Some minor additions and comments.
 
I wonder if I can get a bonus for sheer audacity of plot.  Who would expect the V'raal to be attacked directly in their palace :-)
 
Mixed combats units (weather mages, mages and regular army) will also practice and understand fields of fire and rates of fire in both outdoor and indoor settings.
 
The location of the actual target will be on a need to know only basis, some people may even be given memory blockers.
 
Probably one of the trickiest parts is safely and quietly getting the information needed.  This will be done quite carefully, and the whole mission will be ready to be scrubbed if there is any hint of failure or question here.
 
As a hobby and one day a second career I have studied hypnosis and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) for many years.  Sebelacus is envisioned as someone who has those skills at a very high level.  If anyone is interested in learning the power of communication w/ yourself or others and ways to make change, impact or have more choice I highly recommend these skill sets.
 
Joel

Joel Elfman  wrote:
This has got to be one of the toughest set of actions I had to think out. How do you spy on an alien society where it is difficult to potentially blend in & rescue someone or ones who may not want to be rescued. Sure I'll make up someone to look like an alien! Unfortunately, one of the qualities of the race is Grace, we'll how the heck can you teach someone to be graceful, that ain't easy.

I am going to outline some of pluses and minuses I considered in my actions. My apologies for not providing specific numbers, I have not had a chance to figure them all out and I am willing to take input on these from players or the GMs. And if anyone wants to add some other suggestions please feel free.

I would also like to note although, I am happy to try and rescue the Queen and note the assassination attempt, the V'raal I would consider rather far from the Tal-Wyr basin. :-)

My apologies for not writing much of a story, I will try and work on it some more later.

Joel

The Devil Revealed

King Villard sits down in his easy chair w/ a glass of wine. A thin bony hand pushes a scroll across the small beautifully crafted end table. The King nods his thanks to his spy master, Sebelacus picks up the scroll and begins to read the report.

He glances occasionally at the man across from him, using the training Sebelacus had given him to do so inobtrusively and w/o revealing emotion. Villard was sure he would be critiqued later. The spy master's training in reading people's emotions, and manipulating people's moods was amazing eventually all his diplomats would need to be trained w/ these skills. And even learning how to explain things to different people depending on their particular pattern or way of thinking was priceless.

There were times he still questioned his good fortune to have this man fall into his lap but he would use him and hope for the best. His gut said it was a wise choice but Sebelacus has now taught him how even gut instincts could be misled. And his magicians had laid many a spell on the man, though w/ his power of word and thought Villard was sure there was a loophole through which his prize might slip some day and even harm his people.

Suddenly, w/ a startled yell, Villard half leapt out of his chair, and he turned towards his spy master. Sebelacus raised an eyebrow, and quietly nodded. "Yes, your majesty, to the best of our knowledge this is true, the V'raal hold the Empress and two children of her's by the V'raal High Lord on their island.

Villard turns to the former spy master for Cedonia, and asks. "She was once your Empress, what would you have me do? I would leave no Royal in the hands of those evil demons."

For once, a small trace of emotion showed for the briefest instance on Sebelacus' face. "If you would my lord, I believe we might be able to rescue her. It is extremely dangerous and by no means certain. It has been 15 years and the children are certainly nearing the age of majority and some might say within it. If there is a V'raal plot for Cedonia it will happen in the next few years I believe."

Burcancy Actions

Actions 1-4 Rescue the Empress & Children (1st of 3 yrs.)


This will consist of a series of related actions.

A- THE SEARCH FOR INFORMATION
First continued tracking of the V'raal spy ring, and infiltration. Additional consideration will be given to taking out certain pieces of the spy ring so that Burcancy double agents nad counter-spys might advance both before and after the rescue attempt. The previous successes should assist. The greatest draw-back is that the V'raal it is incredibly difficult to imitate the grace w/ which they move, and their fighting is Legendary. Secondly, they live on an isolated island, there are only rumors about some of their background and skills. Much information needs to be obtained quickly. We have found some information through a disgruntled pretender to the throne but this source is very limited.

Luckily, the Brotherhood is the most powerful collection of mages outside of Mir and can assist in the spying, tracking and transportation efforts. Although, the V'raal might have come out of the Dreaming, and their reputation quite fearsome, their magical talents are far below that of those who practice in Burcancy. Disquises will be created, skills such as dexterity can be temporarily enhanced, and Sebelacus can train some of the agents who will attempt to infiltrate the V'raal stronghold to imitate the inhabitants to the best of their ability. If they do try and imitate a V'raal for short periods of time, they might pull it off if not then they will only try for the humans that live on the island.

First goal is geography, bring back maps of the area and the palace. Find where the Empress and children are located. Find out the iteniary of these people and the calendar of the court. Note the guards, and the other lords, who is most dangerous. Finally, what is the location and size of the V'raal fleet, their graneries, and library. All will be considered for secondary targets.

B-PREPARING FOR THE ASSAULT
The mages are to prepare as many bracelets of binding as possible to capture the Dark Elves who are mages or deemed most dangerous. These bracelets will bind magical abilities and will limit the skills of even those who know the Dance w/ effects similar to slow, weakness, etc.

The Weather Mages, the Burcancy combat mages will intensify their training in working alongside regular troops. And although their combat and magic skills are quite formidable, additional training will be implemented to assist them in fighting against the elven warriors.

The Brotherhood is to take the knowledge they have gained over these many years in creating the Weather Mages and learning control over the weather to create a huge storm complex over Arelcar. If it can be timed, a hurricane or typhoon will be released alongside the rescue attempt. The fury of the storm will hopefully create some problems for the elves and the storm's powers should help feed and fuel the Weather Mages. The storm will be built extremely slowly to make it look natural.

C-THE STRIKE

The attack will consist of 3 main groups. Each group will consist of Weather Mages, regular mages and fighters. Each will teleport to the Palace. Each group will carry have several soldiers carrying caltrops to seed important corridors and some brooms. It is hard to move gracefully w/ a caltrops on the ground around you or in your feet, and the brooms will should help allow the troops to move the caltrops out of the way as need be.

The first group will go directly for the Empress and the children. If the family members are separate, go after them one at a time, back-up can be called if need be. And if any of them need to be left behind then so be it. Hopefully, removing some of the elements of the V'raal plot will be enough to break it up. It has been 15 years since the kidnapping, there has been plenty of time to indoctrinate the Empress and/or the children. Assume they are hostile and have either magic training or weapons training in the Dance, capture them to the best of your ability. Use the bracelets to bind if necessary. Assure them they maybe released later but now they must come along. If they can not be captured then let them go, they are to be left alive.

The 2nd group will go directly after the High Lord, if he can be taken out hopefully communications and the coordination will suffer. Some of the other lords and mages should be considered secondary targets by this team. Also, if all other goals are met, and other teams do not need back-up, this team can attempt to loot the Library.

The 3rd group is a large reserve contingent, they are to cause as much destruction w/in the Palace as possible but they are to avoid major firefights unless called by one of the 1st two groups. The last group will also open a portal into the Palace through which the Burcancy will send an invasion army.

10 smaller groups of regular mages and fighters will strike after the first teams hit at the harbor, shipyards, graneries & the library. If available a Weather Mage might attend a few of these groups so they can call down part of the storm, but most of the combat mages will be assigned to the palace. These groups are to pop in and ready to get out if they met any strong resistance. The harbor, shipyards, graneries are to be destroyed to the best of their ability. The library will be looted, and if enough is removed or strong resistance encountered then it is to be fired, burnt to the ground. These sites can be attacked again later w/ more forces if the rest of the plan is going smoothly.

Enough damage might send many of the Dark Elves back into the Dreaming. Also, some of those that are captured might be oath-bound to serve the Burcancy. And if victory is total the whole island might become a new territory of the Burcancy. If all fails, the Burcancy might be haunted by the V'raal for a thousand years and exterminated.

Plusses

Quadruple Action
Bonuses from previous successes tracking spies
3 year action, depending on information timetable could go much earlier
Brotherhood magic skill
Weather Mages
Training from Sebelacus, spy master
Intense training of all troops
Storm cover
Multiple strikes
Large invasion force
King Villard's influence
King Villard will personally join 1st assault group

Possible Minuses
Some spies are difficult to blend in
High Lord has a foreshadowing of something happening during such a storm
Legendary Fighting skill of the entire populace of Arelcar luckily many are split up
Empress and children split up

Joel


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