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Key wrote: | ||
But if the spell works, there's no disturbance. We get to play it cool and we might find something out. Might as well give it a shot, I say. |
Smee wrote: |
Ok, after much discussion (Some of which had to be directed elsewhere ) it seems to basically boil down to two directly opposing options. |
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What do we have in the way of armored ships |
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When the mages say they've tried assaulting the bridge with all kinds of magic, does that include magic that they've used on themselves?
I'm thinking particularly of invisibility, illusion, things like that...? |
Smee wrote: |
"You are probably wondering why this has prevented us taking control before now...The bridge was imbued with a powerful magical shield...This circular shield is impervious to any magical forces we have yet conceived and stretches over a wide area." |
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First of all, just so that I understand: the shield prevents the passage of magic spells, but we can walk right through it and then cast magic that will affect those inside, right? |
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if we had protective or disguise spells on (maybe a more primitive version of invisibility?), could we go through without the shield disrupting them? I'd also like to know if we've tried any kind of mental magic: for example, could we confuse or entrance the soldiers through the shield (or do those spells even exist?) And of course, we need to know the physical limits of the shield: Does it go below-ground or in the air? Is it a sphere?
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What's the timeline on the attack? Can we do additional researches on the shield if we need to? |
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Next, we need to know the capabilities of the mages, particularly the water-mage. Can he do something that will allow us to breathe underwater? If so, we might want to go in via the river. How much water can he create? Could he flood the bridge, drowning the soldiers or forcing them outside the shield? |
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Protective magics are also going to be key. If we're going to do battle inside the shield, close to the soldiers, we're going to need magic that will keep their attacks at bay until we can finish them off. There are hundreds and we can't count on being able to see every arrow-shot like we did before, so we'll going to need some kind of armor magic that will ward off arrows and sword-blows. Are there magical artifacts in this world, like a cloak or ring or protection?
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What else do we have? Anyone who can cast a silence or darkness spell? What about scrying or far-seeing? Death spells would be nice given the "kill but do not destroy" aspect of this mission. How about conjured monsters? Could they pass through the shield?
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Smee wrote: |
The faster the more impressed the Elders will be. There's no reason you can't attack and retreat a few times to try and get some ideas. But be warned, Captain Hunt isn't likely to sit there whilst you experiment. |
Smee wrote: |
The water mage has spent all his life studying the flow of water. He can't help with underwater breathing, and he doesn't manifest water, but manipulate it. He could probably do some interesting things, but it's doubtful he could flood the whole bridge. |
ethereal_fauna wrote: |
First off, what you don’t know can hurt you, so track down the members of that test squad and find out what the smudged map features hold. From there assess the situation further. |
ethereal_fauna wrote: |
You don’t want to attack as a cluster, grouped under a shield. That reduces your force to one large target instead several smaller but deadly ones. Foolish to set your team up to get wiped out with one blow. |
ethereal_fauna wrote: |
You want to assemble a well-rounded team. Specializations are crucial and favor an attack more than undefined skills, and with twelve members your team should easily encompass those who will provide attacking force and those who will provide supportive efforts. |
ethereal_fauna wrote: |
Something else to consider: hire mercenaries to go inside the shield and engage in hand-to-hand combat. |
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If I'm correct, surely they'd know what the south-bank-of-the-river smudge-feature was before we made a mess of it? |
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How about building a raft enclosed with logs. The fire mage and water mage could work together to burn the logs to the right size then they could be assembled by everyone. It should be big enough to go halfway through the shield with the water mage staying inside the raft on the other side ready to pull the raft out if needed. |
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If he can manipulate water, can he keep it moved to the sides underwater to maintain a bubble of air around us? |
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Can we create some kind of magical wall or trap outside the shield? How long could we make that kind of spell last? |
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what if we created or levitated some dangerous objects over the bridge, and then dropped them? Burning trees, boiling oil, acid, poisonous snakes - these would all fall right through the shield as long as they weren't magical, right? Maybe we should think about dropping something in there to soften the soldiers up, and then walking in and finishing the job. |
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1. Lure as many of the soldiers OUTSIDE as you can, by some means (lure, decoy, dunno) and kill them there.
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Cut off their supplies. How long can they survive in there? In fact you wouldn't have to cut them off until they all starved, but just to weaken them. Probably not the best thing as it would take too long. HOWEVER you should isolate them some time before the attack. |
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5. Another way in maybe would be to kill a squad of re-enforcements on their way into the bridge, disguise the mages (non-magically) and once inside let loose the dragons of war. |
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How is the shield powered? Maybe you could sneak one man/mage inside and de-activate the thing? |
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We could distract them by having one mage shoot some firebolts or something from far away. When they see the red thing, they will rush to that side, leaving the rest of the team clear to walk inside and do their thing |
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Healing might be nice too, just in case, but I don't know if our people study that. |
ethereal_fauna wrote: |
Okay, scrap the hired hands then, and lets go with our baker's dozen of mages.
All we have to do is get inside that magical barrier and then the soldiers are toast. Let's get our mages together, earth and wind...think something like the mega sandstorm in the movie The Mummy. With a massive wall of sand in front of us to conceal our approach, we don't have fear of archers engaging us. We walk through the barrier following our protective sandstorm, and once inside kick their asses. :biggrin: |
The Powers That Be wrote: |
On walls/shields: is one of them impermeable to air? We could use projectiles to start a fire, then create a wall surrounding their shield (how big a wall could 13 of us make?) and let them asphyxiate in there. |
ethereal_fauna wrote: |
Let's get our mages together, earth and wind...think something like the mega sandstorm in the movie The Mummy. With a massive wall of sand in front of us to conceal our approach, we don't have fear of archers engaging us. We walk through the barrier following our protective sandstorm, and once inside kick their asses. |
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A variation: we dam up the river with a wall that's impervious to water, and drown them.
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Smee wrote: |
A normal wall would hold the non-moving water. However, the constant pressure from the huge weight would drain a mage in a few minutes. |
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On walls/shields: is one of them impermeable to air? We could use projectiles to start a fire, then create a wall surrounding their shield (how big a wall could 13 of us make?) and let them asphyxiate in there.
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