Primus Campaign Resuming Next Monday, For Now

What the title says.  Anyone who has any questions about what's been happening, here's a good place to ask.  Also a good spot to plan your next move. 

From my understanding the next step for you guys will be to use Rakarg's hidden pathway to transit back to Holtburg, see what's happening in Janwall and why it's been incommunicado, get the letter from Kezrinthka there waiting for you, and finally setup the Pyreal mine to fund further adventures.  Feel free to correct me on any of this, of course.

WAIT WHAT THERE'S A LETTER!!? FROM THE BUG!!? LUDICROUS SPEED GO!!!

Hell yeah, we need that letter!

In the mean time, I'd love to know who all of our allies and sometimes allies are.

I find it difficult to keep track of because I seem to have a knack for missing the group's interactions with them.

Like who are those mysterious guys that only talk through Not-Scarecrows? What's their deal and why are they so iffy on committing to us when they don't seem to have any better options?

These people who talk through the Scarecrows are the Eleven. The first time we met one of them, it was after the Nightmare encounter (with Andrei the Desolate kid and the puzzles we were put through). It wasn't a scarecrow we saw that time, but an hologram of an invisible man in a robe that called himself the Warden. Pompous arrogant bastard (joking).

They don't like us fighting amongst ourselves. They prefer consensus and feel that those who can't achieve such a thing cannot become their allies. That's what I understood anyway. And what do I think about restarting the Primus campaign?

HELL YEAH.

That is all.

Existing allies of the group?  *taps chin*  Not sure there is such a thing.

Okay, joking aside you do have a tenuous alliance with the Lord of Holtburg, Daelyshia of Lightmane.  You owe her a couple of solids for having helped out the party significantly, and haven't really held up your end of things yet, so that is probably in the process of slipping.

You have a stronger alliance with the Coordinate, best represented by Rakarg's now presence within your party as a knowledgeable and powerful Yellow Mage.  This particular group however is only really interested in stopping Gaerlan.

You have an even more tenuous connection to Gretta of Firebeard, a Warlord in charge of the Slates who basically run Ritholme.  This is mostly a trade agreement that honestly I don't think you guys have honored yet but I might retcon that.  Not sure yet.

And finally there is a Fel Knight Moarsman, Scargil of Pallidtone.  I'm sure you remember him.

Also Zeiss had a pretty good read on the Eleven, don't really have anything else to add in-character.

Ahh, got some time to write.

As far as allies go, of the ones listed, I'd hope they wouldn't drop us so quickly. It's only been a handful of days since those encounters have happened, I really hope they weren't expecting The Exchaneg and the trade agreements to actually be 100% in less than a week in the current circumstances. The trip to Janwall is hopefully going to be a good point to re-establish contact with many of them and follow up on those things.

As much as I hate saying this phrase, it might be best if we split in to groups to try and cover as much of that as possible since we've got a crapload to do. We don't all need to be there to encounter each individual or perform each action.

One of my plans was to get Scargil in on the airship and see if he'd be willing to help with that, provided he wants to and has the needed experience and skills. Of course he'd be compensated for all of this. Snarg could talk with him about that since he's had the most one-on-one time with him before. If he doesn't want to do it, fine, but at least he should be informed about it.

Gretta and the mine are probably up to the more business oriented characters. Zeiss will probably have the most interest in that, since he's the one who dealt with Gretta initially. If you're looking to grow The Exchange, you'll want to get on that and also in contact with Daelyshia. Be a proxy for Gretta and Daelyshia if you suspect that she doesn't have connections there already. That's a good opportunity to have Gretta still maintain control of her area, grow The Exchange, and please Daelyshia and Gretta at the same time if goods start flowing there. Then again, they could already have a setup there, just have to find out.

The Coordinate, well, we've got a representative with us so that's good. I've got some plans for him and his skills. He seems to have the ins for the anti-Gaerlan stuff, so we'll want him with us to open up those doors.

We did impress the Eleven before our interpersonal issues came to a head. I'm thinking if we can reach a point in roleplay, whether now or eventually, we may be able to catch their attention again.

Figuring out how to work together is all we have to go on when it comes to hoping that the Eleven will decide that we are worth invested interest. Rory was one of the key dissidents in the group, but thanks to the Air trial, he should start reigning in his brashness. The fact that he succeeded in a temple trial should be enough in-character knowledge to hint at that. Maybe the questions he asked that nearby Ibrexi should hint a little at the positive as well.

Ah, seems we may be making a detour the garden first. I think it might be best if we don't split up for that, yes?

Sure, you guys go ahead and try to return where the Tumeroks must have stationed a robot.

I'll stay behind.

You know that strange collar around Zeiss' neck when he woke up? Remember all the other party members wearing identical rings? Remember them warning Zeiss to stay as close as possible to them?

... I'm just going to say all of that is related, and Zeiss' continued well-being depends on him doing reckless stuff with the rest of the party.

...Dude. Your character is gonna have to grow a pair soon, cuz without the rest of the group to back you up, you're guaranteed to get surrounded, outnumbered, and killed. Just like you almost were last time.

There is a difference between being courageous and being reckless. Your visit to Aphus Lassel did not really help the party except :

-Soul augmentation that Lady Aerfalle is going to provide anyway.
-Information that isn't going to help us in the fight against Gaerlan.
-Triggering an invasion by the Tumeroks on Aphus Lassel.
-Losing Hanuel in the process.

I am simply roleplaying my character. And right now, he would look at the facts, and trying to return to an island that you just tried your damnest to escape doesn't strike as logical to Zeiss. If you fear that Gaerlan might try to study the soul augmentation equipment :

-A : he doesn't seem to have the temperament or the patience to do so.
-B : and if he does, the Tumeroks are blocking his way (and I have a feeling they can match his power, while avoiding his mind-controlling powers with their robots).
-C : the Tumeroks are the ones most likely to stumble upon this equipment.

So, if you really want Zeiss to go to Aphus Lassel, you better have a plan. Ask our friend Lycan if need be.

Tempted to give OOC information but I won't.  However, if Zeiss (the character) is going to continue to split up on his own, I'm probably going to stop GMing for him directly and just summarize his misadventures due to not really wanting to run two sidelines like that continuously.

I understand the necessity of doing that,

It's just that saying : "Let's go back to Aphus Lassel after barely escaping it" doesn't really motivate him to do so. Hint to other players : try to convince him that we CAN come back from Aphus Lassel, not that we MUST. He would follow you guys if it meant avoiding the Tumeroks instead of doing what he would see as a useless sacrifice.

In fact, has the majority of the group voted in favor of this action?

Nevermind my last posts.

While I was at work tonight, I was pondering how I could make Zeiss go to Aphus Lassel, for the sake of the unity of the party (assuming all members of the party agree to go there of course). I really wanted to make it fit with his character and after much thinking, I found a way. Also, I would like to roleplay this reasoning with the rest of the characters. Now, even if he agrees to this expedition, he will still go to Janwall first to discover what happened to Sareth.

So yay, another problem resolved. ^^

Oh don't worry, I know what Rory's gonna say.

It's worth noting I intend to roleplay the recent revelation of Fierneceal's Monday, first thing, so we can have the discussion of the Garden Interlude pretty much immediately.  But no I don't mind you hashing out what to do NOW so we don't spend 3 weeks deliberating.

Okay, here's my idea of the change of plans:

Lycan casts Exit to take us all to Holtburg.
Go to the Pyreal mines, claim them, check up on people we left there
Travel to Janwall, check up on Undermarket splinter group, deal with the invading splinter group, find Sareth or get word from him
Use Exit to take us to the Garden and pick up Higaide--visit Holtburg first for more Exchange business?
Pick up Higaide, use Exit again, but this time taking us to the Fire Temple.

Now here's the rub: unless we're doing anything specific in Holtburg, we could just take Exit straight to the Pyreal mines and claim it from the start.

If I recall, the actual room with the Garden was a safe place when we last left it. I hope that's still true.

Possible actions after Fire Temple
Danby Arena: sail to Holtburg, maybe do some adventuring work if we're strapped for gold, then take the hub transit to Yaraq and leg it to Danby.

Do some Exchange busywork: sometimes extra manpower is needed for certain jobs. Jobs involving tension and/or possible conflict. We could go out and deal with these tasks personally,such as killing some monsters or bandits in the way, or making some deals with other Undermarket splinter groups, etc.

...Or just go back to taking adventuring bills one after another like we were before we got mixed up with the Order. This is all just basically to get stronger and gain more influence/standing, preparing in the meantime while we wait for the Coordinate to find a lead, or less favorably, for Gaerlan to make his next move.

Up to the Fire Temple excursion, I am okay with this plan, except one thing : we really should recruit movers, buyers, sellers and guards for the Exchange. We'll need to make caravans to get the goods moving. Van found some students who could do the job, but they would be more interested in joining the military for a better pay (that we can't afford to offer them). We would have to persuade them to join the Exchange, if they haven't joined the military already.

Or we could find some movers somewhere else. But we need them, preferably before we go to Marblebush claim the mine.

Sure, we could definitely start at Holtburg and try to talk job searchers into meeting with Oghren's people. On the other hand, we could have Oghren get on that himself...hell, he might have discovered this himself and could be working on getting people as we speak. As for competing with the military in the employment field...it's Pyreal, Zeiss. I think the mineral in question that is being mined is plenty enough to allay that concern. Getting the Pyreal mine operational should assure prospective employees that there will be a steady source of income for payroll expenses, and we'd definitely achieve it by the time the first payroll comes around. We might even be able to provide them with benefits! Military, while definitely well-funded to provide benefits, won't hold a candle to that if salary is the issue.

When it comes to getting movers, simply informing potential workers that we have the coin necessary to purchase a Pyreal mine should be enough to get people interested simply because it's a very valuable mineral. Having the gold to back it up and the right mineral in question when it comes to future investment should be very promising when it comes to rolling Diplomacy, getting people interested and signing up. We'll likely have to deal with competing buyers doing the same thing though, so hopefully we roll well. In the meantime, we could have people scour the surrounding area for other minerals, Pyreal or otherwise.

What about asking the refuges to work for us, or in the mine? There were a ton of them around Marblebush when we left...

Not a bad idea, considering Stonehold's connection to the Undermarket. We might even find plenty of people who used to work for the Undermarket out of Stonehold. But let's just be careful. They were literally swarming the horizon, so it'll be like handing out spare change at a hobo camp.

When I was talking with Arch about offering a better pay to the potential employees than what the military was offering, he did not say the pay was only good. He said (I'm paraphrasing) that their salary was VERY good. The problem isn't to convince these students that we CAN pay them, but that we can offer more. But I don't know what Pyrreal is worth, so that concern may resolve itself when we get the mine running.

Oghren doesn't know anyone that can help as a buyer, seller, mover, etc. Already asked him. And Bonebreaker for that matter. Which is why I asked Van.

I don't think we need people to scout for other minerals, only the scanner thingy on the scion airship.

And I think we should offer the people living in Marblebush a job as miner. They are the ones who want to see their town prosper and it would be really impolite to bypass them and offer the refugees all the jobs. If there is a need to hire more people than what we have available in Marblebush, sure, let's bring in some refugees.

If I remember correctly (and I could be mistaken) the dwarves were more interested in salvage from the ruins than "real" work. While I agree we should offer them the opportunity to work the mine first, we should not waste time trying to convince them if they refuse or argue.

We already did offer them a chance and they turned it down along with all the other help we offered. I say go ahead and bypass them and offer it straight to the refugees if they're going to be that way - let them see what they're missing so they realize tha. While you may get some more experienced people working on it if you pull from the town, if they already don't want to do it, I wouldn't offer it to them first. Instead, if the mine does well, I would let them naturally come and ask for jobs if they change their mind. No use trying to put people to work who don't want to work. It would also be great PR to be putting refugees to work. You may need to dig for some skilled labor for some of the positions, but you should be able to at least get that from Holtburg if need be.

I'm not sure if the Lycan can take us directly to the mining spot, I thought it was only to major locations like hubs and temples. Regardless, we won't want to go straight to that spot. Unless something has happened there we need to take care of personally, there's not much we can do there just be ourselves. We'd just see the ground then turn around and have to walk away. Scouting the land I don't have a problem with, but I don't think we need to take the whole group there at the start. Going to Holtburg would be the better idea since we're going to have to hire out people to build and staff the mine. That's probably going to come from Holtburg primarily or at least there will be companies headquartered there that can start that process (unless there's another town that's better suited for that - not sure).

As far as what to do about picking up Higs, Snarg would want to head there right away. I'm not entirely sure that's a great idea if we don't have a reliable way to get back quickly. I know the Lycan can do his whole teleport thing, but if I recall correctly, there was a recharge time to that which was not insignificant. Could use the Exit materia again, although there's no telling where that will put people.