not going to be worth a whole lot. They have a ton of mages, and can teleport/gate/whatever with the best of them. If they were going to abandon the city to the Draconids, they could have quickly and efficiently done so as soon as the serpentblood started knocking on their door. They came to ask for your help in holding the city.

That being said, you could just be bastards about it and just sweep in and steal the spiritblades, and then ditch them to let them stew in their own juices for a while. It wouldn't break alignments to do something like that, since you have your own perfectly legitimate problems to deal with, although it's about 30 miles shy of exalted.

But, in all, JC lays out a good case for heading north - is there a way to have your cake (the Isle of Mourning) and eat it (Caer Albion) too?

The most important point he lays out is this one: you don't have to win, you just have to screw with him. Sometimes all it takes are mosquitos to make you leave the proverbial barbecue.

 

[The_Universe]

Should that spell come into being, I think it needs the world specific title of "Archon's Cop Out"

Or "Escaping the Queen's Predicament"

 

[Laurel]

Re: The little prince

Options so far:

1) have someone take the baby before Jaine really begins to show (as per New spell) --Gertie, is Xath offering taking the kid or just finding out options?

2) Have Arhconus Arrendor marry Jaine making the kid legit.

3) Somehow force AB to marry Jaine (kill the bluestar and free him?)

4) Kill Jaine and/or Kill the baby

5) Have Kareth marry Jaine

6) Find someone quickly who loves Jaine and is okay with being the step-dad of her unborn kid



?7?) L'aurel was going to offer to take the kid after it's born (this was before the spell was even mentioned) don't think Jaine would go for it anyways, but it is an option she would gladly accept.



This isn't the best option, but so far it would go as:

L'Aurel uses ring of chameleon to appear to be pregnant. Not many know of bringing people back from the dead and Selura could have been pregnant before. With little time delay between Selura's death and L'Aurel's rebirth the child was kept alive. L'Aurel has read the stories of the Amastatia and she was able to fight while pregnant. To have a good place for the child to grow up in L'Aurel must continued to fight even through the pregnancy for if the war is lost the child will grow up in a horrible world that no mother would want to see her child in. Though she's really not pregnant, but in case someone asks.

Shortly before delivery Jaine's pregnancy goes into trouble spot, she ends up loosing the baby. L'Aurel has 'baby' few days later no complications. If the child has the mark there a possibility of making a bracelet that's sole purpose would be to hide the mark. Think of it like a medical bracelet. If anything were to happen and Jaine wanted/need/wished for the child back L'Aurel would return it to it's rightful mother.

Also, I was assuming Xath would be the one offering taking the kid if the spell happened, but if she's not again L'aurel could using the same theory from above.

I know there are wholes to the last option.... but....

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

As has been said, Caer Albion can escape... they do not want to.

Do we want to try to Speak with Dead with the mage that is dead in Hyrwl?

I'm all for sending the Blue Stars forces to fight one of the fights... having them go to Caer Albion would put a major damper on the kings "the blue star is doing it" crap... but, at the same time, making us look bad...

Right now, the best of all possible situations, I think, looks like this:
Send Big Blue's forces to fight for the blades on the Isle of Mourning-- under the agreement that the blades are not taken North but given to AB until we have decided what the best way to destroy them is.

At the same time, we--as a small force-- attempt to bring down the forces in Caer Albion... however, I am still at a loss as to how to fight that fight... it will take A LOT of brilliant planning...

What do you guys think??

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Or "Escaping the Queen's Predicament"

Justice is not in favor of the switching of the wombs carrying the baby... this option seems much more shameful to Jaine than simply a mistaken pregnancy.

 

[The_Universe]

Justice is not in favor of the switching of the wombs carrying the baby... this option seems much more shameful to Jaine than simply a mistaken pregnancy.

Well, to Jaine personally it may be shameful, but since precious few people would know that she was pregnant at all, as of yet, it would shame the Throne a great deal less. It either needs a father, or it needs to seem to not exist. Does that make sense?

 

[Laurel]

Justice is not in favor of the switching of the wombs carrying the baby... this option seems much more shameful to Jaine than simply a mistaken pregnancy.

It's all about what she feels is the most important at this point- can she have the baby and try to keep all those involved quiet. Possibly spending the time on the throne constantly wondering when some one will talk about it. Or having it switch in the womb when few people know of it and the people involved ar ebound to her and each other.
Also she may not even want to give it up....

 

[Laurel]

As has been said, Caer Albion can escape... they do not want to.
Do we want to try to Speak with Dead with the mage that is dead in Hyrwl?

Yes to Speak with dead- he can tell us more of where the mages are, and what secrets are there they are hidding. We know Morded's skull at least is hidden there, so it goes that there are more secrets a foot. We don;t need exact anything, but the more we know before we do anythign the better. I know time is an issue, but a few minutes of getting good info could save our very lives.
We do know that more then just this one mage tried to reach us, he seemed surprised that he was the only and the first to arrive in Hwyrl. That should hopefully mean that other red mages still in Caer Albion will know us when we arrive, and a transition of us lending aid will go smoothly.

Right now, the best of all possible situations, I think, looks like this: Send Big Blue's forces to fight for the blades on the Isle of Mourning-- under the agreement that the blades are not taken North but given to AB until we have decided what the best way to destroy them is.

At the same time, we--as a small force-- attempt to bring down the forces in Caer Albion... however, I am still at a loss as to how to fight that fight... it will take A LOT of brilliant planning...

What do you guys think??

Seding AB with force to Island good, it has to be agreed that he carries them or what not but grandpappy doesn't get them right away.

The six of us go in to Caer Albion take over what little fight they have as generals and do what we do fight. We may not win, but just coming to thier call for help will win us points (as the JC has stated).
We can use what we learned in Oceanus. by taking a ring gate we are connected with Hywrl to get help/assistance.

 

[The_Universe]

Do we want to try to Speak with Dead with the mage that is dead in Hyrwl?

I think that's a good idea. It certainly can't hurt.

I'm all for sending the Blue Stars forces to fight one of the fights... having them go to Caer Albion would put a major damper on the kings "the blue star is doing it" crap... but, at the same time, making us look bad...

Might you send them to the Isle of Mourning instead, then? The worst that can happen there is that you won't get the blades, and the Bluestar will have them instead of Tain.

Right now, the best of all possible situations, I think, looks like this:
Send Big Blue's forces to fight for the blades on the Isle of Mourning-- under the agreement that the blades are not taken North but given to AB until we have decided what the best way to destroy them is.

Well, you may have trouble getting AB to agree to do that. If he says no, then what? Regardless - this might be a way to have your cake and eat it, too...

At the same time, we--as a small force-- attempt to bring down the forces in Caer Albion... however, I am still at a loss as to how to fight that fight... it will take A LOT of brilliant planning...

Watch the dirty dozen, rio bravo, Ocean's Eleven, Sneakers, Mission: Impossible, several episodes of the A-team, Return of the Jedi, the last 25 minutes of the Princess Bride, and the last hour of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and call me in the morning. None of those are EXACTLY applicable, but they do have the kind of things you need to think about. There are books I can recommend, as well. Aaron Allston's Wraith Squadron is a good start.

EDIT: JC's suggestions: The Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven.

 

[AIM-54]

At the same time, we--as a small force-- attempt to bring down the forces in Caer Albion... however, I am still at a loss as to how to fight that fight... it will take A LOT of brilliant planning...

We don't have to bring down the forces in Caer Albion. This is key. We just have to show up, deal some damage and escape with everyone else. If it comes to that. Going in with the mindset that "we're going to bring down the forces in Caer Albion" is only going to get us killed. We need to go in, wave the flag, kill some bad guys and get out. Not to say that we're only there for an hour or whatever, by any means, just that our objective is not to save Caer Albion.

What would be ideal is if we could get in, liaise with whoever's directing the defense, help out at some weak spots and when the city is fallen, get everyone back to base (including any recruits we can pick up). We don't need any extraordinarily brilliant planning, because we're not planning to win the war here. We need a solid plan that's flexible enough to allow for the inevitable changing circumstances of warfare. Keep it simple and straightforward and we'll all live long enough to win the whole enchilada. It took North Vietnam 25+ years to unify their country; impatience is our enemy.

The idea is a guerrilla action. Hit hard, run away and live to fight another day. We also need to get the people on our side as much as possible and showing up to defend the capital will certainly help out on that front. (I'm trying to remember Mao's metaphor, but it ain't coming).