The Way Back Home 048
└ posted on Friday, 4 August 2017, by Novil
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- Caption: The next morning.
- Ryker Buffin: Do you have any ideas on how we could pry Lilith free from Eldor’s grasp?
- Viviana: No. It’s pretty much impossible to get to the top of the tower without Eldor noticing.
- Viviana: We don’t even have a silencer crystal…
- Viviana: The three of us can’t do much. But if I had the support of the people, everything would look quite different.
- Viviana: If only I could address the people somehow, tell them the whole story…
- Viviana: But if I started to hold a speech on Spring Square, I’d get arrested within seconds.
- Viviana: Now, if I could use one of the projectors…
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Eldor will definitely not notice if they use projectors…
I find her logic a little optimistic, but given that they can’t just sit around and do nothing…
Vivi is much about action, isn’t she?
I think she should give this a second thought before springing into action. I don’t think she can convince a large percentage of people that way, just look at how Joril reacted. There’s a good chance she only manages to convince a few percentages of the population, cause disorder that way and consequently make things go worse for the people again.
Personally, I don’t think Viviana is in a position where she can do that much. Olrik and Eldor have pretty much removed from the becoming a queen game. There are circumstances which can help her, such as Lilith showing up in public and the massive bluestream wave reappearing. If such a thing happens, that may make people willing to listen to Viviana’s version of the story as the official is now ruined. However, Viviana cannot make that happen as things are now, she can only seize the opportunity if such a thing were to happen. Rather, I think she should gather as much information as she can and then she may have to give up or resign herself to a waiting game.
She’s still upset over that missing silencer crystal, eh?
Hehe, I just thought about that scene as well 😀
However I don’t think this will happen again though.
@ Crystalgate:
Good points all. However, this story is now in its third act. We know from RH-39/40 that:
• Lilith is going to be free from Eldor.
• She’ll be talking to the whole group, so they will be back together again.
• They will be going up against Bhaal, not Eldor.
Things need to start getting resolved. With that in mind, I doubt the projector is a red herring. There just isn’t time for it. It will get used (Chekhov’s gun). It may not have the effect they expect, but it will get used.
Aha! I had forgotten where we seen silencer crystal before.
But seriously, Olrik has set it up to sabotage anything that Vivi does – what with “terrorist attacks” supposed launched by the Shadow-dancers and the 25% tax break, I’m not sure thst many people would care even if she did convince them of who she really was.
Plus she would have to convince them that Lili is alive and on their side.
I see an exceptional opportunity for Ryker to show off his thief/rogue skills.
Plus we don’t know what King Savos, San, et al are doing. They may be marching on Greendew as we speak.
@ PMark:
You also have all good points. I will note that my post was meant as what I think Viviana should do if she was a real person and not a suggestion of what Novil should make her do. After all, if everyone always thought things trough carefully and never made a poor decision, the story would not be any fun.
ktrimbach wrote:
Actually from WBH-29/30 we know the following are happening:
• Expedition sent to Mithra.
• Royal Guard clearing Thunderbolt Fortress.
• Watch placed on The Void.
• Ryn and Alyssa will help to fight Eldor’s cult in Midgard.
• San will travel to Aracona to slay Eldor.
Nobody is supposed to be “marching on Greendew” at the moment. All actions against another state were called off. The only military action still on is against ruins. Greendew is not a ruin, at least not yet.
I know it seems an awful lot of time has passed, but it is only the morning of the third day after Teleportation day. That means Lilith has been stuck in that tower for three days, Sandril and Dyson have been traveling to Greendew for two, and it’s only been a day since the second council in Midgard where the above action items were agreed upon. About the only action item on that list that would have had a chance of getting done since the council is San’s attempt on Eldor’s life. (Do any of us expect her to succeed? I sure don’t.)
I expect Sandril and Dyson to show up any day now. It’s been two days, and Ileasaar isn’t that big of a country. Of course, they are cautiously travelling through thick woods actively avoiding being caught by Canian patrols, so it’s going to take some time.
I think that things are about to come to a head. Lilith is going to learn that spell sooner or later; she can only stall so much before Eldor starts getting nasty. And once she has learned it, he will force her to cast it. So time is running out for Novil having us chase after red herrings.
I predict that Viviana will manage to use the projector to speak to the people. At best, it will relight the rebellion. At worst, it will make problematic Eldor’s continual use of the tower to train Lilith.
Hey, Vivi, you might want to consider a plan to sneak the Avaril into the city so you can be wearing it for the broadcast. 1. I feel like you shouldn’t trust it to go untouched no matter how well you hid it, and 2. you hid it with the Rainbow Knife… that’s two exceptionally rare and valuable and important artifacts hidden outside the city. You really need to get those in hand, and you should probably have the Avaril on for the broadcast so you can… y’know… be wearing the symbol of regality while trying to inspire people to your side.
Sounds like a good plan. Unfortunately, it’s not likely to work. We know too much. 😉
One word Vivi: Evidence.
You know I’m a bit of a geography nut, and as a geography nut I noticed that even if Ilesaar hadn’t been immediately reconquered by Cania it would have HUGE problems. Basically it is a landlocked county.
This means it is dependent on it’s neighboring countries for access to the sea, and trade. To make matters worse for Illesaar it is surrounded by precisely TWO countries. One of those countries is Cania the country they just won independence from, to top it all off Cania’s ruler is a petty, and stupid douchebag who would no doubt deny them access to the sea rather out of petty vindictiveness rather than try to make a profit out of it.
This leaves Midgard and King Saavos as their ONLY acces point to the sea since he’s not stupid like Cania’s ruler he won’t charge them more then they can afford or run them into bankruptcy. HOWEVER, since King Savvos knows he doesn’t have to compete with Cania or any other nation he will no doubt charge take full advantage of his monoploly to squeeze more money out of Illesaar than he would have done otherwise. And since Illesaar is totally dependent on Midgard for trade it would be quite arguably an economic colony of Midgard.
ktrimbach wrote:
A 25% income tax break is easy to beat. “People in this kingdom won’t pay income tax at all if you follow me.” As for the other, just show evidence that it was false-flag.
Ben wrote:
The sea is of much less importance on Gaia than on Earth. Apart from Cheysh, all major cities of Cania and Midgard are far away from the coast. The Northern sea is also rough. The sea has greater importance to the countries in the southern hemisphere of Gaia, in particular Golnar and Harasanth.
Samantha wrote:
That’s stupid. Even the most libertarian citizen knows that the government needs some form of income. Viviana would immediately be seen as someone who makes empty promises.
Samantha wrote:
It sounds easy when you write “just show evidence”, but how exactly is Viviana supposed to do that? What evidence is she going to show and how can she produce that?
Novil wrote:
That’s a technicality. There are lots of other forms of governmental revenue besides income taxes. In fact, income taxes are latecomers even here on Earth; for most of recorded history, governments subsisted on other types of revenue. So promising to do away with income taxes is not at all stupid or unrealistic. (However, it would certainly require some creative thinking to come up with good alternatives.)
Novil wrote:
How do they ship goods in bulk?
Ben wrote:
By dragon post, of course. 😉
Ben wrote:
Its possible that they dont… in general if all major landmasses are in general self-sufficient and resources are spred more or less equally a long distance bulk trade becomes unviable.
Paeris Kiran wrote:
I’m skeptical that such a thing could occur naturally. Then again this is a fantasy world, maybe they’re will be a supernatural explanation.
Ben wrote:
Historically, there were lots of countries that did not have direct access to the sea. However, in many cases, river travel was possible, and there were always caravans, or equivalent land transport available. Remember, too, that economies were different, and goods in “bulk”, the way we think of them, didn’t necessarily work the same way. (You couldn’t just phone in an order for a thousand tons of concrete; building something took a lot of advance planning.)
Consider that the builders of Stonehenge transported at least thirty 25-ton stones for over 26 miles, using nothing but muscle and maybe animal power. So clearly there are other ways of doing things than using modern mechanized transport methods.
Traveller wrote:
Still countries that had access to the sea had a big economic advantage over those that didn’t, rivers as you mentioned were important for similar reasons. In the case of Stonehedge I feel it is important to point out that it is suspected by scholars that it was created for a combanation of religious reseaons and as an astronomical tool. While much about it still remains a mystery it is possible that these uses were part of the reason why so much effort was put into moving huge stone slabs where they did.
Traveller wrote:
Also as for caravans, historically shipping goods by boat has always been cheaper and easier. Even today, when the invention of trains, roads, and airplanes has drastically reduced the importance of sea routes. It STILL remains the cheapest and easiest wat to ship goods.
Ben wrote:
So if the seas aren’t an option do major cities tend to be located along rivers and lakes instead?
Ben wrote:
That ladt bit was for NOVIL, sorry.
Ben wrote:
Magical portal from sending warehouse to receiving storeroom? Then just pass over the boxes/bags/barrels/etc. like they would loading a cart or ship.
One Time Commenter wrote:
How new is that invention? Hiw much can pass through at a time? Atlanta exists far from bodies of water but it was built AFTER the invention of Railroads. This allowed it to exist at a central location as a major railroad hub, BUT it would NOT have been possible without the invention of the railroad and therefore the city could only be built where it was AFTER the invention of the railroad.
One more thing I should point out id that mountains are kind of a wild card when it comes to cites. On one hand they hinder trade, but on the other hand this same feature helps to protect them from invaders. Provided said mountain city happens to be in a location with plentiful resources it can then take advantage of that protection to focus on city building.
That being said these cities, while they do exist, see Mexico City for example, should by no means taken to be the norm. There is a good video on this kind if stuff on YouTube called “Why Cities Are Where They Are” by Wendover Productions.
Given what Novil says about the North Sea being so rough on Gaia I can understand why it wouldn’t be used. That being said, it stands to reason that lakes and rivers would be the next best thing and there has been no reason why those would be used. Call me a cynical but these details tend to mater in suspending disbelief.
Ben wrote:
No reason why lakes and rivers would NOT be used. Sorry for the typo. On my phone
“We could hypnotize the weak-minded fools when they see the vision, turning them all into my Merciless Zombie SLAVES!!!”
“…”
“…Or we could remotely broadcast the message, that too.”