Shards of a Broken Empire, Planning Thread Options

[grif11]

Personally I dont have a problem with it. However it might be a little awkward since the emperor just gave his private speech, but I suppose we can work around it. For example, Lord Revan isn't even near the IC.

[jack cloudy]

I'd say you should make your character first and come up with a background. That might help give us a good idea on how to get you in the group. Or you could pretend your guy/girl was always around, but hadn't said a thing yet.

I also suggest you read the planning thread first. There are a few new ideas we're experimenting with which are detailed here.

And finally, something completely unrelated. I came across the notes I'd taken on Semir's disguise. Turns out I forgot to remove the skinbleach and trim his beard. Ah well.

[Uleni Athram]

Welcome Tellie! Really good to see you joining us!

[grif11]

I'm starting to feel bad at how negative were seeing Nihri before we've even talked

[Dantrag]

yeah, but i see it as a good opportunity for character development/interaction.

[Uleni Athram]

Hmm.. Well, since Nihri's one of the Big Cats, I suppose she can handle the heat. And I agree with Dantrag, schism and rivalry makes this RP all the more enjoyable! I hope we can see fights and betrayals along the way for the Roots! Just don't take it all personally, ey?

Since you guys hate Khajiits, I think the Smiler's hatred for dunmeri should be made apparent by now.

*looks hungrily at Grif*

Hey man, your character doesn't need those legs, does he? The Smiler is hungry, you see, and he/she requests that you be a chum and be a charitable guy!

*licks lips like a certain masked-guy who likes axes*

Nah, its a joke. But my point still stands. The Smiler hates dunmer, so expext some 'unnecessary' mischief from him/her.

And I'm really, REALLY tempted to ... bring out the sociopath inside me and terrorize you guys with Celdryn the Blessed Devourer. How about it? You guys wanna have a cannibal in your midst... AGAIN? *evil laugh*

[grif11]

Hmm, good point. This will be good for the roleplay.

Erm, can we have a roleplay without someone COMPLETELY INSANE!

[saqin]

Nihri mightn't like it, but it really is a great opportunity for interactions to have her being quite disliked from the start. And as Uleni said, she is one of the big cats and knows how to take care of herself. Besides she's a warrior unlike most other khajiiti, if she can't break loose from the view most people has of khajiits, I can't think of another khajiit who could.

As for Celdryn joining the party... I don't know o_O

[jack cloudy]

Well, Semir would not even consider working with someone like Celdryn unless explicitly ordered to do so. At least if Celdryn is remotely like Cyldreen. He doesn't like uncertainties and blatanly crazy murdertastic guys even less. Which I think, would mean he'll be more than a bit wary of the Smiler. Who knows what's hiding behind the mask after all. As for the other people in the party, he'll just keep a general eye on them till he knows what he's dealing with but other than that will be polite and friendly enough.

On another note, I'm thinking of maybe adding a second character by the time we get to the Argonian border. It depends on what we've got running by then and if there's still room. For now, my idea goes towards Hornhead the slightly crazy (but not violent) Argonian courier/scout/general run and jump guy.

[Lord Revan]

Ya'll go ahead, I don't have time right now to figure out how valero should proceed. I'll catch up this weekend.

[grif11]

We should probably just move on without Caboose for a while, because right now he's playing Arkham City. Trust me, when he plays a new game, all he does is eat, sleep and play!

[Lord Revan]

I can relate to that.

[jack cloudy]

Curse you, videogames! Curse you!

Ahem, this means that it is Ahrenil's turn I guess? Or has Tellie posted her character yet?

[Uleni Athram]

Heh. Me too. When I encounter a game that caters to my needs, I go 'buh-bye, reality!'

Anyway, yes, it is Ahrenil's turn and no, Tellie hasn't posted her character yet. I really wish she would bring back the raging bad-@ss Zaeed Wasabi.

So, when we encounter him, he would go like:

"*greets us* Wasabi! *rage rage rage because that(s how he rolls* WAAAAASSSAAAAABIIIII!"

Yeeeeeeeeeaaah. I like him and his personality. I don't know why, but I guess you could say ... *puts on a radical pair of sunglasses*















I got hooked up on Wasabi. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHH. Double entendre FTW!

And before you guys go raging on me, I know Zaeed's proper last name. Its Marazzi, yeah? Yeah. OK.

[Uleni Athram]

OK, before I post can I get one thing straight from you guys? What transportation should we use to go to Mournhold? The Legatus says we should use boats, but I'm not sure of that plan anymore. Simply because I clean forgot about Lord Revan's situation. He was in the border between Cyrodiil and Morrowind, if I remember correctly. So if we take boats, that means going south towards Topal Bay and then looping around so we can dock in Mournhold.

In short, we will bypass him COMPLETELY if we use boats. If we go by this, which I imagine all of you don't want to, we could have him captured by the army of the dark elves and then taken to Mournhold as a POW, and then he could meet our group. In Revan's last post, his character meets a prisoner of war. If that POW's warden comes back, well.. you get the picture. With Lord Revan's authorization, we can have this.

Or just ignore the poor Legate and go by carriage or horses, and thus meet Valero. Which choice you guys choose, I will follow.

God, I really screwed up in this one. T____T Sorry guys.

This post has been edited by Uleni Athram: Oct 31 2011, 03:33 PM

[jack cloudy]

Well, one other way is by ignoring mournhold completely. Granted, this will require the guys and girls to discuss the alternate plan first and vote on it. But anyway, here is my reasoning, or Semir's if you want.

1: The legatus' plan was to put it mildly, simplistic. It is also rather obvious. While the boat was supposed to be subtle according to the guy, Semir expects the docks to be under observation. Now take our motley gang of mercenaries and have them board an unmarked boat. A small merchantmen or whatever the legatus thought appropriate and sneaky. Now have said boat leave the harbour at night. Boat, strange passengers boarded in the dark, plus it leaves at a weird time. Can you say suspicious? Hell, even if we leave along with a lot of other boats in the middle of the day, we'll still stand out. News of all those mercenaries at the party, and the lot that left after receiving letters from the champion of Cyrodiil him/herself, will spread like wildfire. Yeah, that wasn't very subtle, not since people were talking about it.

2: As Semir already said, he doesn't like the prepared disguises. Sure, we know he can do disguises, but the disguise needs to be geared to the situation and level of preparation available. Doing a peasant or other low-class civilian is easy, mercenary likewise. Nobles or even middle-class merchants take more time, both in ways of appearance and the necessary documents. Pretending to be a member of a highly exclusive, elite order with a religious backbone takes months, at least. So in short, the robes might work. Ordinators? Yeah, Semir isn't going to place any bets on that one.

Ordinators are ridiculously visible and are kept to very strict standards by every level of the population, not the least of which being other Ordinators and the priesthood. And in Mournhold those standards are probably the highest. It is the capital after all. He wouldn't just need to learn the right words, but when to say them, in what tone, how fast or slow. How to walk, how to react to things and other people. To make it all seem natural. Experience can cut down on the amount of needed preparation, but he doesn't have that. Not disguising himself as an Ordinator or something similar. And this is just for the guy who has disguises as part of his job description.

Actually, we can go with the disguise plan. We just need to liberate some Bonemold or Chitin first. Those sets also come with face concealment, are military in nature which will help when meeting the Dunmeri army and they're used by less important folk.

3: We don't actually have information on how to contact the Mournhold informant. Ok, this is nitpicking. Anyway, we could solve that by retconning one of our Blades into having the info. The more elegant solution would be to have it waiting on the boat.

4: By the time we reach Mournhold, the front will have moved. I also expect that we'll then have to go to said frontlines. So basically we'll be spending precious time doing catchup. Better perhaps is to go straight to said frontlines and try to infiltrate there. This is also where the most up to date information regarding the search can be found. I'm assuming the Dunmer didn't just decide to invade Argonia because last sunday had such nice weather. We could copy that information and use it for our search. The most risky option would be to wait till the Dunmer had found it, then run in and snatch it before they can whisk it away.

5: If the Argonians are the ones to find the loot, we'll have similar issues as with the Dunmer scenario, but it is less bad. The Argonians will be sufficiently provoked to want some payback. They'll be looking to counterattack and probably utilize the roots as an equalizer. So far, they've been doing poorly after all and they'd lose badly outside the swamps it seems. This gives us a larger amount of time to do the snatching than with the Dunmer scenario.

This post has been edited by jack cloudy: Oct 31 2011, 07:23 PM

[Ahrenil]

The other issue that I can see is that Mournhould isn't near the sea, and a group of Ordinators trekking across from the coast while the war is so far away will likely draw attention. We could probably make some decent time heading over land, and with all the attention focused at the Argonian-Dunmer border struggles we could probably cross the Cyrodil/Morrowind border quite easily.

Once inside Morrowind I suggest we disguise as civilians, or maybe just say we're mercenaries looking to earn some money on the front lines. It could give us a free ride there, since people are going to see our faces eventually, I doubt even Ordinators sleep with their masks on.

[grif11]

Im wondering if Taedril should disguise himself with his face revealed, so that the group seems less suspicious. At least if people saw one of us unmasked they would suspect the others to be outsiders less.

[jack cloudy]

I'm assuming that if we do go with the Ordinator plan, we don't actually put on the disguise till we're right outside Mournhold. We could dirty and scratch up our armour a bit and pretend we're from an exterior patrol who were sent to deal with some Argonian deep raiders or Argonian hired mercenaries. Delay any questions from the gatekeepers by sounding tired, cranky and in need to report somewhere else pronto.


As for Taedril going unmasked. That's a pretty good idea actually, even moreso if he pretends to be the commanding officer. His eyes might stand out a bit, but I'm sure we can figure out something.

That said, I suggest we continue moving towards the docks for now. At least till Revan brings in his ideas. If we decide to change our course later, we can always make a night-time landing outside any towns and away from observers.

[Lord Revan]

Whatever y'all decide, I planned for Valero to get into trouble with the Dunmer, then get carted off to wherever the groups destination is.