Dreaming Dust Castle

Image

dreaming%20dust%20castle.jpg

Encounter Conditions

Orbital Watch equipped, after agreeing to help in the Audience with the King
Etheric?
Repeats every few energy until you launch an attack and succeed/fail or abandon your post? Run out of National Hunt?

Initial Text

The veil of dust pulls back to reveal a beautiful castle. The king of that castle has asked you to determine where the corporations' hidden headquarters is and what might be guarding it. He warns you that the corporatists, although not able to measure up to his noble blood, show a certain serpentine cunning.

As far as the defenses, your scouts report that the opposing army includes hound drones along with the spidery kind and old-fashioned missile drones. But they also say there are dragons among the enemy ranks, so their reports are somewhat suspect.

Summary of Choices

  1. Look for Hound Drones - gain 2 XP Perception, gain information
  2. Search for Spider Drones - gain 2 XP Reflexes, gain information
  3. Seek out Missile Drones - gain 2 XP Strength, gain information
  4. Hunt for Dragons - gain 2 XP Will, gain information
  5. Launch the attack!
    1. Make the call - ends encounters*, or, if correct allocation: learn Time of Collapse skill or gain national crown
    2. Not quite yet - nothing
  6. Abandon your post -

Choice Text and Results

Look for Hound Drones

anachronistic%20soldier%20100.jpg

Your scouts search for hound drones and return after some time with the results. The search was long and hard, leaving you to learn a few things from their report.

<Results (see below)>

You've earned 2 XP in Perception

Search for Spider Drones

anachronistic%20soldier%20100.jpg

Your scouts canvas the world, looking for spider drones. Their reports of the cat-and-mouse between them and the drones are nothing short of bone-chilling.

<Results (see below)>

You've earned 2 XP in Reflexes

Seek out Missile Drones

anachronistic%20soldier%20100.jpg

Your soldiers search high and low for missile drones. Their harrowing report inspires you to stop and appreciate life a little more, maybe even take care of yourself a bit better.

<Results (see below)>

You've earned 2 XP in Strength

Hunt for Dragons

anachronistic%20soldier%20100.jpg

Your soldiers seem oddly complacent at the idea of hunting for dragons. They soon return with an inspiring report of a glorious hunt and some news of the outside world.

<Results (see below)>

You've earned 2 XP in Will

For the four choices above, your default results be a clue in one of the following forms:

Your scouts indicate the <Defenders> are guarding a facility in <Location>.
Your scouts indicate the <Defenders> are guarding the <headquarters/drone factory/the drone storage>.
Your scouts indicate the <Defenders> aren't guarding <headquarters/drone factory/the drone storage> in <Location>.

If you have a consort crown equipped, you instead receive a more informative clue but lose the crown:

Calling in old favors and stepping away from your crown, you learn that <defenders> <clue 1>, <clue 2>.

Launch the attack!

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Your field commanders readily agree to begin the attack, but they need two pieces of information to execute it: where the enemy headquarters lies and what forces the corporations have guarding it. There are not nearly enough soldiers to make a second attempt.

Where: [Africa, The Americas, Eurasia, Oceania]
Defenses: [Hound Drones, Spider Drones, Missile Drones, Dragons]

(Where and Defenses are labels for dropdowns from which you can select one of the listed options.)

Make the call

Note: to successfully win this game, you need to attack the transmission center, which you will never actually find from scouting. You can find it by process of elimination at the locations that are not the headquarters, the drone storage and the drone factory. (see note below - despite the text asking you to find the headquarters, that is a decoy).

You must also find type of drone there; so if you know the transmission center is in Africa, figure out which drone type are in Africa.

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You make the final order to attack.

Then, if you entered correct input:

Your army overruns the drones, destroying the transmission center that controls them. It explodes, sending a pillar of fire into the dusty night air.

And, if you don't have Time of Collapse:
You've learned a new Skill: Time of Collapse (lose Time of War skill, if you have it)

Or, if you already have the Time of Collapse skill:
For your hard work and extended service, you are granted the king's crown! You're equally surprised that there are still kings and that they give up their crowns so freely, but you're apparently quite the hero.

You found: national crown

(For both above results - ends orbital watch encounters for the day; advances to dusty clipboard encounters if you have it equipped)

(If you attacked the wrong type of drone:)

Your army, equipped to fight <type of drones>, is overwhelmed by the <different drones>. With the army destroyed, your headquarters is swarmed by drones within days.

(If you attacked the drone storage:)

Your army breaks through the enemy lines to discover they were attacking a drone storage far from the enemy headquarters. With the army drawn out of position, your headquarters is swarmed by drones within days.

(If you attacked the headquarters:)

Your army breaks through the enemy lines to find that the headquarters is merely a decoy. With the army drawn out of position, your headquarters is swarmed by drones within days. (ends dusty encounters for the day)

If you entered non-sensical input (eg. through url manipulation):

Your army is utterly confused by your commands. It's going to take a while to sort out. (lets you try again in a few turns)

Not quite yet

You forestall the order to attack… perhaps once you've gotten more intel.

Abandon your post

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You throw yourself on the king's mercy, asking to be relieved of your command. After what seems like hours of strange tortures that… hurt enough you're almost able to convince yourself make sense, the pain finally fades away.

The world seems clearer when you awake, bereft of the cloud of dust lingering at its edges.

You've gained 50 duration of Flicker of Peace.

(Ends all Dusty Encounters for the day.)

Notes

This encounter does not consume energy.

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