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Post by Learned Hand on Apr 20, 2008 20:16:20 GMT
My understanding is that we're at the end of week 5 (post Yu-Shan time), we are expecting the troops to march at the end of week 8 and we need to delay them until the end of week 12.
Is this correct?
(For Raiden: we've been told by a mysterious ally who contacted us whilst we were in Yu Shand that the realm is preparing a force to attack us at Tredemin. This army is currently in Greyfalls. We'll lose a straight-battle but if we can delay them long enough some sidereals will be able to support us by transporting Tredemin to a different locale. Seriously!)
Plans
1) MDV suggested some sort of infectious agent. If Fox prayed to a disease God we might be able to set something up. The city seems to be overcrowded which should help the spread of disease.
2) If I can be held steady high enough over the city to avoid attention - either by an elemental or on the back of Ferric's wasp I can summon a gemlord. These are elementals that take the form of giant (palace-sized) rocks. Of course, it wouldn't be riding on the back of a wasp so it would drop onto the city like some kind of asteroid. As well as being potentially more devastating than even the Garda bird this would count as hilarious.
3) I forgot that I can only keep elementals for a month, which means the first ones I summoned are packing their bags. It may be worth sending them out to attack some of the villages where troops are stationed. They might be able to take out a few talons (is that the name of the unit with 20-50 troops) but more importantly they might force the DBs to guard the villages more heavily, which will further delay them.
Thoughts?
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Post by oneiros on Apr 20, 2008 20:54:52 GMT
Some good ideas there... 1) A quarantine would be superb... hmmm, any way of inducing the Wyld Plague that Kairos had? Azir did take samples...  Azir can probably assist with this plan, either by advising on possible contagion vectors and ways of exacerbating any illness or by manufacturing a biological agent. The advantage of the latter plan is I may be able to ensure that the effects are more deleterious than outright harmful (esp given ill people are usually more of a drain on a system than dead ones*). However, it might take time (though we do have about 2 weeks) for me to develop something. 2) Nifty! If we position it so that it falls on the palace/command centre, we could potentially take out the leadership. However, the aerial observations in place may make this difficult. 3) I'm okay with that. It may force them though to station more Immaculate monks outside the city. I'm wondering if there's a way I can brew something that will temporarily/permanently induce deafness. The benefit here is to inhibit communications, esp Wind-Carried Words Technique which is the best co-ordination they have. Any attempt to teach sign-language would therefore take time, barring high powered Linguistics specialists which should be few and far between. (* I honestly don't mean this to be as callous as it reads - this is Azir talking; Anil has (slightly) more compassion  ) |
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Post by Learned Hand on Apr 20, 2008 21:10:07 GMT
(3) It turns out I can keep them for more than a month - I can bind elementals for a year to a specific task. In this case, delay the attack on Tredemin. It still might work, although it might be best timed to act as a distraction to assist in (1) or (2).
(1) Love the wyld plague plan. Would putting it in the river/water supply work, or do we need some animals to carry it? We might be able to infect some of the outlying farms and villages that haven't garnered their very own DB guard, and spread it into the city through them.
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bravesirrobin
Geek of Geeks
Post-Whore
He bravely turned his tail and fled
Posts: 1,453
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Post by bravesirrobin on Apr 20, 2008 21:43:34 GMT
Just to clarify - we're technically at the end of week 4. We're anticipating an attack at the end of week 8.
I don't mean to be obstructive (much) but these plans have some serious flaws.
The technology to keep samples of biological disease agents isn't really available. The risk of infection is too great. Making some sort of deal with a disease god could work. Craft(Genesis) could be used to create diseases but again the risk of infection would be very high. Medicine could in theory be used to introduce natural ones to a population, the difficulty (as mentioned) is getting them
The summoning of an elemental requires (a) material components (b) a sample of their element. Therefore a earth elemental cannot be summoned in mid-air. And it's unlikely any ritual based spell could be performed in mid-air at all.
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Post by Learned Hand on Apr 21, 2008 7:04:13 GMT
I know that the thaumurtugical rituals need material components, but I didn't see anything in the description of the sorcery spell that suggested it needed anything other than 4 hours.
Conducting the spell in mid-air would be hard, but perhaps it would require a roll, rather than being impossible?
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Post by oneiros on Apr 21, 2008 8:22:29 GMT
The technology to keep samples of biological disease agents isn't really available. The risk of infection is too great. I thought this might be the case. In which case appealing to a disease god is our best chance since I don't have Craft (Genesis). What I might be able to do then, is make something that lowers people's resistance to disease or prolongs duration, a kind of anti-medication. BSR - what about the deafness idea? The alternative would be to try and make people mute. I think MDV's disease plan is probably the best so far though |
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Post by cardinalsin on Apr 21, 2008 8:31:57 GMT
It looks like they'll have to either
(a) cross the river between us and Greyfalls, a potentially good place to disrupt them, or
(b) head north to circumnavigate the river before heading towards Tredemin.
Do we know which they are going for?
Have any of us got access to any good linguistics charms? I was thinking we could cunningly substitute their maps for a bogus alternative, using a charm to prevent them noticing.
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Post by oneiros on Apr 21, 2008 8:47:32 GMT
I think they would know the area well enough and for most of the key maps to be in the military HQ so would be very difficult to interfere with.
Besides, once the army is on the march we've effectively lost because they won't do so without sufficient numbers/readyness. We need to delay them leaving Greyfalls for as long as possible. We have four weeks until we think they can start to march, so we need to enact any plans in Week 7 - no point setting them off now otherwise they'll just double up on relief efforts and we may lose a degree of effectiveness.
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Post by cardinalsin on Apr 21, 2008 8:48:19 GMT
Alternatively, we could replace their compasses with crafted versions that send them in the wrong direction.
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bravesirrobin
Geek of Geeks
Post-Whore
He bravely turned his tail and fled
Posts: 1,453
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Post by bravesirrobin on Apr 21, 2008 9:43:56 GMT
What I might be able to do then, is make something that lowers people's resistance to disease or prolongs duration, a kind of anti-medication. BSR - what about the deafness idea? The alternative would be to try and make people mute. These would both be possible. The latter would basically be another poison. I will check the description of the ritual when i get home, but IIRC any form of summoning requires a properly prepared summoning circle. And I'm pretty sure summon elemental requires some of the appropriate element anyway. |
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Post by Learned Hand on Apr 21, 2008 12:30:51 GMT
Besides, once the army is on the march we've effectively lost because they won't do so without sufficient numbers/readyness. We need to delay them leaving Greyfalls for as long as possible. We have four weeks until we think they can start to march, so we need to enact any plans in Week 7 - no point setting them off now otherwise they'll just double up on relief efforts and we may lose a degree of effectiveness. I agree, although we may want to move earlier on the plague, so that it peaks during week 7. |
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missdixievoom
Junior Geek
crunchy on the outside crunchy on the inside
Posts: 122
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Post by missdixievoom on Apr 21, 2008 18:47:07 GMT
I'm pretty sure summon elemental requires some of the appropriate element anyway. If this is the case, why can't a sample be taken up into the air? My wasp can carry at least the weight of two people. |
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Post by cardinalsin on Apr 21, 2008 18:50:55 GMT
By the way, what is significant about week 12? Do we get reinforcements then, or what?
As another idea to delay the troops, could we (either through engineering or magic or agreement with a god) find a way to divert the river and flood them out or even sweep them away?
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Post by Learned Hand on Apr 21, 2008 18:54:41 GMT
By the way, what is significant about week 12? Do we get reinforcements then, or what? As another idea to delay the troops, could we (either through engineering or magic or agreement with a god) find a way to divert the river and flood them out or even sweep them away? Week 12 is when our sidereal allies relocate the city several hundred miles away and rewrite its history so that it's always been there. This is an awesome idea. Perhaps should be set up and saved as a last-ditch attempt in case their troops do move out. Could set them back a few crucial days |
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Post by oneiros on Apr 21, 2008 18:57:09 GMT
Week 12 is when the mysterious woman in Heaven *cough*Golf Faction Sidereal*cough* will be able to engineer the safe movement of Tredamin from the NW of the 100 Kingdoms to the SE of it so that it will be safe from the Wyld Hunt that is after us. (Sidereal Dodge charm called Neighbourhood Relocation Scheme  ) Edit: Ah, I see LH got there before me |
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