Thus, recovered from Gar Malleos and a trip to Ice, the party gathers to discuss the final battles.
Morniel and Balyss await up front, while others gather in and...
Go ahead and intro yourselves, PCs.
Rested up from the harrowing ordeal down in that fortress, Moore gives everyone a nod and a wave as he settles in to take a seat nearby those from the Lifasan Court.
Tryll and Calleigh crowd into the room, Calleigh flying in and immediately doing loops around Balyss' head with a joyful woop.
Tryll is much more calm, 'Hello, everyone.'
Surraruthru glides in, landing on the edge of the table and sitting regally and contemplating his newly widened array of spells...
Afina flutters by a map showing the geography of Lifasa, as much as they know of it under current conditions at any rate. "Everyone here?" she looks around before nodding. "The good news is we recently slew Silvber and claimed his sigil. Only Harkin and Ettan remain, being guarded by Taelfagn in readiness for the final battle. The bad news is, that final battle is nigh.
"No longer content with dragging Lifasa into Hell, the devils have done something with the world's ley lines which will destroy Lifasa in fire. I don't know if the devils can reverse this or plan on doing so if they believe they can actually win, or if it's something even we can reverse. But it means we can't just satisfy ourselves with raids anymore - we have to attack Lifasa and hold our ground."
Jaela treats this strategy meeting as a chance to let her hair down whilst among friends, especially given the fast-paced battles of the recent days.
"I agree," she speaks after Afina summarizes their situation. For her part, she's optimistic about their chances given the Triune's personal assurance that they have a shot. "It goes without saying that all vacations are cancelled and we'll be recalling everyone. From the officers, I believe that would be Vivantha and Ellese?" she muses, glancing at Morniel for confirmation.
Morniel nods, "That is correct. I have been informed that Ellese will be there when we need her. That was the phrasing, so I must note it may be when we need her and not when we want her."
Adrian stands nearby, arms crossed and listening. "Yeah, we're getting more troops every hour. We have to move soon and end this. The question is: How do we do this?"
"There's many options," Balyss speaks up, "But I advise that we hold our trump cards in for the most important battles - Jaela, Afina. Tryll as well, since psionics are rare and he's our most powerful manifester. Surraruthru as well, especially since his tapestry is so potent and useful, and his resources are limited. I doubt Gathgorian or the Duke of Destiny will fritter their strength away in minor encounters, so we cannot afford to fritter ours away."
"I'd suggest Moore as well, he can get the best out of them and free the others like Ebony and Vivantha to work with others," Morniel adds in, as others listen, follow in and watch.
"That is merely my opinion, garnered from my impressions of Selune's will in this matter - and she has not seen fit to contradict me." Balyss adds in, rubbing the side of her head.
"We've had all these prophecies about absolute final battles of destiny, one on one," Jaela interjects. "My vote goes to facing our big threats as a group instead. A duel suggests a fair fight, and we shouldn't be caught in one."
Surraruthru considers... "Do we have any idea exactly what the sigils do? If we can somehow use them in conjunction with my Crystal Tree to repair the Ley Lines, we might want to consider a stealth mission to Silvber's destroyed fortress to plant it. In fact.... Hmm... If we can restore those ley lines, that might be the perfect place to start our ground reclaiming. I'll have to see if I can somehow call up a strong enough memory of the ley lines from somewhere. I may need some divine help with that."
"I'll be avoiding going underground for that reason," Afina speaks up. "Though some of us are going to have to investigate Gar Malleos again, see just what was done there and get a clue as to how it can be reversed. But the main question right now," she gestures at the map, "Is where we deploy Aurora for the initial liberation."
"We also have the golem that Tryll had created." Moore says. "Though where to use it is indeed a good question."
'I would be pleased to assist with the ley line issue, if needed. If they manage to destroy the world, then this will be pointless. Being underground is no barrier to me, or the other irrigo.' Tryll says, "Though I may also be of use against the Duke of Destiny. I am outside of his powers' purview.'
Morniel nods at this. "Yes. We're aiming for the Fallen Throne, looking to land near there and use it as a staging point. While Aurora is not immobile, we do need to establish a landing point. From there, we move and make secondary fronts near the former Elven Tree and other relevant places we've battled before."
"Agreed," Gisfal steps forward, "The plan I'm advocating puts the generals in Aurora, commanding until we're needed."
"Yeah! We worked super hard on that giant sungolemtarrasquething and it's gonna smash up some devils!" Calleigh agrees with Moore, "We wanted to be real super tough, and to be both a beacon for our guys and a big ol' target for the bad guys. Also, it's an actual Sun."
"Figuring out what was done at the ley lines and how to reverse it should be of extreme importance. Twice now the devils have used a salt the earth doctrine, there is every reason to believe any other stronghold they have on or near a ley line nexus will be rigged similarly. In fact, the Triune all but explicitly said so."
"So a beachhead at the Fallen Throne, while Surraruthru and Tryll lead an expedition to Gar Malleous?" Jaela confirms with Morniel. "That's your suggestion?"
"If you feel Gar Malleos needs it, yes. I was referring to a more restrained plan like I mentioned before," Morniel says, "It may be productive not to send our best and strongest right away. If Gar Malleos is so important, I doubt it will be lightly defended."
"If we're to do any kind of researching or fixing in a timely manner, we're going to need many more bodies to go through the library while we're on the ground. I imagine that no matter what we figure out, the magic involved will need to be arcane, divine, and druidic."
"I'm not even sure if it still exists as an active fortress, it seemed like it was on the verge of blowing up when we fled, so we can investigate it before committing fully," Afina says. "Adrian, Tepen, you're both from the Throne originally aren't you?" She thinks that's right, it's a human dominated place at least! "What can you tell us about it?"
"It was a lovely place, once. Now it's a ruin." Adrian's voice is tight at that, "It was home to the Ascended Throne and overran by devils during the invasion. The land around it's good - plains and farmland, nothing too difficult and with a good climate. Once on a time it would've been hard land to hold due to a lack of natural defenses."
"What's our current intelligence on its defences?" Afina asks.
"Minimal, the old castle was defensible and the devils have rebuilt," Tepen speaks up at this, "Ideally we take over the castle and use it as a strong point to spread from, if we can properly neutralize it and any traps and weaknesses they leave in. But those are considerable drawbacks, and I caution us not to rely on that too much."
"Why not have Makaril assault it while staying in contact with us?" Jaela proposes. "Once the devils respond in strength, we'll Gate Aurora over and defeat them together. The devils will end up with confused reports, the loss of more of their reserve than they would like."
Gisfal speaks pu, "Good idea. We can combine those along with a possible Gar Malleos expedition and our other fronts."
"If we concentrate our forces that obviously, they might not notice an excursion to Gar Malleous," Jaela points out. "Or, even if they do, might prefer to focus their efforts on destroying Aurora and the resistance in one strike rather than put serious resistance to the expedition to Gar Malleous, giving us a chance to work the leylines to our advantage."
'We should probably assign the sunfire golem there, as well. It carries the power of Lathander. Once its on the plane, he'll have a hold there same as if the sun were shining in the sky again. The devils will want to destroy it quickly. It's safe to assume it will draw troops from defenses elsewhere.' Tryll adds. 'Actually, it might not be a bad idea to contact Lathander after this to see if he wants to send troops or clerics to assist. I'll take care of it after we're through with planning.'
"What's our timeline?" asks Calleigh, "Like, from here in planning to battle? How long do we have for final prep?"
"I'm aiming to have Aurora gate onto Lifasa tomorrow," Afina answers Calleigh's question. "We have two weeks until Lifasa is destroyed by what's been done to its ley lines, but considering yesterday we were on a three month countdown for it being dragged into Hell? Take it with a grain of salt and expect Hell to tighten our deadlines."
Calleigh nod-nods. "Okie-dokie."
"Do we want to have Sylica and Cauldron's armies establish their own beachheads?" Jaela voices. "Their participation is all but guaranteed after Benfal, and integrating a large force under our banner in just a day would prove difficult."
Gisfal nods slightly, "Yes, time is limited. As for that idea, Jaela..."
Cor, what you're proposing is basically administrative. All these forces are participating and it's going to be somewhat abstracted, so that level of fine detail isn't really required, as much as pointing those resources in that direction. It's a fine idea, we just don't need ot get into the nuts and bolts of that particular issue that deeply, in the same way that logistics are handled in the background rather than occupying the PCs.
"...so in conclusion, those are the factors that affect that. It's possible in various forms."
"To sum it up," Jaela goes on to say, once everyone's had a chance to pitch in, "we get in contact with Makaril and have him attack the Throne. Since we'll be staying in contact, we'll be ready to Gate Aurora over to his location as soon as he reports serious devil reinforcements or communications are suddenly cut off with him. Our allies will then be asked to establish their own beachheads; we'll either detail officers to keep in contact with them or use the Sending Orbs as needed." And how lucky they are that Aurora is capable of that, now! "Tryll and Surraruthru wanted to investigate Gar Malleous and do that ritual if at all possible, so a good time for that would be once Aurora's returned to Lifasa." She nods at the pair, adding, "If you're set on going, pick whoever you'll need for your strike team."
To incorporate Gisfal and Morniel's wishes, Jaela concludes with, "The generals will be staying at Aurora and leading the main strike, but conserving our magic until one of the priority targets decides to show up. Gathgorian, Taelfagn or anyone of their caliber would do. And while we'll try for the best outcome, if all else fails we'll resort to the Benfal option. Any objections or improvements to this basic plan of action?"
"Ettan and Harkin are priority targets as well," Afina adds. "Much as we look down on the traitors competency, Ettan is a large force multiplier to any devil forces around him, and we need their sigils."
NPCs will wait on PCs to add things here. So everyone else speak up and add things, or simply OOC say yo uhave nothing to add here.
Jaela nods. "An excellent point. I'm going off the intelligence that suggests they will be with the Duke of Destiny, but they can always attack us head on once we've Gated for the battle."
"I can probably head to wherever Ettan is found, assuming of course he actually takes to the field and isn't just hiding out somewhere. I think I could counter his abilities well enough with my own." Moore says. "Otherwise I can just be assigned to support whichever endeavors work at the time."
'Provided there aren't wards up against it, I should be able to teleport anyone to wherever they need to go should the need arise.'
OOC note: I still need to do the Chaos Gem thingy. What were you saying the time for that for completion was? Is it something I can get done overnight or the like?
We have a weekish, so go ahead and look that up for me, would you?
It starts here and goes for about six posts after: http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,104041.msg1104204.html#msg1104204
You never really stated a time for it, but it seemed like it could be done quickly; I just ran out of time that day.
Okay, get all the posted info on how it'll work and post it here OOC.
Alrighty, I'll C/P for notations what I think is important/what you're asking for.
Quote from: AnastasiaIt's Tepen who speaks up first when it's all done. "Surraruthru," he begins, "You've cobbled and compressed this ritual down to something you can do in a few hours rather than decades of effort," he begins evenly. "There's a certain amount of inherent risk to that."
Quote from: AnastasiaKascha shakes her head, "I'm estimating about an 80% chance of success, roughly."
Quote from: AnastasiaTepen clears his throat, then goes on, getting a smile from Sylvie. "In essence, yes. Do be careful. I concede that our needs and pressures dictate such a ritual, but do not take it lightly. Baleruk's support will doubtless help, many rules cease to matter with divinity of any stripe."
I made an inquiry about doing it in the Cauldron:
Quote from: Anastasia"It might help and I think Seira would appreciate it," Kascha says
That was about the sum total of the workings of the ritual you went over. So I take it to mean there's basically an 80% success chance, which will go up if I do it in the Cauldron and/or get any divine help I can.
The original intent was gone over here: http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,104041.msg1104199.html#msg1104199Quote from: Iron DragoonMy goal is to retain as much of the Chaos Diamond abilities and hardness/DR/whatever it translates to as possible.
Basically, I want to be able to get as much of the Chaos Diamond stuff as SLAs, and to be retained when I pull scales off, essentially making my scales into Chaos Diamonds when pulled off. If I had to pick one or the other, I'd prefer to have the scales be Chaos Diamonds and not have the SLAs.
Give me 8 Spellcraft checks and 8 K:A checks.
I'm not sure if Library bonus applies or not so I'm rolling without it. If it does, add +15 to stuffs.
> roll 8#1d20+57 Spellcraft
<Serith> Iddy roll for Serith < 75, 73, 68, 64, 63, 63, 65, 59 >
As Bibliotheca Arcana is part of my standard daily buffs, I shall add the bonus for it.
> roll 8#1d20+58+15 K:A
<Serith> Iddy roll for Serith < 91, 83, 89, 84, 75, 80, 91, 76 >
What's your current DR, Iddy?
Damage Reduction 10/Magic
Your damage reduction increases to 15/epic. Once per day you can shed a scale that can use any one of a chaos diamond's SLA. Once per year, with the proper ritual, you can shed scales that form a chaos diamond.
Woot. Does the shed scales have a use limit for that SLA?
Yes, any one of them. It's a one shot thing.
Okay, locking this and setting up. Any further questions can go in nagging.