Tentacle Lair Evolution!

[Shadow]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

There's not a specific vote for this, it's just an errant thought; if the Necromancer is currently breaking down the barriers of the Runestone, even if we drop right on top of it, it won't do us any good, we can't access it.

What we need is a piece of inspired timing. If we drop down from the ceiling just as the necromancer disables the last of the protection, I imagine we'd create quite the distraction. Then, say, Asabi suicide-charges the necromancer, we could winch the Runestone out of there, back up to us, absorb all the energy, and wipeout all the menaces below.

OK, there's so many holes in that plan you could probably market it as a form of swiss cheese. But this isn't our boring, ordinary universe. It's a narrative. Maybe we could exploit Refuge in Audacity?

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OK, maybe that's all bollocks. Option C sounds like it might be interesting.

Ordinarily I would say 'cut and run', but if the Necromancer and his pet get the Runestone, they'll be immensely powerful, have all the time in the world to track us down, then kill or enslave us. Which doesn't sound much fun.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

Those barriers are keeping him from accessing the room itself.

 

[Shadow]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

Those barriers are keeping him from accessing the room itself.

Ah. That's the problem with thinking too far out the box, you tend to miss something obvious.

...Although we're directly above the room containing the Runestone, right? Should he break the barriers, and enter the room, it'd be great if we could time the collapse of the ceiling so that it lands on top him.

What I'm getting it with my crazy meanderings is that we (well, without Zelari and Cambor) don't really stand a chance in a 'fair' fight with the already scary-powerful Purple and Necromancer. What we need to do is somehow twist things so that we whisk the Runestone away from right in front of their noses. It'd be even better if they couldn't immediately give chase.

 

[Courage Wolf]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

Fuck this. C We kill Zelari and Camdor and take Ket, We have Asabi and when we have Ket under sway we can handle the other group downstairs. We need speed, and allies or not, their potential enemies. They WILL gank us when this is over, Runestone or not.

 

[DeMatt]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

A. I really should've gotten off my butt and done some voting, the past few votes...

 

[tora]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

Fuck this. C We kill Zelari and Camdor and take Ket, We have Asabi and when we have Ket under sway we can handle the other group downstairs. We need speed, and allies or not, their potential enemies. They WILL gank us when this is over, Runestone or not.

No threat of that, the oath is that they can't turn on you for the month. That's assuming that they even want to by then; as mentioned, there are options. Just thought I'd throw it out there - I'm planning to post the decision in a few hours.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

Well let's see. A means we're a pet, worse than a slave, and a starving one at that. B is nigh impossible, our current oath means we have to protect ket, we can't leave without her. C is suicidal unless everything goes perfectly right, which is a stretch recently.

Anyone else lose enthusiasm reading over those options?

 

[tora]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

A means we're a pet, worse than a slave, and a starving one at that.

Even under the current deal, I don't see where you're getting this.

a pet, worse than a slave

There is no protection clause. You are doing exactly nil for them except not fucking with them, literally or metaphorically. If they screw you first, you can even fight back! That's more than business-types offer in real life! That's Zel's point - if the roles were reversed, you'd hardly leave a 'lol, they can just mindfuck me' clause open if you had a way out of it. And just for them, not every mortal ever or something.

starving

The deal is 'us', meaning Zelari, Cambor, and Ket. This leaves the entire world to feed on except for 3 people. You know at least an Orc, a necromancer, and a sorceress, so there's your three right there.

 

[Chameon]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

Pardonei moi. I have to interject, as my day/play style was most effectively destroyed by this latest agreement.

There is no protection clause. You are doing exactly nil for them except not fucking with them, literally or metaphorically. If they screw you first, you can even fight back! That's more than business-types offer in real life! That's Zel's point - if the roles were reversed, you'd hardly leave a 'lol, they can just mindfuck me' clause open if you had a way out of it. And just for them, not every mortal ever or something.

"Oh joy of joys, I am surrounded by entities that I am compelled by a blood oath to follow eternally, who both do not like me and who wish me dead. If I have sex, they get first attack, and 2/3 of them are rogues. If they manage to kill me in a single swing, Ket's free and safe. All of my powers are forbidden to be used on / towards them, so I cannot even talk with them, except through Asabi. Any person they meet, they are likely to warn about us, so as to avoid worrying too much about us becoming too powerful. After a full moon, we're still forced to follow them due to the open ended Ket portion of the agreement. We are not allowed to use our powers on Ket except to teach magic or for emergency assistance."

The deal is 'us', meaning Zelari, Cambor, and Ket. This leaves the entire world to feed on except for 3 people. You know at least an Orc, a necromancer, and a sorceress, so there's your three right there.

"Oh deary me, we do not like the tentacle creature anymore, it cannot speak to us, and it needs food to survive. Hey, look, possible food, we have no reason to let that live or stay around."

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

We already have a protection clause with ket, we can't just bugger off. Oh, and telepathy is one of those powers we're absolutely not allowed to use, so we're mute now, too. Can still talk with and through Asabi, but that's gonne get us nowhere fast, maybe even backwards. They can stab us in the back three seconds after we make that oath too, if you read it loosly, since we can't *touch* them unless thet *attack* us first. So they get a first strike for free. They'll work with us now could be any length of time they so desire, and 'won't oppose us' is far too loose a definition to provide us enough protection from what I'm sure they already want to do, especially Cambor. Even if it did forbid them, they can just ask some random orc to do it, since it's just the three on their end, and anything we could possibly gather on ours.

That's really fucking far from allies in my books, thanks very much.

 

[Nirakei]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

I just checked the first page and was wondering if this rule could help us out in this specific situation:

For 100 Overlord Energy you can bail out of a bad situation and possess one of the other lesser tentacles, or one of your own minions, avoiding defeat. If you wait too long the other tentacles may gain power, increasing this cost.

How much would it currently cost, exactly, for our current Overlord to screw Purple up at this point in time?

 

[Chameon]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

How much would it currently cost, exactly, for our current Overlord to screw Purple up at this point in time?

A minimum of 25 points more then we've got. We have 75 overlord points. We need 100 to enter a 'lesser' tentacle. Nice try though, I hadn't even noticed that.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

We haven't had that much in forever, and that may even be worse than most of the alternatives right now, we'd stand to lose damn near everything, even most of our evolutions, pretty sure...

 

[xgkf]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

Personally, I'm against forming ANY further oaths at the moment. We already have the oath with Ket, so we're bound to stay and protect her (and her protect us), so there's no getting away from that for either us or Zel and Cam.

Lets just do what we can to try and get them to simply agree to work together with us, for everyone's sake, against Purple and the Necro's for now (no tricks, no blood oaths, just a simple agreement), and then work out any potential oaths or other alliances after the fight when neither side is under this much stress and desperation.

So basically A, just without any blood oaths!

 

[Nirakei]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

We haven't had that much in forever, and that may even be worse than most of the alternatives right now, we'd stand to lose damn near everything, even most of our evolutions, pretty sure...

I wasn't really trying to drive at full possession, more along the lines of a distraction. Such as how you can possess them for 100 points, but perhaps implant a suggestion in their head for half that. Turn Purple, for 5-10 minutes, from Necro's ally to a loose cannon.

Since it hasn't been explicitly stated, I was hoping to fish for an inherent mindfuck mechanism we have over the other Spawn, really. But if even something like that costed the full price, guess it wouldn't really work out.

Because regardless of what choices we have, we're going to need the other Spawn to come in with any allies/slaves they managed to raise to distract Purple if we're going to have any chance of pulling anything off without any permanent losses.

 

[TentanariX]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

A.gree nit to attack if they agree to help us defeat purple and get the runestone. Ket is sworn by blood to protect us, and if they choose to attack us after we deal with purple theyd also have to harm Ket. Which I suspect they won't do (hopefully). Nix the sex requirements, and just try to coral them with logic. Neither side will ve able to take on purple and the necromancer solo. We need each other for now. We can always (again hopefully) find other hosts, and maybe we could fanangle them by agreeing to let Zel and Cam flee after we deal with our common enemy.

 

[tora]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

With the voting now A wins, but so many are conditional (no oath! screw them after faking it!) that it's meaningless.

In the interest of fairness, I'm adding new options with clarifications. You have two days to change your vote if you so desire.

A.) Allies – Accept the mortal’s terms, including the blood oath. However, it is understood that intentionally trying to starve you or drain your energy is considered an attack. If they try to weasel out of that, they're a liability, and you will do D. Also, re:Chameon, it is possible to evolve 'whispers' to communicate with them even without Asabi if you feel that vital to your plot.

B.) Die Another Day – Flee! Ket is still yours, if they continue to hold her in the barrier you can’t stand to defend her, but they will! To clarify, protection is not necessarily just you. You need to take action, but that can be sending a sizable escort of minions, or for right now, just leaving her in the barrier and taking action to divert the necromancer.

C.) Apocalypse Now – Take Asabi’s offer, force your way through to the runestone! Ket and Cambor will fall through with you, forcing the harpy’s hand. This will do huge damage to Asabi, but unleashing the runestone can heal her very quickly.

D.) Knives of Betrayal – Fake A, try to get them to lower the barrier, then do C. Tell any lie you need to make this work. If it works, you save Asabi's energy. If it doesn't, you'll just rush through, but you'll have wasted even more time.

E.) Double Dealing - Take a cue from Purple - try to deal with the Necromancer to screw over purple AND your current party. Accept any terms that are better than Zelari's, i.e. that end with Purple dead or in your control and the Necro having less restrictive oaths terms than Zel. Default to C if negotiation fails; you will waste no more time than D on this.

Also, Nirakei's idea is good - for 50 Overlord Energy, you can cause a momentary disruption to another tentacle. Useful on many paths now, or for a first strike in general later on.

 

[Chameon]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

Before everyone gets on board with the new D option. Do recall that Zelari not fifteen seconds ago was reading our mind actively, and can probably still do so.

 

[GargantuaBlarg]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

A.

 

[xgkf]

Re: Tentacle Lair Evolution!

Well then I guess our hands are still tied to accepting their shitty deal then, aren't they?

Abstain.