Strategic Plan Discussion (Ideas welcome and requested)
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//@Arcanigans
I have seen him and spied on him. I know where his base of operations is, but I know nothing of his motives. He is the one ordering the orcs about and hoarding and protecting their supplies. I saw that.
Fang Delilah VelHiri
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So he is an active, conscious participant rather than a mindless thrall? That complicates and makes matters easier, I think. Osco told me about the setup of the base, but you were there, do you think there's anything we could exploit to get access to him?
-Keline
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//@Arcanigans
I had suggested before to the council that we eliminate him and the supplies right off. Although outnumbered, if we were to have the archers and second line such as I bombard that dock with flaming arrows and explosives, we could destroy the supplies outright and someone should target him for assianation. We hit...we hurt em... We run. War does not need to be honorable. We would need the front line to protect the second line so they could get this done. However, the council misunderstood and thinks I want to willy nilly blow up the forest, so they kind of shot me down. That's my idea, but I'm open to suggestions too. He's a big piece of this and I don't know what's in those boxes, but it can't be good.
Fang Delilah VelHiri
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Fang,
I appreciate the enthusiasm and I agree he needs to be stopped, however you said it yourself our objective should be to take this creature out as expeditiously as possible. Any military is susseptable to beheading its leadership and if we can break their assault without fighting the host, we win many times over.
To do that, we need to strike where he is vulnerable- to know that, we need to learn all we can about him and how/if he thinks. To execute on it, all we need are tenacious and patient go-getters like yourself. I think you've got the right idea, but we can be a bit more precise with our approach.
Do you think it'd be possible to do another reconnaissance run, or survey the region around this encampment to see what their activities have been like? We're information poor right now, we can address it, but just from the overview you've given me, I think it'd be in our best interests to find out their movements, if this warlord is more sentient than the rest, and if anything around them has changed.
What do you think of this idea? Could we do it?
-Keline
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//@Arcanigans
I think from the distance we were at last time, you couldn't get good intel. They were yelling in Orc, so we couldn't understand it. We can get close to the base but because it was on a platform, we would have to get by guards to get close enough to hear what is happening. We need someone who can understand orc. We need someone who is willing to sneak in. Perhaps invisibility potions or the druids could shift into birds. Yes, it could be done but do we have anyone who could speak orc and would be capable of it?
Fang Delilah VelHiri
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This is a question to ask locals, I think. People more familiar with the lands than myself. Would you be willing to head up such an effort? I'll provide whatever material support I can, my coffers are very limited, but I can produce wands at cost that may be of use.
-Keline
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@Arcanigans said in Strategic Plan Discussion (Ideas welcome and requested):
Do we have any information on him aside from a name?
-Keline
I second what Delilah said. I was there. I never saw such a well-stocked army. I think they may have more stuff than even we do! It's a lot, I'll say. The thing is, we dont know what he wants, or if he even wants anything. But he's targeting druid groves. The question is why? What did the druids do to him? If anything? He may just be controlled by the White Witch and her fancy staff.
Osco -
//@Arcanigans
Sure, I'll see what I can do. Maybe we can find someone who talks orc and is stealthy.
That's a good place to start.
Fang Delilah VelHiri -
I speak Orc and between spell and skill, can sneak a bit when needed.
Polk
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Addendum and Update #2:
Once again I come to revisit assumptions and present new information that may help us work out the best course of action. Note that right now I speak to the conditions of the White Horde and not necessarily the Black Tribe. I realize they are a more pressing threat right now, however these conditions will inform our strategic approach and tactical preperations.
Strategic Conditions
Temporarily Enthralled
It has come to my attention after some discussions that the nature of the enthrallment is not permanent as I had first assumed, but rather a recurring process that must be refreshed- it can be refreshed by agents with physical access to those enslaved by the White Staff’s magic.
While I do not currently know how it happens, we can take from this that some form of Enchantment magic is in play rather than a constant stream of it, this would make Project Moonlight simpler to perform and expand.
There are cases of dead gnolls and goblins, and kobolds found together when an enthrallment has broken. It’s unclear who started the fight or who did what, but I think it’s relatively safe to assume that the gnolls carry some power to refresh this enslavement to the White Staff. My encounter with them in the Hilmarch shows a direct coralation to their seeking out a local den of kobolds and those kobolds being enthralled. Attached
We can capitalize on this in innumerable ways.
Feather Totems
I have dwelled on this since the kobolds in the cave near Hilmarch, the totem that bore no magic, the gnolls in the area doing what I had assumed to be ‘collection’. It didn’t add up until another piece of the puzzle slotted into place with the nature of these creatures’ enthrallment.
If the enthrallment is temporary, has to be refreshed, and most importantly can be broken then we can extrapolate from experience that the totems exist as a signaling device to show the gnolls where to refresh the enthrallments.
We can use this to perform false flag operations (literally), mess with their ability to coordinate their forces and, critically, route out pockets of them that pose an immediate threat to our strategic assets. This is not a suggestion, we are in the information gathering phase. Acting now would throw our advantage away before we can use it effectively.
Unknowns
It is still not clear to me if the Black Tribe is acting on its own iniative and leadership (like a conventional force), and is working with the Horde for similar goals or what. We are still at a critical information deficit there, and we are working on it- Delilah is drumming up some support and finding people that can do some gathering there, however with how short our time is before the invasion of the Redwoods, I ask you to consider the following:
Difficult Choices
If Project Moonlight produces the result of breaking the thralling of a group of creatures, we can expand that. We can nuter their entire army without having to get close to the staff and secure our assets from attack with things like warding and- critically- not exposing our knowledge of this advantage.
This is the big problem, and the one that we need to tackle morally and ethically before we even think about using this against our adversary-- if I am right, and if we can dispel the enchantment on members of the white horde and if the Black Tribe is enthralled by the horde (I have my doubts but let’s go down this road because the question will come up repeatedly in the future).
We need to decide when we can start employing this. The moment we do, it needs to be wide spread and pervasive; our war needs to be won before the first rune is cast or we will throw that surprise away, the Witch could use their forces to attack our settlements and resources causing a lot of chaos and death before we’re ready to act.
IF the Black Tribe are enthralled and we warded the entrances to the Redwood, we might win that battle, but henceforth she will change tactics and our planning will have to start from scratch with an enemy wiser to our approach and capabilities.
Our battles will be harder, our victories exhausting and our successes bittersweet once the losses are counted, but I have to impress upon you just how critical it is that if we can develop this advantage, we withhold its use for as long as strategically possible.
Strategic Recommendations
Discover and Map Horde Assets
- We are still knowledge poor on the Black Tribe. You've all said it yourselves, we need to fix this. Let's begin finalizing those plans and start acting on them. Delilah has been working hard on this, perhaps we can sort out a plan-- key concerns (to my mind):
-Are they enthralled or free agents?
-Are the Black Tribe so well provisioned that they can stay in their base indefinitely?
-Can we cut off avenues of support before they can muster anything?-
Gather information on where totems are located. We take scouting parties or ‘casual walks’ out into the wilds surrounding Arabel and note the locations of white feather totems. For all intents and purposes, these denote an enemy encampment nearby. Cut them down if you must, but NOTE THEM in a file so we can map out their staged combatants.
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From what I’ve gathered, we know the Horde stages in the north, if we can get some people out there to map the most likely avenues of approach through the area, we can use this to:
Learn How the Enchantments are Refreshed
- Work with wildwalkers and sneaks to follow a gnoll tribe TO the site of enslavement. Learn how they refresh the magics on those enthralled. Do not interfere, do not engage with them, do not be detected. This is critical to the n’th degree: we cannot be seen to know how these things work.
Knowedge Testing
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Let us test our assumptions by moving the feather totems and watchnig them- use of mage alarm or on the ground people to keep an eye on it will let us know if the gnolls stop by. This will tell us whether or not we can move these totems around to advantage us.
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We shall complete Project Moonlight with a small sample of enthralled creatures and bring people who are especially skilled at breaking magic bindings, if successful, we will develop a ward to the same effect and try it out.
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Finally, we stage a massacre near one of these totems. We use small weapons (such as shortswords) to kill a few gnolls, some larger ones to kill some goblins or other known horde creatures. Our sneaks linger invisible in the area and watch how they react. Then we follow them back to wherever they came from and map out the path they use. Idea being that most humanoids aren’t as careful when they think their mission has failed because of something normal (IE: The kobolds broke free and killed a party out to refresh their wards). So we give them something unexpected and we watch what they do.
All in all, I think our success is upon the horizon- we do not yet have the Witch nailed down, but we have their forces in sight. All that remains is to learn, test our assumptions, and refine our efforts. If they prove correct, we will make our victory within the month.
-Aspirant Keline Hallenthen
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