[LP] The Shattered Realm: Dorganath

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Fri Oct 04, 2013 11:58 am

Yeah, let's go for the Firedrakes.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Fri Oct 04, 2013 1:59 pm

A terse message is returned by the King of the Firedrakes, translated into the common tongue.

Journeying alone will be dangerous, but then you reflect that if the King of the Firedrakes wanted to kill you at his court he would do so whether or not you were escorted by your retinue. The journey is a hard one, through the lands north of the Mountains of Undying Solitude, but at last you espy the city of the Firedrakes in the far distance.

The Lackers, the lowest form of Firedrakes, shuffle out of your way and you are allowed to walk unmolested into the city. Nearby, soldiers are gathering, blue scaled and armed with spears, they vaguely resemble intelligent lizard men. Overhead a Demiveult soars, a huge flying reptile that some say is an Archveult in larval form. The Archveults are the ruling cast, larger and more powerful than all save the Demiveults, but the Demiveults are dull-witted. The soldiers form a corridor of menace for you to walk down, which leads to a strange palace.

Inside the palace, which is an ornate conical tower circled by many balconies and hanging gardens of jasmine, oleander, and orange trees, you are brought face to face with the supreme Archveult, King Mourn the Merciless.

(Sweet mercy, Gargamel's in his yiffing suit.)

He is eight feet tall and his fierce head is topped by a bony spiked carapace like that of a giant reptile. His eyes are smouldering pits of fire. His powerful blue-scaled body which sparkles with iridescent fire sprouts large black wings at the back. He is seated on his throne surrounded by Soldierdrakes and other Archveults.

(Your opponent does not have the codeword HALO.)

Fear grips you:
• Prostrate yourself before him?
• Proudly say that you greet him as an equal, ruler of Dorganath to ruler of the Firedrakes?

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Fri Oct 04, 2013 2:52 pm

Arrrgh why isn't there a middle ground option? (Because it'd have been too obvious, that's why.)

Those guys despise humans and keep human slaves. Behaving as a slave isn't likely to help. Then again, the word "proudly" looks dangerous, too.

Advisory vote for greeting him as an equal, because he already did so by sending us a personal message (vs. having his chamberpot cleaner's junior assistant deal with it). AND we had the balls to go all the way here, AND we're supposed to persuade him to be interested in our puny human matters.

Corsair114 · Post by **Corsair114** » Fri Oct 04, 2013 9:07 pm

We'll greet him as equals and see what happens.

(Hilarity ensues in 3... 2... 1....)

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Sat Oct 05, 2013 2:12 am

To your dismay, the Firedrake picks up a two-handed battle-axe which against the side of his throne and, telling you to stay just where you are, he walks round to stand behind. You sense him raising the axe to strike, and then he says 'Grovel or die!'

• Grovel before him?
• Turn and threaten that the Dorgoman army will avenge your death if he kills you?

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Sat Oct 05, 2013 3:50 am

I doubt that a proud asshole warrior king will be deterred by a threat of reprisal if he killed us, and not showing restraint when a kingdom was threatening to kill us is what got the Matchless Queen killed. Kneel before Zod the Firedrake and hope that this book doesn't punish you for trying to apply caution consistently.

(Out of curiosity, does groveling now lead to the same section as groveling in the first place?)

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Sat Oct 05, 2013 3:57 am

It does.

Corsair114 · Post by **Corsair114** » Sat Oct 05, 2013 7:23 am

Okay, we'll kowtow. No need to push our luck.

We should, after all, try and keep our head.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Sat Oct 05, 2013 2:11 pm

By prostrating yourself at the Archveult's feet, you have placed yourself beneath regard. You are no more in his eyes than one of the Lackers who till the fields. He orders you thrown into the palace dungeons and forgets to instruct the guards to feed you. You die of starvation.

(There's some more, but it's mostly moot procedure because you have lost your second life.)

See, that qualifies as super bullshit. You made the right choice, and then it gave you what looked like a second chance to get it right, but was actually a second chance to get it wrong.

Meet me over at the main thread.

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Sat Oct 05, 2013 9:50 pm

angelfromanotherpin wrote:See, that qualifies as super bullshit. You made the right choice, and then it gave you what looked like a second chance to get it right, but was actually a second chance to get it wrong.

Not more than the Fey kingdom. For good units, we had to make (at least) two correct picks in a row: Sacerdoge (stay and offer babies) and Fey (take cover and something). With Fey, it wasn't a second chance to get things right, it was a chance to mitigate damage. We won't be seeing anyone chickening out in Sacerdoge, but I bet if anyone does, the leet 4/5 cav is off limits. It was seriously unlikely that the book would offer us a second chance to get back on the winning track with Strength 6 Firedrakes.