Talk:Mission 4: Among the Masses
It crossed my mind to disguise ourselves in his ranks and try to slay him covertly, but Severnaya already beat us to the punch on that. On top of that, I think we can do better. Now, this is still in the brainstorming phase, so I haven't worked out the excruciating details, but it would be great if we could set up a trap on the battlefield for Crusher that would get him killed - even if it's something along the lines of convincing him to charge into a certain death situation.
We may be able to orchestrate a trap by having Mesa show up in the region as a wandering warrior-poet who wins the hearts of Crusher's raiders (a good story and judicious application of Performance charms can pull this off) and decides to champion their cause against the Realm (just imagine playing the plot of the Last Samurai in fast forwards and substitute a drinking civil war vet for a drinking warrior-poet, and samurai for barbarians, and you're pretty set), fighting on their side in the battle (if need be, Mesa can demonstrate in sparring, etc. that he's a capable warrior). Meanwhile, we work with Team B to provide a known location to the Realm (this will have to be done pretty covertly, so as to avoid letting people know assassins were involved) where Crusher will be vulnerable. Ideally, the Realm concentrates a large number of powerful troops in this location, then, during the battle, Mesa finds Crusher himself or someone dear to Crusher and makes his way to this spot with that person at his side (the idea being that Mesa is a trusted figure at this point and is able to convince them that for some reason it's key to accompany Mesa to this particular location). Hopefully, Crusher follows to save said person, seeing the danger, where the focus of the forces there turn to Crusher himself and kill him. This is pretty elegant in that the Realm forces actually do kill Crusher, and we remain shadowy figures pulling the strings from the background. Fay may be able to help in this role by giving Mesa credibility as another disguised wanderer. I came up with this in about 5 minutes, so there may be loopholes and things I haven't considered, but I wanted to get the ball rolling.
There is the issue of suspicion arising out of the fact that the Realm knew Crusher would be heading to that spot, but our clients are well aware that there's a reason the All-Seeing Eye is feared throughout Creation - for all the Realm's foibles, they more than hold their own on matters of espionage. Their foreknowledge of Crusher's eventual location on the battlefield (which allowed them to spring the trap or concentrate heavy firepower there) will be attributed to successful reconnaissance - certainly Lookshy isn't going to suggest otherwise.
We could sprinkle on some added texture to Mesa's role by having him play an instrument common to barbarian tribes, if such an instrument exists. Talented Improvisation allows him to master the instrument on a whim. Fay could also do this whole "Wandering warrior poet" part, given her disguise abilities - the main reason I suggested Mesa is because it will be possible to get large numbers of people to forge an intimacy to him by using Performance charms fueled by personal Essence.
I've been in a hurry every time I update this plan, so I understand it rambles a bit. Let me know if anything needs to be clarified.
Dan 12:36, 2 June 2010 (EDT)
Thought it might be worth noting that both members of Team B are former Realm Dragon-Bloods and could be used to assist in facilitating things that might require War. Both of them have notable War scores, Queen especially has a fairly high War and knowledge of Realm military should it be needed.
Let me know if you've got any questions or additional plans. --FyreFly 14:34, 3 June 2010 (EDT)
First, I would say that we have to make sure that Duhon is killed before Crusher. There is a good chance that the barbarians will route without him. It will be suspicious for Duhon to be killed after routing the enemy. With Duhon dead, it will be more difficult to find someone to drag down Crusher. I don't know what kind of numbers the realm will have so its hard to say. If they realm is going to crush the barbarians anyways, all we have to do is make sure Crusher doesn't escape. What about convincing him to split his forces and have his second in command lead the second force on a flanking maneuver? Then, before the battle, we can convince the second in command to not launch the flanking attack, let Crusher die, and take control of the barbarian tribe. That would be my suggestion if we go with a social route. The other option is to dress as realm soldiers and try to kill him in the fight or dress as barbarians and try to secretly assassinate him in the fight. Opinions?
Good point about Crusher needing to die after Duhon. I don't think dressing up as Realm/barbarian soldiers and just trying to take him out during the fight sounds exciting enough. Given our skillset, we're best served taking at least a moderately social route. That said, I also don't think we need Duhon - Crusher, formidable though he may be, is not an Exalt. I think a sufficient number of well-trained mortal troops can bring him down, especially if traps are set for Crusher beforehand (this goes back to getting him to follow Mesa to a particular spot on the battlefield).
I like where you're going with the split idea too, but convincing his second-in-command to bail on Crusher is going to require us to erode his intimacy to Crusher prior to the battle. This is very doable with social charms (Mesa can wrack up beastly rolls on Performance with his sanxian + excellencies), but something to consider. We'd also have to leave just a little bit of the intimacy there so he still agrees to serve Crusher. For example, I'm guessing his intimacy rating toward Crusher is larger than 1 but lower than 4 (Intimacy rating is capped by Conviction). He may also have some intimacies to his tribe, etc. that could slow us down, and we'd have to knock those out beforehand, too. That's another setback, but nothing impossible - social Exalts can erode intimacies faster than mortals can bring them back up, so we can basically brainwash the guy if we get there early enough and are careful about it. I'd want to erode that last intimacy to Crusher down to one, so he still cares to follow through for a long enough time that Crusher goes ahead with the battle, and then, just before the second-in-command is about to launch the flank, we erode the last dot of intimacy. We're not out of the water at that point, as he could still charge into battle on a logical basis, but if we clear out those intimacies we should be against a reasonable MDV. There, we may be able to lower his MDV by 2 more if we have Mesa and Fae coordinate a social attack against him. I don't know what our backup plan could be yet. I may buy Mesa Soul-Stirring Performance method, in which case if the second-in-command still wants to launch the flank, we'll have Mesa seize control of as many of the second-in-command's troops as he can and bid them to desert. A few issues with this approach: We need to make sure it doesn't screw Team A's plan. Also, this plan may have the unintentional effect of making the barbarian tribes here look like sissies (since they're half the size they should have been) and convince the Realm it's an easily managed problem, and that Duhon's death was an unfortunate accident, and that the same thing won't happen to his replacement. I think ideally, the battle should be close enough that the Realm sincerely believes every commander they send will be killed in petty battles against barbarians - Not that Mesa cares what the Realm thinks, but in the name of delivering the best possible product to the customer, I think that's what Lookshy wants. I'm still thinking about it, but wanted to get this up here.
Dan 18:45, 3 June 2010 (EDT)
If Duhon dies against a small force of mortal barbarians the Realm would without a doubt be suspicious that there was some outside involvement. Its critical that the Realm not even suspect assassination. The Realm doesn't need or care about proof, all they need is a reason to blame Lookshy and they will (This is in the contract with the Grass Spiders). Also remember, when splitting the barbarian horde you'll need to convince not just the second in command but most of the people you want to split away from them. You'll be convincing mortal extras to betray their beloved Beastman, he's not an exalt but they tribe will worship him like one and The Silver Pact also can't suspect assassination. If its not probable that this tribe would split naturally, it would become suspicious that Crusher was betrayed at the last minute. On a last note, you'll most likely be working against the second in command's motivation, not an intimacy.
--FyreFly 19:06, 3 June 2010 (EDT)
The splitting forces plan isn't feasible in our short time frame. I still think we can set a feasible trap for Crusher, and that should keep things reasonably exciting for us.
I know the safest route is to dress up as Realm soldiers and kill Crusher with some covert, well placed strikes - nobody will think it's weird to see a group of Realm troops hacking down Crusher, but I don't know that I want to go that route, because I don't think it will make for a very exciting session (in-character, Mesa would submit the claim that it wouldn't make for a very exciting hit) unless there's a significant possibility of something we haven't accounted for going down.
I think the initial plan is still a solid choice (it still allows us to flex our social muscles without splitting the troops - plus, this only requires us to create new intimacies to Mesa, which is noted in book to easier than eroding existing ones - there's no need to erode intimacies or motivations), but I'm certainly open to further suggestion. That plan isn't perfect either, because there's no guarantee we can get Crusher to a specific location on the battlefield.
Dan 20:04, 3 June 2010 (EDT)