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[ LAUGHS
oh, already looking over, raising an eyebrow. but the emotion isn't offended or anything. actually he is really touched ......... ]
Of course.
oh, already looking over, raising an eyebrow. but the emotion isn't offended or anything. actually he is really touched ......... ]
Of course.
All right. So, we've been trying to figure out the best place on our timeline to go back to.
[ i'm so sorry for all this overwhelming lore text but it truly is a compliment that he's asking ]
Gettin' rid of both Louis and Forden — smarmy old bastard heading the Sanctist Church — is essentially the end goal, since they're the two leading candidates for the throne and they're both fuckin' awful. Complicating factors here are that they both have a lot of public support, and the king's magic makes it practically impossible to kill a major candidate — Eupha's lance is the only thing that gets through it.
We were originally thinkin' of going back to just before I died and changing what happened there. Last time, we were at a huge disadvantage. Everyone thought Louis was dead after Eupha's friends ran him through with her lance, but it turned out Zorba had saved him and healed him and swapped the lance with a fake. So no one was prepared for him to show up again, and his having the lance on top of that made it literally impossible for anyone to touch him.
[ pointing to the start of one flowchart labelled 9/11 and tracing down ]
If we went back to that point, we could let Louis kill Forden again, which would take care of a huge obstacle for us. Forden has all the establishment support, so it's gonna be hard for us not to look like villains if we assassinate him. Then we'd just have to take out Louis and Zorba — but as long as they've got the lance, we can't do anything to him.
[ flips the page to another chart labelled 9/10... and then kind of realises how much this is for someone who has minimal context. ]
...This is a lot, sorry. You following so far?
[ i'm so sorry for all this overwhelming lore text but it truly is a compliment that he's asking ]
Gettin' rid of both Louis and Forden — smarmy old bastard heading the Sanctist Church — is essentially the end goal, since they're the two leading candidates for the throne and they're both fuckin' awful. Complicating factors here are that they both have a lot of public support, and the king's magic makes it practically impossible to kill a major candidate — Eupha's lance is the only thing that gets through it.
We were originally thinkin' of going back to just before I died and changing what happened there. Last time, we were at a huge disadvantage. Everyone thought Louis was dead after Eupha's friends ran him through with her lance, but it turned out Zorba had saved him and healed him and swapped the lance with a fake. So no one was prepared for him to show up again, and his having the lance on top of that made it literally impossible for anyone to touch him.
[ pointing to the start of one flowchart labelled 9/11 and tracing down ]
If we went back to that point, we could let Louis kill Forden again, which would take care of a huge obstacle for us. Forden has all the establishment support, so it's gonna be hard for us not to look like villains if we assassinate him. Then we'd just have to take out Louis and Zorba — but as long as they've got the lance, we can't do anything to him.
[ flips the page to another chart labelled 9/10... and then kind of realises how much this is for someone who has minimal context. ]
...This is a lot, sorry. You following so far?
[ okay yes this all tracks so far. he's nodding along, he gets the idea so far. ]
Alright, I understand.
Your complication seems mostly hinging around this Zorba, yes?
[ since he is the one organizing most of the hangups. ]
Alright, I understand.
Your complication seems mostly hinging around this Zorba, yes?
[ since he is the one organizing most of the hangups. ]
[ points at him and nods like yeah! ]
Exactly. We weren't thinkin' about him that much before, 'cause— well, we thought he'd been dead for months, I only knew he was still alive for like, five minutes before I died. Eupha never even knew he existed in her timeline.
Anyway, once we laid everything out, that was the conclusion we came to too. That we can actually nip most of our problems in the bud if we just get the lance back, and, even better, if we can take Zorba out before he gets to heal Louis. Only problem then is Forden, but we're thinkin' we can use Zorba to our advantage there too.
[ tapping on the 9/10 chart ]
So... Plan A, I think. We all go back to the moment Louis loses the fight against Eupha's group. Bas and me had just arrived at the end of it too, so we're all in one place. They run him through, and then the two of us come and pull it out of his chest before he has a chance to get a grip on it himself. Give it back to Eupha, that cements us as allies, since we were worried about them not trusting us. Louis crashes through the glass again when he stumbles and lands on the stage again just like last time, but this time the lance doesn't fall with him, so Zorba never gets his hands on it to do the switch.
The thing is that confronting Zorba at this point is sort of a gamble, because everything's happenin' on stage in front of Forden and a public audience, and he's disguised in a cloak as one of Forden's Sanctist henchmen. Gonna make Will — our candidate — look bad if we barge into the Saints Day festival and start attacking the Sanctists.
[ at this point there are arrows looping back to the 9/11 plans if this gets fucked up ]
But if we can get his hood off and reveal who he is and provoke him into fighting us, we can rely on the king's magic takin' him out soon as he attacks Will, and then we can use that against Forden by makin' him look like he was either incompetent enough to let an obvious enemy into his ranks or like he was colluding with the old king's murderers to take the throne for himself all along. And he actually was behind the prince's assassination attempt, so if we can get the person who knows the truth about that to come forward quick enough — the public likes her just as much as they like Forden — that should be evidence enough to turn public opinion against him, and we can get him executed for treason.
[ TAKES A BREATH... EXHALES. this is my equivalent of a mage rights speech i guess. ]
So. Are you seein' any glaring holes in this, or things I'm not accounting for? Some of these others can be contingency plans if somethin' goes wrong, but...
Exactly. We weren't thinkin' about him that much before, 'cause— well, we thought he'd been dead for months, I only knew he was still alive for like, five minutes before I died. Eupha never even knew he existed in her timeline.
Anyway, once we laid everything out, that was the conclusion we came to too. That we can actually nip most of our problems in the bud if we just get the lance back, and, even better, if we can take Zorba out before he gets to heal Louis. Only problem then is Forden, but we're thinkin' we can use Zorba to our advantage there too.
[ tapping on the 9/10 chart ]
So... Plan A, I think. We all go back to the moment Louis loses the fight against Eupha's group. Bas and me had just arrived at the end of it too, so we're all in one place. They run him through, and then the two of us come and pull it out of his chest before he has a chance to get a grip on it himself. Give it back to Eupha, that cements us as allies, since we were worried about them not trusting us. Louis crashes through the glass again when he stumbles and lands on the stage again just like last time, but this time the lance doesn't fall with him, so Zorba never gets his hands on it to do the switch.
The thing is that confronting Zorba at this point is sort of a gamble, because everything's happenin' on stage in front of Forden and a public audience, and he's disguised in a cloak as one of Forden's Sanctist henchmen. Gonna make Will — our candidate — look bad if we barge into the Saints Day festival and start attacking the Sanctists.
[ at this point there are arrows looping back to the 9/11 plans if this gets fucked up ]
But if we can get his hood off and reveal who he is and provoke him into fighting us, we can rely on the king's magic takin' him out soon as he attacks Will, and then we can use that against Forden by makin' him look like he was either incompetent enough to let an obvious enemy into his ranks or like he was colluding with the old king's murderers to take the throne for himself all along. And he actually was behind the prince's assassination attempt, so if we can get the person who knows the truth about that to come forward quick enough — the public likes her just as much as they like Forden — that should be evidence enough to turn public opinion against him, and we can get him executed for treason.
[ TAKES A BREATH... EXHALES. this is my equivalent of a mage rights speech i guess. ]
So. Are you seein' any glaring holes in this, or things I'm not accounting for? Some of these others can be contingency plans if somethin' goes wrong, but...
[ he's following. he gets it. he does have to sort of do a brief little laugh because-- ]
My assassination plan was two steps. Build big bomb. Blow up large building.
[ K.I.S.S. keep it simple stupid. ]
Is this Zorba uninformed enough to attack you and ensure you trigger this king's magic?
[ if he avoids that, then you're back at being the aggressors. ]
You are afraid of a public audience, but I think you can ensure it is in your favor.
My assassination plan was two steps. Build big bomb. Blow up large building.
[ K.I.S.S. keep it simple stupid. ]
Is this Zorba uninformed enough to attack you and ensure you trigger this king's magic?
[ if he avoids that, then you're back at being the aggressors. ]
You are afraid of a public audience, but I think you can ensure it is in your favor.
[ there's a little snort of laughter from him at that too, because even if this wasn't a delicate political situation to navigate, as a certified Strategy Guy, he can't imagine doing it like that. they are really simultaneously two very similar and very different people. ]
That's definitely one of the weaker points. He's very familiar with how the king's magic works, a lot more more so than old Forden was.
But he's also... well. A fuckin' loon, to put it plainly, and absolutely obsessed with Louis. Steppin' on Louis's face in front of him might be all it'd take to make him fly off the handle.
That's definitely one of the weaker points. He's very familiar with how the king's magic works, a lot more more so than old Forden was.
But he's also... well. A fuckin' loon, to put it plainly, and absolutely obsessed with Louis. Steppin' on Louis's face in front of him might be all it'd take to make him fly off the handle.
[ thonking. ]
So you need him to be seen publicly being a lunatic, yes? Is there a way to bait him earlier?
[ that seems to be the important bits. get zorba to unveil and then act crazy enough you can kill him. anders doesn't live long enough to know this, but it's the exact same thing that went down with Knight-Commander Meredith. ]
Maybe have one of you dedicated solely to attempting to unveil him from the very start.
So you need him to be seen publicly being a lunatic, yes? Is there a way to bait him earlier?
[ that seems to be the important bits. get zorba to unveil and then act crazy enough you can kill him. anders doesn't live long enough to know this, but it's the exact same thing that went down with Knight-Commander Meredith. ]
Maybe have one of you dedicated solely to attempting to unveil him from the very start.
[ help.
he nods... ]
The timing's sort of complicated, 'cause we've got to start up on the roof of the opera house and then get down to the stage where Louis lands after we've got the lance. And we need Zorba out there in his disguise just long enough to make it clear that Forden trusts him before we reveal who he is... and we need to make sure Will's there front and centre when he reacts.
But putting one person on Zorba duty should help make sure we get the timing right, yeah.
[ starts jotting this down on a page too. ]
Once we've got the lance back in Eupha's hands, I can probably leave it to her and Bas to explain things to the others on the way down, since I'm the one they trust the least anyway. I should be able to get down there fast and hide out on the other side of the stage and then signal to the others once they get there. Then as they approach him from the front and get his attention, I can unmask him from behind at the same time.
he nods... ]
The timing's sort of complicated, 'cause we've got to start up on the roof of the opera house and then get down to the stage where Louis lands after we've got the lance. And we need Zorba out there in his disguise just long enough to make it clear that Forden trusts him before we reveal who he is... and we need to make sure Will's there front and centre when he reacts.
But putting one person on Zorba duty should help make sure we get the timing right, yeah.
[ starts jotting this down on a page too. ]
Once we've got the lance back in Eupha's hands, I can probably leave it to her and Bas to explain things to the others on the way down, since I'm the one they trust the least anyway. I should be able to get down there fast and hide out on the other side of the stage and then signal to the others once they get there. Then as they approach him from the front and get his attention, I can unmask him from behind at the same time.
And you have an escape plan?
[ not to be a bummer. ]
For when it inevitably goes sideways on you, because you know that it will.
[ not to be a bummer. ]
For when it inevitably goes sideways on you, because you know that it will.
[ hi del. where are we. doesn't matter, he's coming to find him. ]
Feeling confident in your plan?
Feeling confident in your plan?
[ probably predictably, he'll be at the tavern at some point in the evening, at least. last night with the place. ]
Not completely, but. Confident enough, I think.
[ to be fair, he's never been completely confident in anything. that'd be a good way of getting sloppy, if he let his guard down. ]
Not completely, but. Confident enough, I think.
[ to be fair, he's never been completely confident in anything. that'd be a good way of getting sloppy, if he let his guard down. ]
[ fidelio is, and will always be, his childhood friend. that much is hard to forget. ]
I do not want it to be the last time we see one another. I will ensure it is not.
I do not want it to be the last time we see one another. I will ensure it is not.
[ he laughs at that, genuinely. ]
I'm glad you have such faith in my talents.
I'm glad you have such faith in my talents.
I am going with Shadowheart. So whatever it is she is facing.
[ ITS NOT SUPER GREAT but it will get better quickly. ]
[ ITS NOT SUPER GREAT but it will get better quickly. ]
Hopefully I do not end up with a brain worm?
[ he doesn't think he will, he's just JOSHING. mostly. ]
I know you are returning with Basilio and Eupha, is anyone else ... ?
[ he doesn't think he will, he's just JOSHING. mostly. ]
I know you are returning with Basilio and Eupha, is anyone else ... ?
Please, Justice would fry that thing alive.
[ ... ]
I don't think so. The ones who might want to, they have important things to deal with back home. Can't really abandon those responsibilities.
Anyway, our world's still a shite place to live in if you can't pass as a member of one of the majority tribes. Workin' on changing it, sure, but it don't make it any less true right now.
[ ... ]
I don't think so. The ones who might want to, they have important things to deal with back home. Can't really abandon those responsibilities.
Anyway, our world's still a shite place to live in if you can't pass as a member of one of the majority tribes. Workin' on changing it, sure, but it don't make it any less true right now.
[ frowns. thinks about this. ]
Well. I mean, the thing is, Louis and Zorba are already known enemies of the Crown Theocracy, so takin' them out, as long as the crowd recognises Zorba as that necromancer from the Royal Funeral, that's not somethin' we'll have to run from. It's only once we drag Forden into it that it'll get dicey in that regard.
Well. I mean, the thing is, Louis and Zorba are already known enemies of the Crown Theocracy, so takin' them out, as long as the crowd recognises Zorba as that necromancer from the Royal Funeral, that's not somethin' we'll have to run from. It's only once we drag Forden into it that it'll get dicey in that regard.
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