What to do next: Invasion of Aphus Lassel, Return to Dereth, G Coins

I'm putting this up as a formal discussion on what to do next in the campaign. The party who went to Aphus Lassel is aware of more problems than Zeiss, whose only objective at the moment is to get the Exchange running to get gold flowing, and taking opportunities to forge alliances.

The Fierneceal party has to collect their thoughts on the invasion of Aphus, the prediction of Gaerlan's next move, possibly reuniting or making contact with Zeiss, and how to get back the "Gaerlans"(I'm going off his name to refer to his giant ego coins) back into our possession, to minimize the damage as much as possible without becoming villainized by the city we're staying at currently.

As far as the main mission of stopping Gaerlan goes, we can't really make a move against or ahead of him right now. I can't predict his next move, and I don't think Fierneceal can either. She was set on going to Aphus Lassel only after the continent felt backlash from the connection on it being severed. One positive outlook is that we prevented the island from sinking, like Vesayen almost did.

We tried to make contact with Zeiss from the island, but it's possible that the nation of Aphus(did we learn what that was called?) couldn't get him a message in time before the Tumeroks invaded. Finding him is definitely a priority, as he's working on the Exchange, and I don't see what else we could do for now other than gather resources and unite people against the Pinnacle or the Directorate, or the...Frozen Lord. I'm hesitant to use that term, borrowing the title of the main villain from World of Warcraft's "Frozen Throne" expansion. Whatever, the guy at the center of the vision Zeiss had when he touched the Mirror Key.

So I think finding Zeiss is our primary goal, but right now getting those Gaerlans from the inn and trading them for the Dereth currency is our top priority at the moment. I will, of course, be telling everyone what I learned on the 23rd, and basically tell off Araiguna and order him to pay with real money.

So many villains, so little time.

Clarification : Zeiss did not have that vision, Hanuel did (I think). Zeiss had a vision of a tower amongst the ruins of an ancient "city" in the crater of an ancient volcano.

Two Gaerlants are worth around 300 gp.

Whatever you guys do, make sure you keep that artifact of knowledge safe from any enemies. As for me, I'll make sure I play Araiguna as erratically as I can.

Suddenly, Araiguna dies.

...seriously though I like how Rory has summarized the situation nicely, and agree that the group really should be thinking about their next move at length. The ball is in your court, in more ways then one.

Well Z is on her own little mission of doom right now and kezrin is "in Central" and that's all we know about her. So those two characters are taken care of.

As for Fiernaceal, she wants to get in contact with with her contact with The Coordinate. She needs to get that "mailbox" thingy and let them know what they found. That's going to determine her next move. As for the Gaerlants. WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING USING THOSE! OR TRYING TO GET THEM EXCHANGED FOR CURRENT CURRENCY! *deep breath* okay now that that is done, let me explain. By using those friggen coins we are exclaiming to the world what we learned and making people who otherwise would not have had any interest or involvement with the islands and all of the shit and doom and death therein know that it even freaking exists.... sigh.... just because its shiny doesn't mean you should go spending it. anyway those are my thoughts.

Well, if we need to buy the Gaerlans back then we need to find a way to make cash quickly. Perhaps we could try putting out some feeler's for some work?

Kolson is also an accomplished Weaver, perhaps I could do some orders for money.

Zeiss wrote:Whatever you guys do, make sure you keep that artifact of knowledge safe from any enemies. As for me, I'll make sure I play Araiguna as erratically as I can.

Oh shit, I forgot about that. I wasn't clear on whether or not we had succeeded in keeping that. Definitely getting Fierneceal to palm that and mind link it in a safe place away from prying eyes. Maybe get some help from the Eleven, now that we made it back alive? Wonder if that 8-sided purple crystal still works.

Z wrote:Well Z is on her own little

Wait, who again?? lol

Z wrote:As for Fiernaceal, she wants to get in contact with with her contact with The Coordinate.  She needs to get that "mailbox" thingy and let them know what they found.  That's going to determine her next move.

Right, forgot that part too. I'll bet they'll need time to think about her new orders. I hope they'll look on the positive side when it comes to her luck with saving islands.

Z wrote:As for the Gaerlants.  WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING USING THOSE! OR TRYING TO GET THEM EXCHANGED FOR CURRENT CURRENCY!  *deep breath* okay now that that is done, let me explain.  By using those friggen coins we are exclaiming to the world what we learned and making people who otherwise would not have had any interest or involvement with the islands and all of the shit and doom and death therein know that it even freaking exists.... sigh.... just because its shiny doesn't mean you should go spending it.  anyway those are my thoughts.

Wow, I did not think of it that way. I'm pretty sure that guy I showed a coin to couldn't make any sense of what he experienced, let alone appraise it, so hopefully we're safe there. I'm more worried about the same type of trauma popping up around the city as the coins exchange hands, and the detrimental effect that could have--socially, economically, politically, as well as mentally on an individual level, as the number of people who have touched any of the coins with their bare hands grows. Hopefully the inn will keep them stored away somewhere, without trying to pawn them off at an art display or museum--or auction--for a few days... I don't like this city.

Kolson Wezrae wrote:Kolson is also an accomplished Weaver, perhaps I could do some orders for money.

Not a bad idea. You might have to use up some CXP, unless you could just Weave fancy toys for kids that don't really do anything special, or just some work of art that wouldn't put enough of a strain on you to require CXP. Once we have the time to spare, we could sit down and do checks on the coins ourselves to see if we could somehow remove the taint of Gaerlan's mind from them. If not, then what do we do with them, toss them in the ocean? We can't exactly leave them lying around for someone else to find. Yeah, I'm starting to regret taking a share of the coins from that facility.

Rory, we don't have that 8 sided crystal. The Eleven don't wanna talk to us anymore so they took it.

And good luck getting those Gaerlants back. I'll make sure Araiguna continues to spend them. *evil laugh*

Whatever you guys decide to do, there's a good chance Javan will decide into going to the nearby Air Temple asap and do the trial. Now that Hanuel and Dara are gone and with no real way of tracking them down, the party lost access to desperation attack and moon saber, which saved our arses more times than we care to count.
So from the perspective of one of the guys that hit stuff up close, Javan thinks it's a good idea to become a dragoon asap, which needs him to go through the Air Temple's trial first. Once that's done, he'll be freed from his earthly attachments and be able to concentrate on this 'Save the World While Pissing People Off In The Process' campaign of ours.

A suggestion : go to Qal. It is a major Osteth city with a Hub. And since Osteth are allied with Aluvia, the Hub should allow you to get back to Holtburg as soon as possible. And the Air temple is more or less on the way, so you could make a little stop there too.

From a character perspective:

Snarg's going to contact the Coordinate about what happened and what didn't happen. Whether that means having to go personally or not, he'll be heading off wherever he needs to go to make that happen. Things may change a bit depending on what he learns about the events that have taken place since we all left, but that's the general gist. Essentially his plan is to try and get more things moving more against Gaerlan than their currently are, get more people and equipment in on this (try to recover the anti-Gaerlan devices), check up on the airship, get Kezrin back in on this, put out feelers for Hanuel, Higaide, all that good stuff. He's going to try and get the Eleven back on board by going through one of the other higher-ups in the Coordinate (Baigen or someone like that) that don't have a chip on their shoulder. We have an advantage since their refusal of support really cost the Coordinate as a whole in that last mission. Also wanted to see if they have any information about what ultimately became of the island. We will hopefully have more cred now after going through those trials.

Regarding the sphere, he does know a certain Gnome we met who he might trust to be able to unlock its secrets and not use selfishly. He was last seen by the party working on the Desolate situation; specifically with a little boy. If he's as good at working with the Elements as was claimed, he might be able to do something with it. Of course, if he's not part of the Coordinate, the invitation could be extended.

Right now there's a lot of information and people we need to talk with. Holtburg is probably the best place to do most of that if we can get there quickly. Without that I don't really have anything else concrete I can suggest doing.

Zeiss, please don't make Araiguna keep spending coins past the point I've torn him a new one for it. At some point he needs to think about the group majority if he doesn't want to get kicked out(what he actually wants is completely up to the GM now, I reckon).

Sucks that we don't have a way of contacting the Eleven, but the idea here is that they didn't expect us to get off that island alive and sane, but now that we have, they hopefully might reconsider staying in contact with us and providing their self-limited assistance.

Fierneceal is the one who will contact the "Coordinate", Snarg will put out feelers, and obviously we'll all be scrambling to get those coins back by whatever means we can afford and risk. Rory will pretty much help however he can, and just pocket as much regular currency as he can between Thramada and Holtburg.

If we come across the Air Temple on the way, he'll definitely want to take the trial. Had he won the trial in the first temple they visited, he might have looked on this "pilgrimage" as a journey of enlightenment, but the way it went before turned it into a mean-spirited challenge for him.

Rory, if you guys don't tell him it's a bad idea to spend them, he will continue to do so.

And if we succeed at understanding the knowledge in that sphere, we could use that knowledge ourselves without shouting to everybody we know we found a way to eradicate world hunger. Admittedly, I would have to convince the faction that controls the farms to join the Exchange, but that was already in my plans.

*Flies away*

Actually, Rory might be partial to ending world hunger with that thing, if that information has already been made known to him. He's still working on looking out for the family.

Rory wrote:Not a bad idea. You might have to use up some CXP, unless you could just Weave fancy toys for kids that don't really do anything special, or just some work of art that wouldn't put enough of a strain on you to require CXP. Once we have the time to spare, we could sit down and do checks on the coins ourselves to see if we could somehow remove the taint of Gaerlan's mind from them. If not, then what do we do with them, toss them in the ocean? We can't exactly leave them lying around for someone else to find. Yeah, I'm starting to regret taking a share of the coins from that facility.

I don't mind spending CXP if it helps the party out. And I totally agree, we need to get those coins out of circulation.

Apart from sending out messages, making contact with the Coordinate, and get-gold-quick schemes, it seems like our long-term destination will be Holtburg. Javan makes an excellent point about the Air Temple, we lost our trump card with Hanuel. We should definitely think about heading there, as it's close by. Personally I don't use dragoons, but I think they're awesome being able to jump like that. I forgot about the Gnome in Karath. Guess we might be meeting up with Z soon--maybe. We should definitely be careful while traveling in Naverre Territory. Snarg, remember you didn't exactly tell everyone what went down in Wildeash. Unless you just want to say that you did, that's fine. I just want to summarize.

1. I'll tell people about my attempt to get the coin appraised when we gather 'round the table or whatever, and tell Araiguna not to spend them anymore. Apply pressure if necessary.
2. Snarg will get out messages to contact people, Fierneceal will do the same but for the Coordinate.
3. We'll all try to find ways to get the Gaerlans back--money schemes, diplomacy, etc. Hopefully Araiguna's been counting the ones he's been giving away.
4. Long-term destinaton: Holtburg.
5. Visits planned for the trip: Air Temple, Karath.

Don't forget we can use the Hub cities to move across long distances quickly if we can afford the transportation. Al-Arqas is the nearest Hub city in Naverre Territory, but I think Qal is closer to the Air Temple. The Hub city closest to Karath is of course Al-Jalima. It'd be interesting to see what's changed since we last visited.

If the fee for transportation is directly related to distance, we could stick with going a long distance run to Al-Arqas instead of Qal. If we want to be thrifty, we could get a wagon and some horses again and have Araiguna and Snarg do Handle Animal checks(Araiguna:12, Snarg:7) to make them go faster, hopefully expending more water and food on the horses for a circumstance bonus. Speaking of, did we ever feed or water the horses we used to have?

Then, if we have enough money by the time we've overstayed our welcome in Karath, we can hoof it to Al-Jalima again and Hub-jump from there to Holtburg.

Just in case I miss the memo on when we're starting again, Rory's focused on getting the coins back, deferential to attempts to send out messages. He'll want to talk to Kolson about the coins for Weaving and Spellcraft checks. And wherever Fierneceal wants to go, he'll go. He'll be inclined to visit the temple, and Karath in relation to that knowledge orb, but is otherwise not trying to influence the majority on the route we take or the places we go.

Btw Arch, is the 23rd thread in the current campaign open for roleplay, or otherwise initiating our first actions while we wait for you to get a mic again?

Rory, the characters in Fierneceal's group don't know that yet, but Aluvia and Naverre are at war. I would be surprised if you could use a Hub to get to Al-Jalima. And even if you could, you wouldn't be able to go to Holtburg from there since Aluvia and Naverre probably closed their access to the Hub from each other. One other thing : Al-Jalima will most likely be real soon under siege from Aluvia.

@Rory: The 23rd thread is open for roleplaying, in-character discussion, and minor actions as needed.

Then I look forward to roleplaying when my character learns about that stuff, Zeiss. Until Rory knows about the conflict between Aluvia and Naverre, as well as the restrictions that come with it, it's the best plan.