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+--- Thread: REFUGEVILLE (/showthread.php?tid=2065)
RE: REFUGEVILLE - Mayu_Zane - 05-02-2019
(05-02-2019, 05:38 PM)Dragon Fogel Wrote: »(You've got a tag error around Zalana's quote.)
Just fixed it! Thank you
RE: REFUGEVILLE - Ten11 - 05-03-2019
Yeah let's sell a crossbow, and get shrines for Bidabog and Alstalti. What sacrifices do they prefer?
I don't recall who makes up our population, but if we have any children, we should give them the task of collecting a thousand rocks or a thousand sticks, if they aren't doing anything else. They can make a game out of it. Even if we don't make a shrine to Tanggara right now, we probably will eventually, and having a stockpile of stuff to give when we do would be good.
So, so far we've been mostly trying to keep above-ground structures to a minimum, and keep living space and useful objects underground. Kori and Ogot both travel through tunnel networks, I think we should ask them about that, how they excavated the tunnels, how they keep them supported etc. If they don't personally know much about how the tunnels work, they could put us in contact with someone who does. We'd be willing to pay for the information. I just think its really important we make sure our living conditions are secure and stable. A cave-in would be disastrous.
RE: REFUGEVILLE - Schazer - 05-03-2019
I agree we should buy both shrines, but I'm not fussed who we dedicate them to.
We should ask the rescued slaves if they would prefer to return to their home in the northwest, or aid us in our work here. If the latter, what skills do they bring?
RE: REFUGEVILLE - smuchmuch - 05-03-2019
The Zaluigi fireball wand is a god send for us. We have Arara's protection against heatstrokes and the Dermilyus who are our allies are big guys so exhaustion will eb less of a factor for them, so yeah, we should be able to use it to throw a LOT of fireballs if needed.
Eggs is a good buy because more Chickens. We can alway do wih more food reserves.
Gunpowder means more shots of the fancy new canon we just got (who otherwise would jsut be a fancy heavy uselss piece of iron), so it'd be good to have a couple bags in a dry safe place.
Hildevert’s Journal is knowlege for fairly cheap, that's alway good.
The smithing manual is great now that the god box village is monster free, since it has a forge.
Shrines means blessings, so the interest is self explanatory.
(30*2=60) + 100 + (3*8=24) + (2*10=20) + 10 + 20 = 234
We could sell two crossbows. With 400 crumbits we can buy the two shrines, the fireball wand, the journal, the smithing manual, the eggs and two bags of gunpowders and still get a nice sum of crumbits to 166 spare. (Some we could even reinvest into building materials)
Or we can sell 1 crossbow and two masses for 260 crumbit. that'll leave 26 crumbits to spare.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Arara and The god from nowhere seems some interesting long term gambles.
Orkonas might be interesting IF the potential discounts beat the price of a silver per day.( Or gold but I assume gold is pricier than silver as it would be in the real world ?) So far we've been pretty much only paying in crumbits so it's a bit hard knowing if it's worth it. What's the curency exhange rate here ?
No because if a silver per day happen to be the equivalent of a hundred crumbits, I'm gonna say not worth it right now. (I assume a crumbit is less then silvr or gold ?) If a crumbit is a silver than it's a lot better. I dodn't remmber if that was ever precised before in the adventure ?
Bidabog and Alstalti, have imediate benefit with literaly no costst (except that, of course any shrine we dedicate to them is one we cannot dedicate to another god). Normaly I'd try to plan long term but there these two are interesting notheless.
Food scarcity as alway been a bit of a long term risk (sure we're doing fine now but with how little land we have, this isn't going to last forever, when the equivalent of winter, cold snaps, heat waves or whatever the signet can cook up might suddenly kill animals, spoil the land or our river and then....). Having food not spoil would definitively help with this. Although it's not needed, we cna get by with cooler crystals and conservation techniques. The secret of lmedecines tho ? That's nothing to sneeze at. (so to speak). It would give us a huge advantage for survival.
Bidabog would be good for battle and sync nicely with rimwulf. Also a dragon wolf sentinal to protect the world eventualy ? Seems the world need it pretty badly, if worshiping both gods can help them eventual getting together, then call me cupid.
Zalana and Tanggara have the biggest benefits, at least int hat they can give us things that would be very hard to achieve ourselves otherwise, knowlege and protection from the signet but at high costs.Zalana code of conduct is fairly restricting but in many ay it already lines up with how we're conducting ourselves not that big a cost, in truth. They both interest me.
We havn't seen the signet in a little while but as we grow and keep meeting new people we ARE going to appear ont heir radar more and more.
I'm going to say we should dedicate our two new shrines to Alstalti and Zalana
there'll be hopefully other chances to get shrines for toher gods mlater.
RE: REFUGEVILLE - Dis_Aster - 05-03-2019
Ah, a little problem. Seems we're missing some of the stuff from our second trip to Mosstown. There should be a pot of crude oil and 9 iron ingots in our stockpile as well, shouldn't there?
In any case, I'm all for the 'sell a crossbow, get both shrines' option. In my opinion, as for /who/ we should dedicate the shrines to, well... I'm not entirely sure on Bidabog, but that just may be me worrying a little too much about tipping our hand about what we know. Though, if we can help expedite whatever processes are involved in order to ensure she and Rimewulf are eventually wed, I won't really have any objections. I'd also be down for Alstalti or Brigax as well. And while I'm still gonna stand by my belief of "we should really restore Arara's brain", I'd imagine the Zalugi are already hard at work providing offerings towards that goal, so that's not as high a priority, but... still one I'd want to help with later on down the line.
At the moment, my current preference for gods is Alstalti | Brigax -> Tanggara -> Arara. To be honest, part of why I wanted Brigax was to see if his blessing against poisonous clouds could help us use the tunnels that're only accessible by spiderkin, but.. I'm gonna guess venom meant to deter intruders is more liquid than gas, so that's probably right out. Wouldn't hurt to ask Kori for clarification, though. Prob'ly gonna lean towards Alstalti, though.
As for what else to buy... I'd say get Dermilyu Horizon and read it posthaste. Hildevert's findings should prove to be useful, especially given that we have Artimen and the two guards to help for the purposes of cross-referencing, should we elect to make a trip to their home after assassinating King Vondar. I also recommend getting the Smithing Manual, so as to keep a resource handy and an egg, so as to get another chicken for ourselves.
As for other immediate matters... it seems like we may need to continue expanding underground, make some proper flooring for our basement, and a defensible door for the entrance. Seems like it'd be a good idea to get all that worked on, especially given how we've got even more people around now.
RE: REFUGEVILLE - Mayu_Zane - 07-18-2019
(05-03-2019, 01:32 PM)Dis_Aster Wrote: »Ah, a little problem. Seems we're missing some of the stuff from our second trip to Mosstown. There should be a pot of crude oil and 9 iron ingots in our stockpile as well, shouldn't there?
Your people check inventory once again, and confirm the stuff’s still there. They just forgot to check somehow.
Quote:As for what else to buy... I'd say get Dermilyu Horizon and read it posthaste. Hildevert's findings should prove to be useful, especially given that we have Artimen and the two guards to help for the purposes of cross-referencing, should we elect to make a trip to their home after assassinating King Vondar. I also recommend getting the Smithing Manual, so as to keep a resource handy and an egg, so as to get another chicken for ourselves.
The former slaves tell your Eldest they were once berry farmers. There may not be any berries, but they still have useful knowledge and instruct your people how to encourage crops to grow.
(All crops now grow faster!)
You purchase the Smithing Manual and Dermilyu Horizon.
The Eldest opens Dermilyu Horizon and reads the journal out loud…
===
Hildevert’s Journal:
Dermilyu Horizon
There are few people in the world who have not heard of the Dermilyu Kingdom. The kingdom was once inhabited by blue giants, infamous for their practice of enslaving people from other nations. Believing themselves superior because they were larger than anybody else, they held great pride in fending off every single invasion from other countries angered by their slave raids.
Six times, the home nations of their victims attacked, and six times they were repulsed. After that kind of history, it would be understandable why they thought they were invincible.
Then The Signet’s Ziggurat came.
Now there is no Dermilyu Kingdom. There is only the Dermilyu Horizon.
Why is it called a ‘horizon’? Because that’s all that’s left there.
It’s completely flat.
A barren, featureless land. Nothing to see but smooth white flooring everywhere. The floor? It’s made of bones. The bones of every single person inside Dermilyu who were not able to flee before The Signet brought their Ziggurat.
Before the Ziggurat, the Dermilyu had already encountered the Signet’s forces, and the giants never won a single battle against the invaders. In every single skirmish against the otherworldly military might of The Signet, the Dermilians found themselves completely outmatched. Fifty-eight battles, not a single victory. Nothing but humiliating losses.
Accounts vary, but according to border patrollers and observers, the Ziggurat arrived at dawn, and some kind of beam of light shone from the Ziggurat’s bottom and struck Dermilyu, accompanied with a noise that was described as ’the sound of a million children laughing’.
The Signet’s minions called that weapon ’The Last Laugh’.
Arrows and cannonballs flew, some even hit the Ziggurat, but none of it scratched The Signet’s gigantic flying vessel. The beam consumed everything within Dermilyu’s borders, and after an hour of anguish, all that was left was bone. Nothing could defend against the beam’s power.
I’ve been there myself. In the name of all the gods I swear true: There is nothing there anymore but a horizon, sunlight gleaming off of the bones of the dead. Their entire past has been erased.
This was the power of The Signet. They could erase a nation whenever they wanted.
Many ask, why didn’t The Signet do this to every other country that opposed them? Why was Dermilyu the only Kingdom that suffered this incredibly cruel fate?
I have a theory. On the day before the Ziggurat’s arrival, King Vondar made a declaration to his subjects. He stood on Mount Parapen, the tallest summit in the kingdom, and shouted to his people:
“We are invincible! We will repel The Signet, just as we have driven back all our foes! We will never be their slaves!”
Now, The Signet have been known to go after the most boastful people. Despite their chaotic, bewildering behavior, there is one clear pattern: they are most aggressive against anyone who claims they are ‘invincible’ or ‘immortal’. Even more so if they mention The Signet by name.
I personally believe… that King Vondar’s speech unintentionally summoned the Ziggurat.
His voice was said to carry far and wide, as the mountain he stood one was known to amplify echoes through the unique crystals found there. It is not so far-fetched to believe that the Ziggurat, which was flying nearby, heard his speech and responded.
I have no love for the Dermilyu Kingdom. Many of my friends were enslaved by them.
But even I think this was too cruel for them. There were Dermilians who left the kingdom and met me, and they were among the kindest souls I’ve ever met. I imagine some of the people killed by The Last Laugh were kind as well, just never left.
May The Signet pay for their atrocities.
====
Count Artimen is crying in anguish. You can see his fists clenched and shaking. Your people cannot hear him whisper to himself, but you can:
“Vondar… The Signet… I will kill you both.”
He regains his composure, and reiterates his promise of supporting your people and never allowing slavery ever again. Your people already know this, but are reassured nonetheless. He then mentions that he had forgotten about the Dermilians who migrated over the years. Many of them formed isolated enclaves, due to the unfortunate reputation of their country, but this means there might be more giants still alive in the world than he first thought.
The possibility gives him hope, and he is ever more determined to help you.
You remember that you have another one Hildevert’s Journals, the one about the Hate Box. You were distracted by Valen at the time, the visitor from Preeray. You suggest to the Refugeville Eldest to read it, and he does so:
====
Hildevert’s Journal:
The Hate Box
I was stranded on Barnacle Island for three days after my boat was struck by a javelin the size of a horse. It was there on that island I saw the Hate Box, a cube-shaped building covered entirely in spikes, tiny misshapen eyes and rotten meat. Flies swarmed its exterior, making it look black as coal.
There were no guards, for the Hate Box needed none. The javelin that struck my boat, it was one of the spikes from that very same building. It hated me, and I hated it.
The Hate Box had little legs on the underside, like little awful sausages that learned how to crawl. It was slow, but persistent as it chased after me. Exhaustion took me after a day’s worth of walking and running, and the Hate Box took me inside it.
Inside, I saw other people, bound to the rotten flesh within. Their bodies were slowly peeled away by tiny steel claws. If they bled, their blood was sucked out and then put back into their bodies. It was impossible to die until the very last bit of you was gone.
All of it was designed for the sake of cruel torture. A nightmare given form.
I recognized two of the twenty victims trapped within. Margareta, a raider who attacked Signet supply lines. Geroh, a knight who distracted their minions while refugees fled. They were still alive, but a quarter of their bodies were gone.
I was ready to accept my horrid fate, when the pendant in my pocket started to hum. It was a pendant given to me by the Hamamao, a tribe I visited a week earlier. Imbued with the power of the Goddess of Justice, it repelled the claws and fleshy hands that tried to trap me.
My resolve renewed, I ran for the one exit the Hate Box had, and dove into the sea. The Hate Box could not enter water, as it turned out, and I did my best to hide behind the remains of other ships that were wrecked here.
I managed to find a big ship that would serve as shelter, and so I swam to it and climbed inside. There were enough supplies to last me a week, so I spent that time using parts of the ship to build a crude raft.
Using the big ship as cover, I escaped Barnacle Island as the Hate Box threw spikes in my direction.
One day, I will come back, and I will destroy that wretched creation.
====
Another abomination. You’ll have to remember Barnacle Island, maybe one day you’ll find a way there.
Dragon Fogel Wrote:A crossbow has a value of 200 crumbits, and we have four? Selling one seems like a good idea to me, then. That would easily let us buy both shrines and still have plenty left over. Buying the journal and smithing manual with the rest seems good.
…
I suppose Bidabog and Tanggara are the most interesting options from a narrative perspective, Zalana aligns with our principles, and Alstalti is just generally useful. Personally I'm inclined to go for Bidabog and Alstalti at the moment.
A crossbow is sold off, and the two shrines are purchased. Alstalti and Bidabog’s names are invoked.
A tiny purple flower manifests in your village!
![[Image: sXOFQwW.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/sXOFQwW.jpg)
The goddess Alstalti speaks through the flower:
“People of Refugeville, you are now under my protection. My blessing will keep your food from rot, and no disease can spread within the walls of this village. If you sacrifice to me, I will also reveal the mysteries of medicine to you.”
New Blessing acquired:
[Healer’s Ward]
No disease can spread within your village and your food will never spoil. However, infected people will remain infected even after entering Refugeville.
It is not perfect protection, but at least this means a single plague won’t wipe out your entire community.
Bidabog swoops into your village!
![[Image: KGsjPHm.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/KGsjPHm.jpg)
The Dragon Deity speaks:
“Friends of Rimewulf, honorable worshippers, Kin of Dragons. I will come to you when your village is threatened, and I give you a gift: blow into this horn and your hide will be armored like a dragon’s body. May your enemies roast in your battles.”
[Dragonscale Horn]
Whoever blows into the horn gains Dragonscale, which can combine with Devoted Wolfpack blessing. Twelve animals must be sacrificed for it to work again.
Your people are happy to see Bidabog, but after a few minutes, it becomes apparent she is not leaving.
The head of Azimuth screams.
Oh no.
She looks at your Eldest, and says:
“Your guess is correct. An enemy is coming. Those who have strength, wits and courage, fight alongside me.”
Your people tremble and ask, what is coming?
She looks towards the west, and replies:
“Signet knights. Thirty of them. All of them are humans in full plate armor and they carry Glacier-spears. ”
Glacier-spears! They’re magical weapons that act like wands, and can freeze opponents at a distance. Even Bidabog can find difficulty fighting against foes armed with such weapons, for if one hits one of her wings, for example, it would be frozen and she would not be able to fly!
You look at your armory:
5 Steel Maces
1 Iron Knife
5 Stone Axes
1 Stone Shovel
2 Steel Hooked Chains
1 Ceramic Dagger
1 Wheeled Dermilyu Cannon (5 Cannonballs, 5 Bags of Gunpowder)
3 Dermilyu Crossbows (with 16 crossbow bolts)
1 Jar of Acid
20 villagers are willing and able to fight. This includes Aello the winged woman, emboldened by Bidabog’s presence.
“May victory be in our grasp.”
The Signet’s 30 warriors are coming. They are all flesh-and-blood knights in steel armor, carrying spears, sworn to obey the orders of their cruel masters. Heavy blunt weapons, gunpowder, fire, crossbows and acid will come in handy. Bidabog will attack the knights once they get within the walls, as their Glacier-spears can cast magic from far away.
Your warriors pull out the cannon. There is not much time, they will reach Refugeville in ten minutes. Your people defend the village by…
- Firing a cannon at the enemy from long range to thin their numbers as much as possible.
- Waiting until they get inside the walls, then shoot them at close range with crossbows and the cannon.
- Attaching a cannon to Bidabog’s right front leg, so she can use it like a gun. She can fire it using her breath.
- Having crossbow-users ride Bidabog, so they can shoot from the skies.
- Get Aello the winged woman to drop cannonballs from above while the ones on the ground also attack.
- Something else
>_
RE: REFUGEVILLE - Dragon Fogel - 07-18-2019
I assume we can blow the horn once without sacrifices? Seems like it would be good to do that, then. It probably won't protect against the glacier-spears but might as well do it in case it helps with something.
It also strikes me that our sold crossbow still exists, and I keep thinking "realistically someone would probably ask the merchant if they can either lend it out or use it themselves" but in a mechanical context that feels like cheating - the point of getting two hundred crumbits for it is that we don't get to use it any more (and getting the help of a dragon protector out of that trade already makes it very favorable). Still, we've got three others so this isn't a huge factor. I just keep thinking about it.
Long range cannon attacks seem like a good idea. The only concern would be running out of cannonballs before they get close.
...okay, one inventory check later, I see we only have five cannonballs. That's not a lot. On the other hand, this is a cannon used by giants so they're probably pretty big? We should be able to afford one or two shots. I'd say two and then maybe a third depending on how many are left? After which crossbows should be fine.
Most interesting thing I saw in the inventory was the jar of acid, but I don't have particular thoughts on how to use it.
Trying to think of other options... I vaguely remember we have heat protection of some kind (which was relevant back in the desert) but I haven't gone back to check the details. It sure feels like "heat protection" and "dragon with fire breath" is a combination we could do something with.
Oh, one last thing. When we have a chance (probably after the battle) we should ask Bidabog if there's any way we can help with the Dragonwolf thing. That's one of the reasons I was in favor.
RE: REFUGEVILLE - Dis_Aster - 07-19-2019
Yeah, I was assuming the first horn usage is free, and the sacrifices come afterwards for later charges. Mind... I hadn't thought of the crossbow thing like that, but this does make me think of something else. Could we have Kori help us by dipping the bolts in poison? After all, if the Signet Knights are in steel armor, then it may be wise to hit them with poison. ...And perhaps reprise the poison-tipped javelins for when the remainder invariably draws closer.
Either way, I definitely agree with the cannon being our opening attack. While I'd love to acquire all their gear intact to better arm our forces, they do outnumber us by a good bit. Not sure how many shots we'd actually get before they make it to the gates, but I feel it'd be best to get at least one shot off before having some folks with crossbows ride on Bidabog and open fire on the surviving knights. Preferably with poisoned bolts if we have the time to get those prepped, but I'll settle for regular ones if'n we can't.
As for the jar of acid... while I do see some merit in using it in some fashion, most likely via Aello dropping it on someone, but... at the same time, that feels a bit too risky for my tastes, so I'd advise against doing that. Also, Arara's Shade only really applies to heat stroke, so I don't think whatever you'd have in mind would really work out. That aside... I do agree with you on asking Bidabog if there's anything we can do to help usher in the Dragonwolf Sentinel once we've dealt with the knights.
RE: REFUGEVILLE - Mayu_Zane - 07-19-2019
For clarification: The first use of the Dragonscale Horn is free
RE: REFUGEVILLE - smuchmuch - 07-21-2019
Ten minutes is not a lot of time to prepare. I guess we know the head of Asmuth doesn't have a long range. fair enugh
Anything we could use to make delay them would be great and I'm thinkin...
Have we used our summon animal today ? And if we haven't.. could we summon a bee queen and if we do would her whole swarm come with it? Because full plate armor is not going to protect from bee crawling and stinging and not only would it delay them, stop them from aiming their freaking freeze ray, and pretty much compellty desornaze them
Or if we had some way to produce lots of smoke that would work too. would cut their vision and armor still isn't to protect agaisnt it.
We won't get more than one shot, possibly two at most from the canon , just because that things is heavy and it'll likely take a while to just set up. It would be optimal if we could get them to clump up at best as possible first. Pits and trenches with wooden spikes would be great for that but in ten minutes we have, can't really set th
With their frost lances they will have a huge advantage in any distance fighting and they can probably freeze and shatter palisades. So crosbows might be good for a first surprise volley to thin the numbers but we should NOT get into a prolongued fight. That's aso why calling Bidabog why a great help will not be enough by itself. Sure she's powerfulla nd likely terryfying but if theyare organised, they can shoot upward and freeze her out of the air.
Here's a possible plan:
First We could have Bidabog use her fiery breath to coral them into a kill zone, make them regroup together to prepare to shoot her out of the sky and then...
Second, .bam, canonball right into the middle. Followed by a few crossbow shots. That won't take all thirty of them but it should
At this point they should be scatterd and disorganised, let's keep it that way. Make them loose cohesion. (If we can't summon the bee swarm or make a smoke screen, then maybe Holkaborg, godess of madness could help us with that. Spread confusion and panic into their mind if she would grant us this favor. There might, likely will, be a price thoug)
And for the battle itself, make them come to use so we can take them with melle and whatever traps we already have. (pretty sure we builld a few int he house already ?) Some villagers disguised as wolves could hide into bushes and maybe in the river. Even if they are in full plate armor, the Dermillyu and our big mercenaries whould be able to crush them.
It'll still be risky, they still are trained warriors with deadly weapons and full plate armor and we likely will losoe some people but it's the best I cna see this going given the cirumstances.
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(Otherwise there is another option: The flight. We don't fight we fleeand wait for them to go away, they won't saty here forever. But doinfg this we will likely appear weak to Artimen and his Dermilyu not to mention Bidabog. This option means a greater chance of survival but pretty much any chances of storring a fight agaisnt the signet int eh future will be severly compromised. But hey it's still an option.)
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Finaly, we should send someone, preferably Kori seeing she can fly, with a message to the Zalugi. I don't think they can arrive soon enough to help with this battle but in the possibility this turn into some kind of siege or we end up having to flee or any sort of drawn out thing, their fire magic will be vry usefull against their ice lances. And if we die, well they'll probably apreciate the warning anyway.
RE: REFUGEVILLE - Skunkbrains - 07-28-2019
+1 to the above plan, but get Alleo to hit them with the jar of acid and some rocks, if she's willing to take the risk