If the troll gods aren't protecting him then killing Ghwerek will be a trivial task. If they are, and we can't use guns or bombs? Then we need to do a bit more prep work first, or he's probably going to kill us all.

Unless he's being so coy about attacking us because he's weakened for some reason. We could take that chance, but Arkady really isn't about killing people for their stuff unless there's literally no other option.

Remind me again, how tall Ghwerek is?

He's a hunchback, so he's shorter than the average troll. About seven feet tall.

(The average Troll, according to Sir Ulath, is more like nine feet tall)

I think I'll definitely like to call ahead to the ship and have them begin work on a plastic and aluminum sculpture that I can hopefully use technical truth to claim is more valuable than the rose.

You're allowed to lie to Ghwerek. He doesn't have any supernatural way of telling the truth from a lie.

Instead, he's simply operating on the assumption that everything that comes out of your mouth is a lie in any case. (Honestly, he'd probably be easier to talk to if he did have some way of picking out true statements)

I'll throw out a shiny fate point to say when he bolts, he bolts in the direction we figured he was going and triggers all those juicy traps we left behind.

He will leave at a perfectly sedate pace. Why bolt when you can just... disappear?

But yes, FATE point spent - and he will leave through the booby traps. Once everyone's had a chance to decide how (or whether) they're going to react to the vanishing.

Okay, I think I have an idea for what I want to do but I think it requires consent from a lot of people to do so.

Basically I want to spend another fate point to invoke the Unspoken Plan Guarantee and say we had another plan coming into this. We wanted to talk to Ghwerek and see if he could be reasoned or bargained with, but assuming that failed this is the followup that's sure to work (hopefully).

The Unspoken Plan was that I switched out the ruby on my necklace for a fake I'd had made back at the ship. Sir Sparhawk has the real ring, and both of them. I invoke what little bit of magic I know for a minor illusion to make the ring on my chain look like the real deal and get him to charge at me. Then when he approaches to kill me and take the ring Theresa and I blast him in the face with dragon's breath shotgun shells to stun and disorient him before combat begins.

Hmmm. Plausible, with a few tweaks:

- The fake Ring was made from the stuff in your truck, not at the Ship. It looks good, but it's basically gold foil over wire with a bit of red plastic - it won't fool anyone who touches it. (But if Ghwerek's close enough to touch it, then he's well within dragon-breath shotgun range anyhow).
- You've still had the fake Ring tucked under your shirt until now - you'd have to pull it out and wave it around for Ghwerek to see it.

It's probably worth noting that there are any number of further places you can run into the Troll again; further roads he needs to cross and so forth. If you're willing to wait until the next road-crossing, you can pull off this plan without needing to spend a FATE point to set it up.

We can do that.

Find him at the next crossing and bait him into attacking me with a fake ring so we don't have to deal with the moral implications of killing him to take what we want. Not opposed to fighting bad guys, but I don't think Felix wants to be the kind of person who just uses his superior power to go and take what he wants.

Though maybe I can keep the actual ring on me and bait with the fake ring, if only to protect myself from the Blue Rose should he try to wield it. Then Sparhawk and I can do the tanky thing while everyone else does DPS to end the fight before we go down.

Absent magic, it doesn't sound like the kind of fight we're real well suited for. Just as a thought, is there some way we can look more dangerous; in order to make swapping the Rose for a pad or some such more likely to go peacefully? Make a few phony knights or some such by illusion or that sort of thing?

I think he'll just avoid any conflict that he thinks he might lose and opt to stalk and take the what he wants at a more opportune time. Might be better to make him think he can overpower us by hiding our number, then going in full force when he's off kilter.

Which is why my opening gambit is to blast him full in the face with fire. Overpower his physiology with high temperatures and wear him out quickly.

If asked, then Piper will state that she can make illusions (of knights or other things), and possibly even make them well enough to fool the Troll-gods; however, (a) the illusions will be "completely useless" in a fight, and (b) if Ghwerek does manage to spot her in the background then she does not think he will react well at all.

Lady Sephrenia is of the firmly stated opinion that both children should be kept out of the area of any potential combat.

Alright. Does Piper need to be nearby if, say, we just make Theresa and Sir Sparhawk invisible?

Here's what I want to do. Work with Talen to set up some more traps. More traps and fake traps. Hide some as best as I can but allow others to be hidden in a way they're easier to find without betraying this fact. Spread them out in an area around me. Leave one big trap close to me that I can trigger.

Ghwerek knows I can use traps already and will be expecting them, so this will confirm what he suspects of my trustworthiness. Play into his psychology a little bit. Then I make the offer for the tablet, and while I'm holding the tablet he will be able to see the fake ring on my hand. He charges forward, allowing Theresa to step out of invisibility, pass me a shotgun, and we both send double cones of dragon breath into his face to hurt and disorient him. Sir Sparhawk moves in to assist and hopefully we can survive long enough for everyone else to come jump on the troll pile.

I suspect that if the shotguns are any use, then the sergeant would be too. Is there anything besides ripping his arm off and beating him to death with it (IE, muscle powered melee damage) that Piper thinks the troll gods won't protect him from?