The Tool Bearers

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Yanno, I got to thinking. Stanley already has the ArkenHammer and Wanda has the Pliers now. I can easily see Maggy ending up with the Dish after they take on Charlescomm (because, come on, His Toolship has a real soft spot for wanting to take Charles out). The ArkenUnknown would probably go to Sizemore, due to being one of the few other main characters, although might go to Jack or an as-of-yet not introduced character.

Why not Parson? Because he's not a character, he's a player. He's a Catalyst in Erfworld: changing events around him but mostly remaining unchanged, at least in game terms. Eventually, he's going to go away, and the impact to Erfworld will be felt for ages. So he never gets an ArkenTool, although he is instrumental in obtaining all four of them for those on his side.

Honestly, I see a lot of potential for a far-reaching campaign. Transylvito is going to want to take all of the FAQ cities, and Stanley sees them as easy pickings to rebuild his multi-city side. So immediately, there's gonna be problems. Transylvito was the LEAST damaged by the big boop at Gobwin Knob, and has succinctly grasped the concept of force multipliers which Parson has also figured out. They can buff up their bats to pretty stupid levels, and I'm certain we've not seen the last of their tricks. Expect Mafia Goombas (possibly resembling Mario Goombas) with Chicago Typewriters when Trans gets set up for a real fight. Then there's Charlie. He's gonna be PISSED that Parson slipped out of his fingers, he KNOWS he's gonna be on the hit parade when His Toolship feels he's got the backing to face those insanely powerful archons. So he's likely to cut Trans a real deal on some backup, just for long-term survival.

To combat that, Parson has also figured out how to effectively leverage force multiplication, and he's got Decrypted to play with now. If they get bonuses from Wanda like Uncroaked do, plus Artifact bonus, plus Warlord bonus... yea, they're gonna get pretty sick real quick. Unless they are not able to get the artifact bonus because they are artifact-made (basically, their artifact bonus is simply being able to exist).

So, it'll be a race to see who gets FAQ's towns. Jillian may not want Trans to get them, but she wants Stanley to get them even less, plus a possible romantic re-attachment to Vinny now that Ansom is 'gone' (women on the rebound, yanno). Parson is going to have to face off against one of the strongest sides currently known about, possibly with help from one of the other strongest sides currently known, both of whom suffered the least amount of damage.

Parson may decide to (convince Stanley to) try and pop some casters or other warlords. Specifically, they need some Lookamancers to get some knowledge of what is going on, maybe get another lookamancer/foolamancer/thinkamancer trio to set up a gestalt for another scrying table. After all, they've got a lot of money handy (possibly the richest side), and almost no upkeep other than Parson and the casters (since Decrypted have no upkeep at all). It would be the best way to start applying some force multipliers, anyways.

Now here's a sick idea... say you get a caster. Does a Decrypted caster retain all casting ability? Can it level? Stanley has a HUGE exploitable here in negating upkeep costs, and Parson will point it out if Stanley doesn't figure it out first. Since the only known anti-uncroaked weapon currently known is now in the hands of Wanda, there's no reason to not have any non-decrypted units.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Since we don't know game mechanics we don't know what is involved in the uncroaked. They could get a special resist set that overwrites their previous resistance set. For example they could gain a vulnerability to Holy or Fire while gaining resistance to Cold or Poison damage. There could be magical weapons that deal extra damage to uncroaked as well. The pliers clearly have a bonus vs uncroaked, but who's to say some croakamancer somewhere didn't develop a sword that has a lesser bonus.

Still, a solid army of no upkeep infantry backed by (presumably) high upkeep dwagons sounds like a solid combo.

[MadScientistMat]

Originally Posted by ShneekeyTheLost

Now here's a sick idea... say you get a caster. Does a Decrypted caster retain all casting ability? Can it level? Stanley has a HUGE exploitable here in negating upkeep costs, and Parson will point it out if Stanley doesn't figure it out first. Since the only known anti-uncroaked weapon currently known is now in the hands of Wanda, there's no reason to not have any non-decrypted units.

I'll bet decrypted casters still can cast. However, there's a very good reason for them to have "non-decrypted units" - Parson's thrown away his ruthlessness. I don't think he is going to want to go through with such a plan. Decrypted may have other weaknesses too - they don't have near the weaknesses of ordinary uncroaked, but they may not have all the advantages of a living unit, either.