Plane War I, Raise your Own Kingdom and Protect the Gods (3.5)

[flappeercraft]

”So, um... How do we want to go about tackling this, then?”

"Well we do know their plan so I guess we can start from there, although I doubt that the war on its own would be enough to create the amount of Chaos necessary. I was running some calculations before I was imprisoned but I never got around to finishing them to find out their whole plan. It would take me at least a year to finish them."

Xzalvat're chimes in.

"Actually I found them some three years ago, I was able to finish them but I found out that even with that it would be rather incomplete. What I found is that they would have to go and wipe out the inevitable factories, capture Asmodeus, start the war and to destroy Acheron. Finally to destroy any possible opposition, which means us."

[Esprit15]

"Well we do know their plan so I guess we can start from there, although I doubt that the war on its own would be enough to create the amount of Chaos necessary. I was running some calculations before I was imprisoned but I never got around to finishing them to find out their whole plan. It would take me at least a year to finish them."

Xzalvat're chimes in.

"Actually I found them some three years ago, I was able to finish them but I found out that even with that it would be rather incomplete. What I found is that they would have to go and wipe out the inevitable factories, capture Asmodeus, start the war and to destroy Acheron. Finally to destroy any possible opposition, which means us."

”Huh. Might have been a useful thing to tell him when we summoned him. Might have been a little more interested.

Why not simply warn those three planes? All of them are Lawfully aligned. For the sake of continued order in the planes, order being their continued existence, surely they could at the very least coordinate together against this threat, if not make a temporary alliance. The inevitables are against wrongful assension to godhood, and this ranks far worse than that. The enemy of my enemy is a useful pawn, I’m sure Asmodeus would say. And stopping the wars on Acheron would run counter the plane’s very nature, not to mention leaving several gods without a home. While you may have gathered some of the more interesting and powerful people on the planes, there’s nothing quite as dangerous as the entirety of three planes all working together for a common purpose.

Dur, you could probably make that pitch to higher ups at some of those planes, right?”

[flappeercraft]

”Huh. Might have been a useful thing to tell him when we summoned him. Might have been a little more interested.

Why not simply warn those three planes? All of them are Lawfully aligned. For the sake of continued order in the planes, order being their continued existence, surely they could at the very least coordinate together against this threat, if not make a temporary alliance. The inevitables are against wrongful assension to godhood, and this ranks far worse than that. The enemy of my enemy is a useful pawn, I’m sure Asmodeus would say. And stopping the wars on Acheron would run counter the plane’s very nature, not to mention leaving several gods without a home. While you may have gathered some of the more interesting and powerful people on the planes, there’s nothing quite as dangerous as the entirety of three planes all working together for a common purpose.

Dur, you could probably make that pitch to higher ups at some of those planes, right?”

"So you met with Asmodeus? Well at least that means we have a direct contact with him. Also I did try to communicate it with them but no one would believe me and due to them being at the very least threatened by my existence and originally thinking I was dead also left me with information of my existence revealed leading me nowhere so I just had to mindrape them to forget me. I tried mindraping some leaders into getting this information spread but they were deemed insane and I had to undo all of that with more mindraping, essentially it all was useless.

However. As members of the DDC you might get more credibility, and even if they don't believe you they might believe the main and original DDC."

[anonomas321]

Dursurayss would listen patiently as his answers were given. The powers of the different aspects that Lord Xzalvat’re discussed was not surprising at all. The soul aspect has the ability to rip out souls, whilst the Time & Probability aspect could play with time and Probability... it was the level of those powers that was the most concerning. The fact that even a being as powerful and mighty as Lord Xzalvat’re seemed to have no defence against them. Through now that he had fought against it, it was quite likely that he had come up with some sort of counter-measures, even if he couldn’t know it would actually work without him.

He wasn’t entirely... confident about these theories, however. The idea of capturing The Devil himself, of destroying all of Mechanus’ automatic factories, and to halt the endless wars of Acheron... they would lead to greater development and manifestation of chaos in the multiverse, that was for certain. But the scale of even one of those tasks was... incredible. He suspected that the entirety of the DDC might take issue with only one of those issues, let alone others. Hence, he was someone sceptical about them being the plan of attack... and if they were actually possible? Well... those were the obvious targets. Not only would they be the targets that most people would naturally assume if put in the shoes of ‘how does one increase the natural chaos in the entire multiverse?’, but even accomplishing one of them would drag a lot of deific attention onto them... and whilst they are incredibly powerful, whilst the DDC are incredibly powerful... the strongest of the gods are likely stronger still.

Hence, whilst Hiltze’s idea was not unsound - for once. Dursurayss would still frown over it for a few moments before he spoke. “Not an insignificant idea. Simply having one of those planes aiding us would be significant, having all three aiding us would be significant in the increase of their power. Still, those targets are too big and too grand to be the only targets that they have in mind. Gaining the attention of an entire pantheon of gods is not a decision made lightly, even if these aspects have such great power. I suggest we don’t turn too much attention to that mission, and instead focus a lot on the current DDC mission: The liberation of Vecna.”

Of course, even as he spoke, an idea began to creep into Dururayss’ mind...

[flappeercraft]

Dursurayss would listen patiently as his answers were given. The powers of the different aspects that Lord Xzalvat’re discussed was not surprising at all. The soul aspect has the ability to rip out souls, whilst the Time & Probability aspect could play with time and Probability... it was the level of those powers that was the most concerning. The fact that even a being as powerful and mighty as Lord Xzalvat’re seemed to have no defence against them. Through now that he had fought against it, it was quite likely that he had come up with some sort of counter-measures, even if he couldn’t know it would actually work without him.

He wasn’t entirely... confident about these theories, however. The idea of capturing The Devil himself, of destroying all of Mechanus’ automatic factories, and to halt the endless wars of Acheron... they would lead to greater development and manifestation of chaos in the multiverse, that was for certain. But the scale of even one of those tasks was... incredible. He suspected that the entirety of the DDC might take issue with only one of those issues, let alone others. Hence, he was someone sceptical about them being the plan of attack... and if they were actually possible? Well... those were the obvious targets. Not only would they be the targets that most people would naturally assume if put in the shoes of ‘how does one increase the natural chaos in the entire multiverse?’, but even accomplishing one of them would drag a lot of deific attention onto them... and whilst they are incredibly powerful, whilst the DDC are incredibly powerful... the strongest of the gods are likely stronger still.

Hence, whilst Hiltze’s idea was not unsound - for once. Dursurayss would still frown over it for a few moments before he spoke. “Not an insignificant idea. Simply having one of those planes aiding us would be significant, having all three aiding us would be significant in the increase of their power. Still, those targets are too big and too grand to be the only targets that they have in mind. Gaining the attention of an entire pantheon of gods is not a decision made lightly, even if these aspects have such great power. I suggest we don’t turn too much attention to that mission, and instead focus a lot on the current DDC mission: The liberation of Vecna.”

Of course, even as he spoke, an idea began to creep into Dururayss’ mind...

"Well powerwise the DDC probably outmatches the entire forces of those three planes to be frank with honestly only some individuals coming to be useful. Their numbers could be useful though as essentially cannon fodder."

"I doubt they mind attracting the attention of deities, hell I used to be one before I was annihilated and from what I see these guys could destroy us and the DDC if they come the eight at a time. They don't care about any pantheon in existence, the deities would be instantly dead the moment they step up. The DDC is much more of a threat to them and even then not too much of one if they are as powerful as they were a hundred years ago. However you are right on the liberation of Vecna, he could reveal vital information he has discovered via portfolio sense."

[anonomas321]

Dursurayss would arch an eyeridge, then lift a claw at this response. “Your aware of the contradiction there, aren’t you?” With a shake of his head, the steel dragon would put his claw back on the ground as he spoke. “Look, I’m young and inexperienced, I know that. The different levels of power of individuals are still... new to me, I get that. And my scepticism over the idea that an entire pantheon of gods can be obliterated with a wave of a hand might stem from that. But even if the gods might not be able to aid us when it comes to raw power, when it comes to actually directly fighting against these aspects... I don’t believe we should dismiss them, dismisses these planes, entirely. This isn’t just a battle, its a war... and there is much, much more to war than simple raw combat prowess.”

[flappeercraft]

Dursurayss would arch an eyeridge, then lift a claw at this response. “Your aware of the contradiction there, aren’t you?” With a shake of his head, the steel dragon would put his claw back on the ground as he spoke. “Look, I’m young and inexperienced, I know that. The different levels of power of individuals are still... new to me, I get that. And my scepticism over the idea that an entire pantheon of gods can be obliterated with a wave of a hand might stem from that. But even if the gods might not be able to aid us when it comes to raw power, when it comes to actually directly fighting against these aspects... I don’t believe we should dismiss them, dismisses these planes, entirely. This isn’t just a battle, its a war... and there is much, much more to war than simple raw combat prowess.”

"We understand that very well but it is exactly why we are dismissing them so much. It is the fact that they are overwhelmed by power, tactically and on resources that makes them outmatched. In addition If we drag them to this war they would be wasting resources fighting back that could be better used defending themselves or at least delaying the aspects while we take care of them. The gods on the other hand are something that the Aspects also need to perform this multiversal destruction, they need the essence of ten gods and they seem to have one already captured, bringing them into a war is unwise, they should only be brought as a last resource. It was lucky of us that they didn't notice Xzalvat're was a deity when they were controlling him."

[Esprit15]

”Didn’t notice he was a deity? And the other gods are not similarly skilled in hiding their essence? Or similarly powerful? Wee-Jas could not make herself appear as simply a powerful Necromancer?

And, powerful or not, diversions are diversions, and resources spent are resources spent.”

[flappeercraft]

”Didn’t notice he was a deity? And the other gods are not similarly skilled in hiding their essence? Or similarly powerful? Wee-Jas could not make herself appear as simply a powerful Necromancer?

And, powerful or not, diversions are diversions, and resources spent are resources spent.”

""

"Unfortunately most gods are not up to the standards of a DDC member if they were paralytic. As far as hiding the essence, Xzalvat're had divinity but he could not hide it. They were either not interested in his divinity in specific which might imply they are looking for that of a certain deity or maybe they needed fresh divine essence and since their plan was scheduled over a hundred years ahead of the time they could not use it. We don't know why, but Xzalvat;re couldn't hide it and they had all the reasons to take it but didn't."

[Esprit15]

""

"Unfortunately most gods are not up to the standards of a DDC member if they were paralytic. As far as hiding the essence, Xzalvat're had divinity but he could not hide it. They were either not interested in his divinity in specific which might imply they are looking for that of a certain deity or maybe they needed fresh divine essence and since their plan was scheduled over a hundred years ahead of the time they could not use it. We don't know why, but Xzalvat;re couldn't hide it and they had all the reasons to take it but didn't."

“So how did X get away, then? Specifically.”

[flappeercraft]

“So how did X get away, then? Specifically.”

"I didn't, I was controlled by a Necrotic Tumor and was sent to kill six targets, the DDC. So under their control I was forced to act in a way that would attract the attention of the DDC, and it did but fortunately they annihilated me. Luckily when I was reborn after the annihilation, the new body, the kobold form you saw before I turned into this, did not have the tumor and I was free."

[Esprit15]

”By what means were you revived?”

[flappeercraft]

”By what means were you revived?”

"Divinity is rarely truly extinguished and it is also one of the few means by which someone annihilated could be brought back. In a way I brought myself back as in my last moments I knew I would die and focused on my divine essence to make it bring me back. Unfortunately I was a minor deity and bringing yourself back is very hard, it took me nearly ninety years to come back and brought me back as merely a kobold, even then the stress to it was rather high and I had to forego my divinity to be brought back."

[fallensavior]

"So...got any intel on big V?"

"I was referring to Vecna, of course."

[flappeercraft]

"I was referring to Vecna, of course."

"Oh Vecna, I completely misunderstood then. Apparently he was abducted and our predictions date back to a century ago that it would happen, but due to what happened to me and Quilvadish (we just caught up telepathically) we were not able to do much about it. However we have no idea where he is but it would be a safe assumption to say he's locked up in a demiplane prison of sorts as nothing short of that could really contain a god unless he was destroyed and harvested already, but we are not sure of that currently."

[fallensavior]

"Has anyone attempted the standard divinations? Discern Location? Find the Path?"

[flappeercraft]

"Has anyone attempted the standard divinations? Discern Location? Find the Path?"

"Well I'm out of spells right now so I can't."

"I tried but they were blocked. Likely a mind blank."

[fallensavior]

"Maybe a Wish or a Miracle? Or do we need something more epic?

[flappeercraft]

"Nice idea, let me try."

Xzalvat're changes back to his small reptilian form of a measly kobold and places his hands palm to palm centered with his body as he shuts his eyes.

Xzalvat're speaks again but with a squeakier and a higher pitched voice.

"Doesn't seem to work, maybe a more specific one or a series of miracles might work. What might work would be a Metafaculty power. Anyone in your group who can manifest that?"

[fallensavior]

"I...don't know what that is. Some sort of psionics?"

[flappeercraft]

"I...don't know what that is. Some sort of psionics?"

Quilvadish speaks up with his inner scholar showing.
"Quite the psionic power actually, its probably the best in all of clarisentience and divinations barring Epic Spells. Think of it like Scrying but gets you the target's name, race, class training, alignment, its estimated power level, its current whereabouts, significant items in their possession, significant activities they have undergone in the last eight hours and a scry sensor on them. Best thing, it has the ability to pierce buffs, items and ability protections from divinations and clarisentience such as Mind Blank, although a powerful enough Mind Blank can beat a weaker Metafaculty. It is only completely blocked by Epic Magic and Psionics but then again nearly no one has Epic Magic to begin with."

[Esprit15]

”If I remember correctly, there is also a power that specifically undoes mindblanks, far weaker than having to use borderline epic psionics or magic. It normally needs to be manifested near the individual, and a strong mind could resist it, but it’s also an option if you can find ways around those limitations. I don’t believe any of those present can manifest, certainly not at the level of power...

Oh! Duh! Vision. Or Legend Lore if you want to waste a few weeks. Divination, but it doesn’t actually target the subject. Bypasses any pesky mental immunities. Might take multiple castings to make progress off of us chasing rumors.”

[flappeercraft]

”If I remember correctly, there is also a power that specifically undoes mindblanks, far weaker than having to use borderline epic psionics or magic. It normally needs to be manifested near the individual, and a strong mind could resist it, but it’s also an option if you can find ways around those limitations. I don’t believe any of those present can manifest, certainly not at the level of power...

Oh! Duh! Vision. Or Legend Lore if you want to waste a few weeks. Divination, but it doesn’t actually target the subject. Bypasses any pesky mental immunities. Might take multiple castings to make progress off of us chasing rumors.”

"Well I completely forgot about those spells."

"As did I, those spells are generally so unreliable that I never even bother with them."

"You can replicate those right Xzal?"

"Well it is only a 6th level spell after all, I can replicate it once every six seconds. What we have should be more than enough to start out, I can give information now or if you can give me a day or two, I should be able to gather information. If you give me a week I should be able to give more details, however this activity would certainly bring their attention to us if we decide to undergo through this. A legend lore or two would probably go unnoticed but if we want valuable information that will help us this would call their attention as much as if we shone a light directly on their eyes. Essentially, if we do it the problem will no longer be gathering the information, it will be surviving."

Xzalvat're thinks deeply for a second, wondering what exactly could be done.

"Any safe havens you have access to? If we do it here they would be able to get past the defenses with no issue, and chances are I would be gone for good this time. We might need to contact the DDC."

Quilvadish speaks up.
"The DDC has a demiplane, I was there with them just before coming. Its huge, likely the size of a city state's territory in Delvehrkt from what I saw. If we get the DDC on board with this plan this just might work."

"Considering they work in groups of two if we are all together inside a demiplane and have time to prepare a well-made defense then we might be able to overpower them when they inevitably come after us. Although against a large scale threat like this one they might even come all at once which we should consider a possibility. Even then it would be a eleven to eight fight unless there are more members to your group than I know of, are there? Still we would likely be at a disadvantage there, two of them are already a big threat, the eight of them are a multiversal extinction event."

[anonomas321]

Dursurayss still wasn’t convinced that simply writing of the gods entirely was a good idea... especially as Lord Xzalvat're himself had been one, but only a minor one at that, and had to sacrifice his divine essence to resurrect himself, and even that took 90 years. But at the same time, he knew that neither Lord Xzalvat're, nor Quilvadish, would be willing to consider that idea with any real seriousness. Hence why the steel wyrmling didn’t bring the subject up again, instead listening as the others discussed how exactly they were to discover Verca’s location, on top of having any secured locations.

“I do have a demiplane of my own... but I haven’t been certain how I could secure it in order to make it difficult to breach, so its likely not the most well-protected location in existence. That being said, making a new demiplane is within my purview, and with your aid, or the aid the of the DDC, I should be able to make it much more secure and safe... as well as hopefully helping to secure my personal demiplane. I would rather not have all the hard work I’ve put into that place go to waste...” Dursurayss would pause, then casually add.

“Oh and I can cast any spell in existence and manifest any power in existence when within my demiplane, though not all at the same time. Metafaculty is fully within my capabilities to utilize, alongside any other power or spell that we wish to use.”

[flappeercraft]

Dursurayss still wasn’t convinced that simply writing of the gods entirely was a good idea... especially as Lord Xzalvat're himself had been one, but only a minor one at that, and had to sacrifice his divine essence to resurrect himself, and even that took 90 years. But at the same time, he knew that neither Lord Xzalvat're, nor Quilvadish, would be willing to consider that idea with any real seriousness. Hence why the steel wyrmling didn’t bring the subject up again, instead listening as the others discussed how exactly they were to discover Verca’s location, on top of having any secured locations.

“I do have a demiplane of my own... but I haven’t been certain how I could secure it in order to make it difficult to breach, so its likely not the most well-protected location in existence. That being said, making a new demiplane is within my purview, and with your aid, or the aid the of the DDC, I should be able to make it much more secure and safe... as well as hopefully helping to secure my personal demiplane. I would rather not have all the hard work I’ve put into that place go to waste...” Dursurayss would pause, then casually add.

“Oh and I can cast any spell in existence and manifest any power in existence when within my demiplane, though not all at the same time. Metafaculty is fully within my capabilities to utilize, alongside any other power or spell that we wish to use.”

"That is certainly interesting, I have never heard of demiplanes allowing you to cast any spell and power in existence. I take it you have an Earth node there?"

"I guess that could work. Although it lies under the same problem as the Legend Lore, it will get found out immediately. Are you all willing to take that risk? Anyone have any possible alternatives?"

[anonomas321]

“It's... complicated, how it works.” Was all that Dursurayss would say when they mentioned how surprising it is for a demiplane to exist that allowed him to cast any spell in existence... that wasn’t entirely how it worked, but the steel dragon was somewhat reluctant to share how exactly it functioned... especially as he felt like it was... cheating, in some ways, what he did...

Still, it worked, and that was that. Instead, he would turn his attention to the question asked about how to manage the risk of the spells and powers pretty much informing these aspects exactly where they were... but that Dursurayss himself had an idea. “Legend Lore is a pretty low-level spell, isn’t it? Can’t we just make simicarlums of ourselves, send them off to a newly made demiplane, or a dead work, have them cast the spells, inform us what they find, and destroy themselves afterwards, or when the aspects turn up?”

[flappeercraft]

“It's... complicated, how it works.” Was all that Dursurayss would say when they mentioned how surprising it is for a demiplane to exist that allowed him to cast any spell in existence... that wasn’t entirely how it worked, but the steel dragon was somewhat reluctant to share how exactly it functioned... especially as he felt like it was... cheating, in some ways, what he did...

Still, it worked, and that was that. Instead, he would turn his attention to the question asked about how to manage the risk of the spells and powers pretty much informing these aspects exactly where they were... but that Dursurayss himself had an idea. “Legend Lore is a pretty low-level spell, isn’t it? Can’t we just make simicarlums of ourselves, send them off to a newly made demiplane, or a dead work, have them cast the spells, inform us what they find, and destroy themselves afterwards, or when the aspects turn up?”

Quilvadish just became more curious after Dursurayss not mentioning it but apparently decides to leave it for another time. "Well yes but that's not exactly the problem, the problem is not that they detect where they get divined from and attack that. The problem is that they detect they are getting divined at all and then connect that to us. Let's say we use Metafaculty and have Detect Scrying, now they know they were getting scryed against but the scryer was destroyed as they get there. Now they start using Legend lore against us as they saw the Simulacrum of one of us and find out all they need to get to us. If we use Legend Lore we risk them having a Identify Transgressor loop being made to detect diviners and getting trapped, after all, that's a really basic defense against diviners."

[fallensavior]

"Hmm...I thought a simple Wish would bypass those kind of defenses."

[flappeercraft]

"Hmm...I thought a simple Wish would bypass those kind of defenses."

"It would certainly bypass any blocked teleportations, it would just not bypass any divination blockers...... Actually, Quil, were you not researching how to bypass these kinds of immunities before I was annihilated?"

"Yeah, I certainly was, I just got captured before I finished. I was able top think of quite a few possibilities when I was in captivity but I haven't had the time to test them out or even prepare for those. Given a couple of days I might be able to get it ready."

[anonomas321]

“Mink Blank foils any and all direct divination effects against us. Even those powered by Miracle or Wish.” Dursurayss would state when Quilvadish explained what the real issue was... which admittedly, the steel dragon could see as being a bit of an issue, true. But the entire ‘Identify Transgressor’ spell was a divination spell, meaning that any form of Mink Blank would make it impossible for them to use it against them. The issue that had been identified, of using Legend Lore to ID them, would, indeed, be a problem... but again, Dursurayss had a method around that.

“And if we can’t use self-simulacrums. We just need to make simulacrums or ice-assassins of other creatures. Likely dragons. As not only do we have immense arcane power as we grow older, but there are variants of us that swap that arcane power for immense, psionic power as well. Admittedly we’ll have to find dragons who know those spells, which could be a bit of an issue... and it’ll likely be better off if they're already dead, as it’ll be rather hard for them to be killed again afterwards...” Here, however, Dursurayss would pause... as the dead didn’t just... die... their souls went to a different plane, belonging to the afterlife of which their god and/or alignment was linked to... meaning that... “Well, maybe a living one would be better... I don’t think the gods would be happy if we directed these aspects into Elysium or something similar... which means unless the individual's soul is utterly destroyed, they probably have a means of extracting information of them. That, or we wipe their memory of us entirely.”