Megathread - (Special Event) Siege Camp

A small formation of crates and shattered logs lay about an opening, forming a series of seats and pews for people to occupy as the Admiral continued to nail a large canvas sheet between two posts. It was roughly fifteen feet across, and on it was drawn a more or less accurate blueprint of the castle and its surrounding defenses and terrain. She had made a spy draw it up for her immediately upon returning. A stage, which compromised a single large crate, sat before the "war room briefing map" for a speaker to stand on and project their voice across those assembled. Was it shoddy? Certainly. Was it cheap? Without doubt. Did it work? She hoped so. She felt it might.

Standing on the crate, she looked out across the Siege Camp as people began to meander into it. Lazy. Slacking. There was no military precision here at all; no esprit de corps. She narrowed her eyes at how tired and tantrumed everybody seemed. They had had a rough day, yes. But each and every one of them was in this game for the love of the game... they had an option of quitting if it was too much for them. So she would not slouch, not waver, in seeing them wrestle victory for themselves. And she would not tolerate anybody's stupidity, laziness, or hubris getting in the way. For that reason and that reason alone there was already a bucket of freezing cold water that she had prepared, ready to dump it on the first dumbass to speak out of line or roll their eyes at somebody.

People needed to learn and show respect. They needed to come together as a group and function as a cohesive whole. They needed to stop viewing this as Monopoly where they competed for the largest scores. They needed to view it as dungeons and dragons, and submit to a party leader who would devise a plan to bring them all together. Not everyone would enjoy it. But the benefits of suffering obedience NOW was freedom LATER. Standing on top of the crate, she waited, watching to see who might show up.

There were, of course, larger and impressive tents where the commanders discussed tactics. The Admiral had developed this... setting, this set up, for those that were not able to speak directly to command to voice their opinions. She would take their ideas up the chain of command, and incorporate any of the good ones into an overall strategy with the generals. But why trouble THEM with a mob of ideas? Best to gather the gems among the stones before bothering them.

 

The group had arrived at the siege camp. On top of that, it seemed that the majority of people involved in this scenario were now all within easy reach of each other. Merkaba herself found that somewhat amusing. If Falderen or Yladian wished to unleash a spell like the one used against the Spider Queen... they could wipe out more than half of their adversaries. In fact, Merkaba could only assume who the brotherhood of mages actually were aligned with. If Falderen... that would be interesting to see.

There was little to do or say for the witch at this point. She was not exactly a battle strategist. More of a manipulator and researcher. What need would a witch have for war tactics? Her hand was played for now. Merkaba needed to draw more cards before playing out another. It would be worth her time to at least watch and study how YULAN and VALOR worked. How united their tactics were and to look for weaknesses. They were reluctant allies for now but once she began allying with powers that they could never accept with their shrouded minds... COVEN would find nothing but obstacles here. She needed many dark allegiances to bring her completely converted dark world into existence.

The Dark Descender made herself at home and sat patiently to herself in a chair with her legs crossed elegantly. Her arms crossed with her head resting in her hand as she quietly watched the area. Waiting for the group to begin discussions.

 

Though his bones ached and yearned for rest, now was not the time. Having wearily dragged himself to the siege camp, the man found himself compelled to at least see things through. Considering how he fell under the label of “one of the original instigators” an innate sense of responsibility demanded that he attend the meeting despite his preference to find comfort in a bed roll.

Pausing for a moment to survey the vast sea of tents that had been erected, he’d scan the horizon with a single hand while keeping an eye out for any friendly faces. A brief sense of relief washed over the man as he’d spot a sturdy back that he had been desperately revitalizing throughout their gauntlet run earlier today. Waving a hand at the familiar figure, he’d scratch his head momentarily, realizing that her back was turned. It was only after that he’d call out with cupped hands while jogging over.

“There you are! Good work today. Sorry about the quip earlier, things got a bit... heated.”

An awkward laugh followed as he'd take a moment to reach into his inventory. The dark haired man retrieved a sealed flask. “Thirsty?” He’d swirl the metal container momentarily before taking the briefest of gulps and extending it out towards the woman. “Nothing too strong. The day’s not over quite yet…” A weary sigh sounded after this remark as he’d watch the others begin to filter in.

@The Admiral

 

Things seemed lackadaisical so far, but the tranquility would dissolve soon enough. All it took was enough people to get together for stupid to begin happening; for everyone to think their say mattered, and to cast their lots with one another as if this was a democracy. She had several rude awakenings for people. As she began to examine the details of her spy's canvas map, she heard a familiar voice and turned to see Jack approaching, looking ragged. He produced a flask and took a pull from it, then cautioned her it was weak. She thought better of it for a moment and then sighed, taking it from his hands and gulping down a heavy swig.

"The day's definitely over," she retorted, passing the drink back to him. "This is merely 'the night before the morning after' for us. I'm excited to see everybody start shuffling in here, angry and weary-eyed, shouting over one another to make themselves heard. I wish we had silencing magic... Do we have silencing magic?" She held her hand out for the drink again, took a smaller sip this time around.

"We should just use it on all of the idiots. I can't believe the negotiations we held earlier. How many idiots does it take to stumble over one another and make an ass of us all? I understand we had three guilds present... I understand we were representing more than our meager selves. And it's because of those reasons we should have sent a single representative. Look at the elves; one siege leader. One voice. He answers to a council, but he knows his power in this place. We look like assholes, unable to do the same thing. It makes me sick." She passed the flask back and sighed, resisting the urge to sit on the crate. She had to remain at parade rest, to show that she had discipline and order. She had to be an example, if not to others, then to herself that players could aspire to work together and put the ego aside in favor of the superego.

"I set this all up," she said as she waved vaguely at the assembled logs and crates that would serve as seats for people. "...so that people can discuss their ideas with me, which I can in turn take to you, or Astor, or Lucia, or whomever is in charge. There needs to be a chain of command. There needs to be an organized effort. And it needs to be based off of quality and skill, as well as depth of character. Not just stats, or popularity. People won't like that. But it's a hard fact that that is how you win wars. You can have the most brilliant plan in the world and it doesn't mean shit if people can't follow it."

@Jack Anders

 

If anything, giving aid to the siege planners would make the man not feel as worthless in this scenario. Once again he arrived in the middle of it all with little idea as to the situation. Granted, there were world chat posts, but even then his ability to join the scenario was scarce at best. He could always argue he was dealing with real life issues. That was not a lie, but it was not the entire truth either. Sighing, the Felis maneuvered his gaze around the camp. He, along with other players, were still getting looks from the elves. Understandable, and in the bearish man's case even more so considering his mass. None of the other players had built such a brute.

He found the one responsible for making their own siege plans. A shoddy attempt at a war room, but a war room irregardless. None of those who gathered were people Alonso recognized. To his knowledge, he might be the sole person without a guild to call his own here. All things considered this will still be a good opportunity to learn how the other guilds decided to operate. The future of the game was at stake. If all went to hell a good chunk of players might be marked for restricted access to certain areas of Falderen. Worse, perhaps none at all and targeted for instant death by the guards. That feeling was a common deja vu he witnessed in other games.

"I hope none of you mind my joining the discussion," he said, taking a makeshift seat that gave him plenty of room, "But I want to make sure the plan itself goes by smooth so we can end this reckless war. Others are wanting to get back to normal gameplay." He paused a moment, grunting as his eyes wandered again. No need to start trouble because a NPC heard a mention of real world terminology. So far none of the elves seemed to bother with the group, on the plus side. The middle aged man was getting too old for government among players in games. Rare did those plans ever work out. Last he tried a guild disbanded for way too much infighting.

Alonso shook his head, folding his arms over his massive chest, So then, are we waiting on others to arrive? I would rather we not have too few people to discuss matters and anger the others for making a decision without a diverse input."

 

Dempsey followed the mismatched group to the siege camp, doing her best to avoid the gazes of the elves which range from curiosity to outright contempt. the fact that she was Felis instead of human spared her the worst of their scrutiny though. She understood their contempt though; the players present had been their enemy just hours ago and were more than a little bit likely responsible for the death of friends and comrades. She decided to shrug this off and continue though. Nothing good would come from antagonizing or causing trouble in the camp right now, and she doubted that they would be at all receptive to any treatises or explanation as to the adventurers motives. They would have a good deal of work ahead of them if they were to build a bridge of genuine trust with the elves.

Instead, she simply made her way to where the rest of the group seemed to be gathering. She was more than a little familliar with Jack and Alonso, and though unfamilliar with the heavily armored woman that she hadn't yet met, a vote of confidence from her acquaintances went a long way toward influencing Dempsey's opinion of the stranger. She would just have to introduce herself and see how that went. She approached the periphery of the meeting area and unslung her pack, fishing out an assortment of potions and salves, offering them to the group as she spoke to the Trio.

"It's been a while Jack, Alonso... I have some potions, but only take what you need. We're going to need this stuff tomorrow too, and I don't think im going to have time to gather more ingredients and So. we're traitors now. Doesn't feel as bad as I thought it would to be honest. Not entirely sure they're going to let me keep my shop in Stokbon though. Is everyone alright, and how goes the planning?"

She flopped down unceremoniously and fished deeper into her pack for a cloth bundle. She didn't think to pack enough rations to fight an entire war, and just had some uneaten leftovers from her lunch and a loose bottle of beer that she'd been carrying just because. with her meager rations in hand, she began eating her humble feast and listening intently to the discussion. she would chime in if she felt the need to, but at the end of the day their strategy would boil down to "charge the wall, fight their way in, and try to take the keep in one piece.

She would suggest activating a small group of rogues to attack and infiltrate from the rear of the main offensive, but to the best of her knowledge, this group would consist of herself and possibly one or two others from the assault group. As with her other niche, non-combat skill, alchemy would also be of limited use. They didn't have time to prepare enough of anything to be useful on a large scale, and she would have to settle for handing out her very limited number of health and energy potions tonight, and hope they're put to good use tomorrow.

 

Roland scanned the field of tents before him with a stern glare, it was far more troops than he had expected. “What were the elves thinking pressing an attack with druids? With this many they could simply just wait out the fort after cutting of their line of supplies.” Theoretically it would work given time, but he supposed time itself was an issue. Not that he really understood how a castle was going to help transplant an entire civilization from one zone to another. As the others set up their personal tents, Roland surveyed the elven camp. It seemed this was a serious affair for them as they regarded his presence with sidelong glances. It would be quite a long time before they trusted humans again.

Heading back to the area the player characters had carved out, Roland dug into his inventory accessing a stored bag of wine, which he drank heavily from. It was time to discuss strategy, might as well get a clear head. On approach he saw the large map that someone had created on the ground, as well as the several people gathered around it. Most were speaking in hushed tones about potions, and order, but none seemed to attempt to come up with formal plans.

He glanced over at the odd girl with the two weapons, “So you think my plan is dumb?” he said trying to hide the slight slur in his words. “You’re reasons, from what I recall, is that it’s not believable for two reasons. One, we wouldn’t be able to pass through the elven forces without being killed. Two, they would have no reasons to believe us even if we did. “Roland smiled as he crouched down inspecting the map. Like most castle structures, it was designed to be easily defended by a small squadron of men, they wouldn’t be able to penetrate the inner most sanctums without encountering heavy losses.

“In most scenarios you’re likely right, but there’s a few things you’re not accounting for. The first is, according to our spies, we’ve eliminated the leadership within the walls, meaning we don’t need to convince war hardened generals or commanders, but fresh lieutenants and corporals. It will be twenty hours since the assault began when we approach them, they will be sweating their responsibilities, desperately looking for a way out.


The second, is the fact that we have a large bargaining chip. The princess. Even the most wet eared commander will recognize the importance of holding a royal family member, and more importantly it gives us the reason why we can pass through the enemy lines so easily. As far as the humans know the elves wouldn’t be willing to attack us while we held her at knife point.


With these two points, they will have to bring us in. Sure they will be suspicious, and they will likely want us under armed guard when we enter the gates, but that’s what we want. The fact is, we don’t have to convince them to believe us fully, we don’t need that much time. Once we are within the walls you and Steel can command a squad of men to attack the opposite gate, drawing their attention away, while the rest of us buy time for the druids to transform. Once the Oakhearts fill the area with poison, most of the squad will be dead, just like that fresh recruit we saw in the battle. I will work with the druids to make us an antidote in the meantime.


You were right about one thing, it would put to many of our ‘command’ structure in danger, which is why I think we should simply bring Jack, the princess, and a few druids as hostages. Myself, Dempsey, and at least three or four other willing soldiers will be the team bringing them in. Merkaba should likely stay on the sidelines and help with long range spells, while the rest work on a plan B assault. Possibly following your plan from before.” Roland concluded the speech with a grimace. He was hoping not to go that in depth with his thought process. The plan clearly had holes and would require a good amount of charisma to pull off, not to mention a lot more logistics. He took another long swig of his drink before adding, “A head on assault will last weeks, the players won’t last that long and we will forfeit our contracts if that happens landing us to be hated by both sides.”


(TLDR version: We should pretend Jack/Princess/Druids are hostages and try to negotiate entering in the fort were we would attack from the inside, and outside simultaneously.)

 

She traipsed back to the castle wall, lingering at the back of the group and away from the elves, as if the Yladians would be able to pick up her reluctance to aid them by proximity alone. As a bonus, the action simultaneously allowed her to keep out of their wary and distrustful sights, the leery gazes grating on her nerves after a mere couple of minutes, and now served as a constant source of apprehension for the felis. While Amane wasn't all too happy to help them — and she was sure it showed — the guild leaders seem to have gone into this deal with no ill intentions for now, and Aaron especially wanted only to help them. The Yladian's mistrust, though understandable, was unnecessary; they players had damaged their relations with Falderen too much to take it back now, and if anything they should be the ones wary of them. The elves would lose far less betraying them than vice versa, and the power imbalance was putting her on edge.

When the arrived at the camp, she was tempted to make a beeline straight for the food, but a sense of responsibility towards her guild held her back. She signed up for the assault team, she would very well see this whole event through. So, soaking wet, Amane would make her way towards the commanders' tents instead, pouting faintly, a quick glance around leading her towards the only player congregation in the vicinity. At first sight she could recognise Dempsey and Roland amongst the makeshift chairs, and three other players from the assault team: the armoured girl, the other support, and the witch. Or COVEN's leader, and one of YULAN's people in charge. The other felis' unmistakable bulk could have been none other than Alonso, whom she'd worked the recent slavery quest with. Everyone with a stake in this is gathered here. So a strategic discussion, then... In a depressing way, it was almost funny how less than a day ago they would be gathering to discuss how to repel the elves instead.

Wandering forwards, Amane moved to sit besides Dempsey, shooting the other player a small smile. In all the commotion she hadn't had the chance to ask her about her thoughts on what the guilds were all trying to achieve, and Demps had always given her sound advice so far — it would be enlightening to know her stance on the matter. Turning to everyone else, and to look at the erected blueprint, she frowned slightly, deep in thought. Strategy wasn't her strong point, but she supposed she'll have to try and contribute.

"There are some problems with what you suggested though," she said when Roland concluded his idea. "The part about the princess being a great bargaining chip? You're right about that. And you're about to send her, yourself, Dempsey, and three of no doubt some of our strongest players into a heavily fortified fortress, where they'll outnumber you tens to one. You will be the hostage when they realise the trickery, and then the rest of us wouldn't be able to attack. And if the princess is in the castle, there's no way any of the druids would be willing to gas it, on the off chance that they poison her as well. I hate to suggest such a dishonourable means, but perhaps it'll be better to just surround the place, prevent anyone from escaping, and then release a temporary sleep or paralysis gas, sort of like what you suggested, using Aeromancers — if we have any — to keep it within the castle and away from us. There'll be no bloodshed, and with the defenders incapacitated it should be a simple matter to break down the gate and storm inside."

 

Roland sighed, it had begun to drizzle, if he had to guess it would continue in this fashion for some time. He wiped his brow with his forearm as he addressed Amane's concern, "You saw the Oakhearts just as well as I did, if we can give the druid prisoners we bring with us enough time to transform, it won't matter how many of them there are, the poison alone should handle it. If not, their vines and arms will. Again though, this should happen while a secondary attack is occurring on the other side of the fortress, so that at least some of the guard is pulled.

As far as your plan goes, it's not bad, but it would require a fleet of aeromancers which I am not sure we have, that and with the rain we can't use such methods for the time being. However, if that is what is agreed upon I can try and create some sort of alchemical concoction that could work as a paralyzing gas."

 

Noah was munching on a leg of a chicken when he heard the rumors that the assault team had returned from the front lines. This was pretty damn important since they would learn what the hell all this was and what the hell they would be doing come daybreak. He started to maneuver his way through the camp, dodging the glares and from the elves. Though they were all allies now, they surely remember the humans killing their brethren a few hours ago. As he fought his way through the ever growing crowd, rain would start to pour from the havens. This not only caused the fires that were lit to go out but those gathered around them to now scurry around trying to find some sort of warmth and shelter.

Noah finally found a gathering of other players and not just NPCs. It seemed that there was a large chunk of Yulan Dragons here, which was somewhat of a relief. He had not been able to really meet up with many of them since the skirmish had started so he was out of the loop on what their guild’s plans were. He was tempted to go talk to Astor earlier that evening but the man seemed to be preoccupied in his own right. There was another familiar face and one he welcomed most of all, Dempsey! The cat lady had helped Noah when he was just a noob in the game, she was a great ally to have in times of need like these. He made his way around the group listening to the conversations and plans, while trying to get closer to Dempsey. The woman had at one point in time stressed the importance of the rogue skill and stealth, an assault on a castle would surely need those with this skill set. It would be easier for them to sneak in and sabotage any sort of defense mechanisms they might have in place.

It seemed that Roland, one of the senior members of Yulan Dragons, wanted to do a Trojan Horse style plan. He wanted to give over some of our more prestigious members to the enemy so that they could attack from within. A gamble of a plan. For one how were they not so sure that the moment that they had these members in their grasp they would just throw them in some dungeon without any of their gear? There was sure to be other means to suppress magic as well, it was a gamble of a plan unless they allowed a stealth team to go in there and free them and aid them. Noah saw value in the plan but there was too many weak points.

The second plan he heard offered was that of a young woman he had not known. Her plan was to use a nerve gas. Another dangerous plan, she was assuming they had the ability to contain such dangerous means of war. At this point in time Noah had gotten to right behind Dempsey and as far as he could tell nobody was really paying him much attention. He placed his hand gently on Dempsey’s shoulder and spoke up with his own opinion, as hated as it might be. “I think the Trojan Horse idea has some merit. My only concern is what if they use something that suppresses magic or strips you of your gear? Surely in a world that has an abundance of magic like this one there is means to stop people to use it. What I propose is a continuation from Roland’s plan. Allow a group of capable fighters to be taken in but send a small group of three to five players with the rogue skill inside through a separate entrance, there's plenty of openings after the barrage from today. This way the rogues can not only make sure that the players that we’re using as a hostage are able to execute their part of the plan but that small group will be able to easily maneuver throughout the castle and cause mayhem in areas that may not be as well guarded. That way the guards inside have to put out so many fires that their stretched thin leaving us ample opportunity to attack them with the full force of all three guilds.”

 

The Dark Lady eyed the strategy meeting taking place in front of her. Well, it was probably time to at the very least get involved enough to ensure she was not forced into some ridiculous shenanigans. Although she was currently neck deep in the masses right now so it was likely a fate that would prove difficult to completely avoid at this juncture. Rising from her chair she would, like some scheming hateful crow, look at the blueprint while the talks continue. Regardless what their tactics were. The map was useful for Merkaba. Whether she could trust it was made correctly was another story entirely. The group was definitely being gullible and naive though. Among the few words of wisdom were many of the fool.

"You certainly have trust on the Oakhearts. The attack was a surprise you realize I'm sure? If you think the fortress is not going to receive proper fire magic on top of other methods to ensure these things are rendered obsolete.... you are sadly mistaken. I am not King Theodore or his strategists of course. Better for you all."

The silver haired fanatic looked some more at the map and heard one girl speak of using ailments with aeromancy. They must truly not trust her to ignore the power that she possesses... especially in the field of crippling a enemy into uselessness through her almighty curses.

"Aeromancy could possibly help.... by little if nothing at all. I will offer my power to you this once. Gives me some mana exercise as well. We have the support of highly magical creatures here in the elves... surely some of you are talented in a school as well? All I require is a distraction. A fairly good one. I suppose the trojan could work if nothing else is available for you lot. I'd say... one hour. Give me one hour to set up a ritual in the woods directly behind the front lines. Once my ritual is complete. I will trigger it as soon as the battle begins. Then you can use other magics to further the spread or power of the magic.... just do not use anything from the illumancy school to enforce it. You will find little to oppose you. My mana will take a hit from such a task but you all are fully capable of fighting invalids, correct? Falderen is not known for it's knowledge of the dark ways.... they will find my magic most difficult to understand and to react to."

Merkaba would pull back and let them consider her words. If they did not agree, that was not her concern. She just had no desire to throw herself into another's crazy scheme. The only schemes she followed were her own.

 

Roland grit his teeth as he tried to remain sober, arguing with people was just exhausting, "As much as I hate to agree with you Merkaba. You make a valid point about fire mages, we will need to ensure we bring a hyrdomancer with us to help shield from that vulnerability. Im assuming if they have fire mages, the elves have hydromancy, so sneaking them in as a captive should suffice. As far as the spell goes, I leave that matter to the others I will not claim I know anything in regards to magic."

He then nodded towards Lex, "If they had a way of stopping magic over an area of effect we would have seen it by now, more than likely they will want casters bound and gagged. They may want to remove our gear which is why for sure I want Dempsey with us, considering her skills should translate even when unarmed. The goal would be to go in armed, each with a blade to a prisoner's throat."

 

““We should abandon the trojan horse. The only reason that plan even remotely worked in the original iteration is because they A. had no idea there was a damn army inside, B. weren't on edge because it looked like the enemy army completely fucked off, C. weren't disarmed, gagged and bound, D. had the element of surprise since again, the enemy thought they weren't there anymore, E. is a damn fairy tale.

It’s raining… We should probably make use of that. Get a head count on how many pyro and hydromancers are around. Teach them to make a fog bank, use google if you have to.”

After that we can use the extra cover and the darkness from attacking in the middle of the night. Have some oakhearts chuck a hit squad to the third level to quickly disable the ranged harassment up there. I can stitch up some make shift parachutes or something if needed…

The rest of us can scale up to the second level using grappling hooks and some siege ladders. Once inside, they should swarm to the stairwells and regroup with the folks on the upper tier. Priority goes to clearing out the battlement up top so we’re not getting poked to death… then we can just zerg blob our way down to the gate. The elven forces should easily be able to cross the moat given their ability to go invisibility on top of the fog cover. After that, it's just a matter of letting them in.

There should be some kind of keep lord serving as a boss if not mini-boss. I’d steer clear of that guy until we’re all together inside…”

OOC: Stick to words only, these posts are getting way too lengthy already... and we haven't gotten anywhere.