Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Myth: A New Age CYOA

Karwelas

Dwarf Taffer
Patron
Joined
May 12, 2014
Messages
1,064
Location
"Mostly Harmless" planet
Codex Year of the Donut I helped put crap in Monomyth
As we seem to receive reinforcements (hello there, Karwelas, and welcome!), I thought it might be useful to have some sort of a brief summary for the newcomers to get into the game quicker. Here is the summary for the first chapter, shamelessly plagiarized after the one by Baltika9. Thanks, bro! :salute:

We establish the world and our place in it. We are Derryth ó Foghladh, a scavenger and a grave robber, searching for a part of the powerful artefact, the Halcyon Stone, in the ruins of an old city, Muirthemne, right as the new one by the same name is being rebuilt on top of it. The problem is, the artefact was last seen in the offices of the Smiths of Muirthemne, an ancient and a secretive group, and the said offices are buried deep beneath the ground where untold horrors lie in wait of their prey.

We start by assembling a team of the brave and desperate souls willing to dive into the most dangerous dungeon crawl known to man.
- Thais of Scales, a prostitute down on her luck who dabbles in a bit of magic. She joined us in hopes that this occupation would prove more profitable than her last one.
- Gareth, a war veteran from The Legion, thrown out on the streets to provide for himself once the war was over.
- Tyrvard, a Berserk from the north, drawn to the city in search of GLORIOUS BATTLES.
- Serpent, or rather, One Serpent Green Talon, an exile from the barbaric lands in the north and a genius in the art of medicine. His reasons for accompanying us are his own.
- Dr. Miosguinn and his apprentice Isolde, scholars from the circle of the Children of the Callieach, who are interested in the relics and forgotten knowledge of the Smiths.
- And our latest addition, Brigit, a thief who appeared one day in our tent to offer her services as well as the services of her company in exchange for a favor. We have turned her down, so we never learned what it was about, but as fate would have it, we have managed to save her life on the night we went into the ruins of the old city, so she ended up joining us anyway.

Things are looking up, except that Tyrvard and Serpent can't stand each other, the apprentice is staring daggers at us for no apparent reason, the good Doctor Miosguinn is a creep, and Thais wants to get in our pants for a better share of loot. Oh boy.

Maybe it will work out, though. We will bring this team of misfits closer; we will create a circle of equals where there would be no betrayals, no mistrust and paranoia so common among the mages; and we will forge a better future for us all. Now, if only we could make anyone listen to us with our 2 CHA... :lol:
Chapter 1-2
We assemble our team and dive straight into the dungeon.

We encounter our first crossroads three days in, and decide to check a path seemingly covered by a menacing darkness. We soon come to regret our decision, as we are attacked repeatedly by malicious shadows, and are finally cornered by hundreds of them in what appears to be a chamber with a crystal in it. We prepare to sell our lives dearly, but we are saved by someone's intervention as the crystal light's up and pushes the shadows back. Following the light runes leading to the chamber we discover a half-ruined mage tower. Inside is a fetch - an otherworldly priestess - by the name of Eris as well as her human slave-apprentice, Amena, and Amena's maul pet-servant-bodyguard, Ithapi. Eris offers us a deal - she wishes to return back to her own world, but she needs an incantation for planar travel from the nearby library. In return she promises us everything she owns, as well as to purge the tunnels from the shadows. Without much choice in the matter, we agree.

Chapter 3-5
Eris only allowed four of our people to go to the library, leaving a wounded Tyrvard, Serpent and Thais with her as hostages. The friction between the two men becomes dangerous, so we ask Thais to mediate peace between them before heading off, escorted by Amena and her bodyguard. We use our chance to talk to her away from Eris, and even manage to convince her to join our circle of mages.

In the library, we order our people to search the place, sending Miosguinn and Amena to the Theology section while we check the artefact vault with Brigit. There we find the required incantation, and bring it back to our party, only to discover that Amena was attacked by spiders while browsing the books with Miosguinn. She does not remember the details very well, though. We decide to quickly withdraw from the library before it is overrun.

Back at the tower we find that Tyrvard and Serpent became best buddies thanks to Thais' machinations, and together we manage to blackmail Eris into giving us an insurance that she will uphold her part of the deal if we send her home ourselves. We link several mages together and cast our first Planar Gate spell to create a portal between worlds. Eris goes through, but she is unwelcome there, and her own kin slaughter her. We collapse the portal before they get to us.

With Amena and Ithapi technically in our property, we decide to free them and welcome them to our team. They know how to create the runes to ward off the shadows, and so we finally move away from the cursed place, but not before claiming the tower for ourselves and masking it from the eyes of others with protective enchantments.

Chapter 6-7
We decide to go through the Dwarven Quarter and discover an illegal dwarven expedition fighting for their lives in a three-way struggle between the ghosts and spiders. We decide to intervene before they are overwhelmed, and break down the hordes of enemies with clever use of Miosguinn's illusions. The dwarves are distrustful of us, even after we treat their wounded. Only a couple of them (a literal one, too), Ari and Bari, appears to speak in our tongue. They tell us that their leader, Jori, is on a mission for the Dwarven Kingdom, but refuse to elaborate. As their destination seems to lie in the same offices of the Smiths we are heading towards, we welcome them in our group as we push closer to our goal.

We become suspicious of Miosguinn as we ask Amena what happened at the library and she tells us that the spiders attacked after the old man took a black tome from a shelf. We decide to spy on the Children.

Chapters 8-10:
We go cave diving for some mandrake roots and encounter a riddle which we solve and receive a talking head with seemingly vast magical knowledge for our trouble. It might have possibly belonged to an archmage, but she does not remember who she was or how she got there, and there is a rune on her forehead that interferes with her casting. We call her Nine, The Orb Of Ultimate Power. She’s rather happy to be set free from her prison and offers to be our magical instructor.

Chapters 11-13:
Returning to the cave entrance, we find that our party is being attacked by cultists in red uniforms riding giant spiders while a lone figure in silver robes observes the carnage. On a whim we decide to talk to her right in the middle of the battle. We do not appear to like each other very much, and the only thing that saves us from mutual annihilation is Serpent's timely intervention, which also costs him his freedom when Christine - that's her name - takes him away to meet her parents (I wish I was joking) after binding us with spiderwebs. We break free after a while and help our forces push the Red cultists back, capturing their leaders, young girls by the name of Biliku and Uttu (daughters of the High Priest of the Red Order). We trick into talking by pretending to be a Big Bad Archmage and scaring them to death. They promise to show us the way to the offices of the Smiths of Muirthemne where the Silver and the Red Orders reside, and where Serpent was supposedly taken to.

Miosguinn abandons our group during the battle. He leaves behind a message warning us to turn back and flee. We don’t, or rather, can't, with our friend being captured.

Jori finally cracks after we save his life for the second time. He reveals that his mission is to bring the stolen artefact, the Maul of Dwarven Kings, back to his homeland. He pledges his loyalty to our cause and asks us to see to it that the Maul is returned to his father, King Albrecht VII, should he fail.

Chapters 14-17:
Approaching the Cult’s base, we encounter half-man half-spider abominations in the blue robes feasting on the remains of the Reds and Silvers alike, and laying siege to a chapel in a large compound. We surface from an underground tunnel leading to the compound, destroy the Blues within, barricade the compound from the inside and meet the remnants of the Red and Silver Orders that were holed up in the chapel. There are not many survivors, mostly the kids, the elderly and those unfit to fight, but we also find Serpent among them, treating the wounded. It turns out that Serpent and Christine got married while we were away and are well and truly in love, so he refuses to leave the cultists to their fate.

We agree to help them out, if only to rescue the children and protect the relics, the Maul of Dwarven Kings being one of them. So we shore up the fortress-monastery’s defences and repel the attack of the Blue Order. As luck would have it, Miosguinn was one of the Blues and their agent on the surface for a long time now, and he ends up in charge of their army after we kill the rest of the leadership with a well-placed mortar strike. Oblivious to our presence, as we have managed to keep our arrival a secret from him, he prepares an assault on the compound while we frantically scramble the last of our resources to mount a defence.

Most of the Red and Silver leadership falls in the ensuing fight, as well as Jori, Bari’s wife and Tyrvard. The Berserk's last wish to Serpent as to a fellow northerner is for his claymore to be returned home. Miosguinn flees after his forces are destroyed, but he has our half of the Halcyon Stone and most of our group is baying for his blood.

Chapter 18:
The fighting has left a lot of kids orphans, so Thais, Amena and Ithapi split up from our group to see them to the safety of our tower.

Derryth and Christine get a little less bitchy with one another and start kinda-sorta working together. Bari demonstrates his spec-ops badassery again as he tracks Miosguinn to his hideout.

Chapter 19:
We go in as one group to search the building and find Miosguinn in the upstairs office. We talk to the old man and discover his mad cloning experiments. Turns out that he sold his soul out to the Spider Goddess for the life of his love, and that he used his knowledge of the Gate spell as well as the book from the Theology section of the library to open up a portal to the Goddess' realm and create human-spider hybrids in a matter of days. He tries to get us on her side, with promises of power and “whatever we would want.” Being The 'Dex Derryth, we refuse.

Chapter 20:
Miosguinn attacks us with powerful illusions which Nine helps us resist, we throw down an improvised anti-magic grenade and together with Christine we manage to subdue him. After a short moment of “I can’t believe this worked,” we go into the room with the black egg, an artefact the Spider Goddess uses to contact mortals. She tries to seduce us one last time, but Nine helps us shrug off the temptation, again, and we blast the egg away, earning her eternal enmity. We hand Miosguinn over to Bari, who then tortures him seven ways to Sunday for his dead wife. We return to our Tower to find everyone is okay.

The Interlude has us poring over the treasures and maps we found in the tower vault, as well as deciding our plans for the next year:
- Christine and Serpent go on their honeymoon to Tyrvard's homeland with a generous gift from us.
- Gareth gets a magical sword and shield, and is dispatched to start up his own mercenary company in the city, hiring from both Legion vets and whatever fighters he can come across. We buy him a medium-sized compound in the city. He will be taking on jobs at his own discretion. Brigit accompanies him as his girlfriend and as a helper with the underground elements of the city.
- Amena and Ithapi stay at the Tower with the orphans as their caretakers and teachers.
- Derryth gets the Stone of Waterbreathing, a “Ring of the Master”, as well as a bracelet from a matched set (the other goes to Thais). They go to the Dwarven Kingdom to fulfill Jori's will with Biliku and Uttu as their bodyguards and Bari as their guide.
We hire some of Bari's old pals from his army days as escorts. We spend our time on the road studying Dwarven and learning the art of drinking.
We destroy the cursed artifacts of the Spider Goddess just to be safe.
We take Nine with us in our backpack, disembodied head that she is.

So ends the first Chapter.
Chapter 2 is in the works, and boy, will it be a long one. :)
Damn! A big one. But thanks you, this will help me!
 

Jester

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 24, 2013
Messages
1,493
As we seem to receive reinforcements (hello there, Karwelas, and welcome!), I thought it might be useful to have some sort of a brief summary for the newcomers to get into the game quicker. Here is the summary for the first chapter, shamelessly plagiarized after the one by Baltika9. Thanks, bro! :salute:

We establish the world and our place in it. We are Derryth ó Foghladh, a scavenger and a grave robber, searching for a part of the powerful artefact, the Halcyon Stone, in the ruins of an old city, Muirthemne, right as the new one by the same name is being rebuilt on top of it. The problem is, the artefact was last seen in the offices of the Smiths of Muirthemne, an ancient and a secretive group, and the said offices are buried deep beneath the ground where untold horrors lie in wait of their prey.

We start by assembling a team of the brave and desperate souls willing to dive into the most dangerous dungeon crawl known to man.
- Thais of Scales, a prostitute down on her luck who dabbles in a bit of magic. She joined us in hopes that this occupation would prove more profitable than her last one.
- Gareth, a war veteran from The Legion, thrown out on the streets to provide for himself once the war was over.
- Tyrvard, a Berserk from the north, drawn to the city in search of GLORIOUS BATTLES.
- Serpent, or rather, One Serpent Green Talon, an exile from the barbaric lands in the north and a genius in the art of medicine. His reasons for accompanying us are his own.
- Dr. Miosguinn and his apprentice Isolde, scholars from the circle of the Children of the Callieach, who are interested in the relics and forgotten knowledge of the Smiths.
- And our latest addition, Brigit, a thief who appeared one day in our tent to offer her services as well as the services of her company in exchange for a favor. We have turned her down, so we never learned what it was about, but as fate would have it, we have managed to save her life on the night we went into the ruins of the old city, so she ended up joining us anyway.

Things are looking up, except that Tyrvard and Serpent can't stand each other, the apprentice is staring daggers at us for no apparent reason, the good Doctor Miosguinn is a creep, and Thais wants to get in our pants for a better share of loot. Oh boy.

Maybe it will work out, though. We will bring this team of misfits closer; we will create a circle of equals where there would be no betrayals, no mistrust and paranoia so common among the mages; and we will forge a better future for us all. Now, if only we could make anyone listen to us with our 2 CHA... :lol:
Chapter 1-2
We assemble our team and dive straight into the dungeon.

We encounter our first crossroads three days in, and decide to check a path seemingly covered by a menacing darkness. We soon come to regret our decision, as we are attacked repeatedly by malicious shadows, and are finally cornered by hundreds of them in what appears to be a chamber with a crystal in it. We prepare to sell our lives dearly, but we are saved by someone's intervention as the crystal light's up and pushes the shadows back. Following the light runes leading to the chamber we discover a half-ruined mage tower. Inside is a fetch - an otherworldly priestess - by the name of Eris as well as her human slave-apprentice, Amena, and Amena's maul pet-servant-bodyguard, Ithapi. Eris offers us a deal - she wishes to return back to her own world, but she needs an incantation for planar travel from the nearby library. In return she promises us everything she owns, as well as to purge the tunnels from the shadows. Without much choice in the matter, we agree.

Chapter 3-5
Eris only allowed four of our people to go to the library, leaving a wounded Tyrvard, Serpent and Thais with her as hostages. The friction between the two men becomes dangerous, so we ask Thais to mediate peace between them before heading off, escorted by Amena and her bodyguard. We use our chance to talk to her away from Eris, and even manage to convince her to join our circle of mages.

In the library, we order our people to search the place, sending Miosguinn and Amena to the Theology section while we check the artefact vault with Brigit. There we find the required incantation, and bring it back to our party, only to discover that Amena was attacked by spiders while browsing the books with Miosguinn. She does not remember the details very well, though. We decide to quickly withdraw from the library before it is overrun.

Back at the tower we find that Tyrvard and Serpent became best buddies thanks to Thais' machinations, and together we manage to blackmail Eris into giving us an insurance that she will uphold her part of the deal if we send her home ourselves. We link several mages together and cast our first Planar Gate spell to create a portal between worlds. Eris goes through, but she is unwelcome there, and her own kin slaughter her. We collapse the portal before they get to us.

With Amena and Ithapi technically in our property, we decide to free them and welcome them to our team. They know how to create the runes to ward off the shadows, and so we finally move away from the cursed place, but not before claiming the tower for ourselves and masking it from the eyes of others with protective enchantments.

Chapter 6-7
We decide to go through the Dwarven Quarter and discover an illegal dwarven expedition fighting for their lives in a three-way struggle between the ghosts and spiders. We decide to intervene before they are overwhelmed, and break down the hordes of enemies with clever use of Miosguinn's illusions. The dwarves are distrustful of us, even after we treat their wounded. Only a couple of them (a literal one, too), Ari and Bari, appears to speak in our tongue. They tell us that their leader, Jori, is on a mission for the Dwarven Kingdom, but refuse to elaborate. As their destination seems to lie in the same offices of the Smiths we are heading towards, we welcome them in our group as we push closer to our goal.

We become suspicious of Miosguinn as we ask Amena what happened at the library and she tells us that the spiders attacked after the old man took a black tome from a shelf. We decide to spy on the Children.

Chapters 8-10:
We go cave diving for some mandrake roots and encounter a riddle which we solve and receive a talking head with seemingly vast magical knowledge for our trouble. It might have possibly belonged to an archmage, but she does not remember who she was or how she got there, and there is a rune on her forehead that interferes with her casting. We call her Nine, The Orb Of Ultimate Power. She’s rather happy to be set free from her prison and offers to be our magical instructor.

Chapters 11-13:
Returning to the cave entrance, we find that our party is being attacked by cultists in red uniforms riding giant spiders while a lone figure in silver robes observes the carnage. On a whim we decide to talk to her right in the middle of the battle. We do not appear to like each other very much, and the only thing that saves us from mutual annihilation is Serpent's timely intervention, which also costs him his freedom when Christine - that's her name - takes him away to meet her parents (I wish I was joking) after binding us with spiderwebs. We break free after a while and help our forces push the Red cultists back, capturing their leaders, young girls by the name of Biliku and Uttu (daughters of the High Priest of the Red Order). We trick into talking by pretending to be a Big Bad Archmage and scaring them to death. They promise to show us the way to the offices of the Smiths of Muirthemne where the Silver and the Red Orders reside, and where Serpent was supposedly taken to.

Miosguinn abandons our group during the battle. He leaves behind a message warning us to turn back and flee. We don’t, or rather, can't, with our friend being captured.

Jori finally cracks after we save his life for the second time. He reveals that his mission is to bring the stolen artefact, the Maul of Dwarven Kings, back to his homeland. He pledges his loyalty to our cause and asks us to see to it that the Maul is returned to his father, King Albrecht VII, should he fail.

Chapters 14-17:
Approaching the Cult’s base, we encounter half-man half-spider abominations in the blue robes feasting on the remains of the Reds and Silvers alike, and laying siege to a chapel in a large compound. We surface from an underground tunnel leading to the compound, destroy the Blues within, barricade the compound from the inside and meet the remnants of the Red and Silver Orders that were holed up in the chapel. There are not many survivors, mostly the kids, the elderly and those unfit to fight, but we also find Serpent among them, treating the wounded. It turns out that Serpent and Christine got married while we were away and are well and truly in love, so he refuses to leave the cultists to their fate.

We agree to help them out, if only to rescue the children and protect the relics, the Maul of Dwarven Kings being one of them. So we shore up the fortress-monastery’s defences and repel the attack of the Blue Order. As luck would have it, Miosguinn was one of the Blues and their agent on the surface for a long time now, and he ends up in charge of their army after we kill the rest of the leadership with a well-placed mortar strike. Oblivious to our presence, as we have managed to keep our arrival a secret from him, he prepares an assault on the compound while we frantically scramble the last of our resources to mount a defence.

Most of the Red and Silver leadership falls in the ensuing fight, as well as Jori, Bari’s wife and Tyrvard. The Berserk's last wish to Serpent as to a fellow northerner is for his claymore to be returned home. Miosguinn flees after his forces are destroyed, but he has our half of the Halcyon Stone and most of our group is baying for his blood.

Chapter 18:
The fighting has left a lot of kids orphans, so Thais, Amena and Ithapi split up from our group to see them to the safety of our tower.

Derryth and Christine get a little less bitchy with one another and start kinda-sorta working together. Bari demonstrates his spec-ops badassery again as he tracks Miosguinn to his hideout.

Chapter 19:
We go in as one group to search the building and find Miosguinn in the upstairs office. We talk to the old man and discover his mad cloning experiments. Turns out that he sold his soul out to the Spider Goddess for the life of his love, and that he used his knowledge of the Gate spell as well as the book from the Theology section of the library to open up a portal to the Goddess' realm and create human-spider hybrids in a matter of days. He tries to get us on her side, with promises of power and “whatever we would want.” Being The 'Dex Derryth, we refuse.

Chapter 20:
Miosguinn attacks us with powerful illusions which Nine helps us resist, we throw down an improvised anti-magic grenade and together with Christine we manage to subdue him. After a short moment of “I can’t believe this worked,” we go into the room with the black egg, an artefact the Spider Goddess uses to contact mortals. She tries to seduce us one last time, but Nine helps us shrug off the temptation, again, and we blast the egg away, earning her eternal enmity. We hand Miosguinn over to Bari, who then tortures him seven ways to Sunday for his dead wife. We return to our Tower to find everyone is okay.

The Interlude has us poring over the treasures and maps we found in the tower vault, as well as deciding our plans for the next year:
- Christine and Serpent go on their honeymoon to Tyrvard's homeland with a generous gift from us.
- Gareth gets a magical sword and shield, and is dispatched to start up his own mercenary company in the city, hiring from both Legion vets and whatever fighters he can come across. We buy him a medium-sized compound in the city. He will be taking on jobs at his own discretion. Brigit accompanies him as his girlfriend and as a helper with the underground elements of the city.
- Amena and Ithapi stay at the Tower with the orphans as their caretakers and teachers.
- Derryth gets the Stone of Waterbreathing, a “Ring of the Master”, as well as a bracelet from a matched set (the other goes to Thais). They go to the Dwarven Kingdom to fulfill Jori's will with Biliku and Uttu as their bodyguards and Bari as their guide.
We hire some of Bari's old pals from his army days as escorts. We spend our time on the road studying Dwarven and learning the art of drinking.
We destroy the cursed artifacts of the Spider Goddess just to be safe.
We take Nine with us in our backpack, disembodied head that she is.

So ends the first Chapter.
Chapter 2 is in the works, and boy, will it be a long one. :)
Damn! A big one. But thanks you, this will help me!

Imagine that it was told like this. :lol:
 

Jester

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 24, 2013
Messages
1,493
Was thinking mostly about voice tone.

Karwelas you might wish to vote. Dunno when Fangshi will lock votes, still if i recall right he was talking about today. (and Nevill updated summary of 2nd chapter)
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
I am nowhere near finished. The 2nd chapter is massive and until it runs its course completely, there is no telling which events are important and which are not. I will continue to update the summary bit by bit.

The current tally looks like this:
Jester:
1)E
2) C1 F10 G6 P Q R4 O2 S
3) F
4) Lyssa, Berty, Girls, Legion, Mortars, Warriors, Grenadiers
5) Charioteers
6) F
7) A
8) See this post
9) A
10) A50
11) Aiii
12) See this post
13) C

Nevill:
1) Evi
2) C1 F10 G6 P Q R4 O2 S
3) F
4) Lyssa, Berty, Girls, Legion, Mortars, Grenadiers?
5) Arrows
6) F
7) B
8) See this post
9) A
10) A50
11) Aii>B
12) -
13) C

Azira:
1) Eiii>Evi
2) C2 D2 P Q R4
3) F
4) Lyssa, Berty, Girls, half of the Arrows
5) Arrows
6) F
7) B
8) Half of the Arrows to stay in the city and train Greys
9) A
10) A50
11) Aiii
12) Masking enchantment armor
13) C

Kz3r0:
1) Evi
2) C1 F10 G6 P Q R4 O2 S
3) nothing
4) Lyssa, Berty, Girls, Legion, Mortars, Warriors, Grenadiers
5) Arrows
6) F
7) B
8) - (?)
9) A
10) A50
11) Aiii
12) -
13) C

Grimgravy:
1)Evi>Eiii
2) A1? B1? C1 P R2? plus armor / shields to replace the stuff we lost. I'd prefer to get stuff (leathers for the mages maybe chain for the girls) from the royal armorers.
3)F
4) -
5) Arrows
6) F>A
7) B
8) -
9) A
10) B
11) Aii
12) See 2. Comparable leathers for D & T. Leather for chain plus a shield for the girls. All with as much enchant as we can get but still reach us before we meet Nanshe.
13) B

archaen:
1) Evi
2) -
3) nothing
4) Lyssa, Girls, Legion, Mortars
5) Arrows
6) G
7) A
8) Leave Berty in charge of our merc operations, Arrows return to the city
9) A
10) A50
11) B
12) -
13) C

Baltika9:
1 Evi
2 -
3 F
4 +1 for Grenadiers
5 Arrows
6 F
7 A
8 The Nevill-Jester Strategy
9 A
10 A (whichever option is winning)
11 Aiii
12 -
13 C

Overall:

1) What to do with the Arrows:
Eiii - 1 - Buy Arrows with our money
Evi - 5 - Buy Arrows with the first payment made by Albrecht, keep them semi-independent.
E - 1 - Just buy them, no matter how

2) What to buy:
A - 1/5 (1 item) - Roots
B - 1/5 (1 item) - Energon Crystal
C - 5/5 (1 item - 4, 2 items - 1) - Whiskey
D - 2/5 (2 items - 1, 4 items - 1) - Regular leather Armor
F - 3/5 (10 items) - Bow arrows for Uttu
G - 3/5 (6 items) - Crossbow bolts for Thais
P - 5/5 - Entangled Dice
Q - 4/5 - Enchanted Oil
R - 5/5 (4 items - 3, 2 items - 1) - Vomit Disks
O - 3/5 (2 items) - Fire Resistant Armor
S - 3/5 - Fire Resistant Shield


3) Who to hire:
F - 5/7 - Elephants

4) Who to bring south:
Lyssa - 5/5
Berty - 4/5
Girls - 5/5

Arrows - 1/6
Legion - 4/5
Mortars - 4/5

Warriors - 2/5
Grenadiers - 4/6? - I vote for it as long as they do not compromise our mobility.

5) Who goes to Nanshe:
Arrows - 6/7
Charioteers - 1/7

6) Maid Spy:
F - 6 - Spy on her, leak information through her, and maybe turn her into a double agent.
G - 1 - Try to outright recruit her to become a double agent

7) Melete:
A - 3 - Take her with us
B - 4 - Leave her at the Palace

8) Orders:
Varied. Mine and Jester's are almost identical, so something along those lines?

9) Escort:
A - 7/7 - Charioteers

10) Fata Morgana:
A50 - 6 - Do a proper con
B - 1 - Don't bother

11) What to do with the Weasel Captain:
Aii - 2 - Interrogate her for 3 hours
Aiii - 4 - Interrogate her for 7 hours
B - 1 - Leave her alone, time is of the essense

12) No idea. :D

13) Tutors:
B - 1 - Hire basic tutors
C - 6 - Hire advanced tutors
I am pretty happy with almost everything, though I still think we are choosing the wrong time and place for our self-improvement.
 
Last edited:

Jester

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 24, 2013
Messages
1,493
As you wish Karwelas.

Ok Nevill floping my vote to buying elephants. I don't wish for this to prevent update. You might want to vote for 12 looks like there are either 3 options 1 vote each, or does thing Azira and I wish to do are close enough.
 

Fangshi

Arcane
Joined
Jan 9, 2014
Messages
1,997
Jester said:
Dunno when Fangshi will lock votes, still if i recall right he was talking about today.

Yeah, I want to have it closed some time today. I have a few errands to run so I can leave it open for a few more hours though.

The general timeline I am looking at here is:

I will close it sometime within the next eight hours when I get back. I will then post Nanshe's Interlude and the update itself will come some time tomorrow in all likelihood.

Looking at my tally it seems like everything is resolved now except for the question of the custom armour. From what I can tell most people are interested in playing with signal alteration so if there is no consensus that is the general direction the dwarves will work towards. If you simply tell them you want that effect in broad terms then they will likely break into 'teams' and take a 'shotgun' approach, throwing everything at the problem and seeing what works.

If you can reach some sort of consensus before I close the vote then we can go with that and you can tell them to focus on a specific method of signal manipulation.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
You might want to vote for 12 looks like there are either 3 options 1 vote each, or does thing Azira and I wish to do are close enough.
Well, just tell me what you would prefer. I really am indifferent about this option, as we are not likely to see any benefits from it for a long time.

Armor does not excite me, things like rifles, dice machines, rat airplanes and other constructs of Melete's insane mind do.

Which reminds me why I didn't like the modular idea - the Fellows would not be able to do anything useful with it by themselves, and I would prefer Mel on other projects.

Still, if people are interested in masking enchantments, I suppose I can go for something like a 'magic radiation' grenade, something strong enough to scramble the signals in the area. But why does it have to be armor? It can be just that - a grenade.

My money is on the power armor plate. ;)

Fangshi said:
He thinks it might work though it will take time (at least four or five days to do properly). Your people in the city will either have to hold on to the cubes until your return or they will need to ship them south to you. You will need a way of safely getting them from the city to you if you want them while you are in the south.
Air delivery? I would not mind seeing an air balloon down south.

By the way, how big or heavy are the energon cubes?
 
Last edited:

Fangshi

Arcane
Joined
Jan 9, 2014
Messages
1,997
Nevill said:
My money is on the power armor plate. ;)

Well, Morpheus knows a guy that can get you these:

Warrior-cats-battles-a-champion-khorna-chaos-armor-sword-ax-corpses-1302925.jpg


Only down side is you might not be able to take them off again... :lol:

Nevill said:
Air delivery? I would not mind seeing an air balloon down south.

That might be possible. Though you would need to send word of where exactly you are and you would have to remain there for pick up.

Nevill said:
By the way, how big or heavy are the energon cubes?

They fit comfortably in the ladies' hands so something like a smaller sized Rubik's cube:

rubiks-cube_2630857b.jpg

The crystals are quite a bit larger though you can hold them with one hand without too much difficulty.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Fangshi said:
That might be possible. Though you would need to send word of where exactly you are and you would have to remain there for pick up.
Do you think it is possible to miss the whole dwarven army?

I assumed that in 5 days it takes for Fata Morgana to produce a noticeable effect, we will be with them, if our timeline is anything to go by.
 

Fangshi

Arcane
Joined
Jan 9, 2014
Messages
1,997
Nevill said:
Do you think it is possible to miss the whole dwarven army?

Should be easy enough to spot you (provided you are with the army) from the air but it would help the balloon crew to know where you are so they don't have to search and maybe find something... else.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
I assumed the army is marching straight to Stoneheim, though. Shouldn't it be located somewhere on a direct line connecting the two capitals?
 

Fangshi

Arcane
Joined
Jan 9, 2014
Messages
1,997
Assuming it has not been pushed or pulled off course for some reason it should be somewhere in a straight line between Myrgard and Stoneheim, that is correct.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Alright, so if we leave one of our eagles with the King, would it help his people find us?

We might want to do this anyway to have means of communicating with the capital in case they find out something important they would need to tell us. I will add it to the list of orders for our troops.
 

Jester

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 24, 2013
Messages
1,493
Well, just tell me what you would prefer. I really am indifferent about this option, as we are not likely to see any benefits from it for a long time.
In my option yes. Grimgravy wish to send armours to academy to enchant it and get them before we reach our destination.
Armor does not excite me, things like rifles, dice machines, rat airplanes and other constructs of Melete's insane mind do.
Depends what armour. I think Ironman might have things you would find interesting.

Which reminds me why I didn't like the modular idea - the Fellows would not be able to do anything useful with it by themselves, and I would prefer Mel on other projects.
Well i dont expect perfection, still Fangshi said that Academy have rest of people on Mel level available so i wouldnt underestimate them. Mostly i wish them to do basic research and number crunching on theory of magic signals. Reduction is but a first step. Useful still. When we find out how to hide it completely it will get interesting. Non traceable magic items for instance.

Still, if people are interested in masking enchantments, I suppose I can go for something like a 'magic radiation' grenade, something strong enough to scramble the signals in the area. But why does it have to be armor? It can be just that - a grenade.
Actually its mostly idea that reducing wizard emission rate to enchantment level will help them hide in crowd of signals while being able to trace enemy mages and catch them offguard. Granades will mask enemy presence to. There was idea that later we might try to harness passive emission to make wearable personal battery and full signal masking, but giving people at accademy that idea is be bad so we would depend on Mel to end research. Guess we dont have to go with armour as long as we dont get to point of full reduction. Im mostly interested in research and possible application of said magitech.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Depends what armour. I think Ironman might have things you would find interesting.
What do you call Ironman?

Mostly i wish them to do basic research and number crunching on theory of magic signals.
That is what I am willing to do, yes, but I thought the point was to make the armor so that all of the hours we spent on shopping weren't wasted.

Then there is the matter of any new research diverting resourses from existing projects (batman cloak and the spearhead).
 

Jester

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 24, 2013
Messages
1,493
Depends what armour. I think Ironman might have things you would find interesting.
What do you call Ironman?

Mostly i wish them to do basic research and number crunching on theory of magic signals.
That is what I am willing to do, yes, but I thought the point was to make the armor so that all of the hours we spent on shopping weren't wasted.

Then there is the matter of any new research diverting resourses from existing projects (batman cloak and the spearhead).
Point always is to use our resources as well as we can. We now have some armour. Maximum magic/physical resistance for armour was 5% for current tech? My point of view is that we dont get anything better than what 7-10% max? if we are lucky in medium time. Mode armour on other hand is try at evading damage altogether, by keeping low profile. Less likely to be focused, after all always go for a mage is basic rule of battle here. Its help to mask other possible applications of technology. People will more likely concentrate on what armour can do and what we wish to achieve with it, instead on what can we do with theoretical knowledge we gain from developing this project. Might work even better taking into consideration we have studied rather illusive form of magic. Personally I dont care to much about loosing time on measurements now. At first i planed to buy basic normal armours and later update on enchanted ones, but now it wont be to much of increase i guess.


Well i dont know if batman cloak project still exist it was heavly based on spinner. And isnt Jan doing research with spearhead? I refuse letting anyone else near that deadly thing.

And Ironman as in Marvel comics. There are things making you living tank.
 

archaen

Cipher
Patron
Joined
Mar 10, 2014
Messages
633
I forgot about our bodygaurds. I would want them with us. New baby is draining my soul battery and consequently my rpg cunning.
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
First off, a big thank you to Nevill for distilling my chapter summary which I originally wrote for another guy There is a stylized, Total War-style summary in the works, but it will be out in June-July at best. Maybe even August.
Since I honestly skipped the majority of the DISCUSS!, I'll just vote for what I want to see, selfish asshole that I am.
1 Evi
2 -
3 Elephants
4 +1 for Grenadiers
5 Arrows
6 F
7 A
8 The Nevill-Jester Strategy
9 A
10 A (whichever option is winning)
11 Aiii
12 -
13 C
 
Last edited:

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
All right, I will add the grenadiers to my vote with a caveat that we take as many as we can without sacrificing our mobility. Don't know how many that would be, though.

Otherwise I don't need them.
 
Last edited:

Fangshi

Arcane
Joined
Jan 9, 2014
Messages
1,997
So it looks like everyone has voted by now. I will close the votes and start tabulating the results.

This might take me a few minutes so I will update this post with the results as soon as I am done.

I will post them in a new post so they don't get buried.

In the meantime how about something to read?

Now that you have decided to go to Nanshe I can tell you the outcome of the battle between her and TWM. I will post it in a few minutes after I have it formatted.
 
Last edited:

Fangshi

Arcane
Joined
Jan 9, 2014
Messages
1,997
Interlude 6: The Price of Freedom

In the heart of the mountains south of Myrgard an army waits. An army of mages, horrors, and monstrosities dragged down through the ages and concentrated here. It has been brought together for one purpose and one purpose only. To avenge his failure, to prove to his 'master' that he has not lost his skill and potency. He will meet them here and will crush them here. He will break them and make them his and then he will march them before the Old Goat and show him the proof of his ability.

This army will win.

It is unstoppable.

It is wholly and completely his.

He stirs in his tent, a thing of white silk, canvas and gold. It once belonged to... Who was it again? Ah, yes, the Consul of Quartz. A beautiful city when it stood but there are some slights that simply can not be tolerated.

A single, startling, blue eye opens and greets the day. It has been three days and he is getting restless. How long does it take to marshal an army? How long does it take to draw together their forces? Admittedly, the dwarves do have tiny little legs...

He smiles, his grin as sharp as any blade, those little legs will not serve them well in retreat. When his slaves lash the flesh from their bones and his hounds track them through the caves and hills.

He rises and glides along the floor of his tent. He feels alive again. He expects so very much from them but he knows those three delightful darlings will not disappoint.

They will be magnificent as always but this time they will fall.

He spins, and twists and claps as he dresses, humming along with an ancient spell in preparation of the battle to come.

Gracefully now he drops into a throne of bone and brass, a 'gift' from the Hetman of Briar. A bribe to spare his life and the minds of his sons. A nice chair but not nearly enough to buy his mercy.

He snatches a coral comb from his desk and runs his thumb along its edge. It is his favourite, taken from the warm, soft hands of the Empress Dowager of the Blue Mountains moments before he fulfilled her purpose and claimed her soul.

He runs the comb through his hair and sighs as he takes in his glorious image in his mirror.

The delay has been almost unbearable.

Oh how he wishes they would race toward him, crash against him, fall before him.

He will have them.

Those pretty things.

He will strip them of all they have, all they want, all they are. He will take from them their foolish hopes, their oh-so-banal dreams, their fears, their regrets, their loyalties.

He will take everything.

Then, he will give them something new to hope for, something new to dream of.

Him.

And they will love him for it.

-----------------------------------

At least the days are beginning to cool and from the peaks of the mountains the odd refreshing breeze pours down to momentarily revive her.

Not much farther now.

She hopes she ready for this.

That Thin White Monstrosity has always been powerful and she doubts that he will be holding anything back now. It worries her a little. Four hundred braves, the best she could find, and a half dozen of her priests sent to battle against all that, that horror can muster. She would be lying if she said the odds were stacked in her favour.

She glances behind her at the chieftains marching with their men: Ninhursag and her sons, clad in iron, heavy shields bound to their arms and sharp spears in hand; old Nammu with a fur cap on her head and a sack over her shoulder, her renowned slingers similarly attired; Irkalla, sword at his side and seventy fearless soldiers at his back; and finally wise Enki, at her side with the other priests of the Gods.

The old priest nods to her when he catches her looking, she smiles slightly in response and turns away. She is not the type to pray but in a moment like this she is sorely tempted.

She breaths in. She breathes out. In. Out. Again and again. It calms her. She focuses on the beating of her heart as it slows. She focuses on her feet as they move to the beat of her column's march

She smirks, no sense worrying about it anymore as she can no longer turn back. Any weakness and the tribes that have been drawn to her will disperse again. Then she will be left with nothing but her own clan and that will mean eventual death. At the hands of the Watcher, or his creature, or the dwarves, or even her own people.

She must fight and she must win to prove that she deserves the title she has claimed. She must pile victory upon victory and what better way to start than by crushing the 'man' responsible for the enslavement of hundreds of her people. It is a gesture that will mean little to the eastern and southern tribes but it is one that will elevate her status in the eyes of the remaining independent northern tribes.

In a lead lined box to her right sits the gift Derryth, Thaïs and Lyssa have given her. It will serve as bait, the magical signal that will draw in the creature and allow her to make her move.

If he does not fall for it then she will have to break his army and capture him herself.

A scout comes racing down the path toward her and she orders the army to halt.

He stops, breathing heavily, as her bodyguards form a solid wall around her and succeed in completely blocking her sight.

She rolls her eyes, these soldiers, these 'Immortals', were Enki's idea. He insisted that she travel with an escort of fifty braves, hand picked warriors from the tribes most loyal to their cause. A sound idea she must admit but they also have an annoying tendency of being overprotective toward their Empress.

She slips her fingers between the plate clad shoulders of the two nearest immortals and pushes her way through their barrier, "Out of my way damn it! If a single messenger was enough to fell me I would not be worth protecting in the first place!"

The scout begins to bow as she nears but she waves away such formalities and gestures for him to speak. Behind her she can hear the Immortals advancing to once more envelop her.

The scout takes a few unsteady breaths and points up the trail repeatedly, "Five minutes, straight ahead."

Alright then, time to prove her worth and strike a blow for her people. She sends out her runners to her captains as Enki negotiates his way through her layers of security.

"Any news, my Empress?" the old ghôl enquires, bowing deeply.

She grunts in response, "It seems we have found the Watcher's creature."

She catches the hint of a frown on the priest's face, "How close."

"Five minutes march directly in front of us," she answers, "He will probably offer battle in the next valley, seize the high ground and make us attack him."

Her only loyal advisor nods, "Anything you want me to do?"

She grins, "Two things. First, send one of your people to get Cass and a couple of the slaves. Second, I want you to tell me about your clan and the stone you were tasked to guard, Crom Cruach."

--------------------------------

He shifts on his throne as his servants give their report. Charming Cerulean, plucked from the soft, warm waters of the endless sea and the dower Empress Dowager, far from her mountain home, they are amongst his best remaining scouts and what they tell him is difficult to accept at first.

Ghôls?

He turns to Orchid and Indigo to see how they react to the news, the brothers stare on impassively. He sighs, it is to be expected. They were never much for conversation those two and entering his service has done little to improve their disposition.

He leans back in his chair and shifts to his right, resting his head on a single perfect hand.

Not dwarves, but ghôls?

He scans his 'court', mages in every hue, sporting furs, feathers, silks and leathers, most stare at their feet waiting for instruction. None of them are eager to express an idea. Really it is his own fault, most of his servants have not seen use in decades and if he does not regularly exercise them he should not expect them to be terribly active.

With no one to turn to or talk to he once more falls back on his own great intellect and keen intuition. Now, this information is certainly a surprise, but he has no reason to doubt it. Cerulean and the Empress Dowager have always been reliable when it comes to collecting information. Today he will be fighting a different enemy than intended but it should not substantially change his plans. He has seen how ghôls fight and he is not impressed. What has fired his imagination though is the second revelation his scouts have delivered. That his quarry is with them, Mazzarin's apprentices are embedded in the ghôlish host.

There is only one way to respond to this, with laughter.

He can barely contain his joy at this particular turn of events. It is all the proof he could ever need. Mazzarin, through his apprentices, is the mastermind behind the ghôlish uprising! All of his enemies are in league and they have come together to offer him one final battle! He will drag all four of them before the Watcher and he will force them to recount in detail their master's plans! Victory here will restore him and the others: the slave, the puppet, the beast, the apprentice and even his dear 'wife', they will respect and fear him once more!

So he laughs as he straps his armour on, he cackles as snatches up his blade, and striding from his tent he gives the order to offer battle.

------------------------------------

The Empress of the Ghôls surveys her forces. She has done well she thinks.

The enemy is drawn up across from them, and the mages have seized the high, uneven terrain at the far end of the valley. There must be at least seventy of them, all mages or similarly powerful horrors drawn here by the will of that thing. Their position is secure and as soon as she tries to charge them they will pour fire, lightning and the gods know what else down on her army.

Under normal conditions when a ghôlish warband encounters an enemy there is only one decision a leader will make. They will either charge or withdraw based on the perceived strength of their opponent. That is the sole concern of the warchief and beyond this single choice they have very little real authority. Each brave fights individually, utilizing all of the cunning, brutality and malice they can muster, victory or defeat is then determined by the skill and ingenuity of each clan's combatants. Against this enemy though, an organized opponent and a mage, such traditions are suicide and so the Empress has taken it upon herself to try something different, hopefully it will catch the Watcher's creature by surprise. Hopefully it will actually work.

She will make the enemy army abandon its position and charge her.

When it does Nammu and the slingers, deployed to the front, will do their best to thin out the enemies ranks at range then, contrary to tradition, they will fall back through her own lines. Behind them Ninhursag and her brave sons stand with a gap between each warrior, if all goes according to plan then Nammu's warriors will be able to flee through the gaps as Ninhursag's soldiers step forward, close ranks and meet the enemy. She has practiced this manoeuvre with them hundreds of times but this will be its true trial, its first test in battle. Ninhursag's infantry will do their best to hold the enemy in place while Irkalla, on the right flank will sweep around the enemy formation and strike at their softer warriors. The Empress herself will hold the left with her clan's warriors and her Immortals, right across from the enemies hounds. Already they bay for blood, slithering, clawing, hopping in place. The fighting will be worst here and she needs her best to keep the creatures from breaking through.

At the rear of her army, with what little reserves she can spare will sit 'Derryth', 'Thaïs', and 'Lyssa' 'commanding' the army and giving the whole affair an air of plausibility.

It should be enough to surprise and capture the Thin White Mage. All she has to do is get him to attack and Enki will handle that.

----------------------------

Why aren't they charging?

It is quite the little puzzle isn't it?

Never before has he encountered a ghôlish warband that has behaved with so much restraint. Even as his patience wanes his respect for his darlings grows to new heights. He wonders what sorts of threats, what kinds of magic, they have used to hold these savage clansmen in place. When he crushes this rabble and captures them he will have to ask.

Well, he has time. He is no rush as the Old Goat has directed his attention elsewhere. The Watcher's gaze is fixed on the south and his 'successful' lieutenants, his loyal little beasts, as they work their way through the defenders of the Kingdom. He has been left out of these plans, his 'manifold failures' weighing him down. He must admit he has had a streak of unfortunate luck lately but all of that is set to change today. Today he does not have the undead to slow him down! He does not have the incompetence of the Shades to force his hand! Today he has his own people, all of them or those that could be spared, and he will win there can be no other outcome! His fifty mages are arrayed in groups of five along a loose line among the hills at this end of the valley. They are outnumbered by the savages but that means little to a mage. Eventually those animals will charge and when they do his followers will cut them down with magic of every variety imaginable! Why, if they are not enough then his hounds will-

What's that now?

What is happening at the front of the enemy's formation?

What are those strange little beasts in their bizarre robes doing?

The wind begins to build, howling through the peaks above them.

It screams down at them and the pressure builds as if someone or something is intently scrutinizing him and his servants.

He raises his gaze and leans forward on his ivory staff as he teeters on his casting dais and his entourage mimic his behaviour, all eight of them, looking into the darkening sky.

He turns back to face the enemy as an ancient ghôl steps from the ranks, smeared in ash and blood, he raises his gnarled, thick staff above his head and his fellows mimic the action. Their chanting builds and as it strikes his ear it takes on new forms, it is the gurgling of a drowning man, it is the screaming of a burning one, it is the flailing, stumbling, faltering shriek of the damned and as their voices rise he realizes finally, fatally, what they are doing. They have no intention to attack, or rather this is their attack...

The wailing builds and from the swirling maelstrom above him a sickly green and yellow mist begins to billow. The lead ghôlish mage points his staff right at the Thin White Mage and his followers mimic the ghôl's movements.

The cloud begins to shift on a foul breeze. Drifting down toward his lines with a certain enthusiasm, a certain malice, that suggests to the Thin White Mage that perhaps it is alive.

For a moment he is at a loss. He had not expected this, whatever it is, and he is not sure how to counter it. He has heard of elemental spells with similar properties and so he orders his elementalists to try and blow the cloud away and toward the ghôls.

The wind mages push with all they can muster and the cloud... It roars at them... In indignation, the spell roars! It bellows its contempt for them, a single deafening, smothering noise that blasts his army and causes his hounds to throw up a chorus of bleating, hissing, growing pleas.

This spell is not mere elemental magic.

It begins to snatch at the forward elements of his force. To his right the mist coils out ethereal tendrils and envelops a dozen of his mages. They do not flee, he has not told them to. They do not scream as the blood begins to leak from their eyes and their mouths. They do not move as their skins and muscles are scrubbed from their bones and their robes dissolve at their feet. In less then half a minute they are little more than bones and after a full minute they are nothing at all.

He hears howling, squawking, barking to his right. One of his hounds is snatched up by the spell and it spins through the air as it is drawn into the cloud. The rest of his hounds begin to back away, their tails, fins, wings folded up in caution and fear.

A common army would have fled by now, thankfully none of his servants are common. They will hold their ground as long as he tell them to. In light of this new information he turns the problem over in his mind as the main body of the cloud creeps closer, building speed as it senses the lungs and minds of even more fresh prey.

Of course!

It hits him and damn near sends him fleeing into the mountains. This spell is a Dream. Not just any Dream either, it is the Rotting Mist Dream that the Dark Gods tore from the corpse of Wyrd and later presented to their favourite children.

He believed it had been destroyed by the dwarves during the Great War but perhaps it survived in a form, passed from one generation of ghôlish priests to another, or perhaps one of those craven beasts that pick at the edge of this world decided to help their mortal fellows by returning this gift to them.

At any rate this knowledge makes things both easier and more difficult. He can not stop this spell, he can not counter it with anything he possesses and it will not stop until the ritual is ended or his army has dissolved entirely. However it should be easy enough to end the ritual. He simply has to kill or disrupt the mages casting it which will mean attacking...

He grins, he did want a challenge after all and they are not disappointing him. If they want him to attack then that is what he will do and he knows just how to begin...

-------------------------------

Enki, the Empress' First Priest is quite proud of his work.

There are certain days that live in the memory and that refuse to die:

The day he met his wife.

The day he became high priest of his clan.

The day his son was born.

The day he lost them both, son and wife, in the defence of Myrgard.

The day that the damned dwarves destroyed Crom Cruach.

The night the Golden Ones visited him and promised vengeance.

The evening that he finally mastered their gift, the Rotting Mist Dream.

To those he can now add the day that he used that gift to fell the first of their foes. His apprentices pour all they have into the spell. Their focus is absolute, just as he taught them, though his begins to drift. He takes in the scene, the silent destruction of the enemy and he is struck by how casually the enemy's slaves embrace their fate. He shivers, considering the idea that he might have been among them given time. He raises his gaze and scans the cloud above them, the devouring, putrefying mist that they have summoned to snuff out the Watcher's slaves. He mutters a prayer to his gods and once more seizes control of the spell, preparing to launch another offensive.

He feels a hand on his shoulder.

Someone is shouting but he can not spare them a moment.

He is struck, knocked to the ground and his connection to the spell breaks.

He shakes his head and looks up. Above him stands his own bodyguard. The ghôl draws his blade and raises it to strike. Enki concentrates and unleashes gouts of poison from his palm, they splatter the bodyguard and his eyes bulge though he makes no sound. The Guard swings the blade down and it bites into Enki's arm, cutting flesh and shattering bone. The priest's arm comes off and the Guard raises his blade again.

This is it. Was it treachery? Was this guard bought? Who betrayed him?

The blow should come any second. He closes his eyes and prays.

He hears a thud and opens his eyes just a crack. The Bodyguard lies dead beside him, a javelin protruding from his back.

Enki tries to rise, the blood pouring from his wound. He makes it to his knees before falling back into the dirt. Around him his soldiers are tearing each other apart. What has come over them?

He coughs, why can't his people achieve anything of lasting worth?

Above his the vultures circle and the Dream dies, along with his own dreams, revealing the sun. He watches the birds circling, their hooked beaks, their sharp talons, their rotting wings... Rotting wings?

He squints, trying to focus on them. They are not living, are they? Yes, they are corpses and buried into each of them are shards of something dark. Black stone in their chests, in their necks, bound to their feet.

He manages a weak laugh. The Watcher's stones. The birds are being used to project the Watcher's influence over the whole host from the air. The entire army must be tearing itself apart at this very moment...

They never did stand a chance did they?

The Old Priest closes his eyes and admits defeat.

---------------------------------------

He hums as he strolls through the slaughter, an escort of twenty mages shielding him from all harm. Then his lips part and he sings, magnificently, joyously he sings and here amongst the carnage he finds the breath of life once more:

Look out my window and what do I see

A crack in the sky and a hand reaching down to me

All the nightmares came today

And it looks as though they're here to stay

The horrors that race ahead of him and drag behind him chortle at his words. Six of his escorts peal off to handle the charge of a few dozen of the savages. The beasts are cut down without remorse or hesitation. He pushes on, merrily, gracefully:

What are we coming to

No room for me, no fun for you

I think about a world to come

Where the books were found by the Golden Ones

Written in pain, written in awe

By a puzzled man who questioned

What we were here for

All the strangers came today

And it looks as though they're here to stay

With wave of his staff he pitches thirty warriors out of his path. The magic pouring from his artefacts lights the battlefield as he marches along. Ten of his followers break off to handle a massed block of slingers honing in on his command group.

He is almost there now, having cut right through the heart of the dissolving enemy formation. His birds circle lazily overhead. Such creative minds those ladies have and what a wonderful inspiration they have been to him but they were simply outdone by a superior foe. His centuries of experience matched against their mere decades of training, it was a foregone conclusion really.

He can see the leader of these creatures attempting to fight her way to him, poor, poor Nanshe. To rebel against her true master only to follow frauds, she will get all she deserves. Her golden armour catches the rays of the sun, it glimmers and those around her fight all the harder. Her bodyguards also seem to be immune to the influence of his eagles. He wonders why that is exactly.

Ah, no matter, it is of little concern now. He orders all but three of his escort to intercept the 'Empress' and her soldiers. They quickly throw their magic behind the efforts of his hounds and to his immense satisfaction she falls and her soldiers begin to waver.

Hopefully she is not dead. A firebrand like her would make an excellent addition to his collection and he would like to acquire the 'full set' of all four ladies.

He stalks into the enemy's camp and flays the first three beasts he encounters. Few oppose him after that and confidently he steps forward, weaving, dancing, through the wagons toward the command tent.

He opens the flap and orders his followers to bring the ladies out alive.

Cerulean is the first in, followed by the Empress Dowager and the King of Coins. He hears screams, he hears crashing, then the Dowager's head rolls back out of the tent.

He smiles, these three will be worth everything he has been through, everything.

Sweetly he sings as he enters:

Oh you Pretty Things

Don't you know you're driving your Mamas and Papas insane

Oh you Pretty Things

Don't you know you're driving your Mamas an-

The iron fist that connects with the side of his head would have killed a lesser man.

As it is it merely stung a great deal.

He drops and rolls. Leaping back to his feet he readies his spells and frees his sword from its sheath.

The tent is completely dark, the thick canvas blotting out any light.

He mutters an incantation and fills the marquee with light.

They stand together on the far side of the room, covered in thick robes with hoods drawn over their faces. When they notice him they cower together against the far wall. He finds that odd for a moment. They have never cowered before him in any of their past meetings. Perhaps they know that nothing will stop him now? Perhaps they are cowards at their core, the same as all the others? A pang of disappointment rings out within him but he has more pressing matters to attend to. Between them and him is a single ghôl clad in the same black plate as the traitor's bodyguards though it wears a hood instead of a helmet and is missing its right guantlet.

It must have had to dress in a hurry he thinks with a slight chuckle.

It is the one last, tiny obstacle between him and his goal and he will be delayed no longer!

He lashes out with his magic but is met with a curious spell. A black, stone labyrinth rises in his mind, a structure baking below a trio of merciless purple suns. Did they cast this? It does not matter. He presses forward and the labyrinth resists him. He shifts his thoughts but the labyrinth twists with him, enveloping him, one moment it is a sphere, then a pyramid, then a cube. He strains against the spell. He will overcome this trap, he will beat their last gambit, then he will slay their final guardian and he will drag them into the light. He will have them, so close now he pours everything into tearing this spell to pieces.

He hones his mind into a single point, a cutting edge that can rend their defences and he throws everything in one, mighty push. The labyrinth begins to fracture, it begins to crumble and it opens just enough for him to once more see the sky. Those three suns hanging above him, he makes them his target and he pushes. He grasps two of them firmly and with a single, monumental effort he drags them toward one another.

He hears a scream, but not the screams he was expecting. He knows that voice, he has taught that voice and for a moment it throws him.

Nanshe?

He asks instinctively.

Empress.

The answer hits him as a fourth sun rises from beyond the horizon.

Everything burns.

He screams.

-----------------------------------

It was a close thing, far closer than she had intended but she won. They lost half the army and a good third of her Immortals but it could have been far worse. They could have lost everything.

As it is they have simply had to retreat further into the mountains, They have found a cave system and it seems to be clear of anything more dangerous than a few bandits and the odd wild beast. Nothing that can threaten an army of two hundred even one as battered as hers is.

The Watcher's creature is bound and drugged with enough nepenthe to sedate a man twice his size. She will not take any chances. As soon as he lost consciousness his birds began to fall from the sky and without their influence the army was able to rally and drive off the remnants of the Thin White Bastard's slaves but they are still out there, she can feel it, and the Hounds are with them.

She ordered her followers to gather as many of the Watcher's shards as they could find and she has had them encased in lead, taken from the helmets and armour of her Immortals. She grunts, lead in the armour, it was an inspired idea and that little trick probably saved her army today. However, she knows that the fighting is far from over. It will only be a matter of time until his remaining servants make an attempt to free their master. They all would have heard his last cry before he fell and they will be compelled to make the attempt one way or another.

Outside, in the distance, something howls, caws, mewls into the coming night. Hopefully her people managed to find all of the Watcher's shards present at the battle. If they left even a single one then the remnants of the enemy force will be able to contact the Watcher directly and ask for reinforcements.

He could send anything and there are horrors to the south that she would not want to stare down without a fresh army and a few dozen battle mages.

She shudders slightly and shifts at her writing desks.

Something stirs in the corner of her eye, in the shadow by the entrance to her 'room'.

Her mind screams assassin and she carefully reaches into one of the drawers of her desk, fumbling for an energon cube.

Casually she asks "That you Cass?" it is not even a serious question really, more just a way to fill the silence and discern who might be behind her. Odds are quite good that it is her clerk, the human and her child have hardly left her side since the battle. Partly out of concern and partly for their own safety.

She should think of a way to reward Cassandra, she played an adequate 'Derryth' even if she lacks much of the fire that makes the mage so compelling.

"No," an aged voice answers, "I am not your human girl," the disapproving tone the voice takes at the mention of Cass confirms its identity for the young Empress.

"So you lived you old bastard?" she turns half way in her chair to get a good look at her First Priest.

"An empress should not swear, it is not dignified," Enki grunts and scratches at his stump absentmindedly, "But yes, by the will of the Gods I did."

"Fuck dignity Enki," she spits on the dirt floor, "I am living in a cave with an army that has been severely mauled. I will speak as I like."

He bows as much as he is able to, "As you wish my Empress."

She frowns, he is in no condition to be scraping and bowing like that, "How is the arm?"

"Lost," he replies calmly. He is taking it well, far better than she would to be sure, "Our people did all they could to coax the embers of my life back into a flame but restoring my arm was simply beyond their art. I gave it to my apprentices to consume, perhaps they will inherit a measure of my skill from the act."

She shrugs, she would have kept the arm. You never know what can be done with magic...

She shifts the topic, "When can we be mobile again?"

"Two or three days," the priest answers.

She nods to herself, "Two it is then. I want to be back to the city before the Watcher can bring anything else against us."

"Do you really think he will expend resources to recover such a failure?" the old ghôl asks.

"Yes," the Empress answers without doubt, "The Thin White Mage is near indestructible and he is a learning beast. It is one thing to kill him but in capturing him we deny the Watcher one of his agents and an irreplaceable one at that. If the Mad Goat gets word of his creature's capture he will make an effort to save such an asset and to avenge himself on us for the defeat we have handed him here."

The old Priest bows his head and mutters a prayer.

The young Empress rolls her eyes and mutters a few choice words of her own.

They glare at one another.

She smiles.

He does as well.

She would have missed him had he fallen today and she tells him as much.

"My Empress, you are too kind," he attempts another bow and winces slightly, "What will you do now?"

She gives him an inscrutable grin, "Call a few reinforcements of our own. I am going to bed, Enki, see that I am not disturbed unless it is important."

Enki does his best to back out of the chamber and she can hear him giving strict orders to her Immortals as he goes.

She rises from her desk, puts her things in order and slips onto her cot.

She closes her eyes and pictures a field with altars in it and a certain charming Prince of Dreams...
 
Last edited:

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom