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Thread: The Minds of Almantha
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2012-07-01, 06:40 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
I actually meant the guys from Game of Thrones who watch that big wall (I know that's not the name of the book but the HBO name is better). Although now that I think about it, a team of PCs policing Ankh-Morpork would be awesomesauce. Heck, when they die they just roleplay making a new character sheet with DEATH as their editor.
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2012-07-01, 07:35 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
I was talking about the army stationed way up north in Westeros as well (Game Of Thrones is the name of the first book, chosen for the HBO series IIRC when they didn't know it was going to be a massive hit, while the book series is called A Song of Ice and Fire (I agree that GoT is pithier, but ASoIaF is more mysterious and more indicative of the series as a whole)), and mainly about the fact that if you drop a group of PCs in that group, they will wreak havoc and their GM will be forced by order of realistic reactions to TPK them. The Ankh-Morpork Watch is much more suited to a D&D group anyway (and they're the Night Watch on the Disc, not the Night's Watch).
Back on topic: I was mainly thinking about Tagon's Toughs when I first envisioned the Freelancer Guard, maybe with the competence of RvB's Freelancers. Note that any moral greyness would be reliant solely on the GM, and alignment is not really a factor on admission. (Nor is it, really, a factor in spellcasting like in Faerun or Eberron or Ravenloft (almost typed Innistrad there...), everyone has magic, none of it divinely-given, and what you think of the latest general election has nothing to do with what that chalk circle on the ground is going to do to your face.
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2012-07-02, 10:38 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
Looking back at this, I feel like the Freelancers need to be involved in some historic conflict. Like if Alabas invaded at some point, and before the Minds could muster a response, Revien's city guardsmen and the local mercenary bands took to the walls and held out in a magnificent siege that lasted for days on end. When the Mind-Loyalists reinforced the city and ended the invasion, the survivors were commissioned as The Freelancers by the Minds to be a unifying armed force within their lands, to act as the first response to foreign aggression, and to lend aid to the local people when the Minds could not (such as when the task is beneath them). The reason local institutions dislike them is simply because they hold a lot of power over local affairs if called in, and no one likes their toes getting stepped on.
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2012-07-03, 05:51 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
That could work very well, especially if 1) it's before the Minds ascended (there's no reason they wouldn't curbstomp any invading army if they were). 2)the invaders were Alabasan, trying to reclaim the 4 magic nexi that the Minds stole, and 3) their defeat on Almantha directly led to their downfall as a nation. Maybe too many soldiers died, maybe too many resources went into the war, maybe a peasant revolt sprung up at home with several nexi getting smashed into shards.
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2012-07-03, 02:36 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
1) I thought that the Minds were physically restricted to a single location, so to me it didn't matter when the invasion happened as the Minds couldn't physically appear to fight. Pre-ascension sounds better though.
2) Yes, Alabas.
3) Or the Minds led a counterattack that utterly devastated Alabas and left it in ruins.
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2012-07-03, 11:02 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
Most have found workarounds to the "staying in one place" deal, for example Obsid has his robotic dragon (Also, in an emergency, a Mind can retreat into its nexus for greater immediate power, but essentially switching off anything magical it was controlling beforehand), but I think it works better when the Minds weren't gods yet as they can fight like a normal, non-godly humans.
They don't have much, why not? Although I think a peasant revolt should be part of it. The nobles, as mentioned, were arrogant. I don't think the words "insufficient resources" ever crossed their minds, and thus they were utterly taken aback when 1) they were defeated by the dishonorable theives that left them all those years ago and 2) their sources of power got smashed by angry peasants wielding disturbingly durable weapons and armor. (Courtesy of the newly-formed Freelancer Guard , although the nobility of Alabas didn't know that)
Seems like a plan of Arrusif's, and I know that Dekon, if not Saala, would try and talk him down. I think it works best if they did send an army back to Alabas, but only enough to aid an existing resistance, or to spark the creation of one. Only it got out of control and most of the remaining nexi that Alabas had were destroyed, causing the magic in the area to become nigh-unusable, leading to the state that Alabas is in.
EDIT: It strikes me that I've never really explained how the nexi work. Should that be the next post?
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2012-07-04, 12:39 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
Seems like a plan of Arrusif's, and I know that Dekon, if not Saala, would try and talk him down. I think it works best if they did send an army back to Alabas, but only enough to aid an existing resistance, or to spark the creation of one. Only it got out of control and most of the remaining nexi that Alabas had were destroyed, causing the magic in the area to become nigh-unusable, leading to the state that Alabas is in.
EDIT: It strikes me that I've never really explained how the nexi work. Should that be the next post?
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2012-07-04, 11:15 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
I don't see why not. At least it gives him something to do between Obsid's ascension and when the players come onto the scene.
I kind of like the idea of borrowing from the Tevinter Imperium for this, although any slave trading would have to liberally apply anti-magic (remember, this is before the invention of sigils), with all the power drain that implies. Also, Tevinter was brought low by a demonic invasion, while Alabas was brought low by a simple armed revolt. As for the mechanics of the Nexi, I don't have the time to post up a full write-up of their workings, but I'll get to it in the next post.
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2012-07-04, 08:23 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
The Workings of Magic
The main thing to keep in mind is that the magic nexi that Alabas relied on and that now power the Minds are not a natural part of the world. They were created by an ancient sage who wanted them to be used for the benefit of mankind, and then capitalized on by people who wanted them for personal gain, as these things go.
Naturally, magic creates networks and leylines that follow the paths made by their elements. In this way, currents carry water magic, winds carry air magic, root networks carry earth magic, and lava flows carry fire magic (The current theory is that the heat created by these flows is the relevant magical catalyst). These leylines shift as the land changes.
The nexi screw with that. The nexus is a disc-shaped artifact, that when given a magical pulse of energy (any energy) begins to spin, then to rotate around one axis, then two, then more and more and more until it resembles a sphere spinning in all directions. As it does this, the leylines in the area attract toward it as light passes by a black hole, away from their sources in the physical world. Once a leyline begins to feed directly into the point where a nexus resides, the relevant type of magic begins to build until it is violently released. This is the "pulse" of magic that, before it was harnessed by the ascension and upkeep of the Minds, began to change the elves, the kiria, and the aventi into their modern forms. With the regime of the Minds, this pulse is greatly limited (the Minds need much of it to stay conscious, plus controlling their cities on a daily basis means that they use the grand majority of the power collected daily by their nexi), only enough to predispose those already living there toward the type of magic the nexus projects.
The artifact orbiting around the moon is, as mentioned, an Alabasan invention. It works in a different way than the nexi, which take magic parasitically and project it out before they explode. The satellite takes in solar energy from Therinos' sun, then projects it out as magic, like a colored mirror changing the light that bounces off of it.
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2012-07-05, 01:55 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
Okay. I like this. Although it does make me think that a dry desert would logically be a magical dead zone. The Atacama Desert has been virtually rain-free for 100k years, and there is so little water and/or wind or anything that even bacteria can't live there. You may recall this from an excellent Top Gear episode if you check BBC America at all. So there could be places in the world where magic just...doesn't work. No leylines at all. No wind. No water. No volcanism. No plantlife (or very very little).
So, the Artificial Nexus orbiting the moon keeps magic flowing to Alabas? Or did it's using Solar power burn out the Magic in the users in Alabas. Since the Minds rebelled and used other Nexi, they never used the solar one, and so never burned out. Maybe Arrusif is trying to gain control of that one, and his undead state renders him uniquely able to use the Artificial Nexus without threat of burnout. Or the Solar Nexus itself was put up there, not by Alabas, but by the Minds, Arrusif specifically. The Solar Power can't be used by mortals, and so it basically screws with Non-Mind-Nexus derived magics. Anyone trying to work magic outside the Mind's sphere of influence can't do it anymore.
Just some thoughts.
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2012-07-05, 07:30 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
British TV's always great. That actually makes sense, although I think Alabas became a desert over time. Or maybe in some great catastrophe, triggered either by some Almanthan saboteur, an overzealous rebel, or a reckless member of the noble forces. Maybe... A supervolcanic eruption?
The point of the Artificial Moon was to project energy to Alabas, yes. However, it quickly became apparent that far too much energy went into keeping it pointed at Alabas, and it fell into a stable orbit after they stopped meddling. It is, however, an invention of Alabas, specifically as an improvement on the original design.
I'll have to think a bit more on how solar-energy magic differs from normal magic, though.
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2012-07-05, 01:02 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
I'd go with an Almanthan saboteur, possibly Arrusif. He works with the barren, desert, magic-deficient imagery anyway.
I'll have to think a bit more on how solar-energy magic differs from normal magic, though.
POWAH! UN! LIM! IT! ED! POWAAAAAAH!
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2012-07-06, 09:13 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
It might also work well if Dekon realized, but remained quiet out of loyalty. Regardless, I think that if you talked to someone about it at the time, who the eruption was blamed on (and it would be blamed on someone; one of the very first magical systems the nobility placed on Alabas was a binding spell on the volcano that comprised most of their holdings, and even they weren't dumb enough to screw with it during peacetime. It wouldn't have erupted unless someone wanted it to) would change depending on who you talked to; A former noble would blame it on the upstart Almanthans or the ingrate serfs (Called nuli, nul is the singular, never given the honor of a proper noun), the Freelancers who remember it blame it on the stupid nobles or the desperate nuli, the nuli "blame" it on the daring of the Almanthan saviors or the stupidity of their masters.
Raw solar magic energy, therefore, has to be so powerful that channeling the smallest amount of power would destroy a caster utterly, and it needs to be filtered through the world so that casters can cast without blowing up. So what stops that happening to Arrusif, our big bad? I don't know. The problem is, just because he's undead doesn't stop him from burning. In fact, he might be more susceptible to fire than he ever was in life (remember that he is essentially puppeteering his own skeleton with vines provided by Dekon) and thus he needs to channel much less of his native fire magic, as well as a general nerf. Another reason he went off the deep end. My guess is, he went to Alabas to try and find the tomes and scrolls he buried in the war, in order to channel this power. The only problem is why he would try to channel the sun's power in the first place. And don't say "POWAH! UNLIMITED! POWAH!" again, please, as he knows firsthand what an excess of power can do to a group. He ran from them with three others and a fleet of followers, remember.
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2012-07-06, 10:06 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
The guy who was probably almost, if not the, most powerful Fire Mage of his time, never thought about channeling the Ultimate Flame of them all? If he did find a means of channeling the raw, unfiltered power of the sun, who's to say how powerful he'd become. If the sun's power is what fuels magic, then what happens when someone takes control of the source of that power? How could he not try it?
If Arrusif could figure out a way to use the Sun's undiluted power, he would be more powerful than all the Minds together. If you think about it, this could be the ultimate end-goal for a high-level party in this setting. Say what you will about the Minds, but there is no upside to Arrusif gaining Godhood at this point, not after centuries of letting bitterness, betrayal, pride and jealousy fester inside of him. As Sir Pratchett once said (paraphrasing), "This was not DEATH, but DEATH with all the passion, pettiness and cruelty of human experience".
As for the not vaporizing himself thing: Perhaps there is a way to draw very small amounts of Solar energy into a caster, but it's so dangerous and so minute that no one bothered after the first few attempts blew up in their faces. Arrusif might be trying to figure out a ritual of some sort that would replicate this on a massive scale, but the preparation will take a very long time (centuries even), and he needs to gather a lot of powerful allies/chumps to sacrifice to power the protective charms that'll keep him from frying during the ritual. Solar Power could be thought of as the Wish Spell, but far more dangerous to even attempt. Thoughts?
And don't say "POWAH! UNLIMITED! POWAH!" again, please, as he knows firsthand what an excess of power can do to a group. He ran from them with three others and a fleet of followers, remember.
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2012-07-07, 08:21 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
I see your point. I'm still not seeing much of a motivation beyond "UNLIMITED POWAH!" Unless he wanted to kill the Minds for their betrayal, and the ritual he's found conveniently needs to consume four beings and a plural number of nexi.
It is therefore fitting that the party finds him during the ritual, thus forcing him to delay them by some means. Like the final level of Skyward Sword, but with the possibility of stopping him.
The problem is (and Arrusif would know this) that if he takes any solar magic into himself, pop goes the lich. Which leads to workarounds, which leads to preparing the ritual.
That seems a bit more cliche than I'd like for my first real primary villain. See also: the rudimentary motivation I have for him at the beginning of the post.
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2012-07-07, 02:51 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
He could also be doing it FOR (Magic!)SCIENCE! Bragging rights, essentially. The Ultimate Power is nice, but the fact that he could prove to the other Minds that he doesn't need them, that he is the superior one, is worth his weight in gold.
It is therefore fitting that the party finds him during the ritual, thus forcing him to delay them by some means. Like the final level of Skyward Sword, but with the possibility of stopping him.
The problem is (and Arrusif would know this) that if he takes any solar magic into himself, pop goes the lich. Which leads to workarounds, which leads to preparing the ritual.
When it comes to the Ritual, there are two ideas:- Arrusif needs to sacrifice various people and Nexi in order to summon Sun Magic, and he needs to craft powerful artifacts (the ingredients needed require him to travel a lot) to protect him from blowing up.
- Or the Ritual is used to reconstitute the Alabasan Nexi, which Arrusif now knows how to control in the same way the Minds do theirs. In that case, the Artifacts must be used to enact the ritual itself.
That seems a bit more cliche than I'd like for my first real primary villain. See also: the rudimentary motivation I have for him at the beginning of the post.
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2012-07-07, 10:06 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
I like that element, actually.
No spoilers: the big bad starts a ritual at the bottom of this winding ramp, and he sends cannon fodder at you while you race down the ramp. Lengthy boss battle ensues when you get down there.
Sounds about right. In fact, why don't we have it such that the sigils were Arrusif's idea, and Dekon leaked them to that artist.
With any amount of power, it's only a matter of storing it in a container that won't instantly explode/drain it away instantly. Mages, of any state of being, are insufficient for solar magic energy, as mentioned. The nexi would, as a safety feature, either explode it away through the pulse or just explode. Thus, the ritual is about storing and harnessing the power. Maybe the culmination of the Act 2 plan is about Arrusif fixing the artificial moon so that it stores power instead of releasing it out willy-nilly. This would be in preparation for the ritual at the climax of Act 3, in which the sun and both moons line up with the capital (another fruit of Arrusif's searching in the ruins of Alabas). The Day of Hollow Moon, so called because the glowing of the artificial nexus imparts the (visual) illusion of the sun's light shining through the moon, would be the signal for Arrusif to let forth all the energy into his setup in some suitably climactic location (I'm thinking the roof of the Noreun), letting it charge up.
It's true. They did think up the idea of godhood almost as soon as Almantha came into sight. They did steal the original 4 nexi as sort of a "screw-you" to their peers, but I think a big part of the "screw you" was more that the Alabasan nobility squandered the resources they had on terrorizing their nuli or playing games of succession. More of a "see what we can do with a fraction of the power you used". Also, Arrusif made the sacrifice to not become a god willingly, and what really got him is that he was essentially erased from the history books, no tragic deaths before the day of apotheosis, no mention of Arrusif the master fire mage and illusionist, no nothing.
To make this a bit more plausible (and, I think, more compelling) why don't we have it that Arrusif didn't know for certain that Dekon would complete the lichification process? He knew about the spell to bring his mind back (he wrote it himself), but he didn't know if Dekon would a) cast it or b) be able to prepare and perfect the vines puppeteering his body. Well, he didn't know per se, but he trusted Dekon, who came through 5 years later. The ensuing culture shock, plus the fact that he is the only one of the founding four who was completely forgotten, is grounds enough for revenge, I think.
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2012-07-08, 12:11 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
Sounds suitably epic. I feel like the Artificial moon needs a name. How about Larberec, or Xetroc?
It's true. They did think up the idea of godhood almost as soon as Almantha came into sight...Also, Arrusif made the sacrifice to not become a god willingly, and what really got him is that he was essentially erased from the history books, no tragic deaths before the day of apotheosis, no mention of Arrusif the master fire mage and illusionist, no nothing.
To make this a bit more plausible (and, I think, more compelling) why don't we have it that Arrusif didn't know for certain that Dekon would complete the lichification process? He knew about the spell to bring his mind back (he wrote it himself), but he didn't know if Dekon would a) cast it or b) be able to prepare and perfect the vines puppeteering his body. Well, he didn't know per se, but he trusted Dekon, who came through 5 years later.
Also, besides being allowed to live a bit longer (plus the lichification), what did Arrusif get out of lichdom? Did he really expect for Obsid to take his place in the Minds and keep using the fire mage's name? Did he believe Dekon could restore his flesh so he could go out in the daylight? I think it would be good to have Arrusif's idea of The Plan, just to see the true extent of how divorced his expectations were from what ultimately happened to him.
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2012-07-08, 10:21 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
Sorry, no. Naming things after backwards brain parts can only go so far. (And I'm sorry, but Xetroc is a terrible name for anything)
Maybe 5 years is a little short-term for everyone to forget about him. 50 years sounds a little better (although that's only 2.5 generations, in a world without the internet... I'll have to think about it a bit more). As for the delay; it could be strong-arming from Obsid, sure. However, I'm not sure how Dekon would allow Obsid to find out. We know what he did to Sharenia when she found out about the whole deal, and I very much doubt that Dekon would not just kill any spy who got close. However, that time could easily be spent trying to make the nomon (first to placate Obsid, and second to create a race of casters that would be loyal to their maker) and trying to perfect the system of vines that would replace Arrusif's muscles, tendons, etc. Remember that since ascension, Dekon can't cast fire spells, and earth spells can't call back a soul from the grave. Also, once the deed was done and Arrusif returned to unlife, there would need to be some rehabilitation to not breathing, talking manually instead of leaving it to some subconscious function, perfecting motion and spellcasting, etc.
He expected Obsid to become the Mind in his stead, yes, but not that his stature as one of the founding four would be erased. As for "going out in daylight" he could cast illusion spells (Silent Image falls under fire, remember) to hide the bone and plant matter, but couldn't hide the reedy timbre his voice got from the procedure. I think we've introduced a lot of plot holes into "The Plan" per se, not least of which being "Why the hell would Arrusif agree to this in the first place?"
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2012-07-08, 02:23 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
I thought so, but I just thought I'd point it out.
Maybe 5 years is a little short-term for everyone to forget about him. 50 years sounds a little better (although that's only 2.5 generations, in a world without the internet... I'll have to think about it a bit more).
As for the delay; it could be strong-arming from Obsid, sure. However, I'm not sure how Dekon would allow Obsid to find out. We know what he did to Sharenia when she found out about the whole deal, and I very much doubt that Dekon would not just kill any spy who got close. However, that time could easily be spent trying to make the nomon (first to placate Obsid, and second to create a race of casters that would be loyal to their maker) and trying to perfect the system of vines that would replace Arrusif's muscles, tendons, etc. Remember that since ascension, Dekon can't cast fire spells, and earth spells can't call back a soul from the grave. Also, once the deed was done and Arrusif returned to unlife, there would need to be some rehabilitation to not breathing, talking manually instead of leaving it to some subconscious function, perfecting motion and spellcasting, etc.
I think we've introduced a lot of plot holes into "The Plan" per se, not least of which being "Why the hell would Arrusif agree to this in the first place?"
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2012-07-09, 05:39 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
...That could work. I'm still unconvinced someone wouldn't smell a rat about the whole business, especially since Arrusif know Obsid for all of a day before making the mysterious accord that saved his quarter of the expats.
He needed a fire mage a) competent enough to cast such a spell b) that would keep their mouth shut about the whole business. That's why he was so keen on giving magic to a species ostensibly supposed to be not much more than lab assistants. Otherwise, he would have had to rely on Obsid to cast the spell to bring his friend back.
Most likely "couldn't take on a dragon mano e mano - and avoid unnecessary casualties". Unless you meant Obsid to be "him" in that sentence, in which case I say that this was while Dekon and Arrusif were essentially alone (with their followers, but I digress). And again point to the "unnecessary casualties" line. By the time Aqua and Saala reconnected with them, it was too late and most of Arrusif's followers were firmly ensconced exactly where Obsid wanted them. (I'm thinking that the only dumb decisions Obsid makes are when he's become stressed and paranoid about hiding his eggs, which means he's very effective when he's not distracted, which doesn't happen easily).
I still need to write up what exactly the Plan was, because I have this nagging feeling that there's something that's wrong with it. Don't ask me what it is. At the very least, it implies a bit of an Idiot Ball sticking to Arrusif, and there may be more flaws hiding under the surface. Ah well. I'll write it up next post.
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2012-07-09, 11:45 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
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2012-07-11, 10:14 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: The Minds of Almantha
OK, take three. Don't fail me now, server.
The switch was Arrusif's idea, and to be fair he didn't have much choice (His spot as Mind was his only real bargaining chip, and Arrusif knew that any other thing he could give would only result in slavery or crispy annihilation (Or slavery ending in crispy annihilation, for that matter). Thus Arrusif began to plot the downfall of Obsid. Plan A was much more direct than the roundabout Lich conversion plan, as a matter of fact it was the "Why don't we just kill him" plan. After several things went wrong (the first being "oh s**t he heard us coming" and devolving in a hilarious, Aeon-Fluxish fashion (the cartoon, not the movie w/ Charlize Theron) from there), Obsid was holding court a few hours later, gloating that intruders were like "dinner and a show" for him.
Plan L (for Lich) was when Arrusif was getting desperate; no plan to stab, poison, or otherwise kill Obsid had panned out, the day of ascension was approaching (it had to be then; there was a Day of Hollow Moon approaching in Revien, which meant that it would be bathed in power for a day, all of which would go into the ascension ritual, and too much energy had already been expended to let the opportunity slip away). Saala, once she learned of Arrusif's deal, refused to allow him to go back on the deal, not least because if he didn't, that's an already ancient dragon ready and willing to wreak havoc when all four of them would be at their weakest (all four would ascend into their nexi at the same moment, and wouldn't sense much beyond their nexi until they were returned to their cities and could begin to hook into the ley of their lands ( nyar har)). Also, not only would the newly minted Mind of Obsid be able to sense an attacker as he struck, it would also be dishonorable (something intensely grating to a highly lawful person). Saala was sorry for Arrusif's predicament, but there wasn't much she could let him do and still remain true to herself. She left the group in tears, returning to work on the flying city that would house her Mind and her people. Arrusif then met with Dekon and Aqua (both of whom were willing to help him and were shocked at Saala's abandonment), and this last chance at a long-term plan took shape. Arrusif, once he had taken a poison to make it appear as though he died in his sleep (this was part of the mind switch gambit that would put Obsid on the throne), would be carried to Dekonio in state, where Dekon would begin work on the vine-muscles Arrusif would use. Aqua would start work on memory systems so that Arrusif would have something other than short-term memory loss (this eventually led to her wetware project at the bottom of the lake). This necessity was found by Arrusif's own necromantic experiments, when he found that when dead souls return, they remember everything they remembered in life, but constantly forgot what they learned after death. These experiments also led to the ritual that would bring him back and encase him in his own remains. Dekon later added the controls for the vine-muscles, and Aqua keyed the incoming soul to a phylactery (a tank of water oft-mistaken for a fish tank; to complete the illusion Arrusif bought some beaconfish (a glowing jelly-like invertebrate often found attached to rocks by a single tentacle) and stuck them in there) Saala, in an attempt to make amends, edited the ritual so that the disparate elements worked as a cohesive whole.
The day arrived, Arrusif took the poison, his body was puppeteered by Aqua into a carriage that took him to Revien, into the chamber reserved for their ascension (Obsid had flown there by night, and had been hooked into the system while the other Minds arrived), and then laid to rest by Dekon beneath the ascension floor. The time arrived, the power flowed into them, preserving and preparing their consciousnesses for installation into the nexi, and the deed was done. Chosen attendants (who had been prepared for most of their lives for the honor of protecting and escorting the nascent gods to their thrones to unlock their full potential) entered and packaged up the nexi. Then they gathered up royal carriages of their elements (Obsid's attendant rode home on a fireball, Saala's used Wind Walk, etc.) and escorted the Minds to their homes, and facilitated their installation.
At this point, Dekon got to work. He grew a single root all the way back out to Revien, where it wrapped around Arrusif's coffin. This root then began to recoil beneath Dekonio, pulling the coffin (in Revien) slowly along with it. Aqua held her breath and tried to distract Obsid whenever she suspected he might be nearing the truth (She needn't have bothered - Obsid thought that Arrusif was out of the picture, having seen his dead body enter the ascension chamber then fall down dead). Meanwhile, Dekon did some distraction of his own - verbal meddling, some slight reworking of the weave of his branches, not enough to interfere with the steady progress of the coffin towards the Dekonian forest, mainly for the benefit of those already living in Dekonio. Once the coffin was under the tree and safe, he began the work in earnest. Dekon had already tried enlisting Obsid's help in casting the spell, but he had proven unresponsive. Mainly because he wasn't a complete idiot - Obsid bore Arrusif no love, and all the Minds knew Arrusif had tried to kill Obsid in the past. They couldn't trust the fire mages (can't have the risk of a well-meaning assistant blabbing it by mistake, and besides the newly-formed Ominak Industries sold smart security systems as well as constructs), and so Dekon decided to hide the creation of a magic-using race within the creation of a gift to Obsid, to buy his good will. This led to the experiments with creating life, and the eventual creation of the goblins (Dekon's aim) and the nomon (Dekon's published aim). Once the process was perfected and the goblins willing to cast the spell to bring Arrusif's soul back, Dekon had everything he needed.
Wow this took a long time to get out. I'll put Obsid's gambit in the next post, then Arrusif's reaction, leading up to the present.
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2012-07-14, 11:12 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2011
- Location
- Therinos
- Gender
Re: The Minds of Almantha
Meanwhile, Obsid put a plan in place to supplant Arrusif in the history of the land. (He found it amusing, if not strictly necessary in terms of consolidation of power. Besides, it was the logical step after taking Arrusif's place in every other respect) His very first action as Mind was to publicly proclaim that his name was now Obsid, "In honor of the dragon who gave us our home." If anyone smelled a rat about that, no one felt they could prove it. Step two was slowly editing the books. Arrusif's name was wiped out wherever they could find it and replaced with Obsid's, and the dragon in the tale of Obsidia's founding was rendered nameless. Anyone with evidence of the change was shouted down, burglarized then shouted down, or silenced. The result was a city that enjoyed prosperity (Ominak Industries was making leaps and bounds in the field of robotics, to the benefit of everyone in the city) but wouldn't talk about the truth of their Mind. The taboo in turn unintentionally suppressed the information outside of Obsidia as well. (as far as Almantha at large is concerned, however, Arrusif ascended to Mind-ness, took Obsid's name out of gratitude for the departed owner of the Obsidian cavern, then began working on constructs. They don't know the entire truth of the edits.)
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2012-07-14, 08:12 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2011
- Location
- Unknown
- Gender
Re: The Minds of Almantha
Wow. You know what I really like about this? The Minds look ingenious and suspiciously human (emotionally speaking). On the one hand, these guys put together plans that had layers within layers within more layers. And on the other, they could be spiteful and petty. I'm starting to see Salaa as a sort of V analog. Highly intellectual, with a touch of preachiness when someone they know goofs up. The alignment's different, but I still get the feeling.
You made the Minds sound pretty darn smart and endearing at the same time. Can't wait for the next bit!
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2012-07-15, 10:57 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2011
- Location
- Therinos
- Gender
Re: The Minds of Almantha
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2012-07-16, 10:38 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2011
- Location
- Unknown
- Gender
Re: The Minds of Almantha
Sounds good, sounds plausible. If anything it leaves a good chance for passing PCs to meet up with someone willing to break the silence...maybe Arrusif's minions (surely he's got a few people who remember the truth and serve him as the Deposed Mind) wage a silent shadow war against Obsid's machinations. Obsidia could be filled to the brim with espionage and counter-espionage awesomeness.
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2012-07-17, 08:49 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2011
- Location
- Therinos
- Gender
Re: The Minds of Almantha
So I've been having a bit of trouble with getting Arrusif to blow up and walk away. When I think about what he woke up to, I'm not sure the shock of Obsid suppressing his name would be sufficient to get him to became suitably incensed that he jumps straight to "show them, show them all". There needs to be some severe misunderstanding for that sort of drastic measure to occur, which means that either all the non-draconic Minds lost a few brain cells-worth of mental processes during the war with Alabas and started keeping secrets, or something was physically keeping them from communicating. Maybe the Minds kicked him out after he blew up the Alabasan supervolcano, maybe something else happened. That would work, but it carries with it a whole slew of questions. Did they leave him behind in Alabas? How? How did they get the orders to leave him behind across the ocean to Alabas? Did he come back home and then they shipped him back? How'd they do that? If not those, then what did they do?
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2012-07-17, 09:25 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2011
- Location
- Unknown
- Gender
Re: The Minds of Almantha
Well. Arrusif wakes up. He's a bit groggy, but alive. Then he realizes he's a shambling horror. He was ready for that, but the reality of the situation is still pretty rough to accept. But still, he's alive. He's got his power, he's got a couple of good friends, at least one of whom was willing to resurrect him and build an entire race of fire mages to help him out. And he's got his reputation. He's remembered as one of the founders of a civilization, worshiped at least in name as a god...
SpoilerOriginally Posted by Arrusif
I think he's got some pretty good reasons.
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2012-07-18, 07:52 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2011
- Location
- Therinos
- Gender
Re: The Minds of Almantha
First off, it's "Saala.". The double a comes first. Second, I love the monologue. It neatly encapsulates Arrusif's view of the events. However, this should in fact be Arrusif's view, and not necessarily the reality. Aqua, for example, would hardly want "nothing to do with [him]," although she would shy away from an Inter-Mind war. (She cites the fact that such a war would blow the lid off the switch, causing widespread mistrust of the Minds at best and revolt at worst, not to mention that Obsid has Arrusif's people (and the nomon) held basically hostage, which Arrusif would ignore). Third, I'm not sure how Dekon wouldn't see Arrusif being driven to use the unadulterated power of the sun, although he may see it as impossible. Fourth, the whole point of the rehabilitation was to avoid the "shambling horror"-ness of lichdom.