Shisa

A Tyrant's Undoing

@Zetsuko Actually,

Tahra could not believe what was happening, there was now definitely too many people. She looked back over her shoulder towards the window she had jumped out of, the guards were looking out, and trying to figure out what direction she had gone.

@Game Maker

So they were looking out the window, but couldn't find her. Shortly after, the princess and almost everyone else went into the covered wagon. The guards explicitly did not see anything, which is what allowed us to traverse the city briefly without getting caught immediately.

EDIT: Oh, you saw that. Never mind. Carry on.

A Tyrant's Undoing

@Zetsuko Ah, no, that's a Yu Yu Hakusho reference to a similar concept. Lemons might have gotten it from somewhere different. Essentially, he's storing excess magic power in a valuable stone capable of containing magic energy over a period of 6 years, and he exhausted it on one strong spell.

EDIT: It exhausted our resources. It was not an easy victory, and even if it was, I find it preferable to an impossible fight.

A Tyrant's Undoing

@Zetsuko Correction: A mage who had to use his once-every-6-years-ma-fu-kan just to get the leg-up we needed while we had the terrain advantage that comes with being the defender in a siege. If we just walked up to the castle, they would have all their forces and the defender's advantage and we'd all be dead. It seems like a non-issue to me.

A Tyrant's Undoing

@Zetsuko I mean, letting us completely screw up a contingent and get away sounds good to me. It'll let us feel like we're actually doing something instead of being relegated to helpless objects without agency that need to be rescued, and I think the former sounds more fun. But seeing as our wizard is out now, we'll still have to run because we couldn't deal with more guards. Essentially, we get to feel cool as a group while maintaining the urgency and fear of getting caught.

A Tyrant's Undoing

@Zetsuko Oh, I understand, but it would have been better than being captured. I went by cart because it gets everyone there at a quick pace, even if I can't take it.

Which would be a real setback in itself seeing as though perhaps half of Stephanie's utility comes from her wares. She's not winning a strength or endurance or magic contest any time soon, you know, so not having her wagon would make her almost useless. That wouldn't be much fun, would it?

A Tyrant's Undoing

@Zetsuko Well, logically there are two possible exits from the estate. One with fire and lightning and guards, and the other secret one we were told about. I'm not going to charge full speed at the former, and Avad isn't going to have line of sight from the back if we're heading towards the guard exit. Otherwise my plan is to ride around the estate until we get surrounded. That all said, we were going towards the exit Ian just sealed.

Anyways, @Lemons, I wouldn't feel too bad at all. Even if it is a sensible plan from one perspective, it's something that was discussed about our characters without our knowledge or input or any transparency. A ma fu kan is fine under those circumstances. But as you say, what is done is done.

I think this situation arose from a fundamental difference in roleplaying. I personally do not like the idea of coming up with a plan OOC and then contrive in-game circumstances to match it. At that point, I may as well be playing a tactics game. I personally enjoy talking and working things out in-character and letting things evolve naturally. Even if I don't say I have a plan OOC, that doesn't mean I'm directionless. I just want to be able to talk our options out in-character. Preferably when everyone is drunk and I can manipulate them better. So we can come to an informed consensus together as friends.

A Tyrant's Undoing

I mean, we set off at full speed towards the exit using all our horsepower while exhausting all our options to suppress the guard's advance to ensure we get away clean. Fools we are not. I suppose we could have just made it there and escaped in one post. Powergamed escaping the entirety of the royal guards as hard as we could. But that expectation wasn't clear.

Instead you seal the exit one post later even though we logically would have been there soon.

Forgive my saying, but this seems a bit like railroading. This whole situation really, though I gave you the benefit of the doubt up to this point.

(If you're wondering how I figured it out, calling us all fools OOC right before your post kinda gave it away. I'd be a bit more subtle.)

A Tyrant's Undoing

Stephanie had already rushed to start packing when Sergei had tossed her the coin. They were on a noble's estate near the manse, and given the vastness of the land, even if they could have been heard from the road, there was no way the guards could have pinpointed them so precisely. They hadn't even lit their lanterns, for God's sake. So then how did they manage to pick this place out?

It was a noble's estate. They would never have barged in wordlessly, destroyed property to get inside, unless their intel was absolute. This was only common sense. Thus, the thief must have screwed up somewhere. His man at the gate likely wasn't as loyal as he had imagined, or his contact at the estate was duplicitous. Given their proximity to the castle and the amount of time they were there, however, the latter seemed likely.

"Leave it to a named thief to botch a job this hard," she grunted, jumping into her wagon as Sergei lit the guards ablaze and hurrying her horse forward.

"Wizard, climb aboard from the back! Work crowd control! Vert, you and Steve ride alongside George to keep him on course! I'll man the crossbow and pick off the chasers! Move!" Stephanie commanded, grabbing her crossbow.

A Tyrant's Undoing

Stephanie narrowed her eyes at the Dullahan, still cautious.

"I don't know. First you say you're harmless, then you admit that you were gonna scare us and take all our food. Well, you enjoy a good beer at least. You're probably alright," said Stephanie, pouring herself some more, "but a kingdom of monsters, huh? Wonder what that's like."

Or more accurately, she wondered what exclusive goods she could obtain. Monsters seemed an insulated bunch. If she could somehow obtain exclusive trade rights with them, and if they had some good unique items, she could make a gold mine. It was something to consider.

Stephanie grabbed her lute from the back, which she hadn't used in a while, and began tuning it after Sergei made his request.

"Alright, old man. You're about to see what else my impressive throat can accomplish," said Stephanie, playing a few melancholy notes before launching into a performance.

"Let me tell you the story
Of a man named Charlie
On a tragic and fateful day
With ten copper in his pocket
He kissed his wife and family
And rode out to war that way

But did he ever return,
No, he never returned
And his fate is still unlearned
He may ride forever
On the roads to Nightvell
He's the man who never returned"

This went on for a few verses as presumably the crowd got more and more drunk. While Stephanie had a good pair of pipes and was technically a pretty good singer, she was still an untrained amateur. Enough to impress a drunken crowd, perhaps, but no professional venue. Oddly enough, the huge amount of alcohol in her system didn't seem to affect her performance. Despite her small stature, she could really hold her drink.

Sadly, before she could hear her well-deserved applause, the princess came outside with some guy he had never seen before. She waved at the woman.

"Hey, forget that stuff for tonight! It's your birthday, so I'm gonna get you drunk," Stephanie shouted, stumbling over to the princess with a mug full of beer, "chug it!"

A Tyrant's Undoing

"Bah, that was just the first one old man. Wait until I'm on my third and then compliment me," Stephanie replied smugly as she poured another drink, "but a story, is it? Stories I can do. Action, drama, comedy. I can tell a bawdy tale as well as the most despicable miller, or a romance as well as the most starry-eyed maiden. What would you like to hear?"

Just as she was awaiting her answer, however, the mage from earlier stumbled up to them. He thanked her and requested a drink, flashing some welcome silver in her eyes. She hopped back into her wagon and came out with more mugs and her backup keg.

"Saved you some trouble, wizard? Perhaps the trouble of living. If not for me, you would no doubt be dead in the water, which I'm gathering isn't exactly the type of drink you'd like," she said slyly, taking his money and filling up another mug to the brim. She handed one to the wizard and slid another to the Dullahan.

Then the boy from earlier approached, suddenly behaving like less of a brat than before. She poured him a mug too, because she was a magnanimous beer goddess.

"Good lad. That's the respectful tone I like to hear," she said, nodding to herself as she poured another drink, "kids these days need to listen more. Speaking of which-"

She turned back to Sergei.

"It seems like we have a crowd. Any sort of story you want. One gold. I'm- wait a second," she said, downing yet another drink greedily, "alright, now I'm drunk enough. Inhibitions at zero. Ask and you shall receive."