Apparently I can still play this round. Exciting, but still hoping for a side-quest maybe, hopefully. Idk.
I really want to get an anti-divination jammer going on this turn. I don't care how, but its beyond necessary. For far to long the enemy has had inexplicable and uncounterable magic, its time to hit it at the source. Chief put out a really decent write-up for one a ways back, and I think its probably our best bet at forcing them to stop ripping off our "kill them with fire" thing.
WE are the original "kill them with fire" nation and we need to show them that if they mess with our stuff, we'll mess with theirs.
Gentlemen (and ladies if there are any here), we are in an arms race. Not only that, but we're in an arms race within that arms race. This extremely long range arms race must end. We must stop their lucky strike and detect ambush spells. The enemy has gotten fat and complacent on their original spells. Never once have we ambushed them in the depths of the jungle. Never once have their arrows and their ballistas failed to hit their marks. Never once have they had to fear, had to doubt. They know where we are and they know how to hit us. We have to stop this. Its as simple as that.
So here is my version of the anti-divination shell largely based on CheifWaffle's design.
Heretic ShellsThe signs were all there, but it took us years to see them. Their mages speaking in incomprehensible languages, their hero spouting religious nonsense, the "spears of God" which fall from the sky, the glyph marked rod Myark spotted al-Mutriqa use in addition to his mace in their battle in 915, there is no mistaking it. They are in contact with some sort of higher power. Or at least channeling their magic through that belief.
Religion is not uncommon. As we all know from the recent exploding boiler debacle, our people can be very religious as well. However, that pales in comparison to Moskurg fanaticism. They draw strength, courage, and power from these beliefs and use that to fuel their divination magic. While we have come to understand the inner workings of methemagics, I fear they have come to understand divinamagics to the same degree. This will be their undoing. Ended up not liking this bit.
Heretic Shells are a new form of ammunition, and they are quite aptly named. A few years ago our men recovered an ivory staff, which they then broke into several pieces, thus destroying any magical knowledge we could gleam from it. But perhaps all was not lost. The ivory staff was highly engraved in the ineloquent language of the Moskurgs. Through the years of study and numerous experiments, our mages were never able to discover how the spell worked. But perhaps they didn't need to. The engraving on the staff would be enough for one particular mage.
After having several apprentices copy all the symbols on the staff, it all became clear. The reason we couldn't learn anything from this staff is because the magic is not contained within, but is instead channeled through. The words were not just words, but a focus of some sort, designed to channel magic to achieve an effect. This was the break through our nation needed.
After a bit of experimentation with using various arrays of antimagic crystals to give off different magical energies, finally, something happened. It was by no means a spell, nothing more than a a bit of magical discharge, but it was enough for a proof of concept. Their magic had a distinct "wavelenth" and "wave pattern" as our mathemages like to mutter on about. Further experimentation, mostly using sophisticated measuring devices and lots of crystals, confirmed what we already knew, that the enemy had secured a divination spellbook all those years ago. More experimentation allowed us to discover and isolate the particular wavelength relating to divination.
It was only a few weeks later that our wizards had found a way to reverse the divination wave create a suitable anti-divination countermeasure. The anti-divination wave, also known as the Heretic's wave, is the exact opposite of the one behind their divination magic, and thus cause the two to cancel eachother out. The mathemages said something about how the two not only cancel eachother out, but create enough free waves to much up any sort of divination magic within 20 meters. Within hours a version was designed to fit inside a standard artillery shell, and the first Heretic's shell had be created. This worked through two interlocking crystals which fit snuggly inside the shell. One absorbed magic, and the other releases it in the form of the specific Heretic Wave. This system prevented the absorbsion crystal from exploding much like our steam release valves keep our engines from exploding, by letting out some of the pressure. This allows the shell to create a constant heretical field around them, causing any attempts at divination to fail, much to the terrible pain and agony discomfort of the person attempting them. One particularly religious mage asked, "Dear God(s), what have we done?" and received an immediate incapacitating headache and had to be escorted out. Mass production started immediately.
This whole backstory may be inadmissible if we can't experiment on the broken ivory staff, so that's why its in a spoiler.
Heretic shells are new more durable artillery ammunition outfitted with an anti-divination crystal array composed of two interlocking crystals. The first crystal is very similar to our magic charms in that it absorbs nearby magic. It is much more durable than our previous iterations, allowing it to absorb more magic without overheating or exploding, partially due to the second crystal. The second crystal acts as a pressure valve, constantly releasing a steady field of anti-divination magic. As there is no physical effect, such as fire or wind, or ice, sustaining this field takes very little energy. As a result, the shells, which are charged by our
atheists mages can produce a very large field for a very long time, which may possibly be increased by the level of magic in the area around the shell. This anti-divination field prevents the casting of any divination school spells.
Side effects may include: a crisis of faith, fear, religious doubt, regular doubt, pants wetting, headache, and cowardice.
Wow,
10 11 12 new posts since I started writing...
Author
Topic: Wands Race - [Arstotzka] {COMPLETED} (Read 376963 times)