Having been granted rulership over the city of Vanhoover, and confessed their feelings for each other, Lex Legis and Sonata Dusk have started a new life together. But the challenges of rulership, and a relationship, are more than they bargained for.
Lex sat bolt upright, his eyes wide with horror at what he’d just been told. “What do-”
But he stopped speaking as he realized that the Night Mare wasn’t there anymore. Neither was the ring of blue fire, nor the full moon overhead. In fact, he’d been standing before, so why was he sitting up now…?
The answer came immediately, supplied by what little he could see of his surroundings. Although only a small amount of ambient light was making its way in, it was enough to let him see that he was inside a small tent, almost identical to the one he’d woken up in the last time he’d unexpectedly lost consciousness. Brushing aside the memory of the injuries he’d inflicted on himself when he’d created food for everypony, Lex lurched to his hooves, ignoring the ripple of pain that went through his body as he kicked off the blanket that had been laid over him. He could hear the distant murmur of overlapping voices, none of them screaming or crying, and that sent desperate hope through him as he lunged for the tent flap. He had to warn everypony that the ghouls were coming!
…or were they?
He slowed to a stop in front of the tent flap, his mind suddenly whirling as he started to doubt the veracity of what he’d been told. Although he’d been certain at the time that his dream had been real, new doubts floated through his mind now. Could that have been some new form of nightmare inflicted by his tulpa? Normally, Lex would have dismissed the possibility out of hoof, since it had never altered its behavior before, but with how strange it had been acting during his fight with Xiriel that was no longer the case. If it could act differently then, why not now?
It’s not impossible, Lex realized anxiously, theories already starting to percolate in his mind. The idea that the spiteful thing in his shadow would torment him with predictions that the ghouls were about to descend on everyone, rather than scenes of intense emotional pain, wasn’t so farfetched. On the contrary, the more he thought about it the more plausible it seemed, and Lex felt his tension starting to ebb. Belatedly realizing that he wasn’t wearing his saddlebags, he glanced around; sure enough, they were lying in a corner of the tent. He grabbed it telekinetically, the auras springing up around the bags and his horn lighting up the interior of the tent as he-
-suddenly froze, the saddlebags suspended in mid-air. Although telekinesis didn’t offer tactile feedback, he could still sense the amount of weight he was lifting, since greater amounts required commensurately greater effort on his part. As such, Lex had been able to immediately recognize that it was taking more exertion than it should have to lift his saddlebags…almost as if they were carrying more weight than they had been before. Turning them over in his mental grip, he opened each bag and removed their contents, extracting Xiriel’s scroll, the five enchanted gemstones…
And a huge ruby.
Lex stared at it grimly, having already guessed that it was the source of the additional weight, before shoving it and the other items back into his saddlebag, donning it before striding outside as quickly as his injured body could move. It wasn’t just a nightmare, he swore silently, his earlier doubts now utterly obliterated. Instead, he started running through various responses to this latest catastrophe, focusing on the logistical and tactical considerations for a number of possible responses. She said that the ghouls will be here in just over an hour. There should be enough daylight left then that we’ll be able to see them coming, so-
But another unpleasant surprise was waiting for Lex as he left his tent: night had already fallen. Slowing his pace at this new revelation, Lex swore the most profane curses he knew as he twisted his head around, trying to find even the slightest bit of light on the horizon, but it was already full dark, with the only illumination coming from the small fires spread throughout the camp. Turning this latest revelation over in his head, Lex suddenly felt a small surge of hope rush through him: if he had slept long enough, then his dark magic should have replenished itself!
But that hope died as soon as it was born, as he turned his thoughts toward his horn’s magic and immediately felt a void where he should have felt power waiting to be tapped. Apparently he had been unconscious long enough for the sun to go down, but not so long that he’d gotten sufficient rest to restore what he’d already expended. It was the worst possible combination of events, and that realization made him gnash his teeth as his anxiety swelled, anger rushing in to drown it a moment later. Gritting his teeth in a silent snarl, Lex stalked toward the medical tent. This is just like what happened with that kraken, he screamed internally, remembering how he’d been similarly out of magic and near-totally incapacitated when the Great Lord of the Deep had attacked. It’s all happening again!
That thought was enough to send him down a quick conceptual analysis of whether or not he could use the same strategy now that had led them to victory then, but it took less than two seconds for him to realize that wasn’t viable. That plan had hinged on everypony fighting a defensive battle so as to let him, Cloudbank, and Severance battle the kraken without interruption, since he’d realized that killing it would send all of the monsters back where they’d come from. But the ghouls had no such weakness; however many there were, each and every one of them would need to be slain in order to put an end to their threat.
Nor would he be able to enlist the ponies here at the camp to fight. Not only were they malnourished and wounded, but he couldn’t conjure weapons and armor for them the way he had for everypony back at the shelter. Even if Sonata could use her magic to enhance everyone, their previous engagement had shown that to have only a limited effect; sending them against the ghouls with nothing but her song to bolster them would doubtlessly result in a huge number of casualties, something which had to be avoided at all costs.
For a brief moment he thought about organizing an evacuation instead, knowing that Sonata’s magic – with its ability to hold large numbers of ponies enthralled – would be more suitable for that, but he discarded that idea immediately. He had previously found that idea to be lacking, and that was even truer now; even if he could have gotten such an endeavor organized in an hour, marching at night would only leave them blind while the ghouls picked them off at their leisure. Besides, where would they even go?
But if he couldn’t empower everypony here to fight off the imminent attack, and couldn’t evacuate them out of harm’s way, then what was left? Desperately, he turned over riskier plans, trying to come up with something, anything that would let him protect everypony here. But there was nothing. He couldn’t invent a new spell that would help with only an hour’s worth of time and no research or testing materials, and even if he’d known a magical ritual that could have helped a single hour wouldn’t have been enough time to enact it. And of course, none of the spells he still had prepared were able to affect a large number of beings at once, whether to attack the ghouls or defend the ponies here. But with no other magic at his disposal, he…wait…
Almost at the entrance to the medical tent, Lex stopped, remembering that he did have more magic at his disposal: Xiriel’s scroll! Glancing back at his saddlebag, Lex telekinetically lifted it, holding the scroll case up in front of his eyes. He’d previously decided not to tamper with it any further before he had a chance to carefully examine it for potential traps, but that was a luxury he could no longer afford. Now, with what was likely an army of the undead headed there way, he was going to have to take a chan-
“Sir?” interrupted a familiar voice. Glancing over, Lex found himself almost nose-to-nose with House Call, who looked surprised to see him. “What are you doing out of bed?”
Lex, however, had no interest in getting involved in another debate about his medical status. “Where is Sonata?” he demanded. The scroll would need to wait at least a few minutes; right now he needed to find Sonata, since she was best suited to giving orders on his behalf to a large number of ponies.
Apparently having expected to be blown off, House Call’s sigh seemed almost perfunctory as he canted his head towards the back of the field hospital. “Last I saw, she was helping everypony get ready with that stuff you wanted. The big holes and things.”
Lex didn’t bother with a reply, turning to circle the tent while cursing himself for not thinking to look there first. Apparently he’d gotten used to thinking of the place’s entrance as some sort of de facto meeting point, and although that had cost him barely a minute it was enough to make him berate himself. Every minute counted now! Forcing himself into a trot, Lex ignored the shooting pains that sent through him as he hurried toward where Sonata hopefully was. He could already see several light sources up ahead, knowing from how they were bobbing that they’d been conjured by unicorns, and he could hear what sounded like shovels digging in the dirt. Picking up his pace, he silently wondered if there was any chance that Sonata’s initiative would meet with his expectations. A long ditch. Some berms. Fencing. Caltrops, he silently ran through the list of potential defenses in his head. Maybe if the ghouls weren’t as numerous as he thought, and if everypony had poured on for the fortifications, this would be enough…
But as he approached the working ponies, Lex saw that he’d been wrong to hope for very much. The sight that greeted his eyes was maybe two dozen holes scattered haphazardly around, none of them looking more than three feet deep in the unicorns’ light. Worse, they were narrow, most being a couple of feet wide and about as long. Of course, that wasn’t surprising, given how – contrary to what Lex had thought he’d heard – there wasn’t a shovel in sight. Rather, the ponies doing the digging were using wooden boards, bent metal rods, and even spoons to displace the earth. Nor did the incompetence on display end there. The dirt from the holes was scattered haphazardly rather than being packed into berms, and there were a few piles of loose pieces of wood that Lex could only presume were earmarked to be put to use later, because in their current arrangement they weren’t any sort of effective defense.
The overall state of the western edge of the camp could be summarized in one word, Lex knew: disappointing. It was enough to make him curse his girlfriend’s misguided efforts, but he pushed that thought away, knowing that he should have been there to guide her instead of succumbing to exhaustion. But it was too late to regret that now; now there was nothing to do but react to the situation at hoof.
If everypony couldn’t be bolstered to fighting form nor removed from the battlefield, then the only thing to do was defend them, Lex knew. But with Aria having fled, Cozy and Aisle gone, Cloudbank and the others dead, and Sonata being too precious to him to let fight, that left only left one pony of note to face off against the ghouls: himself. With how useless these “defenses” were, that meant that he’d have nothing but his remaining prepared spells, Severance, and whatever magic was on that scroll to save over a thousand ponies from an unknown, but likely very large, number of ghouls.
He’d just have to hope that would be-, no…he’d just have to make that be enough.
With no other options, Lex decides to make a stand against the incoming horde of ghouls.
Is he doing the right thing, or should he be trying something else?
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Update update update! Update update update! Yay for update!
previous -- precious
Just like David said, previous-precious
It looks like Sonata managed to rally everyone, or at least a number of ponies to help carry out Lex's instructions, shame she isn't much of a foreman but at least she's got ponies to cooperate with her and by extension Lex but given how useless the defenses are, it would be better to divert the work ponies to something more meaningful, like informing everyone to move away from the soon-to-be battlefield.
Still, I'm worried that Lex didn't take heed of Night Mare's words about him doing everything himself again. There's only so much one can extend oneself before they break, this is literal given how handicapped Lex is right now. While I can see why he doesn't want to use the camp ponies to fight but what about C.Shell's crew? Or has he already discounted their aid given what happened.
As for the scroll, didn't Xiriel say it was used to turn beings into undead? Or am I remembering stuff wrong again? In case I'm not wrong, then I suppose it's a good thing Lex isn't planning on having anyone else fight by his side or else turning the ponies he's trying to protect into more ghouls would be devastating. Or even worse, empower the ghouls or something along those lines.
If you dont have time to make integrated defenses, then turning ground into highly variable works in your favour as well, taking a scoop out and placing it to teh side doesnt just make a foot pit to avoid and a divot to trip over, but that makes the diverting entity interact more with surrounding forces. Generally though it at most slows things down by up to a half and cipples a few percent in a swarm.
If it had been a heavy clay soil and you had enough warning of several hours depending on water supply, soaking or shallow flooding the area would turn it into a quagmire, a true death trap. but it needs time for the water to soak deeply enough, where divots help.
Lex is supposed to be relying on others to help, but again he is still so tied up in how he himself only the hero above all plebs can do it induvidually, he still isnt following the demands of his patron deity.
Good thing it wasnt Zeus or Lex would be extra crispy for his blasphemy right about now.
8878291 Fixed! Thanks for catching that!
8878216 I aim to please!
And I hope you're still enjoying the story!
8878386 Sonata did indeed manage to rally everypony, but without Lex there she wasn't able to properly coordinate their efforts in the most effective manner possible. It's almost as though the two of them are a team, and that without both of them there things tend to go off the rails...kind of like what the Night Mare was talking about.
Of course, Lex doesn't seem to have absorbed that lesson either, as he's already decided that everypony else will be useless for what's about to happen. We can already see some of his dismissal in that he's decided Sonata is too important to him to allow her near danger, and as you picked up on he's discounted C. Shells' crew completely (though that's understandable after their previous encounter with him...even so, I probably should have explicitly called that out). To be fair, we can get a glimpse of why Lex is doing this, since he wants to take all of the danger onto himself, but as you noted, there's only so far that can go. He did examine the idea of having everypony fight with him the way they did against Tlerekithres' forces, but did he discard that idea a little too quickly?
As for the scroll, remember that Lex briefly examined it, and found that it had multiple magical auras on it (which is to say, it has multiple spells inscribed). There's almost certainly another undead-creation spell on there, but now we're almost certain that it has other spells too. Will that be what turns things around now?
8878562 You're right that an uneven ground will help to slow an advancing force, but against enemies that are on foot (er, on hoof) it's only going to inconvenience them at best, particularly when they're already dead and don't feel pain or fatigue. He wanted them to construct a series of obstacles that would pose a significant challenge to cross, but what he's gotten right now are little more than speed bumps. Unfortunately, there's not much time to turn that around now.
Insofar as his trying to go it alone again...well, this is his version of panicking, which is to push everyone else away and rely on himself. But he has to realize that if the ghouls are anywhere near as many as he thinks they are, then that's not going to work. But maybe there's still time for him to realize that he's about to make a bad decision...?
a plan is needed and fast time to think Lex,
8879536 Let's hope he can come up with one in the little time that he has.
Man, I agree with Lex, making wizards fight a bunch of battles on the same day is unfair. Haven't you heard of the 5 Minute Adventure Day?
But seriously, prep ideas:
1) Raise Cloudy. Even with her weaknesses and penalized Con score, she should still have a spell or two, and she can also help direct Severance.
2) Depending on Severance's abilities and mood, he could send it off to start picking off advancing ghouls, especially ones that look like leaders. That might slow the horde a little bit, and make them less coordinated when they arrive. (If the ghouls are advancing as one big group rather than as just a general tide of ghouls appearing, they have to have a leader, and whoever that leader is I bet Severance could whack them).
3) Accept that he won't possibly be able to prevent Sonata from joining the battle.
8883271
I have. The problem is, so has everyone else, and they know to leverage it whenever possible.
What penalized Con score? Remember, Lex never recovered Cloudbank's body, not even a piece of it. But the Night Mare has said the spell in that gem will bring her back to life. Ergo...?
Given that they're a Chaotic Evil horde, who are by this point nearly mad with hunger, I wouldn't hold out too much hope for them being any sort of coordinated group. Of course, that's not a guarantee, but at this point the clues we've seen up until now don't paint a picture as to any sort of overarching formation among their numbers. They're devious and can set traps, but there doesn't appear to be any sort of greater organization in play.
Somehow I foresee that being a problem.
8883462
That's true. I don't know if you follow David Silver's "Ask an Everglow God" tumblr, but I base a fair amount of my understanding of the Night Mare from that, and I recall her once telling a story about a priestess of the Night Mare seducing a human lover.
Ahh. I missed that. Now I agree with the Night Mare, way to waste a feat! Though to be fair, even just keeping Aria around as an ally feels like it would cause a huge amount of tension with Sonata, who is Lex's most valuable ally of all.
Now you've got me looking forward to whoever does fill that Leadership slot.
8883526
I do, and I was thinking of that also, since that's the closest we've seen in any "official" materials to the Night Mare having anything to say on the topic of romance. As I recall, that human was the priestess's slave, and they maintained that relationship despite being lovers and having children together.
It's not so much "wasted" as it is "not used yet," but yeah, she's starting to get irritated at how he's dragging his hooves. Likewise, keeping Aria around might upset Sonata, but managing their servants/slaves/followers/etc. is what the Night Mare's faithful are supposed to be good at.
Oh, there's quite a lot of slots to fill, since as I mentioned Lex isn't limited to a single cohort and a bunch of followers (instead, he gets to figure out the total levels' worth of potential servants and allocate them as he sees fit, though each individual has a ceiling that's a few levels below his own). The sheer number of creatures he potentially could recruit this way has already reached immense proportions, to the point that taking all six araneas and Aria would still have left plenty of room. If you want to talk specifics: Lex can recruit a maximum of 102 levels' worth of magical beasts, of which none may have a level above 8. For ease of use, "level" is treated as being CR (subject to GM discretion), though any creature that has an "exotic unlimited-uses-per-day" ability adds +2 to this calculation.
8883487
That's a good article, but I feel like it's setting up a strawman. The adventuring party that actually runs into 3 rooms of intelligent foes, kills them, then goes 50 feet outside the entrance and camps, versus the smart adventuring party that "The most successful groups have pretty much invariably been the ones that scout out the situation, arrange for prepared fallback positions, recruit local help where they can, stock up on expendables, set priorities, plan their attack, and manage their resources so as to get through the entire “adventure” without stopping and giving the enemy a chance to call in assistance and prepare for their next attack."
It's quite possible to nova-smart by scouting, arranging alternate routes, recruiting local help, set priorities, plan the attack while also hitting a few key rooms, then retreating safely to a place that has been pre-selected, hidden and warded against divination, set careful watches with non-caster in mid watch, and come in on a second day from a different entrance of the dungeon while the antagonists have shifted their forces in response to your initial attack.
Of course, it sounds like the answer to adventuring parties using that playstyle is "every minor orc tribe can call in favors from a dark god in one night if you rest." I think the idea that dark temples and orc tribes have all these favors and allies they have not yet called in on day one seems pretty unrealistic, unless you're talking about attacking a dungeon where enemies have absolutely no idea you're coming. In pretty much any narrative campaign where you are attacking an orc tribe or dark temple, your party is doing it to stop some active plan the villains have enacted, which means they can reasonably expect attacks in the near future. All their strongest monsters and minions should be ready to defend on day one, not trotted out only after and if the heroes attack and retreat.
I agree with the author that this is a tactic which brakes game balance, which is why I like that a lot of campaigns have enemy villains on tight time schedules that mean a day of rest could spell the difference between success or failure. I just feel they are being a little elastic with their setting in the name of punishing a tactic.
But that's a whole different discussion.
But the thing is, they have to be at least semi-coordinated if their is a single giant group that will overrun the camp within the hour, even though there have been almost no ghouls attacking before. Someghoul, has to have been holding the ghouls back, otherwise there would have been 5 ghouls attacking the camp, then 25, then 100, then the 500, etc. Sure they are CE, but even orc hordes have tribal leaders that direct attacks.
8883579
A straw man fallacy is based on rebutting a misrepresentation of your opponent's argument, rather than their actual argument. Leaving aside that there's no actual "opponent" here, the representation of the so-called "15-minute adventuring day" (or its 5- and 10-minute equivalents) seems entirely accurate. That is to say, it's predicated on the idea that the party will go into the dungeon - or whatever the local "combat zone" is supposed to be - and use all of their limited resources (typically in the way of renewable magic), at which point they'll withdraw, rest for the day, and then head back and repeat, whittling away at the dungeon until it's finally cleared, at which point they'll move on.
Leaving aside questions of "how much does this happen, really?" - since it's not possible to audit every game at every table - we can presume that the sheer ubiquity of this label means that it must have some validity beyond the echo chamber of the Internet (which certainly has a tendency to exaggerate complaints). I can say that I've personally experienced it in games I've GM'd, though when it happened I had absolutely no qualms about smacking the party down hard (seriously, when you know you're invading a lich's lair, and one of its minions escapes, bedding down to sleep in that same room with nothing more than setting a one-person rotating watch is probably not the best idea, guys!). In that case, the scenario laid out in that article isn't so much a straw man as it is an aggregate representation of the various variants of that particular complaint. Which is to say, that the entire world is essentially static, with only the PCs being dynamic actors who are able to be proactive in what they do. Hence, the response is likewise all-encompassing for what it lays out.
And here's the thing: that's not "nova-ing" at all. You might very well be burning through your renewable resources in short order, but if you're already scouting ahead, laying down contingency plans, looking for available assistance, setting priorities and specific targets, all before falling back to a pre-fortified position before resuming an alternate attack plan after you've rested...then that's not a 15-minute adventuring day to begin with. Quite the opposite! If anything, this is the bare minimum assumption for approaching a target that you expect to be dynamic, and is going to take a considerably long time to set up. More than that, this is absolutely going to utilize some of those consumable resources - both before and after the actual combat engagement (how else do you plan on warding against divination, for example?) - and so by definition won't use a "nova strike" anyway. What you've just described is your own, variant agreement with the article I linked to before.
Personally, I think that what you described could use a little bit of tightening up (e.g. just because you attack a different entrance doesn't mean that defenses will be lighter there; any sort of organized response is going to know to fortify everything), particularly since your enemies are likely to still be on alert after only a day or so, but it's still pretty good.
You're getting caught up in the specifics, here. The underlying point is that, if your enemies are given a chance to regroup after a devastating assault, they're going to start breaking out whatever they can to protect/enhance themselves, confound (or at least spite) their attackers, and otherwise increase their own odds of winning and minimize that of their enemies'. In short, they won't keep things in reserve if they can possibly help it, and that includes calling upon active, interventionist deities or other forces (e.g. it might suddenly look like a good time to use that scroll of planar binding to cut a deal with a glabrezu for a wish. Sure, that's probably a bad idea in the long run, but when you think that you're about to die in the short run it suddenly seems like a much better option. Ditto for the profane gift of a succubus, cutting a deal with a contract devil, or whomever else you can quickly gain power from).
That's because the underlying premise of the 15-minute adventuring day is that you only get partway through the dungeon before you fall back to rest and start again. So even if your enemies don't know you're initially coming, they're going to be very aware of it afterwards. That's when they start scrambling to put into effect everything they can possibly get (which doesn't just include calling in favors, but also includes promising future favors later for immediate aid now).
That's a rather iffy proposition that you're laying out as a categorical truism. Sandbox campaigns, for instance, are typically presented without an initial progressing narrative that requires the NPCs to already have utilized everything they possibly can before the PCs even get to them. In all honesty, if they have any consumable magic items to begin with lying around (e.g. potions or scrolls that offer buffs), then they're going to have additional resources to call upon. Those things all too often are relegated to treasure piles, leaving insightful PCs wondering why they didn't use them during the actual fight. That's also leaving aside that some modules don't have a progressive narrative whereby the bad guys have any imminent, active plan (or at least, not a short-term one); the classic AD&D First Edition modules, such as T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil were famous for this, essentially being set pieces which the GM had to come up with a reason for the players to go to (which was quite often little more than "you guys have heard that there's riches there").
Again, that's not a setting, it's an example designed to run counter to most of the common variants of this particular issue. Likewise, it's not "punishing" the PCs to let them suffer the consequences of presuming that their enemies won't be proactive. To be fair, there are sometimes when that's true - if you're facing a nest of mindless vermin, for example, or a tomb of unquiet dead who only animate when their resting places are violated - then you're probably going to be fine with retreating and restoring your full strength before going back at it (though even then, you'll need to watch out for wandering monsters). But against thinking, intelligent foes, they're almost certainly going to have options that they can put to use in response to an attack when they think that there's more incoming.
You know you can't really say that after you start the discussion, right?
It's entirely possible to split the difference here, and presume that the ghouls are acting as a single mass without any particular direction or leadership. Considering that's how we often see mobs operate, I don't think that's too much of a stretch; you can have a leaderless group of individuals bent on wreaking havoc and without any sort of greater leader while still maintaining a relatively tight formation. It won't be anything remotely resembling an organized platoon, but it won't be diffuse waves of scattered individuals and small groups either, as they'll remain relatively close to each other.
That said, I "anyghoul." I'll need to remember that for later.
Well, at least the Night Mare is attempting to keep him alive.
9219281 She is invested in his success, even if she's not the most kindhearted of patrons.