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Author Topic: The Rise of a Demon (Number of ritual wedding duels: 1)  (Read 50853 times)

Ardent Debater

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Re: The Rise of a Demon(Number of towns mostly burned down: 1)
« Reply #210 on: February 11, 2019, 03:28:57 pm »

Very little. More than it takes to raise a zombie, less than it takes to make a brute. Although it can vary somewhat, depending on scale, environment, and some other factors.
Quite interesting. I feel we should do so at some point, if only to take advantage of our Master of Mutation trait. If you don't mind me asking another question, how dangerous is a Merged Man compared to the average human peasant?
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Urist Mc Dwarf

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Re: The Rise of a Demon(Number of towns mostly burned down: 1)
« Reply #211 on: February 11, 2019, 03:33:16 pm »

An average human presence has a physical might of 1 and a mental might of 1. As noted in the bestiary, a merged man has a physical might of 3 and a mental might of 1.

Of course, the average peasant would likely flee in terror at the sight of such a monster, and this assumes the merged man isn't armed or armored at all.

Ardent Debater

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Re: The Rise of a Demon(Number of towns mostly burned down: 1)
« Reply #212 on: February 11, 2019, 03:42:55 pm »

An average human presence has a physical might of 1 and a mental might of 1. As noted in the bestiary, a merged man has a physical might of 3 and a mental might of 1.

Of course, the average peasant would likely flee in terror at the sight of such a monster, and this assumes the merged man isn't armed or armored at all.
Whoa, I didn't realize we had a bestiary, and I assumed the Wisp Wretches were more fragile. Nice. That's about all I have in the way of questions, thank you for answering them.
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Urist Mc Dwarf

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Re: The Rise of a Demon(Number of towns mostly burned down: 1)
« Reply #213 on: February 12, 2019, 12:25:41 am »

As the festivities die down and the men picked to be soldiers begin training, you set about reorganizing your cults. A message is sent to Kreth Woemaker, and he begins to travel north, bringing the remaining third of your followers north. You expect them to join you in about two weeks.

Next, you order the Seducers to travel north and begin forming cults to you. They are to use large towns as their bases, and gather support among peasants, along with as much among the soldiers and aristocrats as possible. They each pick two of the miners, and then begin traveling northwards, spreading out along the two roads which lead north from Canord.
As the soldiers begin training, your followers and the army of undead begin rebuilding. The remaining houses are torn down and rebuilt as barracks, and smiths begin using what iron and steel remains in the town to forge weapons and armor. The town is filled with the sounds of labor. While the thralls work to build up the town, the zombies and skeletons begin digging a massive ditch around the town, and piling up the dirt to make an earthen berm.

Meanwhile, you walk the fields around Canord, and with every step, crops burst from the ground, each one twice the size of what a farmer could reasonably expect, and each one tainted to corrupt the mind of those who consume them. Around the plants grow a profusion of twisted thorns.

Once that task is done, you begin to dream. You send your thoughts north, and find a great many minds. In most, you leave a passing image – that of a priest torturing and slaughtering. You feel it taking on a life of its own in many of the dreams, gaining strength. The fear it causes makes people thrash and moan in their beds, and you drink in the fear as you search the vast dreamscape for those you wish…you find several thousand soldiers, including a surprising number in a town a month’s travel north and east of Canord. As you enter these dreams, you find many of the dreamers to be inhuman.
They are instead dwarves, from the far northern reaches of the empire, and while they may serve in Andora’s armies, they are not particularly loyal, and many seem outright resentful. You press on their sense of resentment, creating images of a free dwarven homeland and of Andoran boots crushing them underfoot, but they are far enough it takes a great deal of work to make them last, and most are simply subsumed into the dream. But you have planted seeds in fertile soil…

For the time being, you wait. Your seducers contact you through their dreams, letting you know that each of them has settled in a town, and they have begun to establish themselves in a variety of roles, ranging from barmaids to healers. Kreth arrives, and then vanishes into the temple. The commander trains his soldiers, molding them into an effective, disciplined force step by step.
The town begins to take shape. Long rows of barracks stretch out from the temple, and the front of the earthen berm becomes faced with stone. The zombies stop digging, and are instead put to work hauling ore from the mines. You have enough equipment for all your soldiers now.

Kreth reappears from the temple after a week. He has something…special prepared for you, but, he will need living captives before it is ready. He asks to go with you when you claim a village, and you assent.


The sleepy little village of Haln had the most excitement in living memory when one of the most beautiful women ever passed through. Tonight is an ordinary end to the work week, and everyone gathers around the fire pit in the center of the village. They sing songs older than Andora, and make boasts they shall test tomorrow. It’s a peaceful, idyllic scene.
Soon enough it is spoiled as their laughter and songs and boasts are drowned out by a horrific babbling. Two enormous things barrel out of the darkness, grabbing heads and crushing them like overripe melons. The people shriek in terror, and surge away from the monsters. Only to find worse ones appear. Walking corpses with burning eyes march in ranks, menacing the people, making them press back in fear, holding each other for comfort. And then two nightmares that make the monsters that have menaced them previously fluffy kittens by comparison land in the still burning fire. And the villagers find they have no choice but to kneel.

You pick out forty of them, and give them to Kreth. The remaining seventy you keep for yourself, slitting bellies and tugging on entrails, breaking limbs and ripping out the bones,  plucking out eyes and shoving them into mouths, and making sure every single one feels every moment of it. When the sun rises, it rises on a vast pile of corpses. Kreth kills ten of his with far less fanfare, and marches the other thirty away with far less fanfare.

It's the end of your first month in Canord. The soldiers are well on their to being a force to rival a legion in quality if nothing else, Canord is already heavily fortified and work has only begun, the fields of corrupted crops have spread all around, and you have begun to spread tendrils of corruption through dreams and seducers. All your soldiers are equipped…everything seems to be going well enough.
Do you have any changes to your plans?

Full status


Current Status

Name: Klx-Dryklfx

Time: 4 months

Physical Might: 53+5 (- 8 leakage, - 6 mutating crops, + 12 worship, + 6 slaughter)

Mental Might:
53+5 (- 8 leakage, - 6 mutating crops, + 12 worship, + 6 slaughter)

Followers

13 Boneys, 223 thralls, 130 soldiers, 8 seducers, 1 commander


Servants

15 wisp wights, 2 brutes, 321 zombies, 56 skeletons, 50 wisp wretches, 9 weeping sores

Cults

The Broken
  Members: 13 Boneys, 199 thralls, 130 soldiers, 1 commander
  Resources: 13(-12 construction, - 8 forging, -12 Kreth’s project, +5/week demonic crops, +4/week iron mines )
  Power: 18 (3 spent worshipping you, 6 spent on training, 6 spent on construction, 3 spent gathering resources)

Unnamed cult
  Members: 8 seducers and 24 thralls split among 8 locations
  Resources: 0
  Power: 5(1 spent worshipping you, 1 spent establishing themselves, 2 spent recruiting)

Fortresses

Canord
   Basic walls (25), Deep moat(15), Demonic crops, plentiful mines


Just a note, you lose power on leakage at this power level unless you use it to summon monsters or something.
« Last Edit: February 12, 2019, 12:29:45 am by Urist Mc Dwarf »
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Ardent Debater

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Re: The Rise of a Demon(Number of towns mostly burned down: 1)
« Reply #214 on: February 12, 2019, 01:17:51 am »

Hmm... I suppose the largest threat to us is the risk of discovery, and to mitigate that, we should corrupt the dreams of merchants, tax collectors, and other travelers in the region in an attempt to prevent the spread of rumors concerning razed villages. Fostering discontent in the crowds of Canord was instrumental to its downfall and we should encourage the spread of rebellious hedonism in the nearest Seducer-infested town, and to a lesser extent, the region as a whole.

In addition to that, we should inform the Commander that we expect results by the month's end, and that we'll be accompanying him to ensure there aren't any runaways. It's impressive that he's managed to train so many men in such a short time, but that means nothing if they aren't put to use. Assuming he is successful, we'll give him a boon of his choice and corrupt his sword into a minor artifact. Then, he is to train another hundred men, as we bless the second-most skilled warrior and give him the same task, with the same soul-devouring stakes. I figure at this rate, we can get a pseudo-legion going in a year's time at least.

Finally, let's pour any Evil that would've otherwise leaked into Desecrator, await Kreth Woemaker's progress with great enthusiasm, and search our Thralls for anyone with the faintest glimmer of magical talent. If we happen to find someone with the spark of sorcery, they are to be exempted from physical labor and encouraged to pursue the art of Necromancy. In the future, having a reasonably sized contingent of Necromancers will be essential, if only because the zombies and skeletons they raise will force the Empire's levies to waste their arrows.
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Kashyyk

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Re: The Rise of a Demon(Number of towns mostly burned down: 1)
« Reply #215 on: February 12, 2019, 07:49:36 am »

-snip-
+1

Having magic-wielding thralls also means we don't have to spend more than our leakage in evil to raise undead as well.

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King Zultan

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Re: The Rise of a Demon(Number of towns mostly burned down: 1)
« Reply #216 on: February 12, 2019, 09:03:09 am »

-snip-
+1

Having magic-wielding thralls also means we don't have to spend more than our leakage in evil to raise undead as well.


+1
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but anyway, if you'll excuse me, I need to commit sebbaku.
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Urist Mc Dwarf

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Re: The Rise of a Demon(Number of towns mostly burned down: 1)
« Reply #217 on: February 12, 2019, 11:15:53 am »

You turn your attention from the common folk and soldiers for the most part, leaving the images you have already planted in their minds to do their work. Instead you focus on areas closer to home: the area around Canord. To keep your presence as subtle as possible, you search out dreams for any passing by the razed villages.

There are two caravans traveling southwards, looking to trade for iron ore and various other sundries, their wagons piled high with cloth and lumber and jewelry. You enter their dreams, tear their minds apart, and send them on to become your slaves.  There are a few other travelers, including a wandering priest, but all soon join the ranks of your slaves, laboring alongside the zombies and miners. When not keeping an eye on the dreamscape for people straying too close to your realm, you continue working on the seeds you planted last month. They are still there, and growing strong, but you are dividing your attention enough that you can make only slight efforts to encourage the slowly strengthening corruption.

Your seducers enjoy some success now that they have established themselves, each bringing in a few recruits to join the ranks of your thralls. Many others seem to be ambivalent, and will likely fall into worshipping you given time.

The commander trembles slightly as you watch impassively as his soldiers, split into two groups, engage in a brutal mock battle, practice swords clacking against each other, blocks of pikes facing off. They have been training for some time today, and although you can see they are exhausted, they fight on still. Finally, you nod your approval. “Two days, commander. Two days and we shall see how skilled they are when the smell of blood is in the air.” He nods, and calls a halt to their work.

You begin to hunt through your thralls, searching for those who can learn magic. You find only two who have true potential, but there are another fourteen with glimmers of skill. They are immediately given new jobs, attempting to learn magic from your tutelage and from the tattered book you found. You expected it to be a long and difficult process, but much to your surprise they take to it relatively well. Apparently you are a better teacher than you thought. They are no longer just thralls now. They shall be called…
[] Evil magic name

You march with the soldiers to another small village, and watch as they surround it, banging their swords on their shields once they are all in position. Teams break off to enter houses and grab people out of them, and they are brought into the center of the village. They seem to have some awareness of what you are – apparently a couple people escaped Canord, and while the villagers dismissed their ramblings as crazed nonsense, they remembered what was said. A few beg to serve you, to join your cult. You decide…
[] They shall die with the rest!
[] To break their minds and use them as slaves
[] Let them join
[] Something evil

Returning from the village, you find Kreth waiting to greet you, his skull grinning. It is a surprisingly unsettling look. He takes you to the temple, where you find what he has been working on: A massive statue of you in gold which seems still molten, radiating heat. There are faces in the metal – he bound living flesh into it, allowing you to animate, albeit at the cost of a great deal of power. And it exudes a powerful aura, demanding those who approach it kneel and swear to you. Its effects can be felt across town and even in some of the nearby mines.

You call the commander and his second to you, tasking each of them to train you another hundred soldiers. They pledge to do so, and are about to set off you call the commander back, and offer him another blessing. He requests to be made even stronger, and you pour a fraction of your power into him. Then you bless his blade, pouring a bit of dark power into it, blackening and twisting the steel. While he wields it, his mind will be sharper, and those who follow him will be braver.  After you do so, the commander politely points out that you don’t have another two hundred followers in Canord.
While you do all this, you absentmindedly direct much of the energy which flows from you into Desecrator. It is difficult to corrupt something already so evil, but you manage, and an image of you appears on the pommel, allowing you to direct energy through the blade and send it out as a blast of energy. You can do this already, but doing it through the weapon will now have…interesting effects.
Work continues on the town. The smiths make a great many small metal images of you, and they are hung throughout the town. The walls are built up higher and thicker, and the bottom of the moat is lined with spikes smeared with the contents of chamber pots. Several of your thralls encourage the thorns around the crops to grow, guiding them carefully to make a low barricade of vicious, barbed brambles.

As the month draws to a close, you hear two interesting pieces of news from your seducers. The first is that several rebellions have broken out in the western region of the empire, and several detachments of the local legion, among other forces, are being sent to quell it. The second is that you have sensed a faint stirring coming from the graveyard of Canord.

What do you do now?
Full status


Current Status

Name: Klx-Dryklfx

Time: 5 months

Physical Might: 54+6 (- 12 empowering desecrator, + 12 worship, + 4 slaughter)

Mental Might: ] 54+6 (- 12 empowering desecrator, + 12 worship, + 4 slaughter)

Followers

13 Boneys, 173 thralls, 180 soldiers, 8 seducers, 1 commander, 16 peasants


Servants

15 wisp wights, 2 brutes, 321 zombies, 56 skeletons, 50 wisp wretches, 9 weeping sores

Cults

The Broken
  Members: 13 Boneys, 149 thralls, 180 soldiers, 1 commander
  Resources: 28(-20 construction, - 6 forging, + 5 looted caravans, +5/week demonic crops, +4/week iron mines )
  Power: 18 (3 spent worshipping you, 6 spent on training, 6 spent on construction, 3 spent gathering resources)

Unnamed cult
  Members: 8 seducers and 24 thralls, and 16 peasants split among 8 locations
  Resources: 0
  Power: 5(1 spent worshipping you, 2 spent recruiting)

Fortresses

Canord
   Strong walls (30), Deep moat (20), Thorn fences (5) Demonic crops, plentiful mines, Strong aura of domination

Champions

Kreth Woemaker
   Physical might: 9
   Mental might: 9
   Other: Magic cloak

Commander(Needs name)
  Physical might: 5 + 1
  Mental might: 3 + 1
  Other: Duelist, skilled commander, magic sword

« Last Edit: February 12, 2019, 09:49:49 pm by Urist Mc Dwarf »
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chubby2man

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Re: The Rise of a Demon(Number of towns mostly burned down: 1)
« Reply #218 on: February 12, 2019, 12:01:00 pm »

Check out the graveyard. Raise what we can if appropriate. Congratulate the commander, and thank Krell for serving well. 

Instead of dreams, let’s send assassins. Take 10 soldiers, and mutate them into Hunters, gifted with unnatural agility and the “gift” of being able to lightly scan peoples minds to locate their target. Send them after opportunistic targets such as merchants and tax collectors. 

I am fine with calling the beginning magic users Apprentices.

Let them join, but have them pair off and fight each other to death. Raise the dead as a zombie.

I think we should have the commander focused on the soldiers he already has. We don’t need to train thalls to be soldiers when we can make them monsters instead.

Travel to the Castle. Take the boneys, the brutes, and 25 soldiers. We will claim it’s power. Have Krell and the commander come up with valuable targets nearby.
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Ardent Debater

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Re: The Rise of a Demon(Number of towns mostly burned down: 1)
« Reply #219 on: February 12, 2019, 12:23:26 pm »

Excellent, excellent! Soon, this world shall fall, our power shall return, and our forgotten enemies shall crumble before the fullness of our wrath! We must not grow overconfident, first we must build our seat of power and in time, the Andorian Empire shall submit to our rule or suffer in the shackles of our dominion! Here are my responses to the various prompts:

- The two foulest Necromancers shall be known as Doom-Seers and the fourteen aspirants as Doom-Seekers.
- If these grovelling peasants wish to embrace their proper place beneath our feet, who are we to deny them? Of course, they'll still count toward the Commander's prisoner total, because we aren't an unmerciful lord.
- From henceforth, the Commander shall be known as Duthrax Soul-Render, and he shall be the first and fiercest of our Thrallherds.
- Regarding the stirring in the cemetery, we shall investigate it personally, wielding Desecrator. I feel it might be the Doom-Seers testing their power, but it could just as easily be a piece of the castle's malignant presence trying to occupy the dead. Either way, let us hope that whatever it is, it's willing to serve.

Prompts settled, here are my plans for the week.

- Kreth Woemaker's undying loyalty has earned our respect, and it is time he is trusted with a greater task than forging ever-greater graven idols. He is to take 200 of our zombies, skeletons, and soldier-thralls as he sees fit, and spread destruction throughout the villages near Canord that have yet to fall. We must make it clear, this is not a mission to acquire prisoners, it is a mission to improve his own strength, for it is unfitting that our second-in-command is so fragile and foolish.
- We have done enough to ensure our slow conquest is undiscovered for now. Instead of waylaying the minds of travelers, let us travel to the nearest Seducer-infested Town and lend our monstrous mind toward corrupting the dreams of the Evilly inclined there for two week's time and doubly improving the Seducer's persuasive prowess, turning them into a High Seducer. Eventually, one shall do well enough to be blessed five-fold as an Arch-Seducer, but such things are in the future.
- When we have finished that, we shall personally travel to the rebelling provinces and subtly encourage the rebels to maim, plunder, and burn far in excess of what is expected. In addition to this, we shall attempt to spread our cult among the soldiery. I am under no delusions that the rebellion will succeed, but their violence is a good enough excuse to spread Evil.
- The Doom-Seers and Doom-Seekers are to travel to the ruins of nearby villages, and reanimate the dead there, until at least 50 zombies and skeletons have arisen. They are to be informed that upon success, we shall expand their minds and bolster their sorcerous strength, but should they fail, they shall suffer one week of unrelenting torment.
- The remaining cultists are to continue their diligent worship of us, and take once-weekly days off to indulge in unspeakable debauchery.

Check out the graveyard. Raise what we can if appropriate. Congratulate the commander, and thank Krell for serving well. 

Instead of dreams, let’s send assassins. Take 10 soldiers, and mutate them into Hunters, gifted with unnatural agility and the “gift” of being able to lightly scan peoples minds to locate their target. Send them after opportunistic targets such as merchants and tax collectors. 

I am fine with calling the beginning magic users Apprentices.

Let them join, but have them pair off and fight each other to death. Raise the dead as a zombie.

I think we should have the commander focused on the soldiers he already has. We don’t need to train thalls to be soldiers when we can make them monsters instead.

Travel to the Castle. Take the boneys, the brutes, and 25 soldiers. We will claim it’s power. Have Krell and the commander come up with valuable targets nearby.

I feel attempting to take the castle now is far too hasty, but I agree with entrusting a handful of Hunters with removing travelers that stray too close to our realm.
« Last Edit: February 12, 2019, 12:25:08 pm by Ardent Debater »
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Urist Mc Dwarf

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Re: The Rise of a Demon(Number of towns mostly burned down: 1)
« Reply #220 on: February 12, 2019, 01:26:03 pm »

I should note that the west, in this case, is pretty far - you will be traveling for several weeks at the minimum, and it would take several months for someone to get to you without using some sort of magic. You can do it, it's just something to keep in mind.

Kashyyk

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Re: The Rise of a Demon(Number of towns mostly burned down: 1)
« Reply #221 on: February 12, 2019, 01:29:48 pm »

We can travel faster than a mortal though, right? And I assume if we're burn some power we're can get there faster?
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Urist Mc Dwarf

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Re: The Rise of a Demon(Number of towns mostly burned down: 1)
« Reply #222 on: February 12, 2019, 01:51:37 pm »

Yes. The several weeks is for you, the several months would be for a mortal with a good horse.

WyrdByrd

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Re: The Rise of a Demon(Number of towns mostly burned down: 1)
« Reply #223 on: February 12, 2019, 01:52:00 pm »

Quote
From henceforth, the Commander shall be known as Duthrax Soul-Render, and he shall be the first and fiercest of our Thrallherds.

Thrallherd? Such a paltry title befits the  minor officers within an army, not the marshal of our  finest troops! Hostmaster would be a far more prestigious designation.

As for the sword, it should sing the fates of those who dared defied us, sapping the wills of foes mid-battle, a Herald  for the forces of Klx-Dryklfx.
« Last Edit: February 12, 2019, 01:57:27 pm by WyrdByrd »
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Kashyyk

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Re: The Rise of a Demon(Number of towns mostly burned down: 1)
« Reply #224 on: February 12, 2019, 01:59:57 pm »

If that's the case, the news about the rebels is already a few months out of date, unless longe range comms is a thing.

I'm which case I support Ardent's plan,  except for the bit about going West. Maybe send a few seducers that way though?
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