Add any strategy *conversation* here.

Yeah, Yui honestly just wants to either go into the portal, or leave the caverns altogether and head to a nice village where there are actually nice people in *cough* carriages who give out puppies and candy.

I think when you say "captain was linked" you mean commander. That said, the commander was playing us, so we don't know much really, particularly from him.

In my opinion the best information we have was from the subcommander when Darazen actually saw his life flash before his eyes. In my opinion:
1. The queen is looking for the Assassins Heart, a powerful cypher. If she finds it she'll be a bigger problem than she is now.
2. The queen is on the other side of the portal
3. No one, not even the queen knows where the heart is. If the queen knew she would have found it.
4. We have guessed that heart might be this side of portal, but only because queen is looking here. It may not be here. It could be on other side. She hasn't found it.
5. Our captain may have been attacked only because he had cyphers, not because he had heart.
6. We know where the queen is, we don't know where the heart is.
7. The queen is an evil succubus and she needs to die. Problem solved.

We didn't guess the heart was on this side, that other guy told us when I had gotten him to talk. None of us sensed any deception on his part.. It could be that they just didn't FIND the heart hidden in the captains stuff, or there's a clue there as to where it's location is. It's not like ANY of us would put it past the Captain to have been a champion smuggler. Now if you think a group of people like us (lvl 1 adventerurs) can take on a Queen, her army, and all her servants, on her own lands, in her own stronghold.. then she's not a threat in the first place and her title of Queen is a complete farce. I don't get the impression off this portal, and the number of people who have been severely loyal to her so far that she's a joke Queen... I'm not saying we're not good in a fight, I'm saying that it's rather stupid to take head on when there's no reason to.
I agree anyone could get more powerful if they got the Heart.. and the one place we know the Heart ISN'T is on the other side of that portal... When I got that one commander to talk freely, he told us that their info had it in the Captains stuff.. We know they took his stuff deeper into the caverns because we have a tracker on it.. Something they don't know we have.
The longer we allow this gateway to be open, the more likely it is that reinforcements will come through. YOU are the one that told us that you sensed someone else in the commanders mind, so they do know what happened on this side.. you won't even have the element of surprise.
So, to me, this looks like a severely silly move, particularly silly if we do it before completing the search of the caverns and locating the Captains cargo on this side of the portal first.

I've scanned through the posts and the threads and I can't find where you interrogated a commander. Can you guide us there? So as a character I don't know what you are saying. Also, as a character I don't know where the heart is. All I know is the queen is on the other side of the portal.

As a player I hear what you are saying, but at this point I can't come to the same conclusion as a character, particularly as Tara isn't here to discuss it with us. Those in the cave have discussed this and decided to go through the portal. Right or wrong, I'm not sure what else we can do at this point.

I can say Darazen has a very good memory, so if Tara did say something (please point me to reference) I may revise Darazen's opinion.

It was in 1.2, right after I was introduced and we killed the beetle. The time posting on grandmasters post with the info is: February 8, 2015 11:38 am. It was kinda the entire hook as to why I joined up with you guys and found you.. and gave you the confirmation information of why these people did what they did and that they were the ones that slaughtered your entire group and why and how we found out about the Assassins Heart in the first place. It's what riled you up to kill them all without showing mercy.. right from that 'commanders' mouth.

In fact, Khoren has the tracking device he took from me on his belt that he took from me and examined... the one that points to the Captains loot.

This could be interesting....playing a few rounds with a split party, or several days. I wonder, should I make two separate thread and limit access to those in each party? Do I split this into a separate game? If I do, no one from one game would be allowed into the other,mans I would make them private. Decisions, decisions.

All this being said, I think it is time for the GM to step in.

First, the queen is indeed on the other side of the portal
Second, the link Darazen felt was the link between the commander and his LT or Subcommander (nothing else)
Third, no one has check the compass to know where the tracked item is (though you do know it was 238, 980 miles away last time)
Forth, the queen may be a bit more than you can handle at this tier,but surgical strikes or Intel gathering might work
Fifth (Element), the perfect being (yes, great movie, had to throw it in)
Sixth, the queens army (if you believe the last commander) is scattered on this side of the portal
Seventh, the captain supposedly had the heart, was supposed to deliver that heart and was killed when he did not
Ninth, what Utazo described looked nothing like the cavern

So, any questions I can try to answer to help you along here? I consider this place the table top and I will answer what I can without leading you along. I don't care which way you go, surface or portal; I can work with either, but it would be easier to do just one.

Oh, yeah, and if you were wonder about eight, those who talked to Birtwood can re-read their PMs or conversations, give me an intellect roll, if they like and get more info.

Ok, went back and reread what I wrote, and it was the hook. That CMDR did slaughter the caravan for the heart and took everything with him. The compass came later and the distance of whatever it was tracking was enormous. The slaughter of the caravan was what got them riled up, yes....but other stuff has happened since then (and it's only been like 1/2 a day).

OK, I've reread the threads and tried to make sense of what's going on. Without lengthy role play I think these are the facts...

1. Tara joined the party because she was tracking something in the captain's stash.
2. By tracking it she accidentally found our party.
3. She never interrogated a commander (not that we know, anyway)
4. Darazen knows what the queen looks like, and knows she's on the other side of portal
5. It is likely that Tara was tracking the heart.
6. The heart is now thousands of miles away... how can it have travelled so far? Maybe it is on other side of portal?

Maybe it's on the other side of the portal, maybe not. Someone would have to test that hypothesis who could use the compass.
I never said I interrogated the captain.. I said I got him to talk...subtle difference, but he gave us (because you were all there too) that information freely, feeling he had us outnumbered and surrounded before he sprung his 'trap'.. which he underestimated us (or overestimated himself).. So it's kindof all the more believable because of that.

This is the crux to my argument. We have a tracker on the stuff and it is hundreds of thousands of miles away (see thread 1.2). How did it travel so far? How can we trust the commander??? He's the enemy. How do we know the Heart is this side of the portal? You say we know it for certain... HOW? Darazen knows the commander lied - he was talking to him telepathically while he was supposedly talking freely to you... We all know that each and every subcommander and commander has sacrificed their lives before talking. How can we trust anything they've said?

I'm convinced now as a player and a character that we go through the portal.

damnit.. I keep confusing captain and commander throughout my posts. lol
238k+ miles away? That has gotta be bigger than the planet? And the number was increasing? ya.. That's convincing me more and more that we are completely outclassed and shouldn't go.
But hey that's how it goes sometimes.

so are you coming with us? Majority rules and all that?

You'd have to convince her.. cause right now, you all are acting irrationally and she believes something is muddling all your minds. If Tara felt indifferent about the portal, I could bow to majority rules.. but she doesn't.. and I even said why in a post.. and the longer you give her to think the less she wants to go because all the more arguments she comes up with NOT to.

I'm not trying to be difficult.. honestly I'm not.. But Tara isn't dumb.. She's a glaive, trained in tactics.. She sees this more as a threat to the Steadfast (an invasion) and an immediate threat to all the people in the area.

so she's running away from the threat?

From all that has been said, they have already invaded. The Queen's forces, in groups of 6-8 if these encounters have told you anything, are out and in force scouring the land for the "heart".

Which is why the LOGICAL thing to do would be to inform the nearest city, sending runners and reinforcing all caravan movements since we know they are hunting Numenera. Now, we can either destroy the gate (thus securing this location) or leave it so someone with more knowledge could possibly figure out where all the gate locations are in our realm.
Going through the portal, without having even finished clearing out the tunnels is the absolute WORST tactical decision ever. Allowing you to be flanked with ease, or even trapped on the other side of the portal with the flip of a switch, while leaving everyone completely unaware and defenseless.

Just to clarify: I escorted our friend a wounded plant creature that needs DAYLIGHT out of the dark caverns where we could all rest in relative peace. I did not "RUN AWAY". She expected someone to follow.... It's disconcerting that no one did.

I think Yui or Utazo yelled down the corridor that we weren't going to follow. We've waited for a bit and there has been no response. However, Khoren would go after you to let you know, but he has no idea where you went. That is, he only knows one way to the surface and man-sized people had to squeeze to get through, so he thinks it would be impossible to get a 12' tree monster up that way. However, at least one of you were captured and brought down here (I think it was Vult), so he thinks that perhaps Tara got the information while out of Khoren's earshot, or telepathically.

But, in character, Khoren is amazingly excited/obsessed about this mysterious portal, may have to be physically dragged away from it. To him, everything else is secondary, especially since most of that is based on the lies that we were told by these commander(s) who it turned out were unreliable at best. The Assassin's Heart is an interesting quest, but may just be a ruse for all we know.

I opened a new subforum for rules, rules questions and rulings. In there, I addressed some confusion that came up. I also spent a lot of time in the old threads looking for various things. In real world time, its been about 4 weeks. In game time, you guys have faced some battles and found some things and it's been less than two days. (You don't know what time it is on the surface, but you would guess its past mid day.)

Because of some of the confusion on XP, I am awarding everyone 4 XP points (enough to buy one character benefit), or purchase other special options in lieu of gaining a new skill (See Character Advancement)

Enjoy

Ah... and when you DO spend XP, send it to me in a PM and put "XP expenditure" or "Spending XP" in the subject line. I don't delete PMs. And don't forget to mark it in the notes of your character sheet with the date too... as a back up.

Right now, I show TWO people asking in the past, but no one has done it. If I missed it, correct me via PM please.