"... there to strike at the heart..."Gewyn mumbles unintelligibly to himself. Then he speaks up louder. I believe we should be part of the speartip of the assault. As extraplanar visitors, we are less suited to drawn out engagements. In the ground skirmish against the lost souls, our resources would be quickly depleted, and we would need to be rotated out of the fight for far longer than the average soldier. On the other hand, our skills lend themselves to flexibility, reactivity and a quick, penetrating assault."
"I think we should take this into your demiplane, Ginro", Vin suggests after nodding his agreement to what Gewyn had said. "We can tell you the exact details once there, Kohso. And I can tell Lumithor once we are out without risk of being overheard".
He is seems adamant that they not speak about more specific details until they have some measure of protection against things like scrying and mind reading.
As discussions turn to where discussions need to take place, Elthana starts getting impatient. "Shouldn't we head out and try and track down the missing dijiin? Any ideas where we might be able to find him? Or how to find his island... unless we can teleport there as well?" she adds the last part hopefully.
Ginro tosses his orb out into the middle of the room with a clatter where it begins to swell and grow, the metallic sides of it warbling like water, he gives vin a smile and a nod and walks into the side wall of the thing, passing through without obstruction.
"Speartip it shall be... Gojjin is not too far away." Kohso states, here eyes locked on Elthana, confused as to why the shadow elf isn't demanding to be the one to fell Nivara, "the remains of this isle follow it's path near enough that travel should be relatively easy if you have the means to fly." At this hector steps forward. "My smeagles are available if the need arises."
Following ginro's example, the xorns, shenoh, sol, Vinghov, Duun, Akiin, Griff, Daudi, and Ömertyr all enter the demiplane. Kohso gestures for vin to lead the group in before following suit. "So young vin, what would you like to discuss before we get to the detailed planning?"
Vin relaxes once they are in Ginro's demiplane, but when Kohso asks him what he wants to discuss he defers to Muir.
"In truth I think Muir has the most detailed knowledge of what needs to happen, so it might be best if he explains first. Then we can discuss how we are going to get in position to get it done", he says, looking to the Loxodon.
Muir clears his throat and takes out his notes "Ah yes, thank you Vincent." Muir goes into a long-winded recounting of everything he knows about Nivara, the box, and the phylactery. "So you see we need a magical weapon to destroy the phylactery, but my assumption is that it is heavily guarded knowing we are coming for it. That phylactery needs to be destroyed before we can defeat Nivara. If the box is still operational this will be the shortest assault in the history of this realm."
Ginro, in response fills everybody in on the specifics of the box itself and also credits the group with figuring out the song that is the key to opening it, the ancient shadar-kai lullaby that resides in Elthana's head.
Shenoh then shares her knowledge on the basics of a phylactery "...and so once opened, the fragments of Nivara's soul held within should escape rendering the vessel inert until the point at which she can return the soul. That will be the key moment to strike. Either having these creatures eat the box, destroy it, or teleport it away."
Daudi interjects with her and Ömertyr's mission, the complication of needing to recover Vox's rune before the box is opened. If the order is misaligned then the remains of Vox will perish as the box is opened and the entire realm will cease to be held together. She tells of the plan to get the rune and then as quickly as possible Travel or teleport to Lumithor's lair to pass it on to one of Vox's children before the power consumed and destroys Ömertyr.
"...and this" kohso concludes "must all happen after the arcane shield is taken down so that the spearhead can make the attack on the castle. Even with armies at our disposal the timing of this will be critical. The spread of our heavy hitters will need to be placed at exactly the right mission points to be as effective as possible. Once all of these tasks have been successfully fulfilled will Nivara truly be vulnerable. The spearhead will meet her in combat and those available should get there as soon as possible to assist."
Elthana follows the rest into the separate plane to discuss the situation. As Muir unloads and then Ginro... she realizes that this is so much. So much more than she had ever attempted to accomplish in her life. When the plan starts to form, her head starts to spin and she leans against anything that is available. She concentrates on her breathing and finds herself missing Sam. He wasn't good at all this planning and his snide comments would at least detract from the heaviness she was feeling right now.
"So... what first?" she manages to say, even that felt difficult.
Gewyn paces the room, hands behind his back, inspecting faces, the floor, the ceiling, thinking. "Daudi and Omertyr, do you require escort on your mission? The quicker and smoother the rune recovery is, the fewer lives will be lost in battle."
"with you all being the spearhead to breach Nivara's castle, I think it is only right that we escort and assist your group until the rune is recovered, then you'll be on your own I'm afraid." Daudi states glumly.
"We start with the approach..." Kohso begins, and as the meeting develops into detailed positioning, tactics, efficiency, and expected parameters of loss. The group is signalled by hector who brings them out of the orb and then out of Lumithor's lair. Escorting you all to a nearby crevasse where he has crudely stables several smeagles ready to take you to Gojjin.
Vin listens to the plans being made, knowing that the distribution of their allies is important, but feels it best to highlight a couple of things before he follows Hector out.
"We must remember", he starts trying to be assertive in getting those assembled to listen to him. "That whatever plans we make, Nivara will have plans of her own. We need to be flexible in case things change, or in case one part of the plan doesn't go smoothly. To that end, we have requisitioned a means of communicating between the groups. A version of sending stones with five stones. Not enough for every group, but better than none at all".
He looks to Muir to show the stones, or whoever has them.
(With overall planning being handled in the discord I'll move to the search operation for gojiin here)
The travel from the shattered isle to the Isle of gojiin is cold, the backs of the two headed eagles offer no large shield from the rapturous winds and as you fly low toward the Isle you are met with a familiar sight, the cracked surface of the isle giving way in places to the layered labyrinth of tunnels, dwellings and lawless civilisation that you all experienced underneath.
You remember traversing the subterranean layers of the abandoned healing house and battling the incorporeal wraiths that feasted on the suffering of the past, of finding hector and his kin in that haunted lair after their successful resource recovery mission, and of the invisible stalker that akiin had sent trailing you after your arrival to the plane.
But you bypass the veritable honeycombs of ruined civilisation underground and head towards the one spire that peeks out above the crust.
The Smeagles chirp nervously as you approach and swoop lower before you reach the spire, like a magnet repelled away from it's counterpart they succumb to no encouragement or coercion and land themselves outside the walls of a courtyard, they will go no further as they let you off, the barren wastes of crystal behind you and the spire in front.
The cold does not let go as you climb down from your mounts, somehow this place is even colder than speeding through the vast. "Well I don't like this at all" Hector grumbles trying to pull his robe as far up his neck as possible before burying his hands within the body of it. "There's a door up ahead, it looks open..." He trails off nodding in the direction of a set of double doors in the wall a little ways away.
"... there to strike at the heart..." Gewyn mumbles unintelligibly to himself. Then he speaks up louder. I believe we should be part of the speartip of the assault. As extraplanar visitors, we are less suited to drawn out engagements. In the ground skirmish against the lost souls, our resources would be quickly depleted, and we would need to be rotated out of the fight for far longer than the average soldier. On the other hand, our skills lend themselves to flexibility, reactivity and a quick, penetrating assault."
"I think we should take this into your demiplane, Ginro", Vin suggests after nodding his agreement to what Gewyn had said. "We can tell you the exact details once there, Kohso. And I can tell Lumithor once we are out without risk of being overheard".
He is seems adamant that they not speak about more specific details until they have some measure of protection against things like scrying and mind reading.
Muir nods along not sure what to say and what not to say at this point. He is focusing on not saying anything....which is very difficult for him.
As discussions turn to where discussions need to take place, Elthana starts getting impatient. "Shouldn't we head out and try and track down the missing dijiin? Any ideas where we might be able to find him? Or how to find his island... unless we can teleport there as well?" she adds the last part hopefully.
Ginro tosses his orb out into the middle of the room with a clatter where it begins to swell and grow, the metallic sides of it warbling like water, he gives vin a smile and a nod and walks into the side wall of the thing, passing through without obstruction.
"Speartip it shall be... Gojjin is not too far away." Kohso states, here eyes locked on Elthana, confused as to why the shadow elf isn't demanding to be the one to fell Nivara, "the remains of this isle follow it's path near enough that travel should be relatively easy if you have the means to fly." At this hector steps forward. "My smeagles are available if the need arises."
Following ginro's example, the xorns, shenoh, sol, Vinghov, Duun, Akiin, Griff, Daudi, and Ömertyr all enter the demiplane. Kohso gestures for vin to lead the group in before following suit. "So young vin, what would you like to discuss before we get to the detailed planning?"
Vin relaxes once they are in Ginro's demiplane, but when Kohso asks him what he wants to discuss he defers to Muir.
"In truth I think Muir has the most detailed knowledge of what needs to happen, so it might be best if he explains first. Then we can discuss how we are going to get in position to get it done", he says, looking to the Loxodon.
Muir clears his throat and takes out his notes "Ah yes, thank you Vincent." Muir goes into a long-winded recounting of everything he knows about Nivara, the box, and the phylactery. "So you see we need a magical weapon to destroy the phylactery, but my assumption is that it is heavily guarded knowing we are coming for it. That phylactery needs to be destroyed before we can defeat Nivara. If the box is still operational this will be the shortest assault in the history of this realm."
Ginro, in response fills everybody in on the specifics of the box itself and also credits the group with figuring out the song that is the key to opening it, the ancient shadar-kai lullaby that resides in Elthana's head.
Shenoh then shares her knowledge on the basics of a phylactery "...and so once opened, the fragments of Nivara's soul held within should escape rendering the vessel inert until the point at which she can return the soul. That will be the key moment to strike. Either having these creatures eat the box, destroy it, or teleport it away."
Daudi interjects with her and Ömertyr's mission, the complication of needing to recover Vox's rune before the box is opened. If the order is misaligned then the remains of Vox will perish as the box is opened and the entire realm will cease to be held together. She tells of the plan to get the rune and then as quickly as possible Travel or teleport to Lumithor's lair to pass it on to one of Vox's children before the power consumed and destroys Ömertyr.
"...and this" kohso concludes "must all happen after the arcane shield is taken down so that the spearhead can make the attack on the castle. Even with armies at our disposal the timing of this will be critical. The spread of our heavy hitters will need to be placed at exactly the right mission points to be as effective as possible. Once all of these tasks have been successfully fulfilled will Nivara truly be vulnerable. The spearhead will meet her in combat and those available should get there as soon as possible to assist."
Elthana follows the rest into the separate plane to discuss the situation. As Muir unloads and then Ginro... she realizes that this is so much. So much more than she had ever attempted to accomplish in her life. When the plan starts to form, her head starts to spin and she leans against anything that is available. She concentrates on her breathing and finds herself missing Sam. He wasn't good at all this planning and his snide comments would at least detract from the heaviness she was feeling right now.
"So... what first?" she manages to say, even that felt difficult.
Gewyn paces the room, hands behind his back, inspecting faces, the floor, the ceiling, thinking. "Daudi and Omertyr, do you require escort on your mission? The quicker and smoother the rune recovery is, the fewer lives will be lost in battle."
"with you all being the spearhead to breach Nivara's castle, I think it is only right that we escort and assist your group until the rune is recovered, then you'll be on your own I'm afraid." Daudi states glumly.
"We start with the approach..." Kohso begins, and as the meeting develops into detailed positioning, tactics, efficiency, and expected parameters of loss. The group is signalled by hector who brings them out of the orb and then out of Lumithor's lair. Escorting you all to a nearby crevasse where he has crudely stables several smeagles ready to take you to Gojjin.
Vin listens to the plans being made, knowing that the distribution of their allies is important, but feels it best to highlight a couple of things before he follows Hector out.
"We must remember", he starts trying to be assertive in getting those assembled to listen to him. "That whatever plans we make, Nivara will have plans of her own. We need to be flexible in case things change, or in case one part of the plan doesn't go smoothly. To that end, we have requisitioned a means of communicating between the groups. A version of sending stones with five stones. Not enough for every group, but better than none at all".
He looks to Muir to show the stones, or whoever has them.
(With overall planning being handled in the discord I'll move to the search operation for gojiin here)
The travel from the shattered isle to the Isle of gojiin is cold, the backs of the two headed eagles offer no large shield from the rapturous winds and as you fly low toward the Isle you are met with a familiar sight, the cracked surface of the isle giving way in places to the layered labyrinth of tunnels, dwellings and lawless civilisation that you all experienced underneath.
You remember traversing the subterranean layers of the abandoned healing house and battling the incorporeal wraiths that feasted on the suffering of the past, of finding hector and his kin in that haunted lair after their successful resource recovery mission, and of the invisible stalker that akiin had sent trailing you after your arrival to the plane.
But you bypass the veritable honeycombs of ruined civilisation underground and head towards the one spire that peeks out above the crust.
The Smeagles chirp nervously as you approach and swoop lower before you reach the spire, like a magnet repelled away from it's counterpart they succumb to no encouragement or coercion and land themselves outside the walls of a courtyard, they will go no further as they let you off, the barren wastes of crystal behind you and the spire in front.
The cold does not let go as you climb down from your mounts, somehow this place is even colder than speeding through the vast. "Well I don't like this at all" Hector grumbles trying to pull his robe as far up his neck as possible before burying his hands within the body of it. "There's a door up ahead, it looks open..." He trails off nodding in the direction of a set of double doors in the wall a little ways away.