Scubacarrot

"The sand should clean most of him off, then we use my supply of potions to soak him. What do you think, Matthias?"

Guts starts scrubbing Daneeka with clean sand.

Thanks for having me, Endgame. "I wonder if we'll ever hear from that flame-guy again..." The mage says, as she leaves for Heroica Hall.

Calamity re-enters the Hall, and immediately signs up for Quest 146.

"Everyone's picking sides, it seems. I don't really care, you know, but it seems like a thing to do. You seem to offer the most... opportunity." Calamity joins the Wolf King's Followers as Knight-rank.

At some point in time, Guts enters the Crescent Hall headquarters. He coughs before he begins to speak to those present. "It's high time I laid all cards on the table. Why should I become Leader of Eubric. Is it because I am like all of you, once perhaps a foreigner or an outsider, but now firmly bound to this city by blood and gold? Is it because I have the power to do what others can't? Is it simply because of fate or will of the gods? I will claim none of those. Others have ties and strength, same as me, and I will leave destiny for a discussion in years to come. I will become the ruler of Eubric, not because of my strength or my blood, but because of what I believe in. I believe in a Eubric that can become more than what it is. I believe in a city that will throw off the shackles of ignorance and hopelessness. For too long this city has been a ship sailing along a rocky shore, battered by the waves of the malicious and reefs of the greedy. It is up to us to refit the ship and sail it into calmer waters. We will make this Freeport free again, restore the liberty denied to us by a vicious circle of criminality and persecution. But words are just words. If that was all it took, a minstrel would be King. A song will not fill a belly, nor block a blade. At the end of the day, it is metal that we need to sustain us. Gold and steel, to defend, plant and trade. The northern raiders won't be held back by the few Bonapartes forever, the eastern and southern states stir. Dastan is quiet now, for how long? When will the Kingdoms look for a new target for their armies, now that there is peace with Baltarok? We need to look to our defenses before it's too late. We have independence, and have had it for ages, but it is not guaranteed. Only too well do I know what happens when that freedom is threatened. We would lose our essence, our spirit, and perish. So we must look to our defense, however we can, so none may threaten what is ours. We need trade as we need the blood in our veins. We need to tighten our bonds with our fellow city states, from all directions. We have always relied on trade to remain flourishing, and have become a center for knowledge and prosperity as a result. So we must deal with the side-effects of the city's wealth. the Sungold Alliance are not our opponents to be trampled, and the Wolfgang is no longer a simple organization of thieves and thugs, if it ever was. After the Crescent Union steps forward to take up our leading role, we need to initiate dialogue with these factions, and get them to join us in our cause for prosperity and freedom. All voices must be heard, they cannot be ignored, if we are to be a united front. And still, you might ask yourself, why me? It is simply because I have the knowledge and will to do what, and as is needed to get to where we need to go, for we cannot stay where we are. Most of you know me. I have lead the party that freed the free city of Miranda from it's invaders, I have lead the party that achieved the standing peace of Baltarok, and have done many other things in service of Heroica, and before that, that should speak to my ability and my drive. I will do what is right. Be that with speech, blade or whatever tool is there. Vote for me, I will promise you, you will not regret it."

Guts needs to return to Eubric to win over some people... Probably will do it in the Crescent Union topic instead, huh.

"Heroica protection, huh... Not sure I believe it. Sure, we get lucky, a lot, but some Heroes have died... Anyway. What do you think Zane is going to do now?"

Guts smiled: "Maybe when we're on the boat to Etheria you could tell me about your past quests. For now, what happened? I saw Matthias swallowed, then something hit me, I think a worm, and then I blacked out for a while. When I came to, I was on top of the inn, and you weren't anywhere in sight. I decided to go after Matthias first, because I knew he was definitely in trouble..."

"I know Karie, she such a... person. Tell her I said hi.“

There's really a lot of very good gift suggestions this time around! I don't envy Sandy having to choose but one for each hero.

“Dyric, why don't you tell me what happened since I last saw you?“

Guts scowls at the running Parvati. She could have been a bargaining chip to get the information they want, he realizes too late. But, they had Daneeka. For now. "Save him Matthias. Tell me if you need anything."

Guts attacks the Head, with the Rapier, then the body with Mythril's Edge, from the back row, twice.

Artisan, again.

"I still don't need anything, thanks. Not much use in upgrading a weapon if you only cast spells."

Meh, I don't think he's a cheat, but I think his stats indicate the kind of big bad guy he is, His power only indicates that this guy probably doesn't have a lawful good disposition, and Guts is always going to want to fight people he sees as evil. . That's his character. I don't think that that is so ridiculous. Wether or not he'd be succesful is a second, and definitely in a 1v1, he just won't be. That doesn't mean he won't try. If he meets someone stronger, he will find another way to get what he wants. That may include doing something else, which didn't work, or attacking under different circumstances, which is what you were on about. I think your alternate options were lacking in the sense that they seemed less doable than you make them out to be. Of course as the QM you know what you would accept and what you wouldn't, but we don't, we are limited to what we perceive as being viable options in order to get the best possible result, modified by our character's personal motivations to a degree. We weren't offered those alternates specifically either, too. (except for the get help one) What I suggest is not Zane bow down to Guts. That would be weird, especially considering Zane is clearly much stronger than Guts. I don't know what happens next, Zepher, I am not the QM. I don't know if you want to Deus Ex it, or what, but I want you to be aware that my gripe and justification both is the same thing: an alliance with Zane seemed optional, unhelpful and avoidable. Maybe it boils down again to the ancient character vs player debate. As a player, my goal is obviously to finish the quest and get my character as strong as possible, and the logical solution would be to ally with Zane because he had the other half of the map and that would have been that. But, my character is not going to do that because Zane is a dick.

Calamity holds out her skull staff at Lind's suggestion.

"Just seems like a more likely instrument for you to be playing."

"You mean lute?"

Calamity shrugs. "You know what they say. Nothing better than a chopped off face to face your fears. Maybe you can play him some piano music. I don't know"

"I could summon up something? A stuffed demon-head looks good over any fireplace." Calamity instantly clears up at the idea.

I appreciate you laying out the options for me, it helps when you qm me in the future, to see what kind of stuff I can do. But Zepher, Just because those are options, doesn't seem like those would work to reach our goal in the end, especially at time. Let me explain what I mean. Alternate option 1 = not an option, Dyric, Matthias and Daneeka were in danger. Dyric and Matthias can't die. But Daneeka can, and the anvil is important, too. Guts has to save the party, not run away until he can come back with help, which realistically would take too long to help someone being eaten by a worm and/or in the clutches of crazy guy. Alternate option 2 = I did not find out about the bandits until the very end, and even then, they didn't seem reasonable. It seemed like they were either Zane's creatures or just common bandits preying on treasure hunters, which are usually not very reasonable. Alternate option 3 = I actually considered trying this, and, we still have one close so that's still not impossible, but Zepher, let's be honest, you've had an irregular record when it comes to railroading. After killing the first worm alone, and being lucky at getting that, seemed to me that Guts' best option to deal with any more was to leave them to chomp on medusa after she summoned them. Alternate option 4 = Guts is not negotiating with magic terrorists. Last time that didn't work out. Besides, the situation is not the same. There's worms. There's the other party members who might be willing to jump in now, there's Medusa who is probably eaten by a worm, who might have been responsible for a chunk of his power, I don't know how magic works. Besides, he was busy attacking worms, great opportunity for a knife in the back. I really think the case for allying with Zane is incredibly weak, even when not considering his craziness, demon-stuff and the fact that he eats souls and is generally completely questionable. Your points: He sends help when fighting the necromancers: I really thought that that was quite an easy battle when we were buffed, before Zane jumped in, so basically he was not very helpful. And then he becomes even crazier than he seemed by sucking the soul out of the necromancer with the angry voice. That makes him double crazy. And there was the whole thing about all the treasure hunters being murdered and stuff. If the party came a week later there'd probably be a prize on the guy's head, who knows. Anyways, I understand how it might be frustrating for you, I really do, but at the same time, I disagree with your reasoning. His offering to go with us to the fountain is dumb. Here we are, saying for the whole journey how the fountain is probably a very dangerous place, wondering what's the deal with it being so hard to find, having had to deal with those overpowered iceborn crew skeletons that had a sip too many of the ol' eternal life juice that were just the worst, and then there's a crazy guy basically saying I wanna make more of those fella's that are super annoying to deal with and I might or might not want to take over the world at some point in the future and it's going to be your fault and is going to result in a having-to-save-people-because-guilt-quest probably. That just seems avoidable. I think Guts was justified in the second attack too, because having had a glimpse of his stats, clearly he is a big bad. He is worse than 90% of Endgame's villains. He can make half of Guts' gold disappear. That's dumb. That's 4500 gold. In the void, can't take it back. Killing someone when they don't have all that jazz is just smart. Also he is immune to everything and has all buffs. That's ridiculous. Maybe I'm missing something. I wasn't part of the Wren Quests. But honestly, Zane, he's kinda douchy. A way where we don't help Zane. Maybe the Dastan people would get tired of us fooling around in the desert and fly over or something. Maybe Olmstyr and his buddies forgot something.

Is that a Witcher reference, because he got two swords?

So you're saying attacking the insane murderer was too much ' I do what I want', and less 'follow the quest'? You never once made it clear that allying with Zane was the only option. Sure, you pushed to it. But it's a ridiculous option. He threatened us and straight out told us he would abuse whatever he got from the cooperation. Maybe if all of us knew the character, it would make sense, but they don't. He's volatile and crazy, and his court just mostly wants to kill things, especially Medusa. I really thought there was another way to make it work. If that failed us the quest, I'm very sorry, Legonater, especially.