[IC] TotMV:G^2: Clash of Fate: The War Room (Social/Prep Phase)

[Powder Miner]

LOTUS popped an eyebrow up on his display at the phrase "for the time being", but it was brief -- they did have important things to talk about. "Alright, we have little to gain from hiding anything, but here is the deal. I don't know enough about this world to know if this is a particularly shocking claim, but we're not from this world, nor are we for that matter from any one world. What we are is a collection of warriors and others with important skills from various different worlds collected by means of, I think, magic or another reality-altering force to fight against an enemy that threatens all worlds. This has taken us from world to world, and we've ended up in this world in the process, albeit rather suddenly. We arrived with no information on this world, however, hence my frustration. The very moment we arrived we found ourselves fighting a group of hundreds of these skeletal creatures, during the course of which we met a friendly figure calling themselves Oda Nobunaga," except if he was female and much younger, "who referred to this place as the "human fortress" and sent us over to break the siege."

 

Navin looks at the plumed officer and sighs ever so quietly. "My apologies. It seems that they've, uh... well, they've captured one of the enemy officers."

[DragonRage]

"That doesn't surprise me," Lexiel prevaricates, reveling in her new ability to tell little white lies when she needs to without feeling like she's kicking puppies, "I tend to be difficult to scry, and that can mess up attempts to look at my allies.  Doesn't do a thing to help my enemies, though, which can be handy."  It's pretty close to the truth.  After all, divination spells are pretty useless when they're looking for someone who's left the plane.  "As for how we got here so fast, well..." Lexiel shrugs, causing her wings to ruffle, "We have a lot of ways to fly, and to carry the non-flyers with us.  I am Strike Commander Lexiel, of Overwatch, and assuming you didn't start this war, helping to end it is exactly the sort of thing Overwatch was founded for.  ...I suppose they're technically deputized by Overwatch, which would put me nominally in command, though I will not make significant decisions without consulting the others assuming time to do so.  That said, I do have another agent of Overwatch here with me, by the name of Nobunaga.  However, she has informed me that you've set up a magical field that is preventing her from assuming physical form.  If allowing my trusted retainer to return to full capabilities would not compromise your security, we would greatly appreciate it were you to allow her to do so."

 

Meanwhile, Samantha walks up to the captive, and attempts to read his mind, to see what he thinks of when Dackly asks her questions.  Maybe that will tell her the answers.  Of course, Samantha's fine control isn't exactly the greatest, and she's tried to do this maybe three times in her life post-Phoenix Force power up.  But Navin told her she had to be more confident with her powers, and if this guy loses a few memories, well, he is evil, right?  Besides, he's just a human, and they tend to be racist dicks.

 

[Will it work?  Will his head explode?  Let's explore this together!]

Edited June 27, 2017 by DragonRage

[Yours Truly]

Atton returns Lexiel's handshake with an equally firm and steady one "I have never heard of Overwatch before...I assume that it is some form of special ops division in your world?" he listened intently to the advice she gave, and after she had finished speaking he simply said "I will make sure to keep that in mind Lexiel, and don't worry, I know how to handle myself around civilians".

 

After she was called away along with whatever that talking tablet was supposed to be, a kid wearing a crown, and a pale looking woman Atton did what he thought anyone would do in that situation and gave her a salute before saying "Well it seems that I will have to defer to your judgement this time Strike Captain Lexiel".

 

Solomon did what anyone else would have done and hovered over to the plumed officer before staring at the peculiar scene with that snake woman from earlier and her bound earth spirit thing "I honestly don't know but it does look interesting...."

[Powder Miner]

There's a pause and then LOTUS shifts his display-face to Lexiel, little flat disapproving eyebrows appearing over both eyes. "This isn't Overwatch, even if you count the relatively small portion of the group deputized, and you do not, in fact, have nominal command except that in you are presently one of the three representing the group -- but that's a discussion best saved for when we're not briefing this here noble."

Edited June 27, 2017 by Powder Miner

[Hal Henderics]

As the man passes out, Dackly's Pride intensifies greatly.

 

"I did It! I made him pass out with my intense scrutiny!"

 

Dackly dumps the club over and pulls him out.

 

"Gozer, help me get the boots, I want to see if they fit!"

 

"I do not think they will fit Dackly."

 

"How do you know that Gozer? Explain yourself."

 

Gozer looks at the fact that Dackly has no feet, or legs.

 

"I have an eye for these things."

 

Dackly squints at him, before shrugging.

 

"Well, I'm sure the rest of it will fit me."

 

Dackly shrugs, Disarming and disrobing the unconscious man.

 

"I see London! Ok, someone clasp this man in irons and brutally interrogate him!"

 

Dackly comments, throwing the dead weight to someone important looking who is also one of the castle staff.

 

 

[DragonRage]

"Please excuse the Omn- The construct, ma'am," Lexiel's polite smile grows a little strained as she hears LOTUS, "I assure you that he's excellent at planning combat operations.  However, his, er, tact protocols are malfunctioning.  It's in his OS, we can't fix it without tools we don't have, terribly sorry."  Praying to whoever might be listening that LOTUS understands it and is listening, she taps out a message on the table in what she remembers of Morse code as she speaks.  'I kno nt charge.  Mk choce s oup.  Lad neds person rustt.  U et us ilkl if mad reh.  Ro in wa wth no aly."

 

Samantha, meanwhile, attempts to sidle away casually when the prisoner passes out.  Oops.  Of course, she's not great at subtle even when she isn't radiating psychic disturbances and cosmic power like a lighthouse.

Edited June 27, 2017 by DragonRage

[Powder Miner]

There's a pause. The disapproving eyebrows lower as lines above and below his eyes indicate a squint. The pause stretches on... and then his expression resets to neutral, except for a dot in the upper right corner of his display which sends a (much more competent) morse message back at Lexiel.

Don't worry. Even if she did attack and win, she has to know that everyone here would die if she attacked us when an enemy army is outside that they couldn't beat themselves. Will go with it, for now, anyway, but story is now mixed.

He does remain otherwise silent.

 

Isobel right now looks more than a little confused and nervous, but she does remain polite, still, and completely silent.

 

[Chevaleresse]

For the barest moment, the woman's chest began to heave as if sighing. The motion was almost unnoticeable, however, as she addressed the group. "I see. Your tale is outlandish, but perhaps you are the blessing that Lumabella has finally chosen to send us." She frowned for a moment. "This Nobunaga you speak of. Is he a similar being to the ones that seem to be leading the assault on this region? The ward was put in place after one of them nearly forced the portcullis open with his bare hands. If you could call that monster a 'he.'" The frown deepened in concentration. After a moment of silence, she turned her head to the side, addressing one of the guards flanking her. "Get Belenus in here, now. I don't care what he's reading." A quick "Yes, milady" and the man was off. "Now that we've settled the question of your purpose here, allow me to introduce myself. I am Lord Silef, master of the great House Asterlux." 

 

If the woman had intended to speak more, she was preempted by the appearance of a young, robed man who looked rather put-upon, a pair of reading glasses set crookedly on his face. With a glare at Silef which he tried - and utterly failed - to hide, he cracked his wrists. "Milady, what did you need at this hour?"

 

"Drop the ward long enough to allow this Nobunaga to appear. Put it back up immediately. I will work with you." The man's expression displayed more than a fair bit of concern, but he complied wordlessly, beginning a sort of weaving motion not unlike the ones Lexiel and Laver had seen Marisa make when spellcasting. There was no visible effect for a moment when this ceased, with silence falling across the room. A silence interrupted just before it became awkward by a shimmering off to one side of the table. A cascade of blue sparks quickly resolved itself into one Nobunaga.

 

"Wahaha, brilliant! It worked! Quite honestly I wasn't sure if they'd let us in! Now, I believe you had questions for me? And then we have tactics to discuss." She nodded her head toward Silef. "You need to hear this just as much as they do. I have valuable intelligence for your war effort here."

 

Silef, for her part, looked rather startled by the appearance of the Japanese warlord, but quickly smoothed her face over. As far as she could, anyway. "Speak, then, if you claim to have information." 

[Hal Henderics]

 

"So, uh, I'll admit, I am just as stumped as the rest of you guys, we kinda got dumped here, with no info at all. What's going on, in general?"

 

Laver asks, completely without tact, but completely with innocent curiosity.

[Strider]

Edmond

Lexiel, LOTUS was the computer, right? A little unnecessarily angry, I think. . . And the person holding it was Isobel? The pale person--they had something or someone who helped me in the battle, and Laver? That's strange. . . The crown I suppose did it? When the had left, Edmond made his way over to the man who was now addressing them. "Hello, sir. My name is Edmond. May I ask yours?" After waiting for a response, Edmond went on. "I have a few more questions too. Can you tell me a little about this seige? How long it's been going, how exactly it started, how long you can expect to hold out, troop numbers, current defenses, and the like? There were some human officers out on the field intermixed with the skeletal warriors who could use magic. Do you have anyone in the castle with those capabilities? And, I suppose I should give some information of my own: We met a woman on the field of battle, wearing a purple robe, with some sort of red lines or veins, and a pale face. Do you know who that is? And a final question: What does this castle have in terms of nonessentials--a library in particular?"

 

Liliya

"Well, I suppose letting him out wouldn't be great--though I think we could easily subdue him-- but how do you not know if it has airholes? Didn't you say that you two made the thing? And--" Liliya stopped as she heard the thud of the man falling unconscious. She flinched a little as Dackly stripped the man, then tossed him aside to be taken care of by soldiers. She briefly raised her hands as though to protest, but let them fall after a moment. "I think---uh. Nevermind that." She turned towards the person trying to stealthily back away. "Are you alright? You look nervous. I'm Liliya, by the way." She took this chance to introduce herself, as it seemed that there were still many people she hadn't met.

[Powder Miner]

"Yes, a general explanation of what this world is, who the sides fighting in this war are, and why would be very greatly appreciated it. Perhaps their technology level and/or what the magic of this world is capable of would be valuable knowledge too, though we've been seeing that on our own."

[StormLord]

Friedhold:

After the collapse of the truck Friedhold took several seconds to look over the child and make sure she wasn't hurt.  Of course she wasn't hurt, she always seemed to know the exact right place to stand to not get hit by anything.

"Daddy, daddy, look over there, that man's gonna be an angel soon.  Let's go see." As she said this she immediately began skipping over to where the general was being held captive by Dackly and crew.  Friedhold sighed and shook his head some, then started walking after the girl.

 

The girl made it over just as D&G finished removing the man's armor, her eyes seemed glossed over and out of focus, and when she spoke it was with several voices at once. "I can already see the light coming from his tummy, we just need to kick him a few more times first daddy."  She then approached the man as if to kick him, luckily Friedhold had caught up by this time and picked her up before she could assault the man any further.  "That's enough of that.  What have I told you about running off after angels without asking first?" Her eyes came back into focus and she simply stared down at the ground, pouting much like the child she was.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Morgan:

Morgan leaned against a wall cleaning his sword and watching the various exchanges between the group.  After finishing he sheathed his sword and walked over the the group left behind by this castle's leader.  He approached the one holding a glaive(Wyvis) who had helped cut down the enemies surrounding Morgan before.

"Thanks, you helped get me out of a tight spot back there.  I don't believe I've gotten your name yet though, I'm Morgan." He extended a friendly handshake to the man.

[Chevaleresse]

Courtyard

 

"I am Rand of house Amyrlin." The barrage of questions seemed to take the man back a bit. "Woah, okay. I'll do my best to answer your questions, but I'm not exactly some sort of living library." He put his hand on his head. "Alright. I'll try to answer what I can.

 

For the first question, this siege has gone on for about two weeks at this point. It's the natural conclusion to the campaign the House Shienar has been conducting against Asterlux. . . . I don't think I feel comfortable telling you detailed information on everything about our force. Though I'd expect an enemy spy to be a bit more subtle with his questioning. I would also think that the guards lobbing fireballs over the walls would let you know that mages numbered among our ranks.

 

As for nonessentials, Lord Belenus keeps a small library stocked in the basement of his choice books. I would not recommend trying to steal any of them. And no, I have no idea who that witch is."

 

War Room

 

"We've been at war for months with House Shienar after they invaded our lands. Our soldiers are strong in both body and heart, but their superior numbers have driven us back. We were on the edge of turning this whole damned war around when. . . something, happened." Nobunaga pipes up.

 

"Ah, yes. The rift that brought the Grail into this world. I don't know why, but something seemed especially off about that cup. For one, they actually used a cup this time! And it appeared after I killed Rider. That's incredibly unusual!" She nodded emphatically at nothing in particular. 

 

"After this rift that Nobunaga speaks of, the enemy forces were reinforced by five of these beings."

 

"Servants," Nobunaga interjected. "Heroic Spirits given a physical form by the Holy Grail. Though there's something wrong with these others. That cup was leaking some kind of mud after the rift, and it changed them. I don't know what it was, but it evidently takes more than that to affect the Demon King!"

 

Silef shot the Archer a glare before continuing. "These Servants allied themselves with Shienar. To what end, I do not know, but very quickly every battle became a rout. The two Houses and our respective dominions, alongside these Servants, are the only factions in the war. I've sent word to our historic allies, but I doubt the messengers will return before this war concludes." She shakes her head.

 

"I don't know why the other Servants decided to back this other House either. The Grail is probably useless, but warmongering for no reason? I suppose they could be trying to prolong the War and their own existences. Which reminds me! In a normal Holy Grail War, the objective is to simply kill all other Servants by any means possible. Many mages do so by eliminating the other Masters, but the Masters of the Servants were consumed by that mud. They should all be gone by now - except myself, of course."

[Hal Henderics]

"So Where would we go if we wanted to deal with this problem?  Hitting skeletons is fun, but I think we might need to hack at the roots of this problem, instead of it's branches."

 

Laver asks, hands in pocket.

 

"What is the war about?"

 

--

 

Dackly makes her way to an arrow slit, and begins miming a sniper rifle, petrifying skeletons and officers piling up outside.

 

"Bazinga, Headshot."

 

She fake cocks her finger gun, making noises accordingly.

 

Gozer, meanwhile, makes himself like a statue, converting the skeleton statues into glittering emeralds, the statues seem to crumble into dust, before compressing into the shining jewels.

 

Edited June 29, 2017 by Hal Henderics

[DragonRage]

"Assuming that the enemy elites have quit the battlefield just because the rules say they should seems unwisely optimistic," Lexiel posits, "We could attempt to use our rapid movement abilities to get word to your allies faster, but that wouldn't help them get an army to  you in time.  Nobunaga, Silef, you've battled these elite summons before, or met people who have at least.  Are there any shared traits they have?  Do you have any intelligence on the individuals?  If defeating them will bring an end to the war, we should attempt to deduce their weaknesses and put together teams purpose-built to arrest or execute them, depending on the relative power levels involved.  Capture for trial is preferable, of course, but not always possible without unacceptable casualties."

[rustytengo]

Bridgett sighs as the group plays 20 questions with the prisoner they fought. She then goes finds a less crowded area near by just in case something happens and sits down and pulls one of her books and reads until she is bothered.

[Yours Truly]

After hearing the big wheel's response to the appropriately patriotic chap in the stars and stripes get up, Atton had decided that his time would be better spent walking over to the wall to try and check it for any obvious flaws.

He spent a few moments just walking from one part of it to the other while trying to remember literally anything about medieval era walls, after a few awkward moments of trying to seem as harmless as possible he saw an odd snake-plant woman creature make rifle noises at what his brain can vaguely recognize as an arrow slit.

Atton just stood there for several minutes, watching her and her...companion do something that he personally finds to be inexplicable before shrugging and walking over to the both of them to say "So how many enemy officers have you personally forced to cash in their chips?" Before joining her by walking over to a nearby arrow slit to try and fire his trusty service pistol at pretty much any enemy officers he can find.

 

Solomon did what he was honestly expected to do by this point and say "An enemy spy would probably not fly in to your castle while wearing a visibly distinct suit of armor as well......and what is this House Shienar anyway? And what is this Asterlux thing supposed to be?".

[Strider]

Edmond

"Well met, Rand." Edmond started to hold hi hand to shake, but pulled it back after it occurred to him that greetings in this place were probably substantially different from what he knew. "Hmm, I can see how it wouldn't be prudent to share information on troops until. . . Lord Silef? has confirmed that we bear no hostilities towards you. The length you can expect to hold out is important though, but it can wait. Was House Shienar's assault entirely unprovoked? And do you know what prompted it, specifically why it happened at that point, not earlier or later? In case you were concerned. . . I have no intention of stealing Lord Belenus' books. Lord Belenus would be better able to answer my questions, correct? But he's likely busy. In any case, I apologize about the torrent of questions, but some of this information might be vital if we are to help you." Edmond glanced over the mans armor and uniform, attempting to judge his rank. However, that could easily be asked. "You are of House Amyrlin then? Do you command men, and what can you tell me about that house?"

[Sutoratosu]

"I think we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves, immediately trying to focus on these individual... 'servants' themselves." Ghost finally said in the wake of lexiel's... thorough bout of questions, "It would be wise to learn about the apparent source of this mess first, the summons may simply be a symptom of the issue, but not the root. And I'm certain none of us here want to waste the effort hunting down and killing the others, only to find that they've resurrected or some other such nonsense has occurred."

      With that said, she turned to the figure in red "Nobunaga, was it? This rift you spoke of, what world do you and these other servants hail from? How do things usually work with this 'Grail', Just what exactly does it do besides giving you a physical prescence? And Why did it surprise you so much that it was a mere chalice as it's namesake actually suggested, if it still imparted you all with these physical forms regardless?"

[Powder Miner]

"While they ask the questions about our "servant" enemies, I'm going to turn towards a couple of mundane topics. First off, we know the skeletons are summoned by that one servant we faced on our arrival, so that means the humans are probably Shienar troops. What do you know of Shienar capabilities beyond the magic-slinging armored troops that we faced earlier? Do they have any special weapons or special fighters that we will need to worry about, not counting the servants? And what kind of terrain are we likely to find in this area? That may be something to prepare around."

[Chevaleresse]

War Room

 

"To end the War, we must destroy the Grail. To do that, we'll need to take out the enemy Servants; if we try to assault the grail directly, all of them will likely defend it at once. Given the further aberrations I've noticed with the other Servants, this is not a realistic tactical option." She nodded at Silef, allowing the noblewoman to answer Laver's second question. 

 

"The war was originally of mundane causes. The Asterlux heartlands, while hilly, are fertile and rich in moonsilver. Shienar has coveted them for decades. They invented some trumped up incident as an excuse for a full-scale invasion; I was away when the war first broke out, and I honestly do not know what their supposed justification is. At some point, it ceased to be a war of acquisition and became one of extermination. If you ever leave this place, you won't see a village that isn't a burned-out husk or farmlands that aren't fallow and overgrown for miles." The noblewoman shook her head. "I don't know how or why those Servants joined their side."

 

"I do. They obviously can't breach this fortress under their own power, otherwise they would have done so already. And it happens to sit at one of the largest leyline intersections in the region. Even the lowest grade of Caster would be able to tap into it and fuel all of the Servants' existences indefinitely. They may even be able to seize the neighboring confluences, and proceed from there. I don't think I need to inform you of why this is a bad thing."

 

"As for the capabilities of my rivals, I am not entirely certain. Their parameters have shifted and grown massively from whatever process blackened them. However, I can give you what I have observed.

 

Saber is some sort of dark holy woman, fighting in the name of blasphemy and decrying the gods. Or, well, just one God as she says. With her around, the strikes of the other Servants and their minions seem to destroy ongoing magical effects, though not enough to shatter this ward - for the time being, at least. She also seems to hold some power over dragonkind.

 

Lancer is some sort of legendary Western king, wielding a holy spear. She seems to empower the other Servants with the ability to break guards and stun their foes. That spear is unfathomably powerful - you can't allow it to be fully invoked when you engage her. 

 

You have already met Assassin. Some kind of murderous witch, as far as I can tell. Her Noble Phantasm has to be that mist, but I haven't seen her fully invoke it. She's the main source of the enemy numbers, so destroying her should lessen the number of foes you have to face. 

 

Berserker is a monstrous, spiked beast, wielding a cursed spear. Those spikes have to be magical in some way, since with him around, attacking damages the attacker. His attacks do not seem very complex, but they are fast, and he has a surplus of brute power - and isn't a raving lunatic as you'd expect. 

 

Caster seems to be another ancient king - older than Lancer. I haven't seen him fight in person yet, but I have seen some officers wielding artifacts that far surpass what a Caster should be capable of manufacturing, at least at that speed. He is deep in the enemy lines; I recommend fighting him last. 

 

Rider, as I've said before, is already dead. I killed him before the rift happened. He was Chinese, I think, rode a great red horse and was a kind of demigod. That was his downfall. In the normal progression of a Grail War, this is how things typically go. The Servants would fight until one remained, and the victor claimed the grail. Personally, I thought it was a scam from the start. And I had been expecting a sturdier container for the grail, maybe even a homunculus of some sort. It's a powerful magical artifact after all, that sort of thing isn't usually held down by silly constraints like a set physical form." She gestured at the noblewoman after she finished. 

 

"To answer your final question, Shienar is a larger land than our own. I believe that many of their officers are mercenaries; they aren't particularly known for their well-trained troops or their strong magical ties. They do, however, hold a number of forests and iron mines, so they can easily afford to outfit their troops. The lord of the house must have stayed behind, as there haven't been any sightings of him - if there was anyone to expect to wield magical artifacts or anything of the sort, it would be him. The surrounding area is hilly, and turns craggy to the north; that is where an old moonsilver mine rests, and the enemy appears to have made camp atop it."

 

Courtyard

 

Dackly manages to snipe a couple of the skeletons through the arrowslit. It takes one of the officers beginning to turn to stone from the toes up to prompt a sudden barrage of fireballs in her general direction; she ducks out of the way without too much effort, but flame blows through the arrowslit somewhat threateningly. Atton finds that the relatively low power and small size of his pistol combined with the distance from himself to the target means that all of his shots are glancing hits at best; much as Dackly had seen the arc of a fireball streaking toward her face, he elects to duck as he sees electricity crackle between the fingers of one of his targets.

 

Rand looks at Solomon with more than a bit of confusion. "The noble houses Shienar and Asterlux. I thought that was obvious, even for a foreigner. And Shienar claims that we provoked the war by moving troops too close to their borders. Nevermind that it was an escort in case those bastards decided to jump the young Lord Relos on his way to this very fortress. May Lumabella grant his soul eternal peace." He holds his hand over his heart for a moment, looking down almost as if in prayer, before continuing. "The note about Belenus's books was more for your safety than theirs. They've been known to explode if they get too far from the library. And yes, I am of House Amyrlin. We are close cousins of House Asterlux - our lands are more removed from Shienar, but not by much, and mostly consist of simple farm folk and rolling plains. In the absence of the Asterlux themselves, I have become one of Lord Silef's principal commanders." 

 

[DragonRage]

"You have moonsilver," Lexiel states flatly, "You have entire mines of moonsilver, one of the the most potent foci for sealing magic in the multiverse.  Certainly the most potent I have ever encountered.  And you're losing to magical constructs?  I don't see how that's possible, if you have any conception of the value of your resource."  She doesn't finish the thought by pointing out that Silef has to be either lying or leading a band of incompetents to not be sealing these servants in moonsilver prisons and then kicking the Sheinar troops' asses.  But it's probably not too hard to deduce what Lexiel is thinking.

[Powder Miner]

Isobel Low and LOTUS

 

"Whose tact modules are malfunctioning now, Lexiel? I'm going to remind you that Nobunaga here showed up and casually wiped an army we'd been struggling against off of the face of the world. These aren't your everyday constructs, these are army-level or maybe more. Hell, Assassin put out the army we had to fight and she pulled that mist act immediately afterwards. I'm no magic expert, but I bet sealing them is pretty hard if you're dead."

 

Navin Mhasalkar

Navin looks back at the captured officer with some amount of concern, but evidently deciding that things are likely handled, he hesitantly turns and then addresses the Asterlux officer everyone has been talking to. "Ah, my apologies for our lack of knowledge. We aren't just foreign, we are... well, let it suffice to say that we are very very foreign." Navin speaks a couple of words in Marathi at this point halfway to prove his point and halfway to get a chance to speak his own tongue. If anyone happened to understand Marathi, they would hear him simply saying "You see my point?"

Edited June 29, 2017 by Powder Miner

[Chevaleresse]

Silef slammed her fist on the table, leaning forward as she did so. The flags scattered across the table jumped, with some toppling over - one of the guards with her scuttled forward to replace them. "Mind your tongue, angel, or I'll mind it for you. You may be a divine servant, but I am the same, and as head of this house I will be afforded the respect I have the right to." She took some of her weight back off of the table. "The construct is correct. These Servants are far more powerful than anything I have ever seen or heard of, bar ancient dragons and the gods themselves. Do not deign to insult my intelligence or that of my advisors without experiencing for yourself what it is we face."

[Powder Miner]

Being rather easily intimidated, Isobel jumped and squeaked when Silef slammed her fist onto the table. She blushed out of embarrassment and looked down afterwards.

 

LOTUS, on the other hand, shifted the position of his eyes for a little aside glance or the "I'll mind it for you" part of Silef's impassioned reply -- but it was subtle. Then he spoke again. "Right, that aside, I think I have a pretty solid grasp on what our first priority should be. The army out there is gigantic, and from what I've seen and the size of the army we faced earlier, it's likely that she can provide at-will reinforcements. That's an effectively infinite army, and I mean no offense but that does mean Asterlux can't do much useful until that's dealt with. So the first thing we need to do is find Assassin and put her into the ground. There are three factors complicating this that we know of: First of all, Assassin has her skeletal army, but with Nobunaga on our side that's less of a problem. Secondly, as we saw she has some sort of skeletal dragon now. I believe that the combined power of our group should be able to take it on." LOTUS opted not to mention its source, "And thirdly, she has this mist that, at least from what I could glean, since I was unaffected, played at our group's minds. We would benefit from a countermeasure to this but if we can't acquire one we just need to figure out a procedure to deal with it."

Edited June 29, 2017 by Powder Miner