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>>31564658
While you are sitting in the command tent, a soldier comes in with a message.

“There’s a man who just rode up to the camp, sir,” he tells you. “Says he’s a messenger from a Lady Irris.”

You get him to confirm the name the man gave, before leaning back. Lady Irris’ messenger? Mercenie had told you that Lady Irris, a daywalker, had been slain by Perin Blackwater in the infighting. You wonder what her messenger wants – assuming he’s not acting on his own.

“Sir, what should we do with him?” the man asks.

>1. Meet with him.

“Bring him here,” you say. You doubted a single messenger could be that dangerous. Still, in case he was a daywalker you stepped out and fetched Lynn who was lurking nearby. You didn’t want to leave yourself open to being thralled.

The messenger himself is a nondescript man wearing some hunting furs. He lays a simple scroll on the table in front of you and gives you a deep bow.

“Imperator Talon,” he says. “I am Dorman. I was one of Lady Irris’ manservants when she walked this earth."

“So she is dead, then?” you ask.

He nods then points at the scroll. “Before she died, she left me instructions to ensure that scroll made its way into the hands of somebody who might be able to kill Perin Blackwater. She suggested yourself but I… had difficulty believing it at first. I did not see the battle you just fought, but the results are clear. I do not have that same difficulty anymore.”

You don’t reach out to take the scroll. You’re a little wary of daywalker tricks and right now the man in front of you is more interesting.

“Do you know what the scroll contains?” you ask, probing.

>continued

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>>31564677
“I am afraid not, your majesty. My master’s instructions were clear. I could not disobey no matter how much I desire to read it,” he answers.

A thrall then. You had been told that the orders of the vampire would outlast their death. Unfortunately, that also likely means he won’t reveal any possible traps despite further probing. His manner of speech and calm demeanour suggest he’s quite used to dissembling. No wonder, given his former master. Serving a daywalker who could turn you into dust at any moment would be something troubling.

“You don’t have any other messages?” you ask, having tired of trying to get him to slip up in some way.

“I am afraid not,” he says with a shake of his head.

You lean back and think. The scroll sits in front of you, beckoning.

>1. Read the scroll now.
>2. Ask Dorman <write-in>.
>3. Dismiss Dorman.
>4. Custom

Bad idea aspie, there's a Heroquest thread right now and these suck player like a black hole.

>>31564694
have your mages scan scroll for magic. if non magical then have him unfold it (in case of poison) for you to read.

>>31564694
>1. Read the scroll now.

>>31564820
pls anon. no quest can compare to aspirational quest, the bestest quest on tg.

and besides which, its easy to multitask quests because authors take time to post. especially draw quests

>>31564848
>pls anon. no quest can compare to aspirational quest, the bestest quest on tg.
While I agree with you, I don't think that I can say the same about the other players.

>>31564694
>1. Read the scroll now.
>2. Ask Dorman <write-in>.
Did your master ever ask you to remember special messages?

>>31564832
Seconded

>>31564694

>1. Read the scroll now.

>>31564694
>2. Ask Dorman <write-in>.

>What if I bade you to read the scroll for me?

>>31564694
>2 Ask Dorman
what will you do now?
I could use somebody with knowledge of vampires.

Maybe ask if he would be interested in a cure for tharlldom

Where's Sala's place of power again?

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>>31564820
If I tried to dodge every popular quest, I'd never be able to run.

>>31564832
>>31564924
>Ask Dorman to unroll/read the scroll for you.

Dorman shakes his head. "My lady ordered me not to open the scroll, no matter what. I cannot disobey."

Well, that puts that idea to rest unless you want to try to force him to do so.

>>31564975
It's the one in the coastal region in the RSK territory to the south.

>>31564879
"Did your master ever ask you to remember special messages?" you ask him.

"My usual responsibilities were greeting guests and reporting on the other servants. I didn't usually take messages. I believe the only reason I was given this one was because many of my lady's other servants had perished or fled."

"So that's a no then?" you ask again.

"That is correct," he replies.

>>31564961
"If you know much about vampires, you could help me," you suggest.

Surprisingly, he shakes his head. "If it is alright with you, Imperator, I would much prefer if I could vanish into a farming village. I don't know much of the world outside of my lady's mansion but I am eager to find out. I doubt I could help you even if I did stay," he answers.

"Do you know anything about vampires?" you ask.

He hesitates before answering, "There is one other daywalker I can warn you about - General Volante. I saw him once. Supposedly he has fused in some way with that malevolent looking armour of his. My lady once said he was Taour's greatest general. I believe he enthralled a famous Darlesian general, too."

Ares, no doubt, you think, remembering the former Dalresian general you had fought at Fort Locke.

VOTE
>1. Have your mages/Vad scan the scroll.
>2. Read it yourself.

>>31565164
>2
Try scanning it with astral power if we can if not better be safe than sorry and have someone else scan it

>>31565164
>2
What's the worst that can happen?!

>>31565164
>>2. Read it yourself.

Pump up some astral magic, we managed to stave off an infernal's spells before we can manage this.

>>31565164
>2. Read it yourself

>>31565164
2

>>31565164
>>31565226
>>31565241
>>31565252
>>31565277
>>31565277
Remember that we only have this guys word for it that he works for the dead vamp this might be a trick

>>31565241
We roll trip 1s?

Oddly slow at the moment...
I might as well take the opportunity to post some ideas I had since previous thread

1. After binding the PoP to source. make it so people do not age within the zone. Furthermore, make the hot springs a fountain of youth and healing (but not turn you into baby, bring you into peak). This allows us to buy off the kings of smaller nations (they become barons for us) without being seen as a bloodthirsty aggressor.

2. After/if we trounce taour, we can spread around that some vampires escaped to the smaller nations to the north, like farun and the other independents, and insist on checking to make sure they haven't enthralled the leadership. Potentially even actually LET them escape there. This is another way to continue conquering without being seen as a bloodthirsty aggressor.

3. We could perhaps use our ability to make a shield to create aerial platforms for us to jump from one to another. furthermore, if we can reshape it we could make it into spectral armor covering our whole body (manifested more solidly, like that fae we encountered armor). A backup weapon. Or we could perhaps shape the shield into wings.

4. Our bow skill is atrocious yet we never hit while we focus.. obviously we use magic. we should be able to easily adapt this into curved, homing, arrows.

5. http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/31412841/#p31422357
>>Improved Transportation & Customs
>I'm not sure how you would do speed enchantments on roads. Most enchantment isn't so good as affecting multiple people. I'll think more on this.
Make a magitech factory that produces road tiles, each tile is 6x6 inches across and confers a speed enhancement on the one person who is stepping on the greatest area of it (so if multiple people step on it, only one gets bonus). The factory churns them out and they are laid over major roads.
A different colored tile can be made with an enchantment specific to carts and used to create cart lanes in the road.

>>31565330

I say wait until later. We might get some general management later on after Taour so we can discuss it then.

>>31565164
>2. Read it yourself.

>>31565330
Do you honestly think there wouldn't be a war for control of a fountain of youth?

>>31565384
i don't because i'm pretty sure that the problem in this setting isn't dying from ageing but everything else if you have money and power.

>>31565436
I believe that only applies for mages and things made in "by the source" disappear after getting out of the range, they would probably revert back in the moment that they get out of harrowmont and I doubt that they would want to stay there forever.

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>2.

You unravel the string around the scroll and unfurl it, your power ready to fight whatever trap may have been laid in it. And nothing happens. It’s just a scroll.

How anticlimactic.

You shrug your shoulders a little bit and ignore Lynn creeping up behind you to read the message over your shoulder. Dorman remains still and you suspect his real wish is to run as far away from Taour as possible. Something must still bind him to remain, whether it’s an order from his former mistress or politeness you don’t know.

The handwriting is familiar and you believe it to belong to the vampire you slew a year ago, Lord Dalrec.

“Irris,

I implore you to cease working against Perin. Not only do we not know his weakness, though he certainly has one, he is a master of gathering information. He surely knows what you are up to and if you continue down this path you will regret it.

Should you wish to continue then I tell you this: Perin’s weakness is his lady. Or so I believe. I do not believe he has sired any children, unlike myself with my beloved Aladria, but there is a lady of some form that is the key to his seeming immortality. It could be metaphorical. Or perhaps he has some woman locked up in a tower in the middle of Pharos.

Once again, I implore you as a friend to stop. I’ll return in a fortnight once I’ve thralled this Seraph general. We can speak more then.

Your friend,

[Illegible signature]”

You lean back, considering the letter. You got an answer to one mystery at least – Dalrec was lurking in the RSK in order to turn you into his thrall. As for Perin Blackwater, it’s too great a mystery to be of any help. If two of his closest allies (if in name only) had no clues then how could you find this ‘lady’?

Dorman is still waiting patiently.

>1. Dismiss him.
>2. Custom

>>31565503
1

>>31565503
>1

>>31565503
>2. Custom
Ask him to tell us of his masters demise and where she kept her information.

>>31565384
>Do you honestly think there wouldn't be a war for control of a fountain of youth?
It would take dozens of archangels working together to threaten us within that zone.
Snatching the pop from us will undo the fountain of youth.
And we can, at will, unmake it.
what people will be after is the source itself, which would allow them to make their own fountains of youth (among other things).

>>31565356
obviously. I just wanted to get some discussion cause the thread seemed to be slow

>>31565436
AFAIK only extremely powerful being can undo aging and only on themselves. Even the emperor of the RSK (one of the 3 super powers on this continent) is decrepit and old. So was Ooln and many other high nobles.

>>31565503
>2
offer him safe passage and a house in Harromont or anywhere else in your realm if he will assist you with knowledge or your mages in their thrall research.

>>31565503
1.
he might actually have other secret plots to execute against perin and they work in our favor.
if he is just trying to run away for his freedom... well good for him. if we defeat taour and cure thralldom and make it public he could always come back for the cure

>>31565586
>dozens of archangels
Only one is enough and the archmage is still threat even there.

>>31565503
>2.Custom

>Give him a small purse for his troubles, "I know a few small towns and farms in Mier and Olmn, lovely places really, quiet now. If only in offer."

Ok so... taour doesn't thrall their mages even though it would be extremely useful.
Reason is obvious, mages resist enthrallment.
The fact they don't enthrall them at childhood before training suggests at some point they break free of thralldom as their power grows.
This might be a path towards the cure. something that can temporarily enhance the magic ability of the thrall... perhaps something to do with the crystals we found in that pop?

Reading in the lorebin about the revenants and found this.

>one of the archangels supposedly still has one."

I bet that Sareeg is that revenant, making the place of power in the archanagel area his.

Considering where Van was, I bet that Ren's pov is in the Mage Guard territory.

Now shooting in the dark. Tiara's pov is in the elves place and the one in the mage league territory is related to the "untapped well of altruism".

What do you guys think about it?

>>31565683
Aspirational confirmed that they can still have super mages as thralls, but not that many.
It should be noted the vampire can just make the mage from becoming stronger if they think the mage can resist thralldom.

>>31565645
>Only one is enough and the archmage is still threat even there.
an archmage would have a CHANCE. in that, it is possible for them to come up with something creative enough that we didn't forbid them from doing in our domain.
they would have to be insane to even try.
>angels
last time it took over 50 to take this specific source and created a mountain range.

Anyone powerful enough to take it is not in need of it. What they will want and be in need of is the source itself.

>>31565684
>I bet that Sareeg is that revenant, making the place of power in the archanagel area his.

Most of us guessed that ages ago.

>>31565645
Both are a threat but we have the advantage.

>>31565684
>I bet that Sareeg is that revenant, making the place of power in the archanagel area his.
Archangels do not need a pop or a source for a revanant.

>>31565721
>an archmage would have a CHANCE.
Aspirational confirmed that they would be on even playing field, with you having an advantage so a group of them is a disaster.
>>31565721
>last time it took over 50 to take this specific source and created a mountain range
Proof?

>>31565741
Sure, but all champions up to now have a source, even if the master don't necessary use it for something, like Sala case.

>>31565787
Do you not know what an arch angel is?

>>31565787
>now have a source
have pop'

>>31565761
>Aspirational confirmed that they would be on even playing field, with you having an advantage so a group of them is a disaster.
I remember him saying they would be at a huge disadvantage not a nearly even playing field.

>>31565854
This. They have enough raw power to fight in the domain. But he did say Talon would have the advantage in that situation.

>>31565803
Did you read the post? All champions up to now have a pop, why would Sareeg be a special case?
The Archangel not needing it don't mean he don't have one.

>>31565787
>Sure, but all champions up to now have a source,
A revenant is a class of being, like an elemental
Gnome does not need a source because she is alive. Undine needs one because she is dead and the source brought her back to life.
A revenant is created by an angel or a fae. If the revenent is then destroyed, and if he is extremely powerful as far as revenent goes, then he might bind to a source as a resurrected champion.
POPs are not involved in them in any way

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>2.

“How did Lady Irris die, Dorman?” you ask.

“There was a meeting between the remaining members of the council in the Corolis Tower where they usually do their business. She and the two members who had supported her during the infighting never returned and shortly after it was announced that they were dead and all servants of them had to swear allegiance to another lord or lady.

“I was already leaving the city by the time that happened, as my lady suspected the meeting to be a trap.”

“You mentioned she had a mansion. Could you tell me where it is and where she may have kept her information?” you ask.

“Any map of the city will show her domain. I cannot tell you where she did keep her information, but she may have kept them in a safe in her central study which certainly isn’t located behind a priceless floor-to-ceiling painting by the famous Terrii,” he answers, and you raise an eyebrow at the way he says it. Clearly there are some very simple ways to get around suggestion, though it’s also possible the orders weren’t exact enough.

“Are you certain I cannot convince you to stay and help me? You could help me with my work on thralls?” you ask once more.

He looks to the side as he answers, “I am a coward, your majesty. My mistress is dead and when I leave here I have no orders affecting me that would stop me from living a normal life. I just want to leave.”

You sigh and then wave to Lynn. “Lynn, take Dorman and get him a small purse for his trouble. Dorman, thank you for delivering this. I realise that you did not have to do this, given how easily you’ve evaded doing so already. You will have a place in my territory for as long as you wish.”

He gives you a deep bow and thanks you as Lynn escorts him out. You read and reread the letter several times and find no further hints. Undine tracks in at some point and reads it, while you are busy going over your troop reports.

>continued

>>31565879

No means an Archangel can create a Revenant without a PoP. Therefore there is the possibility that Sareeg is not the powerful Revenant.

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>>31565900
You already know how many of your men died, but the looting reports are newer. Phrace let you know that they’ve cleaned out all the heavy suits with magic, just in case.

>VETERANCY
10 Green HMKs to Regular
60 Regular AAs to Veteran
80 Green Archers to Regular
300 Green Heavy Men-at-arms to Regular
300 Regular Men-at-arms to Veteran
260 Green Men-at-arms to Regular
50 Regular Battle-mages to Veteran
30 Green MMKs to Regular
200 Regular MMKs to Veteran

>LOOTING
80 FMK Suits
100 HMK Suits
400 MMK Suits

>ARMY IN RAUPE
3870
130 Flying Mage-Knights
140 Heavy Mage-Knights
1020 Medium Mage-Knights
160 Arcane Archers
720 Archers
550 Heavy Men-at-arms
1100 Men-at-arms
50 Battlemages

Next is Arail’s report, which is straightforward. The Taouran troops are mobilising rapidly for something in both Crece and Darlesia. They might be attacking or withdrawing and he’s preparing for either. It will likely be a day or three before the Taouran troops are moving in earnest if they’re rushing as much as Arail suggests they are.

Undine puts the scroll down, looking lost in thought. You make some small talk about the letter but she’s as lost as you are.

>Any final things to take care of before marching on Hiien?

>>31565879
what post? not ALL champions have a pop. He said that all non chosen champions are still alive and thus not champions. The elemental champion candidates who are still alive have a pop (gnome, sala, air-one). the foxes are not bound to anything (ren was the champion candidate, he is alive and popless, just a really powerful being). and the revenant is still bound to his creator (some angel or god or fae or something)

>>31565922

Question about troops.

In thread IV during the Second Siege of Harrowmont it was stated that Vitria had 300 Crossbowmen. Do these units still exist and if so where are they? Can we put them to use?

>>31565891
That was a mistake, I mean place of power and I fixed it earlier.
>POPs are not involved in them in any way
Read the champion part in the lorebin, all champion need pop to become summonable after dead, if he didn't have one if wouldn't be a champion.

>>31565900
>I cannot tell you where she did keep her information, but she may have kept them in a safe in her central study which certainly isn’t located behind a priceless floor-to-ceiling painting by the famous Terrii,” he answers, and you raise an eyebrow at the way he says it.
So are are we going there our selves or sending people there?

>>31565922
Alright, so. a major part of war is attrition.
Seeing that we have at our eastern border a competent general leading 7000 troops and darlesia only has 2000 troops defending it now. I would like to suggest we have him start a seige of the city. With orders to prioritize losses in enemy and survival of his own troops over any act of conquest. Ideally he could conquer the city and crush the enemies. but if not he should retreat.
Meanwhile we prepare a bunch of traps in hien, recruit from populace, kill all vamps in city, etc. and be ready to retreat after causing maximum damage to the invading force. I want to give them a phyrric victory where they retake hien. (or a total loss for them if we can).

>>31565938
>Each Source is connected to seven Places of Power, and it is only by attuning to one of these that a Champion becomes summonable after death.
He was summonable, he's attuned to a pop.

>>31565997
>Read the champion part in the lorebin, all champion need pop to become summonable after dead
no, they require a SOURCE. if it says pop it is an error.

Source: Source of magic where magic enters the world, each source grants a champion, each source has 7 pops
PoP: Place of Power, each POP is associated with a specific source. The sources release their power into the world via the pops rather then all in one spot.

>>31565922

>all dem veterans
>still no Elites

Damn it. Soon AAs, soon.

Awesome that we got so many new HMK though, that'll be really useful since we seem to like them so much.

>>31565938
>not ALL champions have a pop.
Wrong, read the lorebin about champions.

>>31566052
>He was summonable, he's attuned to a pop.
QM said that any one we do not choose in first thread would be retconned to have not died.
We had Undine, Gnome, Sala, Sylph, and Ren all available as actual choices. We chose undine and as such story retconned so that undine is the only one of them who died and the rest are alive doing their own thing

>>31566022
Hiien - despite its extraordinary size, this town is clearly not a city. It is instead a huge blood harvesting station of humans for the rulers of Taour. It is heavily guarded - probably the most heavily guarded site in Taour aside from the city itself.
Its doesn't have any towns and we would gain more from taking it over honestly.

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>>31565913
All divine beings (angels, fae, infernals) can make revenants without PoPs. Powerful beings like revenants, foxes etc attune to PoPs passively (because they're powerful) unlike pure elementals which are created by them. A Champion candidate is a candidate because they've attuned to a PoP.

>>31565966
I was a bit lazy with crossbows/longbows etc and decided to just merge them together as archers. Although they are different enough on a tactical (and more mundane) level, they were effectively identical in my mechanics.

>>31566005
Her mansion is literally inside the city of Taour, so that would be an interesting expedition.

>>31566022
>a competent general leading 7000 troops
You only have two thousand troops in Olmm under Arail.

>I'll work on the next part and answer any new suggestions as they come

>>31566100
>regarding crossbows

Ah alright, that works then. I only ask because of the potential for corridor combat coming up here soon. It is good to know we technically have them for use in a tactical sense.

>>31566079
As I explained multiple times. A source and a PoP are different things
You say the lorebin contradicts me. here is the quote from lorebin

>Champions are, at their simplest, familiars that are bound by a Source rather a mage. This means it is not the would-be-master of the Champion who determines the resulting summon, but the Source itself. The other difference is that a Source can only have up to seven possible Champions available at any one time. Each Source is connected to seven Places of Power, and it is only by attuning to one of these that a Champion becomes summonable after death. Should a new individual attune to a Place of Power, then they will replace any Champion from that PoP once they die. And, of coruse, that is the final difference - a Champion is an individual who was dead before being summoned. Familiars must be alive. This also means that a Champion is completely reliant on the power that the Source and the connected Places of Power provide them.

Note how it says SOURCE and NOT POP

>>31566093
He said that about them becoming champions, not about about having a pop attuned to a source. Gnome was still connected to the source, remember as we used the source to summon her because of that? We couldn't do the same for Sylph because that wasn't her Source.

>>31566099
>Its doesn't have any towns and we would gain more from taking it over honestly.
Please explain to me how this in any way shape or form disagrees with a single word I have said in >>31566022

>>31566166
What?

Each Source is connected to seven Places of Power, and it is only by attuning to one of these that a Champion becomes summonable after death. Should a new individual attune to a Place of Power, then they will replace any Champion from that PoP once they die.

That exactly my point , all champions or "candidates" for that need a pop attuned to the source.

>>31566180
every pop in the world is connected to a source. there is no such thing as a pop without a source.
it is just that only 7 pops are connected to OUR source.
Gnome knows of 2 sources in our continent to the south of the great wall. (aka, areas we can actually conquer)

>>31566224
What? When I said something that contradicts that? I only saying that to be a champion or "candidates" for that you need a pop attuned to the source, hell, in the post that you replied to I say that Sylph have another source.

>>31566219
Ok, I seem to have misunderstood what you were saying earlier, I thought you were saying that a champion is summoned via a pop rather then via a source.

that being said, Sareeg is not necessary attuned to a pop because there was a retcon for those we did not choose. So that retcon could mean he isn't even attuned to our pop (like sylph who was a candidate but is attuned to a pop which is NOT connected to OUR source but a different source). Or it could mean he is attuned to a pop belonging to our source and the retcon was just that he did not die

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>Hiien march

After a day of rest you march on Hiien at dawn. The vampire ‘town’ in this province is supposedly a heavily fortified blood farm that provides the vampires of Taour with sustenance. If you can seize it you will strike a severe blow to the vampires by cutting off their easy supply of blood. The results in Taour itself will likely be gruesome, however, in that the vampires will likely turn on their servants and populace. That will then create rebellion and turmoil, which is currently absent, and make it easier for you to crush the vampires.

On the face of it, you’re probably better off playing innocent as to those ramifications. Saving the tens of thousands of people trapped in Hiien is a good thing – doing so because it will ferment rebellion in Taour at the cost of countless lives, not so much. On the other hand, if your generals know you take these sorts of actions it might encourage them to make similar decisions – for better or worse.

>continued

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>>31566353
Your thoughts are interrupted by a sending from Captain Illon, who is scouting ahead.

‘Hiien looks undefended. No signs of the having fled. Something is up.’

You’re only a few hours march from the town by now. Your scouts would have caught the Taourans retreating, given that Hiien is on an open plain. Where the hell have they gone? You hurriedly relay with Illon and his scouts and learn that most of Hiien is filled with huge structures they cannot probe. Most likely the Taourans have retreated inside of those, abandoning the walls… for some unfathomable reason. You remember Illon’s suggestion that they didn’t seem to bring all of their battlemages to the open field battle and something niggles at you.

If the walls have been surrendered, it’s trivial for your flyers to open the gates. The issue will be clearing out those huge multi-level structures. The place will be full of magitech and automation, as well as being a gruesome sight. If there’s still 1000 enemy troops inside they could make things very difficult for you.

>Battleplans for Hiien? Any orders for your scouting team, which numbers in the hundreds and consists largely of FMKs and AAs.

>>31566196
> recruit from populace
Who are gonna be thralls or vampires.
> in city
It seems like a giant town or farm to be precise.
>I want to give them a phyrric victory where they retake hien.
Letting them retake Hein would be bad since taking it away from them is alot better than a Phyrric victory.

>>31566417
>populace of a blood farm
>not a bunch of malnourished men and women in dire need of some revenge

Come on now.

>>31566285
Yeah, you misunderstood me. I was saying that a champion or candidate need a pop attuned to the source for him/her being to be summoned. Considering that Sareeg was a option for champion, he need to have a pop attuned to your souce and you or the anon above said that not all champions have a pop and that's wrong, it's a requirement for becoming one.

While what you said is possible, Gnome was still attuned to the source and was that the motive that we managed to summon her, so I believe the other that were reconnected to having survived are still attuned to the source, just weren't summoned because they were alive.

>>31566376
Are they turtling and waiting for reinforcements?

>>31566470
I believe so, from Crece, whatever we do, we should be fast.

>>31566417
>Who are gonna be thralls or vampires.
No, I explicitly said we execute all the vampires
the thralls we capture for our reserach.
>>31566450
>Malnourished livestock
have you ever been on a farm before? they are more likely to be obese than malnourished. heck some might be force fed sweets and the like to make extra delicious diabetic blood

>>31566450
Thats not a farm anon, they are probably nice and fat.
>>31566517
Then from what populace will you recruit from?
Unless you want to try going for the diplomacy route with the neutral Daywalker in the territory.

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>>31566376
You don't know the composition of the Taouran force, but Illon suspectedat one point it was largely archers and mages based on his observations when their main army was sortieing.

YOUR FORCE

3870
130 Flying Mage-Knights
140 Heavy Mage-Knights
1020 Medium Mage-Knights
160 Arcane Archers
720 Archers
550 Heavy Men-at-arms
1100 Men-at-arms
50 Battlemages

>>31566470
>>31566513
Taour has about 3k soldiers in Taour (2 days march from Hiien), 6k in Crece (5 days march from Hiien), 2k in Darlesia (8 days march from Hiien).

>>31566517

I believe malnourished was the wrong term. Something more along the lines of weak from severe blood loss. But still I don't think there is any doubt we can still recruit a portion, I'd wager a bet there are some old Darlesians in there still in fighting-ish form

>>31566417
>Letting them retake Hein would be bad since taking it away from them is alot better than a Phyrric victory.

I explicitly said I would prefer to totally crush them, I just said that if we can't then I want them to take great military losses (while we take minimal) for their reconquering.

>They retake hien at great losses to their military and light to us
>They now turtle because they fear it will be retaken
>The infrastructure is demolished
>The local thralls who manage things are gone (talen captive for research)
>The local vampires who manage things are gone (dead)
>Total anarchy
>The livestock is gone (evacuated)

>>31566584
Have a send sent to Mal and ask him if he has any ideas on what the vampires are up to.

>>31566605
Are sure they won't be thralled?
It doesn't say anywhere that they can't be thralled.

>>31566584
Fuck, where they were all these troops earlier in the game when they tried to kill us with "only" 1000?

>>31566654
they were spread out throughout the whole country.

>>31566376
... the easy thing would be to have gnome dig out the supports and let it collapse. but that would be nasty (so many dead).
We should instead wall up 3 of them with warded walls of stones and then focus on just one. We can take a cautious approach there.

Although honestly, I would say that we should retreat, let them turtle like crazy in hien, while we go capture darlesia ourselves. this will give us a source of mages and an MMK factory which would turn the tide on the buildup rate. plus talon could have more time to master his abilities, which is wise considering there are even more powerful daywalkers then the ones we already faced

>>31566641
While we can use Van for tell human from thall, I don't think that his idea is good.

>>31566641

I made an assumption more on the basis that the actual vampire to livestock ratio would be too disproportionate to enthrall ALL of them. But yes that is a possibility.

>>31566641
it is unreasonable for them to thrall half a million people. thralling takes enough time and effort that only a portion of their military is thralled. the majority of the populace isn't.

>>31566686
>>31566674
It would make sense that they would be thralled, since depending on the vampire it can be easily done by mere touch.

We don't have a visual on the actual "livestock" do we?

If not I doubt that knocking them to rubble is a good idea and that taking them by force is also going to be harder(human shields and all). Sticky situation.

>>31566701
But thralling their source of food sounds like a more important thing than conscripts to me.

>>31566584
>Taour has about 3k soldiers in Taour (2 days march from Hiien), 6k in Crece (5 days march from Hiien), 2k in Darlesia (8 days march from Hiien).
The way I see it is if we stay and fight then we in for some brutal corridor battles for like a week and then get smashed by another army.
Can we afford to move on?

>>31566738
They didn't do that to all of their military, what makes you think that they would do that to more than a few thousands people?

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>>31566654
Raupe was heavily defended to match Vitria's men in Craol.

Taour has a large contingent to defend the capital and surrounding provinces.

Crece was to defend against you.

Darlesia was being pacified.

>>31566733
No you don't. Many of the structures lack windows and instead just have enormous gates. Illon mentions several very large yards and you suspect that's how the people get their sunlight and exercise.

>>31566754

Burnt a lot of men's lives just for a skirmish then. Might be detrimental to morale and this whole war campaign fruitless as we won't succeed in causing discord in Taour and they can seriously reinforce when we leave. Or slaughter everyone and move inwards.

If the army in Crece in marching for us, can we tell Arial to try and take Darlesia back? He have around the same amount of troop and considering as bad Taur is with strategy I'm sure that he can take the city with less than 50% of loss.

>>31566825
>Crece's army is marching to us*
Fuck.

>>31566825
he has 2k troops darlesai has 3k.

>>31566840
>>31566825
I don't think its that simple they are planning something maybe a major spell(the place was mostly filled with mages and archers)
Remember how that old guy was having mages teleport him to another area?

>>31566788

Any chance we can do some little engagements? See if we can't lure them out a bit?

Hell. Can Talon just go up there and fucking demand they fight him? Single combat style?

>>31566849
Darlesia has 2k see >>31566584

>>31566738
>But thralling their source of food sounds like a more important thing than conscripts to me.
no, enthralling half a million unarmed slaves who are locked up in pens and used for food is not more important than enthralling 10 thousand soldiers who, if enthralled, become significantly more effective in battle.

>>31566877
My mistake then they would be at equal footing then, but i wonder how they would be able to differentiate the thralls/vampires.

>>31566840

Suspected Anon, not confirmed. We are fighting a two front war here. This is to be expected.

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>>31566616
You get a sending device and get ahold of Mal back in Vitria. Luckily it doesn’t take long – the bookworm was in a study in Sarah’s spire. You relay the situation to him.

“How sure are you that their defenders are largely archers and mages, Talon?” Mal asks, sounding grim.

“Reasonably. Our flyers got a good look at them when they sortied,” you answer.

“Because if that’s true, why the hell would they pull into the buildings? Battlemages will make a horrible mess of things and most archers aren’t trained for close warfare. By leaving the walls, which are likely protected by so many barriers they could repel stones the size of a city, they’re sacrificing a huge advantage.”

You grimace. You’d thought so, too. If you knew more about what Vitria left behind you could make a better call. You already know what Mal’s about to tell you, but you let him speak anyway.

“If they’ve really pulled back in to the structures, it sounds like they’re preparing to burn the place to the ground,” he says, and hear several noises of surprise from your ranking officers nearby. “If you took Hiien, that’s a lot of people and resources you would take from them. Lots of potential soldiers. Maybe some hints as to how to fight the vampires.

“Of course, if they’ve got a whole lot of melee combatants then retreating makes sense. But from what you’re telling me…”

>>31566871
You could try.

>>31566825
His last orders were to seize Darlesia if the opportunity arises. That's assuming they're not marching on him, of course.

>>31566896
Why are we fighting on two fronts? Don't we have like a total standing army of about 5K?

>>31566754
we can just wall them up as per >>31566671
and then make brutal traps for oncoming army. let them retake the city at GREAT losses.

or... fuck, we just have gnome and mages break the TOP of the towers...

ok here is the plan. gnome walls out the entrances to the towers and make sure there aren't tunnels. then she builds stairs around one. then we take the roof off and let sunlight stream in. we shoot defenders like fish in barrel, disarm magic and mundane traps, rescue people, then peel off the next layer. layer by layer we get the tower down. we also trap the path here and heavily harm the oncoming force before retreating with what we can take

>>31566891
We let the journeyman that Mal taught how to differentiate thrall from human in Olmm.

>>31566896
That's why I sad "if" anon, we would need to confirm it first.

>>31566949
Ask him about a possible major spell in the works since so many battle mages are inside.

>>31566962

Because we have multiple fronts with Taour, it really wasn't an option. Given their dislike of Talon it would have become a two front blitzkrieg if we ignored it.

Sort of how the map falls on this one.

>>31566962
Not him, but we had not other way, if we attacked with everything that we had (7k at time) in one side, Taour would easily take territory for the other, we had to separate a bit, we just attacked the wrong place.

>>31566949
oh... scorched earth, duh.
they did it to us on the way here.

well, obvious thing to do is sortie into one of those and see if this is what they are doing.
heavy mage knights plus named characters. depending on what we find, we either clear them one by one saving whom we can. or if they are sufficiently weak we split up our army and have them start taking towers

>>31567024
>we just attacked the wrong place.
Wrong, we took a gamble.
Attacking either place could be considered right, but trying to take the harder target had too many positives compared to the other place to attack.

>>31567024
>Not him, but we had not other way, if we attacked with everything that we had (7k at time) in one side, Taour would easily take territory for the other, we had to separate a bit, we just attacked the wrong place.
Actually not true. we have a powerful standing force guarding against raupe. mostly knights, which we did NOT bring.
we could have taken darlesia first and then fortified that area before coming here. that would give us mages, mmk factory, and people.
but we decided we wanted to hit their strongest most well defended key location because we argued they will panic, make mistakes, and be forced to turn on their local people for food which would ferment revolts

>>31566969
That'd probably take too long
Can we not send a small group of elite FMK's to do some deep scouring in Crece?

>>31567067

Entirely true. Darlesia only had the benefits of the possibly fixed Magitech factory(who we have no one to run presently) and a morale boast for our small group of old Darlesians.

I feel like we made the right decision. It was a very Talon like decision at least.

>>31567007
>it would have become a two front blitzkrieg
Not even that, they had enough troops in both side to fight us with a good chance of victory while the other side take all of our territory.

>>31567067
>Attacking either place could be considered right, but trying to take the harder target had too many positives compared to the other place to attack.
what positives?
Darlesia
>Pro: Gain mages
>Pro: Gain MMK factory
Hien
>Pro: Taour forced to feed on locals causing revolution
>Pro: Taour panics and maybe makes mistakes

>>31567084
I posted it before seeing that they are likely going for scorched earth. i thought they were trying to trap us into brutal corridor fighting.

>>31567109
Darlesia
>Pro: Gain mages
>Pro: Gain MMK factory
Hien
>Pro: Taour forced to feed on locals causing revolution
>Pro: Taour panics and maybe makes mistakes
>Pro: Possible recruits from the farms
>Pro:Forcing Taour to move soldiers away from Darlesia

>>31567083
>>Actually not true. we have a powerful standing force guarding against raupe. mostly knights, which we did NOT bring.
I didn't say otherwise, I said that we would get fucked had us attacked with everything that we had at time, not that we did that or that we didn't let troops behind.

>>31567040

I feel like this is a situation where we might have to employ this tactic.

I'd have a preference of single tower at a time. Have the rest of our men root in at the bottom to slaughter any bads coming out and fend of sorties from the other towers, while we take our HMKs, Battlemages(possibly?), and crossbow AAs(hah knew that would be a useful thing to know) and just fight our way up.

>>31566949
Alright, move in, take the walls. then surround the area. we personally lead expedition into one of the 4 towers with HMK And our hero units.

based on what we find we make decisions

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>>31567002
"Any chance they're preparing a big ritual instead, Mal?"

"Nothing they can do to you from inside those buildings, unless they've got a bunch of summoners or are trying to summon demons or something. Which I sincerely doubt."

>>31567084
You've got 130 FMKs, 100 MMKs and 100 AAs as scouts. If you rushed ahead with your named characters, you could probably hit them within an hour together. If you wait to bring the rest of your troops up, probably three to four hours. Mal reckons they would have started burning the place down by then if they're going to.

>>31567156
>I didn't say otherwise, I said that we would get fucked had us attacked with everything that we had at time
doing that would be double suicide, as it would allow our own troops to sweep through their lands and burn them to the ground at the same time.
We are both fighting for a long term victory rather then just harming the other, this is why we both try to defend our territory instead of combining every single soldier into one super army

furthermore, if they completely emptied their cities of troops they will face rebellions

>>31567196
do the rush down, and have the army catch up then.

>>31567196

Oh shit we don't even have the option of using our HMKs. Assuming scorched earth.

>>31567196
The walls are abandoned. do the rush. worse case we retreat and rejoin the army (I seriously doubt they have a SECOND daywalker)

>>31567221
>SECOND daywalker
Yet, i think he will be coming with the new army.

>>31567240
I meant a second daywalker in the city who for some reason didn't participate in the battle. obvbiously they have more, they are just not here.

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VOTE
>1. Let them burn down Hiien, assuming they plan on doing so.
>2. Rush Hiien in an attempt to stop them. 130 FMKs, 100 MMKs and 100 AAs plus named characters.
>3. Advance on Hiien more slowly. If they're trying to destroy it, they will have started doing so by the time you hit them. Undine can start putting it out, but that will occupy her and not stop large numbers of deaths amongst the populace.
>4. Custom

Also, I'll be doing a dice mechanics discussion shortly as I prepare lunch.

>>31567267
2

>>31567267
>2. Rush Hiien in an attempt to stop them. 130 FMKs, 100 MMKs and 100 AAs plus named characters.
I like the current mechanics personally.

>>31567267
>2. Rush Hiien in an attempt to stop them. 130 FMKs, 100 MMKs and 100 AAs plus named characters.
I'd prefer to have more MMKs if possible.

>don't make rash decisions Talon says Gnome

GOING WITH 2.

>>31567267
we need some sort of transport for the heavy armor.
like, enchanted wagons

>>31567359
or make flying HMK.

>QM forcing us to use our lesser used units in different situations

Aspirational I'm sorry we don't play with the FMKs and MMKs so often it's just that the HMKs are so much damn fun. But this will be interesting.

>>31567387
I don't think we can in a reasonable time period. maybe 50 more years of research. but with current tech HMK are just too heavy

>>31567267
2
I don't want change in the mechanics.

>>31567411
Magic

>>31567414
could we at least listen to the mechanics discussion?

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>>31567359
You already have that.

>>31567308
Unfortunately, the only reason you can rush Hiien yourselves is because Sala can fly and you and Gnome can run absurdly fast. Sala would carry one person and so would you.

Okay, so I need to make lunch and this discussion will take a while I feel. So, the dice mechanics post I mentioned earlier.

DICE MECHANICS DISCUSSION

As mentioned on Twitter, I’m seriously considering modifying the way Dramatic Failures are triggered. This is caused by the fact they have enormous repercussions in army battles, whereas in adventures and individual fights you can bounce back quickly a large loss of troops could take a number of threads and potentially compound on itself.

The change I am considering will only impact on dramatic failures. Currently if you roll a 1, and don’t roll a 20, it counts as a dramatic failure no matter what.

My change would be that rolling a 1 is still an autofail without a matching 20 but a dramatic failure only occurs if no other dice beat the DC. E.g. If you roll 1, 12, 7 against DC12 it is a regular failure. If you rolled 1, 11, 7 against DC12 it would be a dramatic failure.

This change would reduce dramatic failure probabilities but have no effect on Nat 20s or the binary chance of success/failure.

PROBABILITIES (first number is chance of success inc. DramFail, second number the DramFail chance)
DC1 = 87.1%; 0.0%
DC2 = 87.1%; 0.0%
DC3 = 87.1%; 0.0%
DC4 = 87.0%; 0.2%
DC5 = 86.8%; 0.5%
DC6 = 86.3%; 0.8%
DC7 = 85.6%; 1.1%
DC8 = 84.4%; 1.6%
DC9 = 82.8%; 2.1%
DC10 = 80.7%; 2.7%
DC11 = 78.0%; 3.4%
DC12 = 74.6%; 4.1%
DC13 = 70.4%; 5.0%
DC14 = 65.5%; 5.9%
DC15 = 59.7%; 6.8%
DC16 = 52.8%; 7.9%
DC17 = 44.9%; 9.0%
DC18 = 35.9%; 10.2%
DC19 = 25.7%; 11.5%
DC20 = 14.2%; 12.9%

Note that this is a discussion, not a vote. I'm interested to hear what people think of this change and the existing dice mechanics. Next content post will be in about 30 minutes or so and no more discussion.

>>31567359
Operation magitech Land Raider is a go!
Or would it be magitech Rhino?

>>31567207
>>31567207
>doing that would be double suicide, as it would allow our own troops to sweep through their lands and burn them to the ground at the same time.

That's exactly my point anon, attacking with everything we had in a side would fuck us.

Also, Taour total amount of troops was in the 15 - 17k, they could easily used 5k to fight us in a defensive war, 5k to destroy/take our territory going for the other side and still have 5k for spare, and it's Taour, I'm confident that they wouldn't give a fuck about a rebellion or two if that meant destroying us .

>>31567411

My thoughts on it that the FMKs are used more as a deft scouting unit, HMK that fly just don't sound like a practical use of an enchantment to me.

>>31567420
Magic requires RnD and can be done efficiently or inefficiently. the more magic you cram into an object the harder it gets. there is only so much magic an object can hold too. so adding in flight means making sacrifices elsewhere.

>>31567461
Taour tends to have heavy % of men at arms and archers vs to magical equipment. I think we've destroyed a much higher % of their mage knights than we have of their conscripts.

>>31567444
>You already have that.
can't they make the HMK arrive with us to the city in an hour?
if not, than we need to upgrade them

>>31567515
Or designing a whole new suit.
Or using fox magic.

>>31567444

I strongly prefer the new system you propose. Purely on the basis of mass combat situations, if we hadn't used our FR point last thread we EASILY would have lost half of our army to that Nat 1. Entire game would have changed, people might have lost interest, quest might have ended. It's easy to see how much steam even one Nat 1 takes out of the threads let along multiple.

>>31567444
>>31567550
Agreed lets only use the new system for large combat battles, but keep the old system for adventures and other stuff.

>>31567444
Sounds good to me. Though I'd modify it slightly such that if you get double 1's, its still a dramatic fail even if you pass.

>>31567444
That modification sounds good.
although an alternative is to look at the risk of what we are doing. with a nat1 being dramatic failure if we are doing something risky, or a regular failure if we are doing something safe.

>>31567536
I didn't say otherwise and I was talking about the past, had us attacked one side with everything.

>>31567461
>That's exactly my point anon, attacking with everything we had in a side would fuck us.
we didn't attack with everything we had. there are more soldiers guarding our border then in the army we are leading

>>31567601
I mean they didn't have nearly as many mage knights to throw at us or vitria.

>>31567629
>we didn't attack with everything we had.
Again, exactly my point.

>>31567550
>I strongly prefer the new system you propose. Purely on the basis of mass combat situations, if we hadn't used our FR point last thread we EASILY would have lost half of our army to that Nat 1.
I think this shows another issues. battles not personally led by us are reduced to a single die roll instead of multiple roll attempts.
They should play out over multiple "rounds" too.

>>31567645
ah, ok. glad we agree

>>31567573

I can actually get behind this idea. Talon himself slipping up occasionally makes sense. Mass combat is an entirely different beast and can legitimately make or break the quest if too many Nat 1s happen at the wrong time.

>>31567684
Yeah, don't know why you implied otherwise twice when that was my point since the beginning.

>>31567444
>Sala would carry one person and so would you.
oh fun... do we gnome lynn or undine a piggyback ride?
wait... lyn can fly... oh, duh, secret

>>31567660

Agreed. It has been stated that as time went on we would delegate more to our officers and they would handle things. If they are doing everything based on one singular roll it might be detrimental to overall use of delegation.

>>31567729
My apologies for that, i misunderstood

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>>31567660
This is something I'm looking to change with the new mass combat mechanics I'm working on. My current thinking is to break down battles into a series of steps (possibly further partitioned by unit types) with sets of three rolls each (yes, this is similar to SQ's system for long plans).

>>31567573
>>31567588
These are also in consideration.

>>31567686
I agree with this, but I can't help fear that things would get too easy, honestly, wiping a enemy army bigger than our while losing "only" half our troops is pretty damn good and we did better than that with I don't even know as many nat 1s.

>>31567896

I suppose I can agree with that. But it is also a quest. If we lost half of our troops there isn't a long term downtime where we recruit more or peasant levy, we're kind of at all out war here. Losing half of your troops in really what was an openfield skirmish is kind of bad.

>>31567896
the thing is. we had a lot of advantages. yes they were bigger, but we had a huge stack of hero units while they only had one hero unit.

Also, dramatic failures, and successes, are both very common (12.9% each) and extremely dramatic (lose half army, 1 hit kill boss unit, etc).
This makes the quest very much rocket tag.

I guess we could have a similar thing in place for the dramatic successes too (that is, 20 + failure = regular succes. 20+success = dramatic success). Or reduce the magnitude of dramatic failure/success to be slightly less dramatic.

But honestly, I think its ok if we a bit of an advantage and must seriously fuck up to... well, get fucked.

Then again. in this example we fought the greatest enemy we had instead of working up to it and gaining XP and building momentum.

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>>31568068
>I guess we could have a similar thing in place for the dramatic successes too (that is, 20 + failure = regular succes. 20+success = dramatic success).
That system works terribly, as it reduces critsuccesses quite rapidly compared to critfails. As it is, I'm happy to leave an advantage for the players in a quest as that's kind of how they work. Plus, you didn't one-hit kill a boss unit - you rolled two 20s and a regular success as part of killing Darian in that last encounter.

Anyway, that’s it for the major part of the dicussion. Thanks for your input, guys. I appreciate it. I’ll make a decision on how I’ll implement and change things as I work on the new combat mechanics over the next week.

>2.

“General Parras, take command of the men and double-time it to Hiien,” you order. “I’ll be heading there separately so I can assist Captain Illon. I’m not going to let them just burn the place down.”

Your officers snap off sharp salutes as you beckon to Gnome, Undine and Lynn to come with you. Undine in turn uses sendings to contact Vad and Sala. With Lynn still hiding what she is, you’re wary of bringing Felix along in such a situation. You also suspect the man’s pride won’t let him be carried – not that you can blame him. When you catch him as you leave, he confirms as much.

“If the choice is to march with the rest the troops or be carried for half an hour, I think I will stay here. If it’s all the same to you,” Felix says with a wry smile. “Do leave some for us when we get there, Imperator.”

>continued

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>>31568204
With that, you set off. You find yourself carrying Undine, Sala carrying Lynn and Gnome is… having Vad trail behind her using the strange tether ability he used on you in the battle. He just appears to float along behind her, though at a greater distance than he was from you. You don’t see his tails going anywhere near her back.

It’s not long before you arrive at Hiien and you find your troops just inside the walls. Several enormous steel and stone buildings, each seven or eight storeys high and at least a mile in diameter, litter the ‘town’. Large grassy yards separate them and you see large trade depots and wagon hitches. Things are quiet and you have a moment to consider your battleplan.

>Plan of attack now you’re here?

You have 130 FMKs, 100 MMKs, 100 AAs plus yourself, Gnome, Undine, Sala, Lynn and Vad.

>>31568229
>having Vad trail behind her using the strange tether ability he used on you in the battle. He just appears to float along behind her, though at a greater distance than he was from you. You don’t see his tails going anywhere near her back.
that is hilarious. he is a balloon.

It makes sense that he had us back to back because we were in battle. here he isn't fighting but traveling so it makes sense to trail behind a bit and be carried like a ballooon

>>31568229
>Stone and steel buildings
if there are any vampires inside, gnome can probably melt some holes in the wall to let in light

aside from that, we all head to the nearest one and start scouting it.

Well we have our best guerrilla warfare units. But we have no idea which tower to go for. How to do it, or what to expect. Getting in is easy, just fuck that door silly with an astral barrier break but after that what?

>>31568204
Hey aspie, what do you think about using a d100 for army battle and keeping the d20 for everything else?

>>31568229
maybe we can enhance our ears again and see if we can hear screams from any of the towers.

>>31568341
I like the idea of punching holes into the building we should try this first if nothing else it lets us look inside.

>>31568407

Alternative possibility. Gnome could feel vibrations in the earth, figure out where the livestock is concentrated.

>>31568420
also, it occurs to me that any traps would be on the first floor. we can punch a hole into second floor and bypass most of them

>>31568445
Why not the start at the top they are lest likely to trap that

>>31568438
Why alternative?
Vad has awesome senses, have him sense.
Talon enhance his hearing, let him sense
Gnome can vibrosense, let her sense
etc...
everyone sense for the best of their abilities... heck if any of our FMK or MMK have scout training maybe they can help determine if the enemies withdrew into one tower or split up into multiple towers

>>31568460
well, the might still, but one floor below the top is good... gnome blasts a hole, we fly into it via several rounds. FMK can actually carry mmks in that way although it takes a little time

>>31568341

My only issue with this is it might cause too much of a "bang" for what we have on the playing field right now. They respond in force only to find out we're at sub 500 men, and they'll flatten us.

In my opinion prime objective should be to locate livestock, remove to safe location as quickly as possible before they scorch the place. That way we remain out of all out combat, that we WILL lose, until our troops arrive.

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>>31568463
The closest building looks exactly like all the others - a huge bland box. Whoever designed these wasn't interested much in aesthetics. A double-door gate, itself two storeys tall, marks the entrance on this side. Illon mentions that there's another at the other end and no other visible entrances or exits on this or any other building.

"There's a light barrier in the stone," Undine tells you. "It feels like an aural barrier, preventing sound from going in or out."

"Vad," you call out to the fox who is standing around looking a little bored, "can you sense anybody nearby? Any powerful sources of magic?"

He tilts his head slightly and his tails make a strange pattern. Then he points four of them at different buildings and one up into the air. You blink, uncertain what he means.

"Big rituals in those four buildings," he indicates. "There's a lot of magic woven into the buildings so I can't be too exact."

Well, you suppose that means you should give it a shot. Maybe you can get some more detail.

[DC11/15 Magical Detection]

>>31568483
or you know we could have Gnome make a ramp

Rolled 2

>>31568510

Rolled 1

>>31568510

Rolled 18

>>31568510
Dice shine unto me your brilliance

Rolled 7

>>31567796
Detection gooo

Rolled 5

>>31568510

>>31568543
fake roll

Rolled 19

>>31568543

Ignore please I slipped up while posting.

>>31568538
>>31568538
>LaughingVampires.Jpg

>>31568557
>>31568554
>>31568538
Not bad.

>>31568510
>Big rituals in those four buildings
so they ARE doing big rituals after all.. maybe they are really summoning demons. shit.
ideally we can detect which floor they are at and punch in through the nearest wall to stop the ritual

>>31568594
Either that or are using a giant teleport spell.

>>31568594
What we need to do is
>Develop a imperator sized cannon
>Stuff Talon in
>Gather Astral energy
>Fire the cannon
>??????
>PROFIT

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>Higher target met

You focus your power and concentrate, remember Undine’s lessons from months ago on meditation. If you can pull this off you can prevent the mages from burning down the whole place. Or summoning an army of demons. Generally, stopping whatever these mages are trying to do is a good idea.

There. You pick them all up. It feels like a slow burn of energy in four different directions. You separate them out from the resounding thrum of the magical power in the wards and barriers of the buildings and walls. That just leaves separating out the four sources. You’ve done similar things before and so you deftly sort it out mentally – as though you’re trying to discern the differing heat of several candles by waving your hand through them. It’s a strange talent but you’ve got it.

“The two buildings closest to us are closer to completion. It feels like there are more mages in those two than in the other two,” you say. “Top and bottom floors in the centre. They’re directly on top of each other, so it’s one large ritual.”

“That mean we’re splitting up, sir?” Captain Illon asks, and you can tell he’d rather that not happen. Obviously whatever men aren’t with you aren’t going to feel as comfortable.

If you do split up, you’ll need to assign Gnome and Lynn to the group you’re not with if you want to keep their morale high. The others aren’t exactly leadership material. Alternatively you can keep everybody together and just try to sweep through as fast as possible. You doubt you have too much time before one of the rituals activates, however.

>1. Split up and hit the two buildings.
>2. Split up and hit one building at a time, with one team striking the top floor and another the bottom floor.
>3. Stick together and hit one building and team at a time.
>4. Custom

>>31568784
>1. Split up and hit the two buildings

>>31568784
>2. Split up and hit one building at a time, with one team striking the top floor and another the bottom floor.

>>31568784
>1

Rolled 2

>>31568784
>>2. Split up and hit one building at a time, with one team striking the top floor and another the bottom floor.

Lower floor is likely the more conservative strike point. Allow Gnome and her crew to take that one on. Higher point is definitely Talon material.

>>31568784
How far away are the buildings from each other?
I get the feeling that the time we save by killing the enemy faster by being together would be better than splitting up.
We could hit the bottom floor of building A. then the bottom floor of building B, then top floor of building B, then top floor of building A (going through roof)

>>31568784
>1. Split up and hit the two buildings.

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>>31568920
Buildings are a couple hundred metres apart, separated by one of the big yards. The real issue would be that the buildings themselves are half a mile in diameter and quite tall. Yes, that's a slight retcon. A mile diameter is a tad ridiculous, even for my poor sense of scale.

>>31568784
>1

Just had a random passing thought. Really hoping this isn't a mass blood ritual. That sounds mortifying.

>>31569009
well, there should be 250 soldiers in each building, plus known number of mages (who somehow didn't participate in battle?) plus who knows how many thralls and vampires.
So, a few hundred meters apart and one quarter mile to the center. this means that doing them in order requires us to run a couple hundred meters + half a mile in between them. then again, this might actually be faster than however long it takes half force troops to slaughter their way in.

furthermore. with half forces our losses are higher, and we have more difficulty to take future towers. and we have fewer options for just flying to top and smashing our way in through the roof.

I think in the long run, considering we have 4 towers, its better to not split up.

>>31569108
I honestly would prefer that over a mass teleporting ritual, just thinking about the possibility of more daywalkers coming through that is scary.

>>31568784
Hit 'em both simultaneously. Force the channeling to go on cooldown and their mana wasted!

>>31569159
or them transporting the only thing that could screw them over hard.

>>31569159
Oh god.. remember mobilization on 3 different territories?
Each tower is trying to open a portal for mass mobilizing from another of those territories.

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>1.

“Yes, Captain, we’re splitting up. Time is our enemy,” you say. “Gnome, Caitlyn, you’re hitting the far building. I want an even split of troops.”

You quickly split the force in two before Undine taps you on the shoulder.

“Where do you want us, Talon?” she asks.

Vad, Sala and Undine are still awaiting assignment. Vad will be invaluable for blowing holes through mages, especially in these tight quarters. Salamander will be effective for quickly clearing out enemy troops, though you’ll need to keep a leash on her more powerful abilities so she doesn’t cause too much collateral damage. Undine is a good all-rounder as always.

>1. Assign Vad to Gnome and Lynn. You will have Sala and Undine.
>2. Assign Sala to Gnome and Lynn. You will have Vad and Undine.
>3. Assign Undine to Gnome and Lynn. You will have Sala and Vad.
>4. Custom

>>31569227
Fuck you, I don't even want to think in the possibility.

>>31569258
>2. Assign Sala to Gnome and Lynn. You will have Vad and Undine.

>>31569258
>3. Assign Undine to Gnome and Lynn. You will have Sala and Vad.

>>31569258
>2. Assign Sala to Gnome and Lynn. You will have Vad and Undine.
We both have mage killers and having sala on the other team would help with morale and speed considering we're no there and we already tear shit the fuck up

>>31569258
>3. Assign Undine to Gnome and Lynn. You will have Sala and Vad.
Gnome is anti mage, and Lynn is basically a weaker sala so giving them Udine sounds right.
Plus Vad and sala can help us clear this tower quickly.

>>31569258
>1. Assign Vad to Gnome and Lynn. You will have Sala and Undine.

>>31569258
>2. Assign Sala to Gnome and Lynn. You will have Vad and Undine.

Our fighting style compliments Undine and Vad the best in my opinion. And we lose our Mage killer with Gnome being on the other unit, so Vad is a must.

>>31569258
Gnome is anti mage + tank
Lynn is tank
Talon is tank
Vad is anti mage, should go with talon
Sala and undine are both more supportish, can go with either.

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>>31569159
>>31569227
Luckily, mass teleportation is still something that nobody really has down pat - though the League and RSK are working hard to rectify that. If Taour was really doing that they would need more than a few dozen battle-mages.

>>31569322

Well thank god for that. I was more scared they had said fuck it and were trying it with a mass livestock sacrifice. Because fuck you Talon York we win no matter what.

>>31569311
>Sala and undine are both more supportish
sorry. correcting myself here.
Not supportish but less frontline and less anti mage.
They all have varied capabilities of course, but i was referring to their top power

>>31569322
ok, big relief..
oh, god, what if they are doing a mass vampirization ritual?

>>31569311
Wrong.
Gnome is tank+Anti mage
Vad is anti shield
Sala is anti soldier
Udine is average
Talon is anti mage+Tank

>>31569322
Thanks, I'm almost happy now.

>>31569354
>Vad is anti shield
which means he is anti mage.
In fact he specifically said that his specially is killing mages at short range right through their shields.

>Sala is anti soldier
which is support in this particular scenario, Sala and undine both knows decent CQC
I am talking for this particular scenario rather then their general capabilities.
Gnome can build fortresses, undine can make furniture and repair equipment, undine and gnome can make traps... none of it is relevant here. for this particular engagement they are more support.

>>31569258
>2. Assign Sala to Gnome and Lynn. You will have Vad and Undine.
Let the men be with someone they're more familiar with. Undine with us because we haven't really fought alongside her recently

>>31569354
Vad is close range anti mage.
Sala is anti army
Undine is good for everything and a great support.

>>31569442
>for this particular engagement they are more support.
guh, typo.
meant sala and undine are more support for this scenario,. although in retrospect its wrong. sala can insta gib the 250 soldiers in each tower which lets us rush the mages easier.

>people not knowing how great Undine is
This saddens me.

Hey Aspirational ever thought of doing a Talon/Undine solo mission? I mentioned not being able to find a dynamic for her, maybe that will help? Would also be a good reminder of her being our Champion and what she is capable of.

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>2.

“Salamander, help Gnome and Lynn,” you order. “Undine, Vad, with me.”

Captain Mace steps up next to you as you move up to the gate of the nearest building. Illon is with Gnome so that makes him the senior officer of your strike team even if he is one of the archers.

“We really going in through the front, Imperator?” he asks.

“I see you remember my rank this time, Captain,” you say, smirking slightly.

“Hah. Very funny, sir. So, are we?”

“Might as well. I doubt they’ve trapped anything, given they need to move the inhabitants into the yards regularly. They also probably expected to burn the place down before we got here. If we go in hard and fast, we have a better chance than if we try to be tricky and avoid them – plus, we’ll make so much noise knocking down walls it won’t really matter,” you say.

Mace looks a tad off. “You, uh, really think they’re going to just burn the place down? With everybody in it?”

“No. No they’re not, Captain,” you say, injecting force into your voice. “Because we’re going to stop them. No ifs, ands or buts, soldier.”

Mace looks shocked for a second before snapping off a sharp salute. You return it quickly before turning to the gate. You can do this the loud way or the stealthy way.

>1. Stealthy way. See if Vad or Undine can get it open without blowing it up.
>2. Loud way. Just blow it up with an astral arrow.
>3. Sneaky way. Go in from the top instead of the bottom. You could probably blow a hole in the roof and drop down on the mages. It shouldn’t take too long to ferry your men up.
>4. Custom

>>31569258
>>2. Assign Sala to Gnome and Lynn. You will have Vad and Undine.

>>31569544
>3. Sneaky way. Go in from the top instead of the bottom. You could probably blow a hole in the roof and drop down on the mages. It shouldn’t take too long to ferry your men up.
and do this for both towers

>>31569544
>2. Loud way. Just blow it up with an astral arrow.

Alternatively barrier break. Because fuck doors.

>>31569543
I'll try to give her some time to shine this time around. I have been focusing on others a lot lately. Undine hasn't shown off since she saved your arse from getting caved in by a Darlesian battle-axe.

>>31569544
>1. Stealthy way. See if Vad or Undine can get it open without blowing it up.
>3. Sneaky way. Go in from the top instead of the bottom. You could probably blow a hole in the roof and drop down on the mages. It shouldn’t take too long to ferry your men up.

>>31569544
>3. Sneaky way. Go in from the top instead of the bottom. You could probably blow a hole in the roof and drop down on the mages. It shouldn’t take too long to ferry your men up.

>>31569543
we know she is awesome. we just say she isn't as highly specialized as the rest, being more of a jack of all trades. Although she is very strong in all fields rather than a "master of none" case.

>>31569583
I voted for 3.
but if we go with loud way I would prefer we do a barrier break rather than an astral arrow

>>31569647
Same here.

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>3.

With the number of flying knights at your disposal, moving your men onto the flat roof only took a few minutes. Your current plan was to put a hole in the roof using your strength and your men would pile in after you. Then you can either fight your way down to the bottom or retreat to hit the mage on the bottom floor from a different angle.

As your last soldiers are coming up, you catch Gnome’s group also arranging themselves on the rooftop across from yours. It looks like she’s waiting for you to be ready so she doesn’t blow your surprise. Sala’s hovering about above her and you wonder what they’ve got planned. Knowing Gnome’s penchant for horrible violence, you suspect it won’t be pretty.

“I thought you said we weren’t being tricky, sir?” Mace asks.

“I said we weren’t going to avoid them and that we’re going in ahrd and fast. We’re literally dropping on top of them so this ticks both those boxes,” you answer, signalling to the men to spread out and get ready.

You focus your power into your sword and also notice Gnome focusing hers. You’ve only got one shot at caving this roof in.

[DC12 Barrier Break]

Rolled 18

>>31569792

Rolled 5

>>31569792

I never bore of Talon/army banter.

Rolled 13

>>31569792

>>31569804
We're having really good luck with rolls this thread.

>>31569804
boom baby

>>31569804
Talon confirmed for fucking STRONK today.

>Horrible streak of bad rolls
>Decide to make rolls easier
>Start a streak of good rolls
the dice gods are trolling us so fucking hard

>>31569971
That's one of the motive why I think that the system shouldn't change, last thread was just a case of the dicegods playing around.

>>31569992

Clearly someone didn't make their nightly sacrifice of blood.

>>31569992
it wasn't just the last thread though, we had several threads of bad luck
also, I do think we should get a bit of a leg up and the current suggestion sits well with me. since it only reduces crit fail chance on low DC rolls.
that is, a DC20 has the same crit fail chance as before (12.9). while DC10 has much lower chance of crit fail. this makes sense considering how dramatic the crit fails are and how DC is already adjusted for the difficulty of our task.

>>31570045
Not really, most threads we have a balance or something close to that, last thread was just weird.

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>>31569814
That's good to hear. I wonder how many people remember Mace from last time.

>Target met

Your sword stabs down into the steel roof below you, penetrating it easily with your strength. Your power floods into the rooftop and then triggers. The magic shatters the bonds tying the stone and steel together and the rooftop around you collapses into rubble. You find yourself falling and before you can tuck yourself into a roll to land safely the section of roof you rode down collides with something and you lose your footing. You leap off to the side and crash into something. Screams and shouts echo around you and your nose fills with a truly rank stench.

You jump to your feet and quickly assess your surroundings. At least a dozen mages, all wearing robes surround you and a ritual circle. The magical energy of the ritual is dissipating in the area as the circle has been destroyed by the collapsing roof. Startled, the mages begin to snap off mnemonics and gestures in an attempt to strike at you with magic but you don’t give them the chance.

Surging forward, you cave in the head of the closest mage with a hard bash from your shield. You follow through and skewer the mage behind him through the chest. Yanking your sword free to the side, you then cut off some magical lances with another swing. You’re suddenly in the open, with several mages about to pulverise you with magic.

Then they rapidly begin to explode. Blasts of force remove heads, limbs and large chunks of their chests. Icicles rain down on several others, as do numerous arrows. The stench from earlier magnifies as considerable more blood joins the rest on the floor. The mages casting this part of the ritual are dead, having been rapidly reduced to very holey corpses. You feel a large surge of sympathetic magic below you, likely the other part of the ritual backfiring as this one collapses. Still, the feeling is not a pleasant one and you worry that something has happened down below.

>continued

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>>31570078
Then it hits you – there’s too much blood and corpses down here. Aside from the mages here, there are several dozen naked corpses piled up against the walls, their bodies desecrated and gutted. Blood flows freely from them and you notice that there are channels in the floor collecting it so that it flows into the centre. It would seem that the mages here had decided to give themselves a boost by using large amounts of blood as a magical catalyst and this room was set up for just that. In fact, they may always have been doing this. Exactly what purpose would this serve?

“Bloody hell,” Vad mutters as he drops down next to you, blood splashing up from his landing. “I’m not so sure we should bring the troops in this way, Talon. Not exactly a pretty sight for them.”

“But is it something we can really avoid in this hellhole?” you respond darkly.

You don’t know if the soldiers above have already seen the corpses piled up, but if you pull back now and hit the bottom floor from a different entrance you’ll spare most of them the sight and the morale hit. It will take precious time, though, and you wonder how much that is worth with whatever happened on the bottom floor.

>1. Bring the troops down and push downwards.
>2. Pull back and go in through the front entrance.
>3. Split up further. You and Undine will go in from the top while your troops push in from the front, with Vad blowing open the gates.
>4. Custom

>>31570078
>The stench from earlier magnifies as considerable more blood joins the rest on the floor.
so they really were doing some blood magic...

>>31570100
>1. Bring the troops down and push downwards.
I recall blood magic was a thing.

>>31570100
>2. Pull back and go in through the front entrance.

They don't need to see that.
>mfw I called blood ritual

>>31570100
>3. Split up further. You and Undine will go in from the top while your troops push in from the front, with Vad blowing open the gates.

Rolled 3

>>31570100
>1. Bring the troops down and push downwards.

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>>31570164
Blood is typically used as an emergency catalyst, as it can fill in for pretty much any other catalyst (except for healing). Of course, nothing stops somebody for using it to superpower their spells and rituals with large volumes of it.

>>31570100
>1. Bring the troops down and push downwards.
Don't got the time.

>>31570209
Besides the ethical effects of course.

>>31570100
>You feel a large surge of sympathetic magic below you, likely the other part of the ritual backfiring as this one collapses
do we even need to go down there now? sounds like they just go a nice big backdraft of magic.

>1. Bring the troops down and push downwards.
time is of the essence and troops should know what we are fighting.

If we go with 1 we might need to spin it a bit with a small speech. If we ignore it and go the men might get the wrong impression.

>>31570100
>1. Bring the troops down and push downwards.

>>31570228
Considering the worlds history. that would barely register on the typical mage or noble's black heart. And vampires especially so

>>31570244
I wouldn't say a speech, but a few words to show you are suitably disgusted and horrified.

>>31570228
> ethical effects

What was that? I can't hear you over the sound of me blasting down your nation with blood powered magic. Speak louder.

>>31570286
>>31570286
That's so Taour that it's hurt.

Out of curiosity, are we planning in keeping Raupe? Or we're just going to hit them hard and retread to Craol?

>>31570337
keeping it sounds good since it forces them to keep the troops in the capital, but we need to talk to the neutral day walker and see if we can diplomacy him.

>>31570337

I mean Hienn isn't really going to be a solid defensible point after this...

It actually might be better to raze it to the ground once we fine tooth it for anything of interest. Improve morale all around with that I'd assume.

There is another location in Raupe we'll need to capture though to have the territory, the name of which escapes me.

>>31570337
>Out of curiosity, are we planning in keeping Raupe? Or we're just going to hit them hard and retread to Craol?
I think it depends on how things work out.
I think we should get the residents who don't sign up with our army to relocate to rest of our land.
we heroically rescue the entire populance. capture thousands of thralls for study. kill all vamps, destroy all equipment. heck, burn it to the ground after relocation
each city can provide aid to however many people go there.
ideally we also get a lot of large traps so we can really hurt the enemy forces when they try to retake it. let them retake a derelict while we taking no losses and they heavy losses

>>31570390
>It actually might be better to raze it to the ground once we fine tooth it for anything of interest
While I agree with you, because of Parras idealism, we have to think twice in doing something like that.

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>1.

“We don’t have the time to waste,”you say, looking up at where you know your troops are waiting, uncertain as to what’s happening. “I’ll jump up and give them a quick speech – try to keep morale high. Keep an eye out for anybody coming, Vad.”

The fox nods, his ears and tails pricking up as he goes into alert mode. You quickly jump back up the hole, and a quick look at Mace confirms he and some of his men saw what happened down there.

“Soldiers,” you say, only just loud enough for them to hear you, and their mutterings quiet down instantly. “Down here is den of evil. Of despair. We are going to cleanse it and save all we can from it. Hold fast as we descend despite how these sights will test your spirit and we will all come out of this. I have faith in you, just as you all have faith in me. Now it is unto the breach. Captain Mace, get them moving.”

Mace snaps off a salute as your men give a light cheer and you jump back down into the ritual room, Undine right behind you. You quickly clear some rubble out of the way to prevent any nasty accidents and then turn to the exits. There’s several more corpses there than earlier.

>continued

>>31570390
well, it does have really strongly enchanted walls whose shields can take a beating all day. if we turtle here we can cause catastrophic losses to a sieging army.

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>>31570473
“A few regular soldiers came up here, no mage-knights,” Vad says lightly.

The sound of splashing from behind you signals your men beginning to descend and that means you need to set out now. You can either keep going down floors, and possible into a lot of danger, by blowing holes like you did earlier or you can navigate downwards like you did earlier. The rooms and hallways are huge, obviously intended to ferry hundreds of poor souls around at once. Even Vitria’s enormous spires weren’t quite so spacious.

To make matters worse, you can sense a lot more power down below. It doesn’t feel very pleasant. Something very bad happened when this ritual backfired. You can sense a similar power in Gnome’s building, as they’ve probably done the same thing you have.

>1. Descend normally.
>2. Descend by making holes in the floor.
>3. Split up as you descend in an attempt to cover more ground.
>4. Custom