1. Sort of?? Her current plan is to harass the fuck out of him until he gives up, but that probably won't work very well because he is basically trying to save his own skin at this point, and he's smart enough to know that if he doesn't have any collateral left that she'll probably just kill him. The big issue is that he's a proper earth elemental, and breaking into an earth elemental's fortress with sheer force is going to be basically impossible. They need to either lure the Prince outside somehow or find a way in - possibly by making some sort of deal with him, or giving him the opportunity to save his ass over a challenge of some sort. Downside to that is that they'd have to be sure they could win.
2. Defense is his primary strong point - breaking into the fortress with force isn't going to work. He is the manticore of faerie, which means focused earth and poison magic. His type plays a long game - delaying attacks through durability while using poison to wear down victims. His weaknesses would be a lack of sheer firepower now that he's missing the Blue Rose (though he seems to have some of its power stored in that big crystal, but that will be in limited supply) and lack of transformation ability/mobility. Earth is stubborn, earth isn't built to move. It's why he can't fully change his form, because what he is is "set in stone" as it were.
His poison magic means his abilities can be pretty insidious and unrelenting, but acting fast isn't their strong suit. Forcing him to move quickly and adjust to circumstances quickly is probably his main weakness. He will end up behind on the times, much like his fashion sense.
3. Surveillance would be optimal at the moment. They can't break in, but they could try to sort out when the Prince will make his moves, and thus leaving himself vulnerable while things leave or enter the fortress. If they could get their foot in the door somehow, it could be a start. Otherwise, the carnival needs to come up with some kind of challenge that they could be fairly sure of winning, while making the Prince THINK he can win it. Of course, that is going to be putting all the chips on the table so if they fuck it up it will fuck things up BIG.
Importantly, he's using the hostages as collateral, and he's going to want to make people desperate to settle for saving them over saving EVERYONE/killing the motherfucker. The Ringmaster thinks that if she were to offer to leave him alone completely and never come back, or maybe to give the Rose back, then he'd probably be willing to release the carnival captives. The question is if that's good enough.
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2. Defense is his primary strong point - breaking into the fortress with force isn't going to work. He is the manticore of faerie, which means focused earth and poison magic. His type plays a long game - delaying attacks through durability while using poison to wear down victims. His weaknesses would be a lack of sheer firepower now that he's missing the Blue Rose (though he seems to have some of its power stored in that big crystal, but that will be in limited supply) and lack of transformation ability/mobility. Earth is stubborn, earth isn't built to move. It's why he can't fully change his form, because what he is is "set in stone" as it were.
His poison magic means his abilities can be pretty insidious and unrelenting, but acting fast isn't their strong suit. Forcing him to move quickly and adjust to circumstances quickly is probably his main weakness. He will end up behind on the times, much like his fashion sense.
3. Surveillance would be optimal at the moment. They can't break in, but they could try to sort out when the Prince will make his moves, and thus leaving himself vulnerable while things leave or enter the fortress. If they could get their foot in the door somehow, it could be a start. Otherwise, the carnival needs to come up with some kind of challenge that they could be fairly sure of winning, while making the Prince THINK he can win it. Of course, that is going to be putting all the chips on the table so if they fuck it up it will fuck things up BIG.
Importantly, he's using the hostages as collateral, and he's going to want to make people desperate to settle for saving them over saving EVERYONE/killing the motherfucker. The Ringmaster thinks that if she were to offer to leave him alone completely and never come back, or maybe to give the Rose back, then he'd probably be willing to release the carnival captives. The question is if that's good enough.