CHOOSE YOUR ENDING POLL

[futurologists]

THANK YOU FOR VOTING, THE POLL IS NOW CLOSED!

END-MISSION POLL Hello, everyone! After the discussion on this post, we've collected all the viable suggestions submitted to create this end-mission post. For fairness' sake, we will be going with majority rule -- for now we ask that players refrain from hitting up the Questions subthread with hypotheticals on what rogue actions their characters may take if the poll results go one way or another. Please note this is an IC poll. This means that votes should be cast as per your character's stance. If you have more than one character in the game, you may vote once per journal! The polls will close in 72 hours. The resulting log will be posted May 28th GMT (threads from this log will still count for June AC, don't worry!). In the meantime, here are the other log happenings for the month: For the stranded crew: shipbuilding log and reunion tour For the left behind folks: the cultist camp and rescue And most recently, the latest newbie log! CONSIDERATIONS (THE FINE PRINT) If Nalanni is killed, the Nalawi will no longer have their Gifts. Their technology is very primitive and this will send them back to the stone age. Due her pact with Ryba, if the sea goddess is killed, Pomarr will become the next sea goddess. Pomarr may consciously sever her pact and still live. If the goddesses are sealed and sent to a different planet, it will require a large amount of energy from ALASTAIR’s own stores that will affect volunteer characters. The goddesses’ effects on other planets cannot be measured at this time. If attempting to recruit the goddesses to ALASTAIR, keep in mind that Ryba in particular may not be amenable. A contingency plan will need to be created in case she refuses. If Pomarr has her way, she will raise the entire nation of Dakal from the grave. What this means for the Nalawi, now defenseless without their Gifts, should be obvious. This planet must have two goddesses or zero. It cannot sustain itself with just one. If both goddesses are allowed to live, the planet will continue but only for a short time before it burns out. The Nalawi's Gifts will remain intact. If both goddesses are killed, the world will continue. The Nalawi will no longer have Gifts. You cannot nuke the whole planet. Sorry, Rick. Poll #17482 This poll is closed. Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 52 What should be done with the goddesses? Nothing 4 (8.0%) Kill them 30 (60.0%) Seal them and move them to another location 10 (20.0%) Attempt to convince them to join ALASTAIR 6 (12.0%) What should be done with Pomarr? Kill her before she can raise the Dakal 9 (17.6%) Allow her to raise the Dakal and then kill her 0 (0.0%) Allow her to raise the Dakal and let her live 1 (2.0%) Convince her to join ALASTAIR without raising the Dakal 41 (80.4%)

Comments

QUESTIONS

[futurologists]

Re: QUESTIONS

[ricksybusiness]

why must you stifle me

[futurologists]

Re: QUESTIONS

[adlantisag]

Hi mods! Sorry if this was clarified somewhere, I think I missed it. How will this sequence of events play out? ICly, people have mentioned speaking with Pomarr first, and now that we've voted on killing the goddesses--how would we decide on which to kill first (or organize killing them both at once)? Is this something that could/should be ICly organized by players, and can we use this post to discuss?

Thanks!

[futurologists]

That's something that can be ICly organized by the players! Feel free to use this post to discuss how you'd all like it to play out.

Re: QUESTIONS

[asscan]

How would you like us to work characters posing as interference, here? Laedo has no beef with killing Ryba at present, but I'd like to have him try to defend Nalanni. I'm happy to handwave that he was either overwhelmed or talked down, but am not sure how best to go about it.

[futurologists]

It's up to you! Feel free to use this post for discussion and plotting, as there will be a log going up for the battles! As the newbies know where Nalanni is being held, they're in a unique position to get there before the 'old guard' can.

[asscan]

Cool, thanks! I'll try to wrangle interest. :]c

INDEX

[futurologists]

Here is the quick cheat-sheet we posted last time, for continued reference!

Nalanni:

Volcano goddess; goddess of the rock (land). Granted the Nalawi powers ("Gifts") in exchange for love and devotion. Defended her volcano from the Dakal by destroying their civilization and wiping them out. Kidnapped by Pomarr; her disappearance has led to powers fading both from the Nalawi and from recruits. If she is killed, the sea goddess must also be destroyed.

Nalawi:

People of Nalanni. Diminutive deer people who have been at war with the Dakal for centuries, prior to their extinction. Now that they are without Gifts, they don't know how to fend for themselves and are growing desperate.

Dakal:

An extinct race of technologically advanced cat people who lived to the west of the Nalawi islands. Worshipped no gods. After attacking Nalanni's volcano, they suffered her wrath. Now extinct, their land is at the bottom of the ocean.

Pomarr:

A Dakal who was a teacher in life. She has been raised from the dead by Ryba in exchange for her soul. Her goal is to siphon Nalanni's power in order for Ryba to have the energy necessary to raise the rest of the Dakal into undeath. She recently held Nalanni captive in the volcano Nalalona but was forced to escape with her prisoner after the recruits meddled too closely. Her existence is linked to Ryba.

Ryba the devouring one:

Sea goddess. Raised Pomarr from the dead in exchange for her soul. Requires sacrifice of souls in order to grant power to others. Ate the souls of all lesser gods in this world. If she is killed, another sea goddess must take her place or the volcano goddess must also be destroyed.

DEFEND THE WICKED FIREMOM SQUAD UNITE

[asscan]

...That squad may in fact only be Laedo. He wasn't involved in the worst of the details and he likes Nalanni. He's a big meat-shield of a dragon with a few spells up his sleeve, he knows where Nalanni is, and he's going to try to make it difficult for those gung-ho to kill her. He will try reason first, but he's not above a fight.

Since we've voted on killing the goddesses in the end, I'm looking for two things!

1) For those who are sympathetic to his cause, I'd love to get a bead on other characters who might speak up for him, whether through hand-waving or a thread, because he will remember that long after this mission and treat those characters with better respect and/or trust! Conversely, he holds a grudge for those who say one thing and do another, so....

2) For anyone who's against preserving Nalanni's life, I'd like to get a feel for who would try to talk him down and who'd go straight to fighting. We don't have to thread out the actual fighting, but I'm down for conflict and want to know to what lengths others would go to get him out of the way. Laedo can be stubborn and can take a beating, but conversely that grudge-holding is going to mean outright quarrels outside of the mission! So I'm trying to figure out where his tanked CR is going to start and with whom. Fight? Fight!

[babbylon]

Unfortunately, Gil is gonna be pretty gung-ho about taking Nalanni out and uh, violently doing away with anyone who tries to stop him. I'm not certain if it would "tank" CR because quite honestly Gil doesn't care if Laedo (or any others) lives or dies and would likely disregard him afterward; you might consider it very callous indifference instead.

All bets are off if he continually tries to interfere, though, because he'll see that as purposeful defiance and he's got zero tolerance for that.

[asscan]

Callous indifference on Gil's part, but burning loathing on Laedo's, in that case!

I meant to ask, you mentioned that he's still got super strength in the thread we had going. What else has he got going for him? I've got Laedo drained of his usual magic, but he's still got the physical muscle of his natural form and the armour he was wearing when he was dumped into the world. I'm hoping to get a better idea of who's coming down the tunnels to kill Nalanni in total, and to see if Laedo's guarding her himself or if anyone else would be there--just to see how it could shake out--but it'd be cool to get an idea of how they're matched against one another.

[babbylon]

Gilgamesh is technically of super strength status, but still suffers from the nerf same as everyone else so no potential fights are going to be totally one-sided. There's a whole laundry list of other abilities, the most prominent being his Gate of Babylon which can summon hordes of weapons at once... but he would use this sparingly due to said nerf.

He may or may not draw Ea, depending, which is his Magical Sword of Kill Everything. Likely he'll just try to outmuscle Laedo; if he proves to be a substantial threat he may pull out the bigger guns, but for the sake of not resulting in PAINFUL MAIMING AND OR/DEATH this can easily be written around. Powergaming is definitively not a thing I'm interested in so I'd strive to keep fights fair.

[asscan]

Ditto! I was thinking since Gil has some pretty beefy sounding abilities, nerfed or unnerfed is going to be an interesting fight--and since the end result is Nalanni's death regardless, Laedo's going to have to lick his wounds at some point. Would Gil consider pulling back on the amount of maiming that he would otherwise do if Ryba is still left to kill and he sees Laedo as a useful tool to soak up more damage? That could leave them with a standing conflict to attend to later, if you have interest in going that route, while also getting the job done for this mission.

(I hadn't considered benching Laedo for the Ryba fight but I read your plotting comment and realized that might be a good point on which they don't disagree!)

[babbylon]

That would work, yes! Gilgamesh is going to be prioritizing getting to Nalanni as quickly as he can, so it's quite possible he'd prefer to pass Laedo on by instead of draw the battle out. So long as no signs of severe disrespect are shown, Gilgamesh can be merciful and will probably prefer it if he sees that Laedo might be useful later on.

I am also 100% down with negative CR and conflict so I'd love to explore them working through that afterward.

[asscan]

Laedo will be respectful, more or less--perhaps dry--but he feels extremely intensely about the subject, so I don't think he'll relent on his own without trying to come back for a second round. However, it sounds like we might have Ramir intervene on his behalf, so that solves that problem! :D

Re: DEFEND THE WICKED FIREMOM SQUAD UNITE

[heavyhitter]

oh shit IS THIS MY CHANCE FOR CR??? ramir has reluctantly come around to the murder side and would be happy to try and talk him down :]

Re: DEFEND THE WICKED FIREMOM SQUAD UNITE

[asscan]

After Gil kicks his ass, I'd loooove if Ramir was willing to talk him down or strong-arm him from doing something stupid like going back for second helpings of ass-whoopings, actually! :Dc Excellent!

[heavyhitter]

yesssss that works for me! :D

[asscan]

Once shit starts to go down we should have a tag-fest, I like the idea of Ramir getting to meet him when he's at his lowest, even if Laedo realllllly does not >:D

[heavyhitter]

ah yeah that sounds great >:] i mean she'll be totally jazzed to meat a dragon either way, all the better if she's having a better day than he is. that's her favorite way to meet people.

OUR GAME PLAN SO FAR...

[babbylon]

Alright, so since we've been given the green light to forge on ahead with Operation Kill the Goddesses and plan how to proceed, I have two proposals for you all!

First order of business: I propose we select a single representative, chosen from among the group, to deal with Pomarr before anything else goes down. I think just one person would serve us better than a group, as it can be threaded out and handled faster, and I believe she'd be more amenable to meeting that way. My first suggestion would be Koltira, given he has special experience with undeath and may be able to sway her better than others who don't, but this is obviously a group vote sort of thing so feel free to pitch in any names you feel appropriate!

Second order of business: which goddess do we kill first? Or do we try both at the same time? I would propose we go after Nalanni first, as if Pomarr can't guarantee a return of our character powers, killing Nalanni stands a very good chance of doing so according to ALASTAIR NPCs. Then we can save Ryba for last! I'm not so certain of our chances vs. two goddesses at once so I'd favor the one at a time method myself.

...those are the main points, but this is a group effort as mentioned, so sound off as you like and we can refine our plan of attack!

[timebender]

I volunteer Koltira as tribute, too. :') And uh. That order makes sense to me, and probably would to both Aradia and Undyne so?! I have nothing of value to add except for a sage nod of approval.

A note!

[futurologists]

Sorry on not clarifying this before! In regards to the first order of business, we'll be shortly taking volunteer sign-ups for speaking with Pomarr (taking into account character suitability) and RNGing the result just like we did for Michel in Chantes.

We do appreciate your stepping up to organize, however! We'll keep you all posted when sign-ups go up.

[babbylon]

No problem! Just wanted to make sure we had that addressed somehow.

[defenceless]

I'm feeling kind of lost here, about what we should go with. How would they find Ryba? Nalanni's location may be able to be pointed out by newer characters, but they would still be taking on a goddess without powers. Would the explosives be enough? Should we ask for more details about the powers thing to begin with?

[babbylon]

It would be my proposal that we wait for the confrontation with Pomarr to finish before heading in gung-ho to fight goddesses. If it goes well, we may very well get our powers back to tackle Nalanni. If we don't, IMO it still makes the most sense to go after her first, as an ALASTAIR NPC already mentioned that killing her would very likely release said powers (though notably not a guarantee).

As for finding Ryba, last we heard she's at the bottom of the sea. However, I have to wonder if the fighting might draw her out and to us anyway. There's a lot of unknown factors right now so I think it may be a good idea for us to break after dealing with Nalanni and then arrange for how to deal with Ryba once we're in a more secure position to do so.

[digophelia]

If we're going RNG the folks who are being selected to speak to Pomarr, it makes sense. But, as well, is anyone going to be accompanying the said representative, too? If there's going to be a log for that, how many folks can go? Or is this all one person just to spare NPC mod a hassle?

And secondly, I think it's better to go one at a time, especially Nalanni's death would benefit them more and I think with NPCs chiming it, it's safe to assume that would be an IC conclusion.

Though, another thing, again, is how many folks will be going into these logs. What's going to be the tagging order, etc TBH I do recommend a tagging order of some kind, because I came from a game from a similar construct that did not and a handful of you guys know what I mean. OOCly and ICly, it would make sense to shorten the team up of who can actually handle this and I'm saying this even if Alice wants to go do this and OOCly, I don't think she can!

And on another side, while there's gonna be three major logs up, I do worry that while I advocate some sort of condensed, numbered group, I don't want to see anyone shut out, either.

So, I guess another question is there gonna be sub-bosses of any kind? How can characters help if they're not physically capable of killing a god even if they want to? (No, really, if anyone can seriously level with Alice, I wouldn't be upset because WORK)