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>>36020921
Current Date and Time: Mid-morning on October 6th, 1953PC

A whirling blast of barely visible magical energy disintegrated a building nearby and you instinctively raised your guard in return. You lower it a moment later and continue to lead your troops through the twisting streets of Shropham. The dust cloud rises up from roughly two streets over, which means the mages were a little more accurate than usual. Maybe they got lucky.

Gnome directs you down the turn-off at the intersection and you wave your knights forward, the golden griffons emblazoned on their breastplates gleaming brightly as they step out into the sun. Joining them, you begin to instinctively shield your eyes against the light before your helmet magically adjusts. The stone platform that suspended Shropham’s upper city covered most of your vision, its supports perhaps a quarter-mile away. On the edges of the platform were a number of wooden structures, recently constructed for the battlemages of the city.

Those towers had enabled the mages to rain magical spells on your troops as you approached. Their accuracy had been rather poor, however. Firing across a half-mile from twenty storeys high wasn’t something that mages practiced a lot and so most casualties had been the occasional building. The firing rate was slow and enabled you to make steady progress through the city’s outer limits. Your scouts had reported that most of the enemy’s force was closer to the platform, probably so they could read your assault and react accordingly. Very little had been seen of the mage-knights that this city held and you were expecting a lot of city fighting at chokepoints. The streets were too damned small and winding to easily lead twenty-five thousand soldiers into swiftly, so you and your select frontline commanders were trailblazing with your heavies.

>continued

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>>36020931
A few dozen arrows ping off your armour and that of your knights and bring you back to reality. The fifty Griffon knights accompanying you had raised shields and locked in formation while you had simply stood in the middle of the street, staring blankly. Another arrow pings off your breastplate and you glare down the street. If you remember Gnome’s map right, this is one of the older highways in the city and leads to the outer ring just beyond the platform’s columns. At the other end stands a mass of archers and men-at-arms, firing arrows futilely down a three hundred metre stretch.

“Sir, maybe you should join the formation,” your aide, Kyria, says as she trots up next to you, her shield raised downstreet.

You glance at Kyria, frowning. Your previous aides had worn armour to protect against stray arrows but had firmly been non-combatants. This armour, a gift from her father apparently, was fitting for one of your Griffon knights and you doubted your ability to convince your aide to stay out of trouble. She’d probably been so eager to take up the position to fight alongside you.

You…

>1. Join the formation and advance down the highway together with your knights, playing it safe.
>2. Lead your knights from the front, while they keep formation behind you. It’s not like these archers are a real threat to you.
>3. Have your knights hold position while you bring forward your arcane archers and demonstrate real archery. Mages might be a problem, though.
>4. Custom

>>36020958
>3. Have your knights hold position while you bring forward your arcane archers and demonstrate real archery. Mages might be a problem, though.

>>36020958
>3. Have your knights hold position while you bring forward your arcane archers and demonstrate real archery. Mages might be a problem, though.
Shoot their mages first?

>>36020958
>3

Astral arrow the mages in sight.

>>36020958
So, we still don't have a magitech sending device? Nor have we learned how to send a sending? (not even with astral flow manipulation that lets us snap our fingers to cause someone head asplode at a distance?)
talon REALLY needs to learn that one. He is supposed to be a commander. how can you command without communication?
And while we are at it. if he could do his own sendings he could perhaps use his astral nature and lots of power to break through jamming attempts

>>36021031
their wooden platforms you mean?
we COULD potentially knock down a few enemy mages that way. And our aim is better than theirs. (don't roll a nat 1 and miss, that would be awful!)
And we meant to be showy enough to draw attention of combat magisters

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>>36021015
Well, you don't see any on ground level and firing at the ones 420m away and 60m+ high might be rather useless.

>>36021063
You can't do sendings with astral power, just like the foxes can't. You can assume you've got a short-range sending device but it's not suitable for command (it's basically there to let you issue broad orders to all troops near you).

>how can you command without communication?
The same way most historical commanders did.

>>36021145
>You can't do sendings with astral power, just like the foxes can't.
huh, that is an odd limitation of astral power. I didn't realize foxes can't do sendings.
doesn't that heavily curtail the ability of foxes as spies?

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Writing up 3 now.

>>36021192
They use sending devices with predefined targets (that's the real problem with sending devices, as with many active enchantments - you need sorcery to adjust them). They use the device to send their reports off to a particular sending device (held by Karise) and get sendings from it.

>huh, that is an odd limitation of astral power.
Not really. Sorcery has more general utility due to not being all about reality bending over a short distance.

>>36020958
>1. Join the formation and advance down the highway together with your knights, playing it safe.
We are just beginning. Go steady.

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>3.

You order your archers forward while the enemy continues to plink arrows uselessly down the causeway. A few magically conjured spears crash into the road a few streets to your right as you reorganise your troops. You glance up at the mages, wondering at their talent. You’re close enough that skilled battlemages would be able to rain hell on you. Had they just pulled up as many adepts from the mage towers as possible? That meant the real battlemages were preparing elsewhere. A sensible enough approach, given they’ve seen your ranged capabilities.

You ready your own bow and arrow as Mace directs his formation of arcane archers to draw. The smartarse officer was evidently becoming keen to follow in Moss’ footsteps, transitioning from talented archer to talented commander in the same way. You just hoped he kept practicing his own archery at the same time. Leading from the front was the best way to engender respect.

[DC14/18 Archers]

[DC16 Astral Arrow]

Roll 2d20 please.

Rolled 13, 6 = 19 (2d20)

>>36021443
weeelp

Rolled 16, 2 = 18 (2d20)

>>36021443
remember when you where wondering about the last time we crit failed a roll?

Rolled 9, 19 = 28 (2d20)

>>36021443
SHOOT

>>36021521
Well, we shoot 'em alright.

Rolled 3, 17 = 20 (2d20)

>>36021443
in before snake eyes

>>36021513
>>36021521

I'll take it.

>>36021513
>>36021521
16, 19
is it greedy for me to wish it was 19,16?

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>Archers: Lower target met; 13, 16, 9

You can’t really hear the screams of the enemy over the destruction of another building by the inept Shropham mages. You can see the visual results of two hundred enchanted arrows scything through their ranks. The enemy formation breaks temporarily from the volley, with several of their officers going down. Numerically, they should be perfectly fine but ordinary soldiers tend to be unnerved by the sight of professionals cutting down their officers at a distance their own arrows are ineffectual at.

Just a little more, you think.

>Astral Arrow: Target met; 6, 2, 19

That little more comes in the form of a whirling blast of astral power, carried along by a single arrow. You sling your bow on your back and order your knights to advance as you watch the aftermath. Your arrow had slipped through the outer ranks of the enemy, having been broken up somewhat by the earlier volley. The meant there were a lot more soldiers in the impact radius, which in turn meant there were even more soldiers who would get knocked down by their comrade’s bodies. The archers still living were rapidly scrambling to their feet and withdrawing behind the men-at-arms even as the remaining officers screeched at them to stand their ground.

The rapid clatter of your knight’s boots brought said officers back to reality and they clambered behind the men-at-arms in turn, seeking protection. It didn’t come, with Mace leading his archers in a second volley. The armour piercing arrows cut deeply into the front ranks of the enemy soldiers, including the fleeing officers. All that was left was the butcher’s work, as the enemy soldiers desperately tried to break ranks and flee and you, in turn, desperately kept them from regrouping with their comrades.

>continued

>>36021848
Not really. But either way it works for me.

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>>36021885
As Illon’s flying knights did a quick pass and bombed the fleeing soldiers that had eluded your knights, your aide, blood coating her sword and those parts of her face not covered by her helmet, gave you the reports she’d received. She enjoyed doing so a little too much for you to ruin her day by telling her you’d also received them. Sendings were useful like that.

Lynn had pushed in on the south-west side rapidly, with the other officers following along her flanks and finding it far easier. She’d faced far more resistance, no doubt because of the sheer numbers in her force. Unfortunately for Shropham, that was also where you’d deployed Phrace and Rayza and the heavies had made short work of the lightly armoured foe. Fuurin, on the other hand, had yet to engage in a single fight. The enemy was fleeing on sight of Baelrus and his knights. The platform may have been constructed to hold off god-knights, but the men defending it hadn’t been and they were well aware of the futility of fighting them.

Plus, as you’d recently learnt, the god-knights’ armour was literally immune to non-magical attacks that weren’t a gigantic log striking them. With Baelrus leading the charge, Fuurin would shortly be in position with your rangers and would begin the counterattack against the mages bombarding you. That would be the timing of your final charge towards the columns and the beginning of the real assault.

[DC12/16 Column Advance 1; DC12/16 Column Advance 2]

Rolled 2, 4 = 6 (2d20)

>>36021905

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>>36021905
Blargh, cut off the last line. 2d20, please.

Rolled 6, 19 = 25 (2d20)

>>36021905
>>36021941

Rolled 3, 11 = 14 (2d20)

>>36021905
I killed few virgins for this moment.

Rolled 10, 4 = 14 (2d20)

>>36021905

>>36021930
>>36021987
>>36022000

Well this is going to be an interesting night.

>>36021987

Thank you, anon.

>>36021930
>>36021987
>>36022000
Not too bad. Considering the success of the previous attacks one more higher success should be pretty decent for us.

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>Column Advance 1: Target not met; 2, 6, 3

Things had started off well enough. Fuurin began his bombardment in short order, the effects of the fusillade from your rangers and mages being visible even from this distance. One of the platforms collapses from a particularly strong magical blast, its barrier failing and you see bodies fall from the edge along with the debris. The reaction from the enemy is predictable, and a series of magical blasts is fired in return, along with no small number of arrows, though you doubt the efficacy of the latter.

You signal your men forwards, Griffon knights leading and mage-knights on the flanks. You become thankful of your foresight when battle cries ring out from the buildings surrounding you as you turn onto the last highway to the columns. Glancing at the buildings, you see that they’re full of enemy mage-knights and archers.

“Ambush!” shouts your Griffon captain, as he and his knights quickly respond and move on the buildings to either side. Your mage-knights follow their lead and try to keep the enemy’s mage-knights from engaging your archers while they trade fire with the enemy’s archers. To make matters worse, you spy a few noble knights pouring forth. The battle started poorly and is going to quickly get messy, you think.

Magical bolts and arrows bounce off your armour as you wade into the open to keep the noble knights from engaging. A greataxe clips the side of your helmet, knocking you slightly off balance, and another charges you with his shield, a weak barrier projected from the front of it. The magic resistance runes in your armour react with the spell, knocking the two of you back. The third, spying an opportunity, leaps in with his sword.

>continued (1/3)

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>>36022706
Which never meets your armour, its wielder having been bisected by a clumsy swing of your sword. Even off-balance, you’re still far mightier than these chumps can handle. You charge forward several steps, faster than they can react to, and knock one of them down the street with a backhanded swing of your shield, his armour crumpling slightly from the impact. The last one deflects two blows with his axe before you break his guard and he joins his comrades.

Unfortunately, even those brief moments used to deal with those knights had cost you the chance to aid your men in the hardest part of the battle. Your Griffon knights are stepping over the enemy’s bodies as they charge into the buildings and aid your outnumbered mage-knights. Casualties among your archers and mage-knights are higher than you’d like, even as your Griffon knights remain largely unharmed.

>Column Advance 2: Higher target met; 4, 19, 4

The rest of the advance is swift, as several plumes of fire light up the edges of the platform. Fuurin had gotten Sala, Baelrus, Lynn and Rayza to join his mages in one great barrage of fire. You spot Sala flitting about on wings of fire, Lynn beside her with her stony wings, and her playfulness is evident in the draconic figures being projected in the raging inferno and smoke.

>continued (2/3)

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>>36022725
You almost missed it, but Baelrus had hurled an enormous javelin, twice the size of a man, and its impact on one of the battletower barriers had appeared to wipe out the barrier’s across the entire battlefront along the platform’s edge. The firestorm that had followed had found little magical resistance as the mages desperately tried to recast their ritual barriers. Clearly the god-knights had capabilities that extended far beyond their abilities in close-combat – Gnome had told you that Garynth was probably capable of destroying one of the columns by himself, and you had seen his archery firsthand. Terrifying supermen – perhaps you should be careful about calling Baelrus an astral ‘adept’, given his capabilities.

The seizure of the nearest column had proceeded in short order, with no artillery support to slow your advance you had found yourself nipping at the heels of Shropham’s retreating military. Having no time to form up in defensive formations, they’d then continued retreating to other columns and the central keep. That left you in control of the south-west corner of columns, having sustained casualties of perhaps a thousand at most while having killed at least two to three times that number of enemies. Forming up your troops, you were then left wondering how to proceed with your strategy.

>1. Continue seizing the columns with the same strategy of leading with the heavies, backed by your archers and mage-knights.
>2. Take Baelrus along one side in order to sweep through it quickly, while Lynn heads up the other side.
>3. Try a daring push on the keep as a means of drawing out the combat magisters for an ambush. Being as flashy and open as possible increases the possibility of drawing them out, you think.
>4. Custom

>>36022739
>perhaps you should be careful about calling Baelrus an astral ‘adept’
See Talon? If something is called a 'god' it's likely for a very good reason.

Also.
>1. Continue seizing the columns with the same strategy of leading with the heavies, backed by your archers and mage-knights.

>>36022739
>>2. Take Baelrus along one side in order to sweep through it quickly, while Lynn heads up the other side.

Hey Aspie, do we have any fate points left? We might need them later if we do.

>>36022739
>2. Take Baelrus along one side in order to sweep through it quickly, while Lynn heads up the other side.

>>36022739
>2. Take Baelrus along one side in order to sweep through it quickly, while Lynn heads up the other side.

God damn son you stronk.

>>36022811
We have 1 and we should save it till we really need it. Maybe even save it for after the CM's

>>36022811

We have 1 FR point.

And the Fate Points are 3, though those we've never touched as they are for super serious fuck ups.

>>36022844
weren't we back up to 2FR?
as for fate points, they also come with serious consequence for using.
that is
>Talon dies
>Saved by fatepoint
>Cost: important named character dies
so yea, a fate point use means the quest isn't over, but say... gnome died.

>>36022739
>2. Take Baelrus along one side in order to sweep through it quickly, while Lynn heads up the other side.
I am afraid option one will just herd them to a tougher defence and 3 seems too risky.

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>>36022811
You've got 2 FR points currently. I think you gained one at some point and I forgot to mention it? It might have been after the success of the blitz (or perhaps fending off the CMs, which seems more ego-boosting). In any case, my records say 2, so 2 it is.

I'm probably going to start saying how many FR points you have at the start of every thread.

>>36022739
>>1. Continue seizing the columns with the same strategy of leading with the heavies, backed by your archers and mage-knights.

I am scared of the possibility that the mages might resort to destroying all the columns and crushing us with the top level of their city if they get really desperate.

>>36022844
Right, FR point, forgot what they were called. Well, good to know we at least one of them.

>>36022889

Both of those seem pretty ego boosting. But 2 it is. Good enough.

>>36022889
>I think you gained one at some point and I forgot to mention it?
you mentioned it a couple threads ago. I am having trouble remembering what it was specifically

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Writing up 2. If anybody has any plans for trying to ambush the CMs, they should probably pipe up.

>>36022934
Well, ego boosting is the wrong word. It's basically events that seriously challenge Talon's psyche but he overcomes them anyway. The blitz doesn't seem like quite such a challenge but the CMs certainly were.

>>36022889
wasn't it curing thralldom that did it?

>>36022866
I'm pretty sure it isn't always a named character dying. Just the cost is comparable.

>>36022985
Take the god-knights with us, if they're not apparent then they know there's a trap. Bring Gnome and Sala, keep the other heavy hitters in reserve. Walk down a boulevard like you've already conquered it.

Slightly off topic but I was thinking about what Baelrus had said about our power. Raphael said our power would eventually grow to control us. Baelrus said we would grow to control our power. The control we have over Talons beliefs and emotions will most likely be tested as our abilities increase. One instance of our power trying to take over is the scene with Tsucchi, in which we almost lost our temper.

>>36022725
>griffon
>griffon
>griffongriffongriffon

FUCK. Not to sperg but are out knights order of a particular dog breed or mythological lion eagle freak? Because, uh, griffon is not the latter.

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>>36023286
I usually use griffin, but there are three different spellings of the word that are accepted.

>2.

Advancing alongside Bael and his god-knights was almost too easy. Between yourself, their towering figures and your mass of Black Stone knights, the enemy basically just ran away when they saw you. The real problem was not stretching your lines too much while Parras kept extending his lines to reach each column as you passed it.

On the other side of the city, Lynn was fighting a more conventional battle with Arail assisting her. You’d left her most of your heavy hitter, keeping just the Black Stone knights, Gnome and Finn by you along with Bael. You would have given her Gnome, too, but she’s been far too clingy since the conflict at Orkney and you didn’t think Lynn needed her help that much. Despite the opposition, Lynn was rapidly advancing. She’d been using her draconic abilities very openly here, along with Rayza’s powerful sorcery, and the weak enemy formations were crumpling like paper in return.

It was becoming very clear that the veteran troops were holed up either in the keep or the platform. The lifts in the columns were disabled, and Gnome told you that they’d take an hour to start-up or shutdown so you’d have plenty of warning if they tried to use them to attack you. And plenty of time to use them to counterattack. You doubted they were coming online given the mages belief in their own invincibility.

“Grandmaster Caitlyn was so amazing flying around earlier,” you hear your aide tell Finn.

“Why don’t you join her?” Finn asks Kyria.

>continued

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>>36023366
“I don’t think they’d carry me around,” she says. “And I don’t think Archmagister Reegan will lend me his griffin.”

“What do you mean?” Finn asks, but before he can say anything else you hear Bael bellow out orders to stop.

You quickly raise your guard and line up with him, as the god-knights raise their shields and stare down the enemy standing around the next column. You scowl at the sight – Laryya stands at the head of a formation of mage-knights, all of them wielding weapons with that same sickly green glow.

“Those are the weapons, lord?” Bael asks you with his rumbling voice.

“They are. A hell of a lot of them, too,” you say, scanning the rest of the battlefield.

Maybe another thousand troops here, mostly archers and men-at-arms. No mages. This seemed like a terrible strategy – were they just throwing the soldiers away in hope that the weapons would shut you and the god-knights down. You’d be surprised if they could affect Bael, even if they were to punch through his armour. They’ll be a real risk to Finn, of course. You also don’t know the effect they’ll have on your knights’ armour.

You’ve got a couple thousand soldiers, mostly noble knights, arcane archers and mage-knights.

>How do you deal with this threat?

>>36023382
>Finn/Kyria exchange

Is he seeing through her magic like he did with Lynn and she's a dragon as well?

>>36023382
>“Why don’t you join her?” Finn asks Kyria.
>“What do you mean?” Finn asks
Oh my, do we have another one?

>>36022866
Pretty sure there isn't a cost/backlash consequence for using FR points. The whole point of them is that we use them by exercising our control over reality; it's p much "nah reality can get fucked because we say so"

Mechanically speaking it's to prevent us from getting screwed by repeated RNG crit 1 bullshit on spite of having well laid plans like that one clusterfuck a long time ago

iirc we used one once because of a Nat 1 which would have ended up with Mal seriously injured; it wasn't a screwup on our part so much as a bad roll; having someone else get injured because we rewrote reality to save our bro would be a stupid mechanic. This isn't Shadow quest where a perfectly planned and executed strategy gets shitcanned because of a single roll

>>36023382
Archer the fuck out of them. Under the platform we have full reign.

Soon as they charge, we can cleave the hell out of them well before they get into range.

>>36023382
AA's fire on units with those weapons. Use Bael to stop any action by Laryya. Use Noble Knights to cover them. Watch fro ambushes as it looks far to much like a trap.

>>36023485
Should be
>Use Noble Knights to cover AA's

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>>36023447
FR points and Fate points are different things. The latter hasn't been used yet but is basically there if things go poorly enough that Talon would either die or some other catastrophic failure would happen (e.g. turning Alyce against you) and you can't fix it with an FR point. The price of using those points is something less catastrophic happening (like an NPC dying or a massive relations hit with another faction or character).

I don't know if Fate points will ever need to be used but the mechanic is there if need be.

>>36023485
>Use Bael to stop any action by Laryya.
What do you mean by this?

>>36023382
Archery ftw.
finn, talon, etc all have some ranged ability. got knights have their spears and what not.
mow them down at range.
This is both very effective at killing them AND will create the false sense that you fear this strategy so maybe they will throw more of it at you, not knowing it cannot penetrate your armor.
I expect they would start tossing the spears at us soon afterwards. which is good practice dodging and the vulnerable units like finn can remain with cover

>>36023534
What do you mean by this?
I assume she would want to protect her units with earth skills. I was thinking he would be able to disrupt her activities, or destroy what she creates.

>>36023382
Booming voice
>Oyy, Laryya. how can you condone such a thing? Isn't the risk they pose to world too great?
honestly. I am a bit uncomfrotable with killing a pure elemental because of their link to the world. Also, her youngest sister wasn't born yet.
try, if possible, to disable her non fatally.

>>36023608
It's already been mentioned that Laryya's acting kind of ooc, I don't think we should rule out mind control.

>>36023687
Or her master is being held hostage/blackmailed.
Or she is being influenced by her master to be a bad girl

>>36023730
>Or she is being influenced by her master to be a bad girl
I don't think familiar contracts quite work that way.

>>36023608
to clarify. I feel bad for all the widows and orphans we leave.
But pure elementals just seem like they are more linked to the "world at large".
than again, I MIGHT be just barking up the wrong tree entirely.

>>36023747

Actually they kind of (theoretically) do. Remember that book Talon read? Said the masters personality tends to influence the familiar to a degree. Could very well be the issue.

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>>36023602
The way Bael disrupts magic is by swiftly killing the caster while their magic bounces off him. His barrier disruption ability is a prepared weapon.

>Archers

You signal your archers to fire on the mage-knights while you and your knights close ranks. Finn takes up position next to you, looking a bit shaken to be standing this close to the god-knights. They hadn’t troubled him but you suspected the elves had no small number of tales about the Astral Adepts.

A volley of arrows whistles overhead and the screams of the enemy mage-knights greet them, their armour piercing enchantments punching straight through their shield and armour. A small earth shield hadn’t done much for the ranks further back and Laryya quickly collapses it, a harsh grimace on her face. She suddenly crouches down, power surging through her. You idly note the way she summons her power in a way more similar to Sala than Gnome – sudden, huge surges of power rather than a smooth build-up of an inexorable wave.

“Brace,” Bael says, shifting slightly to bring his shield to bear. You repeat the order to all knights, suspecting a blast of earth magic similar to what you’ve seen Gnome use occasionally.

What you hadn’t suspected was for the knights to practically teleport in top of you, the sheet of earth they’re standing on practically flying across the ground towards you in a matter of moments. Bael doesn’t react, even as your knights flinch slightly. If this was a regular tactic, it would have been nice to know in advance. Those sickly green weapons are far too close to vulnerable magic users, and Finn in particular.

“Back!” you shout. “All knights back!”

Discipline prevails over surprise and the Black Stone Knights are jogging backwards in short order, their shields raised against the foe. You shove Finn and Kyria back as you lurch forward, Bael and his knights slamming into the earth with their boots as they move to engage.

[DC11/17 Combat]

>>36023781
Said degree was really minor.
Really, really minor.

Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>36023815

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>36023815

Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>36023815

>>36023878
Thank you, anon.

>>36023878
Too close

>>36023845
>>36023866
>>36023878

Eking out that DC. This thread is not going to be good for my heart.

>>36023776
Pretty sure it's only risky if you use that spear.

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>Lower target met

As you’d worried, the enemy had gotten too close to make retreat easy. Although Bael and his knights easily scythe through the mage-knights in their path, the malevolent weapons bouncing off their armour harmlessly, it’s your knights that worry you. The enemy catches the opportunity to disable an entire unit of your elite knights, their weapons capable of disabling the enchantments within the armour in short order. You can see it in the body language of your men when the forbidden enchantment destroys the costly and capable enchantments within their equipment. It’s only a few items at most – a few shields, a weapon or two, perhaps a single suit of armour. But it’s the shock in your knights that will lead to it getting worse, as they freeze and let follow-up attacks destroy all of their equipment.

Then the enemy, and you, learn why the Black Stone knights are considered the best fighters in Vitria, even beyond the Golden Bears. Lucas had told you that he and the order had been an import from the Mage Guard and that culture clearly shows in how they deal with unexpected magic. They shrug and maul the shit out of the enemy.

The counteroffensive is swift and brutal, as the noble knights use their superior skills and talents to disable the enemy as fast as possible, aware that their armour might be made useless. Some strike out with their weapons, catching the arms and heads of the reckless mage-knights who had rushed them out of formation, believing in their foul weapons. Many other Black Stones drop their weapons and lash out with fists or grapples, snapping arms through armour and breaking bones and faces. Quite a few knights lose their equipment but they ignore the extra weight of their mundane equipment and work together to fell the less experienced foe.

>continued

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>>36024366
For your part, it’s Laryya that is the problem. Wielding another spear, Laryya is clearly hunting for your head. She’s terrifyingly fast and much more capable than Gnome, thanks to Gnome’s general lack of power right now. Still, her spear appears to bounce off the astral barriers you place on your armour just as the others do on Bael’s armour. They sap sorcery but have no power against astral – perhaps some form of spiritual weapon? An escaped secret of the monk order, maybe?

As the elemental stares at you in shock at the ineffectual capabilities of her weapon you step forward and slam your helmet into her face. Blood spurts from her broken nose as she stumbles backwards, dropping the spear and raising her fists. She leaps backwards suddenly, before rushing forward, her fists cocked for some hard strikes. Strange, shouldn’t she be reading the flow like Gnome and taught her and fighting more adeptly?

The charge ends violently as she misreads the situation and Gnome gets the jump on her, with a huge spike of earth in her path. Your familiar dispels it immediately, leaving her cousin to collapse to the ground, gasping for air while her lungs fail her.

“Dammit, Gnome, I want her alive!” you shout, spitting out orders for a healer.

“She’ll live. We can survive even with grevious injuries for some time. Long enough for a healer to get here and for her to restrained,” Gnome says, not particularly concerned by the sight of an ostensible friend dying at her feet. Sometimes you forget the general callousness of your familiar. “Maybe she’ll come to her senses and realise how terrible these weapons are afterwards.”

>continued

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>>36024387
Bael mops up in short order and you seize the column, the enemy troops fleeing to another. You take stock, having to put your Black Stone knights on caretaker duty thanks to the damage to their equipment. A frustrating blow. The only positive was that you took care of Laryya and Lynn has confirmed her master has been killed by Taira in a similar assault. Oddly, Gnome had confirmed with you that her master hadn’t been a combat magister. You wonder why they risked her so early?

“She has a lot of power and earth elementals can stand on their own for some time as is, so she’ll be fine without a master for a week or two,” Gnome tells you. “Conquer the city and she’ll probably join you out of obligation.”

“Any thoughts on why she was out her elike this?” you ask.

“Because even somebody as silly as Laryya would rebel if they learnt what those weapons do. She probably showed some misgivings so they tried to throw her away,” Gnome says, shrugging.

You rapidly move on and continue the advance.

[DC12/16 Column Seizure]

Also, if I were editing then I would have changed that talk after Laryya went down so much. Kinda bad.

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>36024406

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>36024406
here guys have a sucess

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>36024406

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>36024406

>>36024432
>>36024452
>>36024459

Doing this the hard way today apparently.

>>36023366
>“Why don’t you join her?” Finn asks Kyria.
So what's this then?

>>36024516
She is a dragon.

>>36024658
>rich father
>thirst for battle
>Finn not understanding you shouldn't out people's true nature

Has to be.

>>36024516
>>36024658
>She is a dragon.
oh shit, I can't believe I missed it
it seems so obvious now!

So, now that we got that idea into talon's head. Can he try to focus on her with his magic senses and see if she really is one?

>>36024713
>Finn not understanding you shouldn't out people's true nature
Actually its
>Finn not understanding other people can't tell at a glance someone is a dragon

This is like the only non color blind person in the village just assuming everyone else can see what he sees.

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>>36024474
Better than straight up failing, but yeah. It is going to be a long night.

>>36024452
>here guys have a sucess
thank you for that success.

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>Lower target met

The casualties from seizing the columns in the lower city were acceptable, you decided. Not great, with more than two thousand dead or out of action. But given you’d disabled what you believed to be about five thousand enemy soldiers, of which a thousand were mage-knights, you were happy enough. You controlled all of the columns and the remaining five thousand soldiers in the lower city had retreated to the keep. It had taken you the better part of the day but you now had a firm grip on the city and secure lines leading out from several of the columns. Your biggest gripe was with the sheer number of soldiers you needed to dedicate to maintaining supply lines. Still, it left you with almost all of your mage-knights and arcane archers for the real siege.

While the men set-up watches and dinner is prepared, you take Finn aside from where he’s talking with Rayza. The royal dragon looks pretty satisfied with herself and you want to talk to Finn before she gets any more satisfied. For the first time you can recall, your squire looks annoyed at the fact you’re disturbing him.

“This won’t take long. You can get back to fawning over your girlfriend shortly,” you say dryly and he blushes in embarrassment.

“It’s not like that,” he mutters.

“Uh huh,” you say. “About Kyria – is she a dragon?”

>continued

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>>36024871
“Huh, Kyria? Of course. She doesn’t spend any time with Rayza or Lynn though, which surprises me,” he says, frowning. “You should encourage her to spend more time with them. It would be good for her.”

Sighing, you send your squire back to his girlfriend. You wonder if he’ll mention this to Rayza. Yes, as it turns out. She’s almost standing on top of you before you can even get out of the intersection you’re encamped in.

“I didn’t know what she was,” she says, scowling. “She’s hiding her nature like I was. Finn couldn’t see through mine so I don’t know how he can see through hers.”

“You’re probably better at it,” you say. “Keep it to yourself for now, I don’t want to frighten her in a place she can easily run away from.”

You dismiss Rayza, who doesn’t look nearly as likely to jump Finn now, and wander around, checking up on your troops. On your way you stop to talk to…

>1. Fuurin, the fox general.
>2. Laryya, the captured earth elemental.
>3. Marek, the monk.
>4. Custom

Just a short break before resuming with the invasion. You should probably start discussing whether to seize the keep or how to take the platform now.

>>36024891
>>2. Laryya, the captured earth elemental.

I'd also like to talk to 1 if we have the time.

>>36024891
>>1. Fuurin, the fox general.

Lets get our fluffy generals expertise here. The odds of the earth elemental talking is pretty low so soon.

>>36024891
>1. Fuurin, the fox general.

As a note I think we should seize the Keep but then assume a protracted siege of the upper city. Given it can be assumed that while they have food and water the are both, the latter mostly supplied by the lower city. If we cut off their water supply and possibly back up their sewage lines, with Undine this couldn't take more then a day, we would have them miserable within days. Their reliance on the lower city for basic needs will be their downfall if we use it against them.

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>36024891
>1. Fuurin, the fox general.

>>36024891
>3. Marek, the monk.

>>36024891
dammit! all 3 are so interesting. I want to talk to them all.

wait. is there a reason we can't just bring fuurin and marek to talk to laryya?
I mean, obviously the dialog would be completely different than if we had a 1 on 1 talk with them. But I would be interesting in seeing what they have to say to her

>>36024956
>As a note I think we should seize the Keep but then assume a protracted siege of the upper city.
Not really seeing the point here.
And it would cause issue because the mage guard general believes us to be a close ally, and would continue to do so until we hand over those mages to sylvian instead of him.

... or until we refuse his aid in capturing the upper city. even when he promises to adhere to our stated wishes on how to deal with the tower. Because we don't trust his troops when mingled with ours.

>f we cut off their water supply and possibly back up their sewage lines, with Undine this couldn't take more then a day, we would have them miserable within days. Their reliance on the lower city for basic needs will be their downfall if we use it against them.
No to the sewage, they will just dump it off the side of platform and then it will be our troops that get demoralized.
The water.... we could try. But I bet they have some decent amount of stored water up there.

>>36024891
>3. Marek, the monk.

>>36023781
Just to mention the idea was more a mage thinking say he wants a strong warrior elemental. Then when the elemental is summoned the warrior part of her personality is increased while the others aren't.

Not so much remodeling as much as making one aspect a little stronger. That doesn't mean suddenly they do a 180 on their opinions.

>>36025182
Wouldn't they just summon an elemental that was already a strong warrior?
Plus, iirc the summoning and binding are seperate rituals, the familiar is completely able to refuse.

>>36025250
If they did summon and bind a strong warrior then it would take the pride and the likes the elemental has and increase it. Even if say the elemental was normally a philosophical type. At least that's the basic idea of the theory. The elementals traits increase to match what you need or want.

Like some architectural mage obsessed with building better and bigger works would make Gnome more into building and less into fighting. Even though she will still like fighting. At least this is how I read into that theory.

>>36025388
But they din't summon and bind a strong warrior, they summoned and bound Laryya, who actively hates fighting.

Plus, that theory hasn't been confirmed in or out of universe.

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>1.

You track down Fuurin on the south side of the city, overseeing the construction of a platform that could be used to rain fire on the surroundings of the central wall. Unlike every other fox in your military, he’s wearing proper armour. It’s a simple set of enchanted plate, painted black to the extent that only his skin is easily visible in the night. It’s a strange sight when every other fox wears robes, however.

He turns to you as you approach, giving you a clipped greeting as he issues final orders. His one ear twitches a bitch as his eyes narrow. “It’s odd to see you about, Imperator. Or do you normally do the rounds with the men like this?”

“I normally do. Or try to. Far too much ground to cover to do it with everybody, unfortunately,” you say, realising that Fuurin hasn’t fought alongside you like this before. Orkney was a different sort of battle.

“I see. Anything in particular you want from me? The fortifications I’m building should be both defensible and of great assistance as we advance. I could even overlap them, building more as we advance so that we could bombard the wall and keep,” he says, mind clearly on the conflict.

“I’m curious as to your opinion on what Shropham is up to, given these weapons. You’ve fought a lot in your centuries – including against the shadow beats. I figured you might have a pearl of wisdom,” you say.

“I might, if I actually handled one of the weapons,” he says dryly, his gravelly voice sounding outright strange. “As it is, I’ve merely heard of their capabilities.”

>continued

>>36025480
>But they din't summon and bind a strong warrior, they summoned and bound Laryya, who actively hates fighting.

This city is her baby though so it should be pretty easily to bring up the powerful mage lord in her eyes that is invading to get her to defend.

>Plus, that theory hasn't been confirmed in or out of universe.

True. Talking more in the bounds of the theory. It's more likely to be flat mind control then to be that theory causing a 180 in her desires.

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>>36025533
You track down a few of the weapons, passing by Laryya’s holding tent where you can hear little more than the woman spouting obscenities at Gnome. You leave before you hear something that you might not approve of happening.

Fuurin takes one of the spears, handling it carefully to avoid the blade itself. His eyes are sharp and thoughtful as he looks over it. He knows something, at the very least. Taira had seen them too, if not this closely, so you wonder if she’d simply been holding back.

“You know something about it?” you ask.

“I know it’s from Pharos. Or made using our particular variety of sorcery,” he says slowly. “The green glow is rather standard fare – a strange hallmark of the magic. The fact it is being mass produced troubles me, however. I am unaware of any method of combining Pharosian sorcery and Gauron sorcery. The two don’t play well together.”

“Do they have to be combined?” you ask.

He shrugs, put points out a few interesting things on several of the weapons. “They’re clearly machined. You can’t really make models this similar without it. Most likely the original version that Shropham demonstrated was something they’d received from Pharos and they’ve been working on reproducing it.”

“Why didn’t the other foxes recognise it? Why do the monks hate it so much? I trust you on this, Fuurin, but it makes me worry about other things,” you say, expressing your frustration at finding out like this.

Clicking his tongue, he places the weapons off to the side as he chooses his words. “For one, the weapons aren’t clearly of Pharos origin. I’ve encountered Fae and, as always, there’s a strange similarity between their powers and the sorceries of Pharos. Taira may have assumed it was more likely to be Fae without close examination.”

>continued

>>36025533
>His one ear twitches a bitch

That's awfully impressive.

>>36024891
>Keep it to yourself for now, I don’t want to frighten her in a place she can easily run away from.”
is there any reason to bring it up, ever?
She wants to keep it a secret, don't see why we need to out her
we have tried to attracted dragons, we succeeded. they just don't all openly reveal themselves as such yet. i am fine with that

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>>36025552
Well, Fuurin certainly cut to the chase rather quickly, even reading exactly who you were concerned about. Before you can repeat the second part of your question, he begins speaking again.

“As for the monks, I suspect they dislike these weapons for the same reason the foxes have historically been the enemies of the sorcerors of Pharos. This sorcery is very disruptive to the world, where spiritualism has always been about being adaptive. The sorceries of Gauron are nowhere near as troublesome by contrast,” he says.

Unfortunately, Fuurin doesn’t have much more detail. Even dragging Taira into the discussion nets you little of benefit, as she just shrugs the knowledge off with an ‘It was inevitable’ comment about the usage of Pharosian sorcery with magitech. A very frustrating woman. In the end, you learn very little beyond a highly likely theory – Fuurin is probably the best judge, having dealt with both Pharosian sorcery and the Fae.

>Discussion time about what to do next. Seize the keep? Enact some plan to seize the upper platform?

>>36025552
>Taira may have assumed it was more likely to be Fae without close examination.”

Our Taira folks. Brilliant at exploding. Not so brilliant at deductions.

>>36025582
Well, she has to pretend to be a human, which seriously limits her combat ability.

>>36025533
>His one ear twitches a bitch
>twitches a bitch

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>>36025566
>>36025636
That is a very strange typo of mine.

>>36025617
I'd honestly say we should Seize the keep for now.

>>36025636
His ear twitches so well a bitch goes into heat at the sight.

>>36025629

Who needs deductions when you can explode everything?

I'd rather be a Mad Bomber than a Sherlock Holmes

>>36025631
she doesn't HAVE to, she chooses to, for now.

>>36025617
Having an enemy at our back when we try to take the upper levels seems like a pretty bad idea, so we need to do something about that keep. As I see it we could either devote a portion of our forces to keeping them bottled up until they can be dealt with or we try to flush them out.

>>36025664
>Choosing one or the other
>Not being both

>>36025617
I'm thinking seizing the keep personally.
>>36025667
Well yes, but she also apparently wants to hang around and fight alongside us. If she's deliberately limiting her abilities she could easily get herself

>>36025695

Only if it's Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde deal and you randomly transform between the two.

It would make his job super easy, the culprit for any explosion related deaths would be his alter ego.

>>36025716
I'm not too worried. We can always bring up later on that we noticed and don't really care. Though I wonder if she is a royal dragon.

>>36025617
My original plan was to take a cargo elevator of the 10 periphery ones and use it to bring up our troops. but it takes a full 1 hours to bring it back online. Which is too long. we could take the stairs and form a beachhead, and then hold it while shuttling troops up. But it leaves us a bit vulnerable for a sortie from the keep.
Then again, if we do pull such a sortie we can engage them outside the keep.

Say, now that we have taken the lower city. can we get in contact with our fox spies which were here and ask them if they know where, physically, the local knightly order is located? I am betting the keep.
now might be a good time to contact them about defecting.

>>36025649
I didn't think it was a typo
twitches a bitch sounds just fine. like "twitches a storm", you don't have to say "twitches like a storm"

>>36025617
You know we could have Taira crack a big hole into it and then drop over 9 trillion arcane archer arrow though it.

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VOTE
>1. Seize the keep.
>2. Try to move up to the platform.
>3. Custom

>>36025754
>Say, now that we have taken the lower city. can we get in contact with our fox spies which were here and ask them if they know where, physically, the local knightly order is located? I am betting the keep.
It would be on the platform.

>>36025811
>>1. Seize the keep.

>>36025811
>1

>>36025811
>1

>>36025811
>1. Seize the keep.

>>36025811
>2. Try to move up to the platform.

>>36025776

That doesn't make any sense though. It's "twitches up a storm", isn't it?

>>36025794
As powerful as she is, that keep was likely created as a rally point which could withstand an assault by the Astral Adepts. Brute forcing it will likely cost us greatly in both time and personnel.

>3. Custom

Leave a portion of our forces to act as a check against sorties from the keep while attempting to push into the upper levels.

What was the plan again? Take the keep or teleport to the top of the central tower and move down first?

So, discussion item: Who do we suggest as Laryya's new master? We don't exactly have a wealth of candidates available. I can only recall Sarah and Adele.

>>36025794
>Blow up all the fortifications
>Plan on holding this city potentially against an attack by the mage guard
bad idea

actually, you know. this entire city is not nearly as defensible as they make it out to be, unless you give zero shits about collatoral damage.

Give me a hilltop fort with a narrow path to it that you can bombard any day over this design.

>>36026103
How do you know she doesnt hate Gnome enough to not want to work with us?

>>36026103
Whomever she wants, really
Some unnamed mage from the tower of summoners in vitria?
I don't want to shoehorn her into our inner circle and her aversion to combat means she would serve best doing construction on the empire. if that is what she wishes. she might prefer to return to her pop over this because we killed her master.
and apparently let gnome torture her or something.

>>36026108
We have gnome and about a week or two before the guard shows up. Any holes will be sealed up unless we literally collapse a tower.

>>36026103
She's got a couple weeks to find one herself, let her do so.
>>36026108
Yeah, I'm not all that impressed by Shropham's defenses so far.

>>36026173
She seems to care more about the city then anything. So just sticking her around it with whatever mage she wants should be fine.

>>36026173
Possible. I think she will probably stick around though.

>>36026103

One of the magisters working in the IEC probably. Her talents would be best used there, and it would Gnome could focus more on the homefront such as Harrowmont and immediate Talon needs.

>>36026261
sounds about right. of course they aren't here right now. but she does have a few weeks before dissipiatin. of course she is also heavily injured right now.

>>36026103
Sarah?

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>>36026108
>Give me a hilltop fort with a narrow path to it that you can bombard any day over this design.
You could literally conquer that in an afternoon with the sort of forces you're throwing at Shropham. You've literally done that in the past.

Shropham's defenses are literally just the upper platform, because they give no shits about the lower city. In a similar way that a city with a huge central keep doesn't really protect the unwalled city around it.

>.1

You set your eyes on the keep. Once you’ve seized it, the entire lower city is yours and you can freely choose what path to take to the top. No matter how defensible the platform itself is you’ll have the upper hand at that moment. The willingness of Shropham to abandon the lower city will be their downfall.

Before you celebrate, you’ll need to take the keep. The central support is much larger than the keep, with several entrances, but without the keep you’ll always have trouble holding it. The keep itself is a large mountain of stone, with numerous towers and platforms on it to enable archers and mages to defend it. It towers over the fortress wall, enabling them to fire over the top of it on the southern side of the support. There is only one keep, however. That means if you come from the north side then you’ll only take fire from the defenders on the wall.

Not that the wall is an easy target. It’s as big and thick as the walls of Harrowmont, with similarly powerful barriers. You can’t just scale the walls and you’re not even certain of your own power to punch through them. You know that there’s around five thousand soldiers defending the stretch of walls, potentially including some number of mages. To get through the wall, you’ll need magically enhanced siege engines or to teleport onto the other side with a small force and fight your way to one of the gates and open it.

>How do you assail the keep?

Your troops are more or less what’s in the pic.

>>36026315
Honestly for Sarah her magic is far too low to really make use of it. She is basically going to start leveling up by decades.

>>36026315
I don't think sarah affinity is for earth. IIRC its wind or fire.
Also, sarah is in harem and its bad idea to stick her so close to us

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>>36026328
I am being stupid today and attached the wrong pic.

>>36026328
Anyone for teleporting our HMK elites+about 400 some MKK into the fort itself with our elites?

>>36026413
Might be a good idea to also give Mal a couple of hours to work a powerful summon out of his ass.

Teleport in a group of Elites and party. While the summoner Tower and Mal+other mages create a mass of summons to overwhelm the walls and provide a distraction.

>>36026328
>You could literally conquer that in an afternoon with the sort of forces you're throwing at Shropham. You've literally done that in the past.
We have defended such forts with massive success in the past. Placing myriad traps the oncoming force has to wade through. The fight with the hein troops. the fight to defend harrowmont. the fight in the vale.

Also, note I explicitly mentioned collateral damage being the issue.
They have two problems:
1. no proper killbox. bombarding an attacker will destroy much of the city (in fact, their bombardment so far blew up civilian buildings). incidentally, we are kinda going that way with harrowmont's expansion.
2. 11 paths an enemy can take up instead of just 1. so, splitting up your forces.

>>36026410
I would think using our foxes here would work well. We should hold our Nobles and HMK's for the assault on the second layer.

>>36026445
A ranged one, preferably.
Don't want it getting dispelled by those fucking weapons.

Speaking of those weapons, we'll need to get a few of those for study, if that's what we can expect to be thrown against us by Pharos it'd probably be best to get countermeasures out ASAP.

>>36026413
Why MMK and not noble knights

>>36026413
taira can only teleport 100 people at once, and that drains her.
also, i would rather save the teleport strike for when we go for the upper city.

>>36026523
Mal isn't a mass summoner. He be a specialist who does one or two high quality summons.

Though I wonder if he could create a summon that explodes? Give a couple of hours to summon a powerful summon. Teleport it in with the elites and then at a certain point self destruct it far ahead and take a good chunk of the foes down.

>>36026328
>. You can’t just scale the walls and you’re not even certain of your own power to punch through them.
I would like to give it a try though
and also, we have a god knight with us that specializes in barriers, maybe the two of us working together to do a combo barrier break?

>>36026607
Why even bother with combo? He's almost certainly much better at it than we are.

>>36026577
wouldn't that harm our elites?

>>36026624
Talon needs the practice to get stronger.
And you are assuming that he would easily do it and that talon helping him would not help.

>>36026556
>100

Try 500 and she isn't that drained at doing it.

>>36026540
Foxes be pretty weak when it comes to direct combat though.

>>36026530
I honestly thing the big thing is that with so many men it really wouldn't matter. They can load up all their anti-magic defenses. Then just bull though.

While with this you're dealing with 11 paths that spread you out if you aren't careful and a very powerful structure at the very top.

>>36026625
That's why you have the summon wade into the foes first.

I think Hallim may have intentionally given us Laryya. He used that entire situation to test his theory that Talon uses astral power, via the spear. I wouldnt be surprised if he was watching from some place safe.

>>36026686
That's honestly pretty possible. Especially given how powerful his invisibility spells are. On the other hand Finn might get an idea about that and notice.

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VOTE
>1. Have Bael shatter the wall's barrier and charge in en masse.
>2. Teleport in with your best knights and seize the wall from the inside.
>3. Teleport into the keep itself with your best knights and seize it.
>4. Break the wall barriers and bombard the defenders with magic and arrows.
>5 Custom

>>36026530
>We have defended such forts with massive success in the past. Placing myriad traps the oncoming force has to wade through. The fight with the hein troops. the fight to defend harrowmont. the fight in the vale.
They didn't have god-knights, HMKs, Gnome, Lynn, Undine etc when attacking. You're being a little disingenuous using those examples. If you'd given an enemy access to that level of power or taken it away from yourself, those battles would have gone very differently.

>1. no proper killbox. bombarding an attacker will destroy much of the city (in fact, their bombardment so far blew up civilian buildings).
That's pretty normal for defending a city. Or are you never going to defend a city?

>2. 11 paths an enemy can take up instead of just 1. so, splitting up your forces.
Requires you to get up one. Picture doing this without Taira. Also, any city will have multiple entry paths.

In any case, saying that Shropham has poor defences because it's not a fort built into a cliffside is kind of missing the point of defending a city. It's not a city that can stop god-knights (or even a varied and well led army), but it could stop most conventional armies unless they have an overwhelming advantage. Even more so if properly defended with a crack garrison.

>>36026771
>>1. Have Bael shatter the wall's barrier and charge in en masse.

If that fails then just go with teleporting.

>>36026771
>1. Have Bael shatter the wall's barrier and charge in en masse.
+ 2
trap the defending force between us and the charging main force

>>36026771
>4. Break the wall barriers and bombard the defenders with magic and arrows.
Nice that both Bael and Talon have reputations as barrier breakers.

>>36026857
sounds good to have them fighting on two fronts

>>36026771
>1. Have Bael shatter the wall's barrier and charge in en masse.

Tookj a quick look a ttheir troop count from before the battle. Do they really only have 200 mages?

>>36026771
>3. Teleport into the keep itself with your best knights and seize it.

>>36026771
>4. Break the wall barriers and bombard the defenders with magic and arrows.
Just rain hell on them. We have the power to do it, why go harder way?

>>36027217
mainly because Shroopham started this fight with ~20,000 men. At this point they've lost 5000. Another 5000 are supposedly on those walls. If we trap them and they can't retreat, they'll be stuck trying to hold the upper city with 10000 men vs our ~20000

>>36027131
Mages do seem pretty rare to be honest and we have similar numbers with double the territory.

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>>36027131
They have more mages in the towers, but you don't know how many of the two thousand plus mages in said towers will actually fight. The same can be said about their spellblades.

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>1.

If it was obvious to the enemy that you were about to charge the keep, then it didn’t really matter. Come midday, the bulk of your forces were assembling to the north of the keep while many of your mages and archers assembled on Fuurin’s fortifications to the south. He was pretty certain they were in range of the courtyard just south of the keep but inside the walls, so they’d be able to do a lot of damage to the enemy as they retreated to the keep.

You got to see Bael’s barrier-breaking trick up close this time as he hefts his enormous twisted javelin. You’d informed him last night about your intentions and he’d been working on the javelin since – for just a few hours of effort it was certainly a terrifying weapon. You feel an inordinate amount of power begin to amass within it as he cocks his arm back, the entire surface writhing with a magical orange flame. Then he looses the javelin, his body snapping forward almost too fast for you to see. The javelin explodes an instant later, having covered the four hundred metres to the walls in the blink of an eye, and the deafening thunder of such a powerful barrier shattering in one fell blow fills the air.

The massive whirl of prismatic energy rising from the wall alarms the defenders, who begin rattling about the walls immediately. You order your troops forward as your remaining archers begin firing on the walls. The foxes and few mages with you help to protect the knights from return fire as they rapidly advance. Bael and his knights lead the charge, with Phrace and Rayza immediately behind them. Without any barriers, knocking down the gates was trivial. Once through the gates, it would merely be a matter of how many casualties you took in the engagement.

[DC11/17 Combat]

I’m probably going to wrap the session up after the keep is seized. I’m not really feeling it and I feel my writing has been pretty poor all session.

Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>36027340

I got this

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>36027340

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>36027340

Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>36027340
That actually might be for the best. The dice aren't having actual progress today either.

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>36027340

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>36027352
>>36027364
>>36027372
>>36027398
>>36027427

BLACKWATERRRRR

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>36027340
Fuck. Watch this be successful.

>>36027352
>>36027364
>>36027372
>>36027398
>>36027427
>>36027448
Wow, this is so bad I'm actually impressed.
FR, anyone?

>>36027506
On a non-crit fail, I'd rather not

>>36027519
Interestingly enough if we did do it on a none crit fail we get a crit success. So in some ways it's a pretty good idea to use it on non crit fails.

On the other hand with how many men we have and what could be upwards it would be a waste.

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>>36026771
>They didn't have god-knights, HMKs, Gnome, Lynn, Undine etc when attacking. You're being a little disingenuous using those examples
I don't see why.
If both sides had such strong powers, I expect the heavy bombardment they take coming up as a column would still take a heavy toll before the two even engaged into a direct fight

>That's pretty normal for defending a city. Or are you never going to defend a city?
They chose to design the city in such a way that this is an issue.
I explicitly argued that if I was designing a fortress to defend me I would prefer to defend a fortress that sits on top of a mountain with one narrow path of approach and no civilians in that path.
I WOULD defend a city if I have to, but I am under no illusion of it being superior to a fortress.

Also, what they could have done is have a "military zone" around the center of the ring in which no commercial settlement is allowed.

the top city is 0.56 mi
that means 0.99 square miles
the undercity is 1.68 mi in diameter
that means 8.87 square miles

if the undercity had a "killbox" where people can't live in immediately surrounding the upper city. Say, 0.3 miles (almost half a kilometer).
than that would be 0.86 mi radius of uninhabited area of just military installations under the top city. Which would be
2.32 square miles
To fit the entire current 8.87 square miles of population the outer ring has to become wide enough to have a total of 2.32 square miles plus 8.87 = 11.19 square miles. aka 1.89 miles radius.

>>36027555
>>36027519
We do have two points now, and I'd rather protect our valuable, valuable elites.

>>36027506
I say yes if only so that we can save our men more losses

>>36027506

Haven't burned one in awhile. Would be a good place to, we're using a lot of heavies here.

>>36027506
actually. yes. since
>Once through the gates, it would merely be a matter of how many casualties you took in the engagement.
this is just a question of how many troops we lose
Also. doesn't an FR on a regular fail become a crit success?
I always wondered why we always we for the crit fails instead of making an FR to do a crit success when really needed.

>>36027506
yeah I am not for losing our good troops here

>>36027582
I doubt the elites will die. It'll probably be the MMK that mostly die. Either way FR points are too limited right now. I'd rather save them for what ever lurks at the top.

>>36027340
>Once through the gates, it would merely be a matter of how many casualties you took in the engagement.
>We fail
Sylph would have really helped here, since one of her two specialties is mass healing

>>36027640
We have more than one and plus if we take heavy losses here we could be really screwed come the attack

>>36027660
We honestly should be asking the helldragonwaifu what she knows about that POW. Because she should know about the MG movements enough to know if it's defended or not.

>>36027573
>If both sides had such strong powers, I expect the heavy bombardment they take coming up as a column would still take a heavy toll before the two even engaged into a direct fight
by that i mean heavy toll on their non overpowered units.
so, 10 elites + 10k troops on each side. the invaders will be reduced to 10 elites + 5k troops.
at which point the defender has an advantage.

>>36027687
POP not POW
place of power, not prisoner of war.

>>36027668
Honestly depends on how heavy the losses are. I get the feeling it would be something like 2000-3000.

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FR VOTE
>1. Use an FR point to make the previous roll into a success.
>2. Don't use an FR point.

I haven't done a contentious vote for ages and can't be bothered doing one here. I suspect I already know the result, going off prior FRs.

>>36027573
>I expect the heavy bombardment they take coming up as a column would still take a heavy toll before the two even engaged into a direct fight
Defense is stronger than offense in this setting. Bael's GKs could walk through whatever 'killbox' you set up without too much trouble, for instance.

And the examples given had the enemy having no heavies, which is why its disingenuous to compare them to your current forces.

>Also, what they could have done is have a "military zone" around the center of the ring in which no commercial settlement is allowed.
In other words, cripple their economy to make a difficult to defend lower city slightly easier to defend? And have a massively sprawling outer city that is just as indefensible?

>but I am under no illusion of it being superior to a fortress.
Then there was no point saying Shropham was poorly defended compared to a fortress, then. Shropham is a highly defensible city that is also good at being a city. The latter is more important than the former for this city.

>>36027700
But the regular troops don't walk through the bombardment until the elites have the ranged attackers tied up. That's literally the entire point of that method of assault.

>>36027740
>>1. Use an FR point to make the previous roll into a success.

>>36027720
I always curse my reflexes for almost always doing that the first time.

>>36027740
>2. Don't use an FR point.
super not worth it if it isnt an exceptional.

>>36027740
>1. Use an FR point to make the previous roll into a success.

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>>36027740
Anyway, not doing any more of the argument over Shropham. Just finishing off the thread with the big battle over the keep (a few posts more, I guess). Then I'll take questions and the like.

>>36027761
Whoops, it would be an exceptional. Another mistake on my part (and probably why I should wrap up).

>>36027740
>>2. Don't use an FR point.

>>36027740
>But the regular troops don't walk through the bombardment until the elites have the ranged attackers tied up. That's literally the entire point of that method of assault.
How are the 10 elites from the attackers typing up the 10 elites from the defenders AND the 10k normals?
How are they tying up ANYONE? You just order your archers and mages to bombard the regular enemy troops and ignore the elites until they reach the gate.

>>36027740
>1. Use an FR point to make the previous roll into a success.

>>36027761
It would be an exceptional success. I'm pretty sure it's only a normal success if it's a crit fail.

>>36027740
>1

>>36027740
>1. Use an FR point to make the previous roll into a success.

>>36027778
I think the idea is the elites are so high powered they could just waltz though the bombardments of a normal army and then wreak you anyway.

I mean look at the god knights we are using they can't even be hurt by normal attacks and once they are in range they can tie you up pretty easily.

>>36027857
>I think the idea is the elites are so high powered they could just waltz though the bombardments of a normal army and then wreak you anyway.
I get it, I am saying that the bombardment is not for the elites.
One side's 10 elites waltz through unharmed. Now they are facing 10 elites supported by a group of combat mages and archers.
If they tried to march their own non elites with them so they would have support, then the non elites get shredded by bombardment. so again, its unfairly stacked.

>>36027740
>2. Don't use an FR point.
Save it, we've still got a long way to go in this seige

>>36027740
>1. Use an FR point to make the previous roll into a success.

>>36027740
1

>>36027917
Well it is stacked towards the defense. But it isn't an assured thing. Just because of all the differing focuses elites can have. Drop say Taira and then watch the army vanish. Or that one summoner who summoned thousands of summons. Be hard to create a perfect deadlock like you are talking about where each elite on each side has the power to counter the other one perfectly.

>>36027740
>In other words, cripple their economy to make a difficult to defend lower city slightly easier to defend?
How would that cripple their economy?

>And have a massively sprawling outer city that is just as indefensible?
I view going from
>indefensible sprawl. upper city defendable but require collateral damage to defend
to
>Indefensible sprawl. upper city even better defended. and does not require collateral damage to defend
as an improvement.

>Then there was no point saying Shropham was poorly defended compared to a fortress, then
Shropham has been made out to be an unconquerable bastion, in character. The people on top are so sure of their onconquerability they refuse to surrender even when greatly outnumbered and outmagicked.

So I said that while a decent defense for a city of this size, its not nearly as defensible as a proper military fortress. I don't see why you are biting my head off over this

>>36028027
Certianly, I never said it is a sure thing. Just that it gives a tangible advantage. which really helps when you are NOT hopelessly outnumbered and outheroed.

>>36027340
>I’m probably going to wrap the session up after the keep is seized. I’m not really feeling it and I feel my writing has been pretty poor all session.

Honestly seems pretty fine to me.

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>>36028095
You're not on my end, getting frustrated with everything coming out and having lots of difficulty concentrating. Engaging in the argument just made things worse.

>Target not met

The seizure of the northern courtyard was bloodier than you’d hoped for. While your heavies had stoically waded into the melee, crushing the men-at-arms that had opposed them, the trouble had been the swift counter attack by the thousand mage-knights positioned close to the column and protected by a small group of mages. Your heavies had absorbed the centre of the charge, your HMKs easily tanking the weaker knights while Bael and his knights tower over their foes and give them deliverance. As they’d fanned out, the Shropham knights had built a concave over your forces trying to spill through the gate.

>FR point burnt
>1 FR point remaining

>Exceptional success

Your senses make it pretty clear how things are going to go, so you intervene to prevent it. Before your troops spill in and ball up too much you immediately redirect them. Bael’s the swiftest to react, he and his knights giving you an interesting look as they split off to either side to prevent the enemy from easily surrounding you. Sala soars in overhead and rains fire across the top of the walls.

>continued

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>>36028191
Very quickly, the courtyard is covered in blood as your knights chase theirs across the opening. Not that you let them go too far, pulling them back and reforming inside the courtyard. The enemy pulled back far too swiftly compared to your vision.

There’s somebody waiting for you in that keep who is trying to do a lot of damage and is carefully watching your moves. You suspect it’s Hallim or one of the combat magisters. If it is, that’s going to make moving on the keep itself very interesting should they be here in person.

>That’s the thread. Sorry for another short thread.

So yeah, it took me a long time to write this and it’s kind of shoddy. Been a routine lately. Clearly I need to work on something to get around that because it's hampering the quest and is largely related to mood.

Next thread is Nov 14th at 5pm EST. I’ll be around for a while to answer questions etc, though my responses will be slow as I take a break and clear my head.

I’m not answering the Shropham stuff now, particularly with me not thinking clearly enough to answer without any bite (I tend to be an abrasive arguer, which is why I don’t argue with friends and family). Suffice it to say that I designed Shropham as a tough but flawed city to defend, and the key to defeating it is in your best units. I wouldn’t have rushed you if you didn’t have Taira, Gnome, Sala etc.

>One last major question
Should I be starting at 6pm instead of 5pm? I'm not sure how many people get here at the earlier start time.

>>36028191
>You're not on my end, getting frustrated with everything coming out and having lots of difficulty concentrating. Engaging in the argument just made things worse.

True. But I can say your quality is even so still good right now however. So at the very least I can respect you aren't just writing whatever and then sending it like a lot of people would.

>>36028240
5 PM is fine with me to be honest.

>>36028240
>Should I be starting at 6pm instead of 5pm? I'm not sure how many people get here at the earlier start time.
Bongland here, the earlier you start the better for me, it's already 4am here.

>>36028240

Prefer 5pm myself, more convenient. But that's just me.

Also if you aren't feeling good about that last post I'm sure none of us would complain if you opened with one that you did next week. Just saying.

>>36028240
Oh, random idea but could Undine (either alone or with mage backup) create some sort of artificial current in the canals? Basically, you have one current going one direction (at 5-10 MPH) and another on the other side of the canal going the opposite direction, in order to speed up travel. It would be like one of those moving walkways us lazy American's use in our airports, or the world's longest lazy river.

>>36028240
>So yeah, it took me a long time to write this and it’s kind of shoddy. Been a routine lately. Clearly I need to work on something to get around that because it's hampering the quest and is largely related to mood.

Huh. Is it because you're not a bit sozzled?

>>36028240

Something I've been wondering. In skill levels how well does Baelrus compare to Talon are they both level three weaponry?

>>36028240
Do vampirism only effect humans, or does it effect other races as well?
If it does, do we have any nonhuman vampires in our empire?
Do we know how Deafir vampires work out? I don't want to vamp Finn, but looking at that might allow us to create an alternative with less drawbacks.
If Talon was a fox, how many fluffy tails would he have right now?

>>36028484
>If Talon was a fox, how many fluffy tails would he have right now?

Well he is 32 or so. So like 3 tails I would think. Unless you meant that like how many tails does it take to build one talon.

>>36028240
>Should I be starting at 6pm instead of 5pm? I'm not sure how many people get here at the earlier start time.
No.
Honestly I would prefer it if you started earlier in the day. So it doesn't drag past midnight

>>36028514

>starting earlier in the day

Anon you are aware that Aspirational is in Australia right? He literally gets up at 7 in the morning on his days off to run a quest.

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Some interesting responses on the start time. It's felt very slow at the start lately, since it got moved earlier with the timezone changes. I'll stick with 5pm, then.

>>36028398
I quit drinking while QMing a month or so back. It backfired in a few sessions so I decided just to do it sober. It's probably exacerbating my mood issues as I typically hit the liquor whenever I was feeling a bit fatigued while writing.

>>36028378
You mean actively doing so? Not on a large enough stretch of water currently. At full power she could do so for a huge stretch of river.

>>36028440
Weap 3, Martial Arts 3, Battlefield Control 3 and so on. Bael's not a legend but is pretty top-notch. Narratively, he'd have a slight edge over Talon in terms of skill due to his experience and varied combat style.

>>36028484
>If Talon was a fox, how many fluffy tails would he have right now?
In terms of age, Talon would be around Ren and Tsucchi's level, so 4 tails IIRC. In terms of power, he's probably around 6 or 7 tails. In terms of skill, a 6 tail.

>Do vampirism only effect humans, or does it effect other races as well?
It does affect dwarves and elves (but not dragons and elementals), but it also rarely happens. Vampires tend to turn like and humans are the main target as a result. Many vampires are probably unaware they can even drink from non-humans.

>If it does, do we have any nonhuman vampires in our empire?
Not really.

>Do we know how Deafir vampires work out?
It might not even work. His regeneration might counter the curse. Or it might just kill him. If it did succeed, he'd be superpowerful but would either need to feed constantly or hook up to somebody like Talon (ala Aladria).

>>36028593
>You mean actively doing so? Not on a large enough stretch of water currently. At full power she could do so for a huge stretch of river.
I more meant as a semi permanent enhancement. I was trying to think of ways to speed up travel that weren't "Talon pulls the idea for a magitec train system out of thin air, despite having no in character reason to even consider that possible." Especially since magitech engines aren't powerful enough anyway.

>>36028593
>If it did succeed, he'd be superpowerful but would either need to feed constantly or hook up to somebody like Talon (ala Aladria).

Here is the plan guys. We already know it's possible to bind POPs to summons. We'll have mal due a similar binding like Mercenie did with Alyce only using a POP as the source. While we are at it lets research methods of transplanting arms so we can stick a dragon arm on him as well. I can't see how this could fail at all.

>>36028691
There technically isn't a reason we couldn't build a magitech version of a stretch of water manipulation. Then stack them besides each other. where one fails.

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So since a lot of people are still lingering about I'll post something I've been working off and on about with Aspirational. Because fuck the budget.

Little fortress city by the sea. To the east the sea, the west probably Craol or Arrine to maximize efficiency. This is still in its early stages and I'm hammering out details, so something probably post canal and Harrowmont. But projects. That said if anyone wants to suggest cities/fortresses/crazy batshit ideas I'll see what I can conjure up for proposals down the road.

As a note I'm going to be trying to make my maps easier to read, haven't quite figured out how yet but I'll get it eventually.

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Oh, and because I've been talking to architectanon about navies lately, here's some info on navies around the world and how they work. I'm working on transitioning my pastebins to GDocs (slowly, as it's not a huge priority) so this will be moved there then.

>Navy dump

Speaking of which, I actually meant to go into the way navies work in Gauron during the conflict with Farun/Compagnon but the scene got dumped. They're largely as they were in the late 1700s, early 1800s. Canal ships and the like are built differently due to the way magical propulsion works. Magitech has been used to replace the mages that are used in larger ships, but nobody has worked out how to scale it up enough for the bigger ships (it's pretty slow for the small ships, anyway, but consistency is key there).

Basically, each ship has some number of mages (who aren't members of towers, typically) who specialise in particular disciplines of magic that relate to the ship they're on. Very much a cradle-to-grave job. The main roles are basically navigation (which includes propulsion), firepower and shielding. Attacks are typically from archers, the mages firing magical attacks or the mages launching various objects such as stones or pots of flaming pitch. All of which need to defended against differently (proper mages could probably defend against all of them with a single barrier but these are hedge-wizards, basically).

Not sure about existing navy sizes - I recall looking at this a while back but didn't make any notes. Vitria has a relatively large navy, in the same way Australia has a large navy compared to Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore but a tiny one compared to even European nations (let alone the US or China).

>next navy dump in the next post

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>>36028747
Malataine is something of a black box in terms of military capability, as what they're capable of has changed rapidly since Sala served them (what with the massive surge in magitech). You know from Raphael that they have some solid artillery but the ships themselves are fast and sturdy, with tons of room - the country is vaguely like Venice was at one point in time, so their navy is probably the most dangerous of the Gauron powers. Given how militaristic they are, try to picture lots of really sturdy and fast ships, with hundreds of HMKs aboard and very powerful artillery capabilities.

The RSK isn't anything special so far as navy goes. Lots of smaller ships who have been co-opted from the smaller nations they've taken over lately and are mainly there to police naval traffic. A bunch of really big ships with huge mage contingents. Compared to Malataine, they probably rely more on their mages rather than their craftsmanship.

Pharos (given their stereotypes) has the closest thing in the world to gunpowder alongside very large yet manouverable ships. They also fight unlike other navies, despite having a large number of Gaurons in their navy and using mages for fast travel and barriers - this is mostly because they can have the esoteric magics of Pharos alongside the Gauron sorceries. Imagine a ship protected by heavy barriers that then teleports a mob of soldiers into your centre tower because there's a six-tailed fox from the Gold Clan aboard.

>still more

>>36028714
Nonono, he gets dragon wings, an arm each from a demon and devil, the transplanted heart of a fae and the legs of an angel.
>thereisabsolutelynowaythiscouldevergowrong.jpg

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>>36028772
>ship classes

In terms of current tech, there's really only two classes of naval vessel for the eastern nations: frigates and ships-of-the-line. The former are largely brigantine sized vessels used for patrolling and enforcements and the latter are big bastards (possibly bigger than their historical counterparts) used for stand up fights, boarding and armed transport. A ship-of-the-line with a full crew of skilled sea-mages is pretty much worth a dozen frigates due to the power of defensive magic on a well constructed ship. Vitria has one of them and that ship alone made it a larger naval power than its neighbours. The Guard have a few and the RSK a few dozen. Ships-of-the-line are probably distinguished less by how many decks of guns they have and more by how many ritual stations they have for their mages, how well protected they are etc.

Malataine probably just has generally bigger ships (for transport) and heavier reinforcement. Being bigger means they tend to individually pack more mages together, and mages increase in power exponentially as you gather more of them (which is how those mage battle towers work) so they're very, very powerful ships. They're probably closer to the dreadnought class and even Malataine's large transport ships are probably as large as the RSK vessels get. Their smaller military vessels are probably like brigs and fulfill a similar purpose as the RSK uses them for.

Pharos is something of a surprise. Fast, large, maneouverable and with a lot of range. Probably more fragile than other ships but with more firepower and tricks.

And yes, I am fleshing out the navies in these emails. I've looked at them before but never wrote much more than some simple ideas down.

>final post next

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>>36028789
>current tech compared to RSK
Most ships are around the techn level used in the RSK. Naval development has stalled during the age of magitech, largely due to the fact that most of the research resources are being poured into land development. The problems surrounding scaling up magitech or developing new methods for ships have kind of fallen by the wayside. Most of the continent has similar naval tech, because most of the continent were a bunch of smaller powers that traded mages and technology until the last few decades (at which point, landpower research became important). Malataine has never neglected their naval tech for obvious reasons and the Astral Adepts don't particularly do much on the water (that's not to say they don't have a navy - it's shrouded in mystery because it's never used).

>Pharos gunpowder thing (but weaker)

It's basically a force magnifying putty. It's manufactured by their special sorcerers (I'm looking for a -mancy name for them) and, when exposed to heat, it will magnify and project great forces that impact them. So if you slapped some of it on the back of a cannonball, held a torch to it for a few seconds, then smashed it with a sledgehammer it would send the cannonball flying like it had been hit with a hundred times that force. Makeshift catapults more than cannons, really.

>>36028778
I wonder if we could stick a repowerable technomagic generator in his torso too. Although given there is only two angels left I would imagine Raphael would be rather annoyed at losing his legs. Or us finding Samuel just to steal her legs for a tiny elf boy.

>>36028593
>It might not even work. His regeneration might counter the curse. Or it might just kill him. If it did succeed, he'd be superpowerful but would either need to feed constantly or hook up to somebody like Talon (ala Aladria).
Oh, I think I was unclear. We know that being turned into a vampire causes you to lose access to your previous magic (usually human sorcery) and learn vampiric sorcery. So my question is this: do we know if a deafir (without tatoos) would be able to use vampiric/daywalker sorcery after being vamped, despite not having the innate ability to use sorcery before being turned. If this is in fact the case, we have a proven method to allow best squire to use sorcery, and could look into basically reverse engineering a specific elf design that has less/no downsides, thus allowing him to use magic even after removing his tatoos

>>36028823
>Raphael
>his
My oh my aren't you in for a shock.

>>36028772
We're definitely going to have to upgrade our ships with arcane ballistae and these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybolos

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>>36028870
This is why he'd become superpowered. The tattoos are actually doing the sorcery, not Finn (Daerfir cannot use sorcery). So, yes, he would have both vampiric powers and his current Daerfir sorcery.

>do we know if a deafir (without tatoos) would be able to use vampiric/daywalker sorcery after being vamped, despite not having the innate ability to use sorcery before being turned
Of course. All vampires can use their sorcerous powers and the huge manawell of a Daerfir would make his powers very strong. If you removed the tattoos and vamped him then he'd just be a powerful vampire.

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>>36028892

Speaking of heavy weaponry. I still want Scorpion wielding AAs.

>>36028870
You know I think you are looking at this the wrong way. The tattoos work via drawing out the inherit life in the Deafir. However I can't think of much of a reason why you couldn't let a Deafir grow up. Turn it into a vampire then add the Tattoos.

Drop them into some HMK armor. Then sit back and laugh much harder then you really should.

>>36028892
I consider Raphael both at this point.

>>36028921
This gives me ideas when we conquer the elves. The already strong mangawell one tends to have means that having a high level vampire isn't needed for very high strength and they are already a slave caste.

The hard part I see is building the blood supplement and then producing it at high enough levels to no have them all die due to being unable to boost their magic faster then they burn though it.

>>36028999

I'm going to gander a guess that by the time we reach the elves the slave caste is going to be looking to Talon for helping, not to remain in the same place.

>>36028999
Honestly, with all the R&D we've been pouring into discovering what makes vampires tick, we're probably building up the expertise needed to make our own "design" at some point. Kinda like how Japan has the knowledge to build a nuke despite never having a weapons program.
>>36028921
Well, you said that daywalkers abilities are determined by their "talent." I was worried that the inability to normally cast magic would cause their talent to register as minimal. I was also never seriously considering sterilizing Finn. That would be a tragedy.

>>36029034
True. I can't see Talon agreeing with their current methods. I can see him going for a fully grown Daerfir however. Mostly because by that point it would be a choice if they wanted it or not. Could make it a honor thing where the top warriors get the choice to combine the two and work at defending the empire.

Though that leads to the issue in that the Daerfir can't do much without the tattoos.

>>36028816
>Pharos gunpowder thing (but weaker)

So say we procured some of this stuff and made makeshift cannons on the bastions where the locations for major anti siege installations are located. How effect would they be?

>>36028929
I'd settle for crewed Scorpions at this point, give them wheels and use them to punch through barriers and/or snipe GKs.

Also, a giant dude with a Scorpion (or other big bow) for an arm is a necessity for when we get our patterns program off the ground.

>>36028745
MInd giving me a better idea of what I'm looking at?

>>36029101
>Honestly, with all the R&D we've been pouring into discovering what makes vampires tick, we're probably building up the expertise needed to make our own "design" at some point. Kinda like how Japan has the knowledge to build a nuke despite never having a weapons program.

I'm not so sure. There is some shit going on at the level of the soul here. Which is kind of a real danger to the idea so far. With no natural mana regen these elves would have to totally rely on what we can get them. So we would need to be mass producing the blood substitute. Unless it's like in the middle of a battle field or something.

It does have a large advantage in that we know they will in general have a large amount of raw power compared to the level of variance of a normal human.

>>36029155

Honestly the tech we have and natural progression of advancement I don't see why we don't have that by now. It makes about as much sense as the Mage-Knight branches. AAs should branch in such a way as well. Heavily armored AAs with scorpions would be an absolute hell to attempt to defeat especially if they were dug in upon a hill or on Harrowmont's walls.

>>36029113
>the Daerfir can't do much without the tattoos.

Well, they can't effectively utilize their magic. I'm pretty sure they'd still make solid soldiers. Heck, we could probably avoide most of the drawbacks of the tattoos if we just made some armor that replicated some of the functions, that way they could remove the life-magic drain as necessary.

>>36029224
Be really slow though and the ammo will take longer to use compared to now. We are going to need something closer to a handcranked behemoth used by 2-3 men or a really physically strong pattern for this.

>>36029224
I wouldn't be so sure, their larger bolts would leave them able to carry less ammo and the nature of their weapons would result in a significantly lower rate of fire.
They'd be useful for sure, but they wouldn't be a strict improvement on our current AAs.

Plus, crew-served siege engines can be made bigger than man-portable ones, and would almost certainly be preferable for defending static locations like fortresses.

>>36029276

And just like MK variants there are draw backs. For superior firepower you lose some of the mobility of the AAs. That said enchanting the armor for strength would allow a man to do what is necessary to wield the weapon. And I'm sure magically enchanted windlasses are a thing we can either innovate or already exists in game.

I honestly don't understand why everyone is so content to wait until patterns become a thing. It is stifling our current development and we're going to fall behind the curve.

>>36029213
Well, ideally our own design would have less of the drawbacks than the daywalker or nightwalker designs. My point was that our R&D into vampires will hopefully give our mages the ability to do something other than look blankly around if asked to design something like this.

>>36029253
Mals research helps there. We really should when we get a chance start looking for a enchanter to work on custom making our guards equipment. Along with some dwarve craftsmen. Just so we can start working on getting Empower self 2 into our knights and higher things custom made into our guard when we start building it up.

The tattoos though have the advantage that you can't really disarm them and I don't think healing magic is as easy in normal armor compared to tattoos.

Though I suppose in theory we could stick some high level +2 or so Empower self enchantments into their armor. Then stick the tatoos for the healing only and nothing else so it doesn't clash.

>>36029288
>They'd be useful for sure, but they wouldn't be a strict improvement on our current AAs.

I wasn't quite saying that. F/L/HMK are not a strict improvement on MMK armor either, they just serve specific functions better.

>>36029317
Yeah Honestly the biggest reason to have the handcranked behemoths would be for large targets like God knights or the likes. Heavily enchant the tips of the weapon to be anti-armor and the likes then shoot it though.

Normal AA wise I kind of think it would be an interesting idea to turn the arrows invisible once they are fired. That way the foes can't see when to drop their barrier or whatever.

>>36029185

Whenever I have more of the details hammered out, certainly. For now I have a map, but little in the way of actual details outside of room for a vast shipyard(thus the naval topic), a sizable garrison/navy/civvie pop, and the land defense.

Suffice to say it will be at its most efficient with Undine in the house. Given the large Wetworks District that runs through the middle, and eastern harbor around the tower.

I'll include more descriptions, a key, etc. Next chance I get to work on it.

>>36029400
If you're doing requests, a fortress design for Meir would be nice. It is by far the weak point in our southern defenses.

>>36029349
Which reminds me about that dreadnaught armor idea we should start investing in pretty soon. We do have a stronger then a normal man unit in nightwalkers and daywalkers. So if we stick some strength enhancements on it we may be able to build our own super heavy units like the God knights.

>>36029431

Hm... Definitely not a bad location. I could have it straddling the canal to maximize defense with our current crew, and given the importance of the canal it would be a fantastic distraction, mustering point, and deterrent to southern armies.

I like that, I'll begin work on it. That seems a bit more immediate.

Another interesting Synergy I noticed is Foxs+Mages. Due to the foxes using astral power it may be useful to do something like have half or more of the mages on defense at any time. Then use the foxes to blow holes though the foes defense because they can't block astral power.

>>36029400
An idea; How about a naval staging ground based on an oil rig?
An entirely artificial construct out at sea, might be handy in our invasion of Pharos.
Also, been thinking about building walls to connect the impassable terrain between Mier and Harrowmont, as well as Mier and Marrn. Sort of like the great wall of China, or Hadrian's Wall in Britain.

>>36029396

I mean I'd fine with either or. Being able to do that in a compact mobile form would be my preferred method. Seeing as we lose ground to a charging enemy, we lose our Scorpions. But it wouldn't be a bad idea. Repurposing MaAs to use them would be something we could do as well.

>>36029431

Agreed tenfold. The Black Stone Knights are actually a great place to start looking at for designs that are similar, their armor in the original description was something else.

>>36029518
>An idea; How about a naval staging ground based on an oil rig?

I don't know how feasible that is so I'd wait to hear from Aspirational on its possibilities. That said, I've been a large advocate for finding island nations and taking them over for such functions. And other economical purposes.

>Also, been thinking about building walls to connect the impassable terrain between Mier and Harrowmont, as well as Mier and Marrn. Sort of like the great wall of China, or Hadrian's Wall in Britain.

I actually really like this personally. Probably more then just building a fortress in Mier. Fortress Walls are under used, and slightly out there tech, if we can figure out a way to make them the most effective, that would seriously make getting to Harrowmont from the south near impossible.

>>36029540
>Agreed tenfold. The Black Stone Knights are actually a great place to start looking at for designs that are similar, their armor in the original description was something else.

That may be a good idea. We may want to take influences from both the god knights and black stone knights. The hard part I see is that not every dreadnaught could have a stronger then normal human behind it. So we will have to make sure to give it the mother of all strength boosts.

And maybe some regeneration. Although thinking on it daywalkers who are very skilled at blood and nightwalkers would probably be the best possible units to stick into this armor for effectiveness currently. Just because they carry their own regeneration which lets us stuff more enchantments on the main armor.

>>36029596
We do have Gnome currently. Though honestly the hardest part I see is keeping it garrisoned. With a wall so long if there is any thin points then there could be issues.

>>36029641
If we really want a Juggernaut unit then we should probably be looking less at using a suit of armour and more at some kind of exo-suit.
The problem being that I'm not entirely sure how possible that is and if it wouldn't just be more practical to use patterns or some sort of uplifting process.
Would certainly be cool, though.

>>36029641

We did see how efficient Nightwalkers are in HMK putting them in DreadMK would likely be the same. I don't doubt we could tailor the suits towards humans, but why would we when we have a stronger race that can function better in them at hand. Being able to lower the strength enchants to boost other more important things is a big gamechanger.

Though this still leads to the question. What do we want to do with the DreadMK? Showstopper unit? Siege? Crowd control? etc. We need to find a purpose that one of our current units doesn't do better to maximize the efficiency of the unit overall.

Also I always figured an suitably trained Daywalker with an inclination towards it would become either a Knight or Combat Magister equivalent.

>>36029739
>to use patterns

Honestly the major issue with patterns is length of time before they become practical. We are basically going to need to keep Mal researching for a decent chance to build them in good numbers. Mostly because we need Mal to figure out to combine the two in a factory.

>>36029676

Oh I don't doubt Gnomes ability to construct the greatest damn wall to ever wall but yeah. Garrisoning that much of a stretch is probably the biggest issue, as you said. In general it needs to be a determent, not a small nuisance. Finding the perfect formula to defend the wall is a difficulty.

That and at some point on the western wall there will need to be a gap for the canal to go through, and that location will undoubtedly attract a settlement. And that makes for easy pickings for an attacking force. Or an attractive prize. We might get that fortress in Mier afterall with that thought.

>>36029739

Patterns are such a far flung idea at this point, and Mal isn't even the proper mage to create a pattern as he's told us, that I'd much rather begin development on something now to serve function. Malataine doesn't waste time on Uplifting, or patterns, they are constantly R&Ding military tech, and if we don't follow suit we will fall behind by the time we reach that area.

If patterns were more accessible now, sure. If we had gone down the Fire path for Talon, sure. But as right now, we need to continue innovation else wise our tech and tricks will become less effective.

>>36029778
> I don't doubt we could tailor the suits towards humans, but why would we when we have a stronger race that can function better in them at hand.

Resource drain. More nightwalkers=more blood drain or artificial blood drain. If our supply lines get cut we will have a much bigger issue due to this weakness. So it would actually be more efficient to have a general strength increase high enough for normal men as well. Because that will stack with the vampires and make them more superhuman anyway and make it so we can have normal humans added in.


>Though this still leads to the question. What do we want to do with the DreadMK? Showstopper unit? Siege? Crowd control? etc. We need to find a purpose that one of our current units doesn't do better to maximize the efficiency of the unit overall.

I'm personally thinking being a colossal wall who just punks other units one on one. HMK on steroids and able to not get raped by a god knight instantly. HMK will have the advantage of being faster and probably easier to build.

>Also I always figured an suitably trained Daywalker with an inclination towards it would become either a Knight or Combat Magister equivalent.

Not all daywalkers are all that strong. So there could always be one with decent blood but not a lot of magic. Which would make hiding behind powerful armor useful. Of course by the same token LMK armor is useful as well because now they can move much faster.

How about Nightwalker HMKs with jump packs?
Give them a boost in speed and momentum on the charge, as well as some much-needed mobility.

>>36030015
They already move fast. Like nightwalker HMKs if I remember right move about the speed of MMKs. So mobility really isn't a problem so much as giving them better staying power.

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>the scorpion talk
You can already create one of these. They'd probably be effective against HMKs where your AAs have difficulty with them. Not so much against GKs, without some serious enchantment. They wear stuff tougher than the HMKs and noble knights. The Great Knights (and candidates) wear even tougher stuff.

>>36029518
>An idea; How about a naval staging ground based on an oil rig?
It would be a very, very big engineering effort. It's probably feasible with Undine and Gnome.

>>36029937
>Malataine doesn't waste time on Uplifting, or patterns, they are constantly R&Ding military tech, and if we don't follow suit we will fall behind by the time we reach that area.
Well, for all you know they did. Malataine is cutting edge and their tech has supposedly changed significantly since Sala was last with them.

The big problem with patterns is that it requires either an Alyce-level genius mage or somebody of Mal's talent level to dedicate themselves to it for quite a while.

>>36030051
Nightwalker HMKs are probably moving faster than MMKs but slower than LMKs. NMMKs probably outpace the LMKs.

>>36029965
>Resource drain.

Valid point. My thoughts were more along a more permanent fix to the blood need as opposed to a substitute, so I see what you mean by that. Not to say a Nightwalker couldn't use the suit effectively regardless.

>I'm personally thinking being a colossal wall who just punks other units one on one.

So showstopper unit. The equivalent of a Combat Magister in battle almost or an Elite Knight. Something along those lines. Wouldn't be adverse to it myself, we definitely could use that type of unit.

>Not all daywalkers are all that strong.

My assumptions towards Daywalkers has always been their "curse" is tailored towards their strengths. So it might not be effectively to drop a Daywalker into a suit of armor that simply isn't its innate strength.

>>36029835
>>36029937
>patterns a shit
While I agree that they're not likely to become useful anytime soon (if ever), patterns do have the distinct advantage of actually being possible, which a man-sized suit of Juggernaut plate likely isn't. For one, where are we going to put all of the enchants?
An exo-suit isn't much better, as that runs into problems with machining all of the pieces making it hard and expensive to produce, as well as syncing its movements with that of the wearer.

>>36030081
>The big problem with patterns is that it requires either an Alyce-level genius mage or somebody of Mal's talent level to dedicate themselves to it for quite a while.

Where is a Kushan when you need one? Which reminds me when should Mal be leveling up? I'm thinking we should stick him on patterns pretty soon once he hits the level 3-4 zone.

>>36030081
>You can already create one of these.

... Oh alright then. Would it be a static unit? Or something we could condense down as was also discussed? Or would that require additional research?

>>36030081
>It would be a very, very big engineering effort. It's probably feasible with Undine and Gnome.
How about just appropriating island nations like architectanon suggested? Do such nations even exist?

>>36030160
>How about just appropriating island nations like architectanon suggested?

We need to do this so I can create a beach resort and we can force Aspirational to write highly detailed beach scenes for us.

>>36029778
>>36029739
>>36029641
>>36029540
>>36029431
>>36029396
>>36029341
This is my favourite part of these threads. I honestly find watching you guys brainstorm and try to come up with new units, tactics, different ways to combine existing units and technology from the setting so the empire can mass produce elite units that can compete with or surpass other top tier units, even without our hero units

Upgraded Vampire HMKs. Juggernaut day walkers. Magitech exo-armor shield units. Vampire elf HMKs. Fox/mage squads to cover each others' weaknesses. Suicide bomber squad pattern constructs. Magitech motorcycle cavalry. Tunnels. Single person cruise missile ballistae units. Like this is a pretty bog standard fantasy setting and you guys are running with it instead of 'lol magic handwavium. Ain't gotta explain shit'ing it.

Honestly find this more interesting than the actual threads themselves. This shit is fantastic.

>>36030118
>patterns a shit

Nah, Honestly Patterns are godlike. That's the problem. It takes forever to get them working correctly but once you do you can start going Kushan on peoples asses. So it's this huge drain of time that you really want to kick Mal into doing soon because of that. But I also

>>36030108
>Valid point. My thoughts were more along a more permanent fix to the blood need as opposed to a substitute


That's probably not possible. The curse works via making them unable to regen mana naturally. So we would need to like store a battery in them or something.

>>36030118
> which a man-sized suit of Juggernaut plate likely isn't. For one, where are we going to put all of the enchants?

Everywhere? It's not like they are going to be common units or anything. So just having say 500 in one army is worth it.

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>>36030128
>Where is a Kushan when you need one?
Not working for you or being you, because you chose not be the mage PC.

>Which reminds me when should Mal be leveling up?
Mal and Sala will level up between Shropham and the next major event (about another year to a year and a half, unless you decide to go crazy and accelerate other events).

>>36030160
I'm generally terrible about including islands but there's probably some near Farlou and Malataine. There were some on the other side of the barrier but they're now inside it.

>>36030173
Okay. Why don't you just build one near Vitria? I'm sure it would be a hit.