The weir seems to be acting like a wormhole. Sucking Mana out of this world and spitting it out into the one we came from. When we broke the Weir, our shards came into this world but maintained their connection to the blackhole-Weir.
It seems all we've managed to do is give Ingvar more mana from letting him siphon off ours now.
+2
Options
Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
Sanders, The Magma Wyrm [adds +25 to fortune threshold. Improves fortunes]
Elephantite x1
-1 mana/turn
15 peasants of labour
Ludovic, Garin and Alaine: The three senile wizards
Living in Shady Mages Retirement Community within the Obsidian Tower
+1 study/turn
-1 time/turn]
Mitel the husband
Missing!
[*] In Caldeot
[**] With traders
[Adaptable] During a round, one positive trait of the target is cancelled
[Lucky] One reroll per round
[Very lucky] Two rerolls per round
[Ranged(short)] Make one attack without retaliation before melee
[Wizard] Must spend 1 mana / round or lose all but one dice
[Mana eater] An engaged wizard must spend an extra 1 mana / round
[Swarmfighting] +1 on rolls when targeting an enemy targeted by another ally
[Hard to kill] If beaten in combat make a difficulty 8 check. On success the unit is not destroyed
[Sluggish] Only rolls dice every second round
[Battle Scholar] +1 study / round and +1 study on a natural 10
[Armoured N] Unit has N armour that are lost in place of dice
[Obscuring]: target rolls one fewer dice (cannot reduce dice rolled to fewer than one)
[Deadslayer]: Makes a difficulty 8 check each round. On success deals a dice of damage to a random bonemancy enemy unit
[Distracting]: All target rolls are made at -1
[Aftermath]: Each turn, make a one dice attack against a random enemy unit other than the current target
[Hellfire] = Any natural 10s rolled in combat grant an immediate extra attack roll
[Manaburn] = Must spend 2 mana / round or be destroyed
[Unstable] = Any natural 1s rolled in combat deal one dice of damage to the unit
[Boil A/B] = One additional attack roll if a friendly unit with an unmatched trait is in combat
[Defender X]: Engages X enemy units
[Noncombatant] : Does not roll attack dice
[Destined]: Instead of losing a dice pay 5 fortune and 10 mana
[Digest]: Every unit destroyed produces resources equal to its number of dice
[Defender N]: Will always be targeted first by enemies and will be targeted by N enemy units
[Sharp]: A roll of 9 or 10 deals 2 dice of damage
[Inferno N]: When destroyed, immediately make N extra attacks
Artifacts
Vulcanus
Grants Ranged(short) to the bearer
Intelligent(?)
The Archive
Reflections on the twin shards and their ultimate connection to the artifact once known as The Weir
Lowers difficulty of drawing by 2
Increases output of drawing by +1/dice
Increases mana income by +1 / turn
Allows shard fusion/destruction
A detailed consideration of the entities which lurk below and how to effectively bind them into perpetual servitude
Allows Smoulderlings and Elephantites to be summoned
Of the interplay between bonemancy and lavashaping: Flaming skulls or smouldering corpses?
Grants [Wizard] units [deadslayer] ability
On the origin of Vulcanus by means of ethereal selection, and the sub splintering of the world crystal]/i]
Grants Cinders [Aftermath]
Allows construction of the Shardforge
Makes Vulcanus loyal
On the interactions of lavashaping with the wider inherent energies of the natural world, a study into previously forbidden aspects of the college
Allows construction of the Glassworks
Allows volcanoes to be raised
+1 dice, +1 strength to lavashaper [Wizard]s
+1 dice to Magma culstists
A discourse concerning cosmological systems: On the marvellous proportion of the celestial spheres and on the true and particular causes of the number, magnitude and periodic motions of the heavens completed
Mercantile guild improves from 1d4-1 to 1d6+1
Can train Foreseen Cutists
Can construct the Cosmic Looking Glass
Can trade fortune
Cinders is now [Very Lucky] rather than [Lucky]
A primer on locks, seals and bindings
Allows the Institute within the city to be unlocked
All summon spell mana costs reduced by 5%
The triumph of life at the expense of cultivation: The lingering question in the dying world
Farms produce +2 food
May now produce Burning Fisheries
Dismemberment of the physical form and distillation of the dominant ethers within the autonomous construct gifted by the wizard Ingvar
May now detect hidden automata
Lumbermill improves to +1 resource / 8 peasants / turn
Diplomacy
Sultan Ofan: New Thett, the merchant hub Relations: Slightly perturbed Spy in place: Undetected Military: 8 dice at 7+ strength
The Senate: Drome, the plague-ridden city state Relations: Hatred of all wizardry
The Drowned Lady: In the dungeon Relations: Seething hatred
Caldeot The town by the (un)Drowned City Relations: ??? Status: Held by enemy forces Spy: Undetected (-1 silver piece / turn cost)
Tzo'lin: The Undying Pious servant of The Bound Giant Relations: Hostile Status: Possibly now fused with his god
Ingvar: The Instigator Mechano-Sage Relations: Unknown
Talen: The other one
Axiom: The Fistcaster Loyalist
Nephroditi: The Bonemancer Wanderer
Selin:The Silver-tongued Spirit-Weaver
Summary
A new day dawned while the coming conflict loomed over Glassalia. Cinders looked down on the town still recovering from the rain of shattered obelisks yesterday. She absently popped a tiny pebble into her mouth and rolled it around in her mouth, savouring the rich strata of flavours. Below the streets she could see the glowing rivulets of the world's lifeblood pulsing and shifting as they counted down through the last remaining hour. Another unit of grantiteguard, fresh recruits with armour only finished that morning, were stamping their way to man the southern edge of the town while the others aimed to hold the east. Cinders planned to remain within her tower and hurl down her own brand of fiery destruction when the enemy arrived. The skies above were dark with storm clouds. The battle would be accompanied by suitably dramatic weather.
She had decided to leave Caldeot with only one of her cultist triads. If the attack there was anything more than the very lightest of feints then she would lose the recently undrowned city and Caldeot itself, but having moved The Weir... It still hung outside grasped by a half dozen gigantic stone arms but straining against them at every moment, desperate to break free and unite itself with Cinders' shards. She could not risk that being captured by the enemy. And so she had gathered her forces here. The strange animated statues from her communion would also be tested for the first time. They responded well enough to instruction, seemingly content to be led by whichever of her cultists was nearest.
Turning back from the open window, Cinders walked back within the tower. She bit down on the pebble, shattering it into even smaller pieces and revealing a tiny fleck of sour quartz at the centre. Another couple of stones found their way into her mouth as she made her way to the central shard chamber. Arriving, she pressed both hands against its surface and did her best to ignore the constant outpour of energy that no longer fed into her own reserves but were lost elsewhere. She reached inside and the energies flowed out into her once more. Still the shard itself did its best to drag a little of Cinders into itself, but she resisted this easily enough. After a few moments she closed the connection. It was time. She left to head for the top of the tower.
[Drawing success: +30mana]
A rumble of thunder roared through Glassalia and the heavens opened. The droplets of rain hissed and disappeared a few inches before reaching Cinders' skin, such was the forge inside her stoked. The rain was black and sulphurous with ashes from the protective vent. Misty joined her master at the top of the tower and began her work in ending the rain to ensure that the Glassallian troops could see clearly and stand firm without slipping on the grey slurry that was already being deposited across every flattish surface.
When the attack came, it came from the air.
A dozen slender cables burst through the black clouds and bit through the glass paved streets of the town below. Some snapped away, failing to grip, but most managed to anchor themselves into the stony ground. Tiny bulges emerged shortly after, shapes rushing along those cables and down towards Glassalia at a tremendous rate. Looking up, a flash of lightning briefly illuminated a shape hiding within the clouds: the source of those cables and their riders. The first figures hurtling down the cables reached the ground, detaching themselves shortly before the end to fall the final half dozen feet. The rain had stopped almost entirely now and through the clearing air, both Cinders and Misty could see that the enemy soldiers. They looked feral, clad in furs and skulls, but their movements betrayed considerably martial skill. These were no simple savages.
The cables snapped as Cinders bade their twisted fibres melt. The sudden break in tension caused them to whip upwards dramatically and the final two thirds of the raiders were flung widely. Dropping from such heights there would be no hope of survival for them.
Glaives scythed through the air attackers as the attackers recovered from their rapid descents. Despite having been positioned at the fringes of the town, the glaivekin adapted easily and launched their own attack. Many of the enemy fell to the viscously spinning discs before they could even unsheathe weapons. The raiders formed up, determined to fight on despite their losses. Most carried a weapon either hand, hammers, axes and swords were all in evidence and only a scant few bothered with a shield at all. There was no doubting that these were experienced soldiers as they arranged themselves to cover flanks and maximize visibility. It was the foreseen that arrived toe-to-toe first. They moved quickly in a strange stuttering dance. Around their feet the corpses of the fallen raiders, those slain by the ranged barrage or cut from the cables, twitched and shuddered before erupting dramatically. A field of razor sharp bone fragments erupted upwards. There was no doubting that this was the work of bonemancy. No other magic could command the very skeletons to leap from within corpses. Such base tricks were insufficient to even draw blood from the cultists, however. They crouched and weaved, rolled and dodged, turned and side-stepped. The paths of fortune were open to them; the trajectory of each pointed shard of bone were all too clear.
With that trap having failed, there was nothing stopping the foreseen cultists from closing. Slender daggers, razor tipped limbs, swerved wildly and found their way around chain vests and horned helmets to land in any patch of exposed skin. A throat, an eye, an armpit. All at once those few raiders joined their deceased colleagues.
Stretching her hands wide, Cinders commanded the metal cables as they slashed through the air. They pulled taut once more, eager to anchor themselves once again. The shape in the clouds was clear now. A tiny island of stone and dirt floating in the sky. A mass of stuff that also longed to obey the whims of the lavashaper. It did not wish to fly and Cinders was only too happy to help it. A swarm of figures were flicked from its surface as the island twisted in the air. She called it to her. Pulled it before her for inspection.
The island was thirty yards across if not less, its surface studded with the metallic protrusions of various machines around a long wooden structure that took up most of its available flat area - a barracks that had housed the raiders during their journey through the sky. Whirring blades ringed the underside; apparently some kind of propulsion mechanism. They strained pathetically as they fought to break her grasp on the island. Vulcanus arrived now, excitedly circling the snared island. He clipped some of those rotors and hacked a chunk from the stony mass. It fell away into the sea revealing an internal mass of odd machinery within the island itself. These were its organs. The flying platform itself had been alive. Or at least had some strange parody of life. Screaming with delight, Vulcanus vanished within the island. Gouts of steam, smoke, lubricating oils and quicksilver spurted out in response. Cinders tossed the island aside, sending the wounded mechanical beast to die beneath the waves.
It did not take long to realise that the main attack must have been aimed at Caldeot, but it was too late to do anything about that. The small group of aerial ambushers had been nothing more than a distraction.
[Two rounds of combat in Glassalia. No troops lost. +2 study, -4 mana from turns, -5 fortune and -10 mana avoiding Foreseen cultists dice loss]
It was hours later before news arrived from Caldeot. The town was gone. Overwhelming forces had arrived from the air and the sea, and at their heart was a flying city. A huge version of the thing that Cinders and Vulcanus had torn into pieces in Glassalia. The attackers had moved quickly to overcome the town's defences and prevent the residents from fleeing, but most had headed into the undrowned city as soon as it was clear that the organised resistance was overcome. For now, it was not clear whether Cinders' agent within those walls had survived. If she had, then word would come as soon as she was able. But that could be some time.
[One round of combat in Caldeot, -2 mana. Magma cultists are lost. Caldeot is lost. -80 peasants, - 8 farms, - 8 housing, +5 silver/turn, trade route broken, devotion lost.]
Muted celebrations spread through Glassalia. They had beaten off the invaders but the domain of Cinders the lavashaper had been dramatically reduced in size. Cinders herself returned to her study in a black mood. Ingvar's creation lay upon a basalt table, dissembled into a mess of component parts. The remains of several more humanoid automata were similarly broken down. Both were unquestionably the work of the same magic, if it could really be called magic at all. The mechano-sages practised an unusual set of skills, closer to common engineering than the noble magical traditions for the most part. Back in the Institute, the mechano-sages had been regarded with a combination of suspicion and derision. The sparks of thought and intelligence within the animate machines were clearly something other, but they responded uniquely to the probing of Cinders, unlike a creation born of a more usual branch of arcana. It was entirely other, and would not be bent to her will.
Ingvar's machine, that gift to Cinders so long ago, was evidently much more able than it had first appeared. He had hobbled it as he offered its service to her. And if the time came, he had been fully able to resume his command of it and unleash its considerable violence upon Cinders and her troops. A trap she had not fallen for.
The human-looking machines were works of art. The outer shells were so incredibly lifelike, far beyond any illusion or prestidigitation that Cinders had ever known. But inside there was no flesh and blood. Instead a complex, tangled mass of machinery. Most of which existed to drive the automaton but not all. Like Mitel's replacement, each housed various hidden weapons with a strong preference given to slender, poison-coated blades. She held a rubbery half-circle in her hands, a part of the face that was so close to her husband. She would not be fooled again. Looking within the things, she saw how she could detect them. How their strange driving sparks caused destiny to warp ever so slightly.
And beyond that, there were certain mechanical insights that the dissections had provided. This elegance would be transferred to her own people and their labours immediately.
[Research complete: You may now detect any automata hiding within your troops, lumbermill output is now +1 resource / 8 peasants / turn]
Looking back within the world, Cinders was troubled. The fates were cloudy now. Destiny seemed foreshortened and fluid.
Decision Time
(A letter, a number, study number and (if you like) your vote bonus)
Peasant action:
A: Build houses (shelter for 25 peasants) (pay 15 resources)
B: Build a farm (+12 food) (pay 15 resources)
C: Build a burning fishery (+25 food, -1 mana/turn) (pay 20 resources and 10 mana) Form the Explorer's Guild (all scout actions now generate bonuses, +1 study / turn, +1 silver pieces / turn) (pay 50 resources and 25 silver) E: Construction of an article of devotion [specify the form] (+1 mana / turn) (pay 25 resources and 25 silver. Cannot be paid for in mana) F: Construction of defensive walls [specific Glassalia or Caldeot] (5 dice, N/A strength [Defender 5] [Non-combatant]))(pay 100 resources and 10 silver) G: Construction of the Cosmic Looking Glass (+1 fortune / turn, allows the type of fortune to be chosen) (pay 50 silver, 50 resources and 50 mana)
H: Scout the world [specify direction] (difficulty 15 for an additional bonus)
I: Go whaling (difficulty 5 or lose 1d6 peasants, produces 5+1d6 silver pieces)
J: Train Glaivekin (2 dice, 7+ strength with [swarmfighting], [sharp] and [ranged(short)]) (pay 5 resources and 5 peasants)
K: Train Graniteguard (2 dice, 9+ strength with [armoured 2] and [defender 2]) (pay 5 resources and 5 peasants)
L: Train Magma Cultists (4 dice, 6+ strength [hellfire] [inferno 2] [manaburn] [unstable]) (pay 5 resources, 5 mana, 5 silver pieces and 3 peasants) (difficulty 15 to also produce a new apprentice)
M: Train Foreseen Cultists (3 dice, 3+ strength [destined] [lucky] [manaburn] (pay 5 resources, 5 mana, 5 fortune and 3 peasants) (difficulty 15 to also produce a new apprentice)
N: Have the peasants work a double shift (produce 1d6+5 resources)
O: Flood the trade markets (pay 50 resources, produce 3d6+10 silver pieces)
Cinders action:
1: Help the peasants (Pay 2x resource cost in mana and 0 resources on build, or pay 5 mana on production to obtain +1d8 resources, or pay 5 mana on whaling to remove check)
2: Try to draw more mana from the crystal shards (difficulty 8: Gains 4d8+4 mana, Failure is bad)
3: Devour resources (pay 25 resources, produces 2d8 mana and 1d4 study)
4: Accelerate the experiments (pay 3 mana, produces 1d8 study)
5: Summon Smoulderlings (produces a [Smoulderling] unit, 4 dice, 6+ [Obscuring], pay 38 mana)
6: Summon an Elephantite (produces labour equivalent to 15 peasants, pay 29 mana and 1mana/turn)
7: Summon a Grand Worm (produces a [Grand Worm] unit, 10 dice, 7+ [Digest], pay 72 mana) 8: Raise a volcano (specify location) (+1 mana / turn, +1 resource / turn, destroys the local area) (pay 100 mana) 9: Invoke the ritual of the statues (specify question) (also potentially gain Stillborn Memory units ) (pay 125 mana) 10: Part the sea and create a path to Drome (pay 100 mana)
11: Extract a peasant's time (-1 peasant, +3d6 time)
12: Attack somewhere (specify where & units)
13: Do some other diplomacy (specify who and what)
14: Rearrange military (specify the split of units between Tradersand Glassalia)
15: Muse quietly on your throne
Study options:
S1: A treatise around the beast which lurks at the heart of the world, its unfathomable and terrible energies and how to effectively direct them [Improves summoning] (50 study)
S2: The fundamental fields and energies concerned with the diametric opposition to lavashaping upon the great wheel [Improves rainbringing wizardy for Misty] (25 study)
S3: A new way of dividing the cosmos? An inquiry into the elemental magics that rest between lavashaping and mud singing [Improves taster of stone wizardry] (50 study)
S4: Extractions and tinctures of an individual body's inherent longevity: A manual of how to prolong life [Improves time extraction] (25 study)
S5: On the origin and nature of the primordial great ones and the signs marked upon this world [Improves Stillborn Memories] (25 study)
S6: Of the castle in the mountains and its base rituals concerned with remote viewing [Improves scying] (10 study)
S7: In Which the Origin, Nature, Characteristics, and Use of Wormwood, Sulfur, and Quartz are Described in Three Parts [Allows alchemy] (50 study)
S8: That no one of true name doth perish, but men in error speak of their changes as destructions and as deaths [Allows symbology] (50 study)
S9: A hierarchy of pure metals and their alloys and their utility to trapping imprinted works [Allows crafting enchanted arms and objects] (50 study)
S10: Reflections on the fundamental truth that The Weir existed not as one artifact but two distinct halves spread across worlds [???] (50 study)
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
We can create an article of devotion tomorrow if nothing happens, so I vote we not do anything that will lose us resources or silver. We kind of want to get 2 more so we can get to neutral on mana instead of having to draw every few turns.
Maybe we should scout Caldelot instead? I wonder if Ingvar is going all cylon on them or not.
He's a shy overambitious dog-catcher on the wrong side of the law. She's an orphaned psychic mercenary with the power to bend men's minds. They fight crime!
Dudes, we got 83 mana and 59 resource. The only reason we aren't building stuff is silver constraints. We don't need to draw (and risk cracking the world again), we need to make some money. And study the weir, so I've changed to accelerate experiements.
Guys we need Mana more than fortune by a mile now.
0
Options
Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
edited March 2016
Turn 50
DecisionH(Caldeot) 4 S10: Scouting old hangouts, science rushing to find out what the swiggity swooty is going on with that second one of a kind artifact Bonuses: +4 Mana, +5 Fortune
Sanders, The Magma Wyrm [adds +25 to fortune threshold. Improves fortunes]
Elephantite x1
-1 mana/turn
15 peasants of labour
Ludovic, Garin and Alaine: The three senile wizards
Living in Shady Mages Retirement Community within the Obsidian Tower
+1 study/turn
-1 time/turn]
Mitel the husband
Missing!
[*] In Caldeot
[**] With traders
[Adaptable] During a round, one positive trait of the target is cancelled
[Lucky] One reroll per round
[Very lucky] Two rerolls per round
[Ranged(short)] Make one attack without retaliation before melee
[Wizard] Must spend 1 mana / round or lose all but one dice
[Mana eater] An engaged wizard must spend an extra 1 mana / round
[Swarmfighting] +1 on rolls when targeting an enemy targeted by another ally
[Hard to kill] If beaten in combat make a difficulty 8 check. On success the unit is not destroyed
[Sluggish] Only rolls dice every second round
[Battle Scholar] +1 study / round and +1 study on a natural 10
[Armoured N] Unit has N armour that are lost in place of dice
[Obscuring]: target rolls one fewer dice (cannot reduce dice rolled to fewer than one)
[Deadslayer]: Makes a difficulty 8 check each round. On success deals a dice of damage to a random bonemancy enemy unit
[Distracting]: All target rolls are made at -1
[Aftermath]: Each turn, make a one dice attack against a random enemy unit other than the current target
[Hellfire] = Any natural 10s rolled in combat grant an immediate extra attack roll
[Manaburn] = Must spend 2 mana / round or be destroyed
[Unstable] = Any natural 1s rolled in combat deal one dice of damage to the unit
[Boil A/B] = One additional attack roll if a friendly unit with an unmatched trait is in combat
[Defender X]: Engages X enemy units
[Noncombatant] : Does not roll attack dice
[Destined]: Instead of losing a dice pay 5 fortune and 10 mana
[Digest]: Every unit destroyed produces resources equal to its number of dice
[Defender N]: Will always be targeted first by enemies and will be targeted by N enemy units
[Sharp]: A roll of 9 or 10 deals 2 dice of damage
[Inferno N]: When destroyed, immediately make N extra attacks
Artifacts
Vulcanus
Grants Ranged(short) to the bearer
Intelligent(?)
The Archive
Reflections on the twin shards and their ultimate connection to the artifact once known as The Weir
Lowers difficulty of drawing by 2
Increases output of drawing by +1/dice
Increases mana income by +1 / turn
Allows shard fusion/destruction
A detailed consideration of the entities which lurk below and how to effectively bind them into perpetual servitude
Allows Smoulderlings and Elephantites to be summoned
Of the interplay between bonemancy and lavashaping: Flaming skulls or smouldering corpses?
Grants [Wizard] units [deadslayer] ability
On the origin of Vulcanus by means of ethereal selection, and the sub splintering of the world crystal]/i]
Grants Cinders [Aftermath]
Allows construction of the Shardforge
Makes Vulcanus loyal
On the interactions of lavashaping with the wider inherent energies of the natural world, a study into previously forbidden aspects of the college
Allows construction of the Glassworks
Allows volcanoes to be raised
+1 dice, +1 strength to lavashaper [Wizard]s
+1 dice to Magma culstists
A discourse concerning cosmological systems: On the marvellous proportion of the celestial spheres and on the true and particular causes of the number, magnitude and periodic motions of the heavens completed
Mercantile guild improves from 1d4-1 to 1d6+1
Can train Foreseen Cutists
Can construct the Cosmic Looking Glass
Can trade fortune
Cinders is now [Very Lucky] rather than [Lucky]
A primer on locks, seals and bindings
Allows the Institute within the city to be unlocked
All summon spell mana costs reduced by 5%
The triumph of life at the expense of cultivation: The lingering question in the dying world
Farms produce +2 food
May now produce Burning Fisheries
Dismemberment of the physical form and distillation of the dominant ethers within the autonomous construct gifted by the wizard Ingvar
May now detect hidden automata
Lumbermill improves to +1 resource / 8 peasants / turn
Diplomacy
Sultan Ofan: New Thett, the merchant hub Relations: Slightly perturbed Spy in place: Undetected Military: 8 dice at 7+ strength
The Senate: Drome, the plague-ridden city state Relations: Hatred of all wizardry
The Drowned Lady: In the dungeon Relations: Seething hatred
Caldeot The town by the (un)Drowned City Relations: ??? Status: Held by enemy forces
Tzo'lin: The Undying Pious servant of The Bound Giant Relations: Hostile Status: Possibly now fused with his god
Ingvar: The Instigator Mechano-Sage Relations: Unknown
Talen: The other one
Axiom: The Fistcaster Loyalist
Nephroditi: The Bonemancer Wanderer
Selin:The Silver-tongued Spirit-Weaver
Mojo_Jojo on
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
0
Options
Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
edited March 2016
Summary
It had been less than three full days since Caldeot had fallen and from a distance it looked eerily peaceful. At least if it wasn't for the vast hunk of the world hanging in the air above the centre of the drowned city and the numerous smaller things drifting this way and that above Caldeot proper. Those rather stood out and let the trio know that the attackers had not at all moved on at all.
Seven vast chains anchored the city-island in place, each made landfall somewhere in the city that had once lurked beneath the lake. It floated too high for Cook and the others to make out much about the surface aside from the presence of structures. The underside was a tangle of spinning rotors and strange fiery jets jutting out of what looked a great deal like the bedrock it was. There was no doubting that the city-island had once been part of the world, although now it was scattered with metallic sections of machinery which artificially supported its vast mass. The smaller islands were similar to the one which had brought the raiders to Glassalia. They flew rather lower and seemed to be shuttling back and forth between their mother and Caldeot.
For a few hours the scouts silently traced a wide circle around the town, watching the creatures that must have been border guards. There were four in total, giants at least twice the height of Cook, and formed entirely of bones. Despite their material, Cook did not feel he could describe them as skeletons at all. While their forms were humanoid, the bones used to form their various bodyparts were haphazard and unnatural. And much too small. Each bone sentinel was made from ordinary bones that seemed at least partially human in origin. They moved strangely too. Nephroditi's skeletons had moved something like a person despite their lack of ligaments and muscle. These things broke down and reformed constantly as they shifted position. Taking a step saw the bones of the back leg racing one at a time through the air to form into the new front leg. Whatever part of the things had been stationary for the longest was the bone that moved to form an extending limb or pivotong torso. And despite all of this they still moved in a mockery of normality, planting one foot after another. Rather than having a composite or an undersized skull, the things lacked heads as such. Three orbs of blue fire made up what passed for a head.
Fortunately their constant reforming steps made them fairly slow too move and the four traced an endless pattern in their patrol allowing the three scouts to slip into the town undetected. Those familiar streets bore little evidence of the recent attack. In fact they were substantially freer of detritus and muck than they had been under both The Drowned Lady and Cinders' rule.
"I've never seen a town so clean and tidy. It's like a damn model."
Cook spoke out loud despite himself earning a sharp glance from the Nuava, the newest addition to the group of irregular scouts. She gestured to the windows. Despite the sinking sun there was no sign of light within. This street was deserted. Turning, the smell of baking bread tugged at the stomach of each of the three. A bakery at the end of the street was clearly not abandoned and was still working. Smoke rose from the chimney and light crept between the closed shutters.
Fanning out, Nuava pressed he head against the side of the wall and squinted with her one eye through the crack between the shutter and the wall. The view confirmed that this the bakery was indeed still fully active. Possibly moreso than it ever had been before. At least half a dozen peasants were working inside. She watched dough being mixed, kneaded and formed. Loaves loaded into the great ovens and left to cool. Racks of fresh bread were nearly arranged in what had once been the shop front. The bakers worked in incredible unison, and seemed to be happily chatting between themselves. Nuava couldn't make out the words, but she could spy the influence of magic at work. A lump of coal rolled out of the scuttle by the oven without a care for natural laws and hurled itself into the furnace beneath. The floor too was entirely free of the floury coating that was entirely unavoidably in any mundane bakery. She watched, a double handful of flour being taken from a large sack and dumped onto a worksurface, the streamers of spillage whipping themselves into a brief eddy before returning to the sack.
A shadow above alerted the trio to the arrival of one of the small floating rocky islands. It hovered on the opposite side of the bakery to the scouts, who took up positions to watch as a metal cage was lowered on slender metals cables from the edge. Four or five figures were visible at the edge of the island. Cook thought he could make out the strange cream-coloured tattoos standing out against exposed skin that marked them as eastfolk. People from the distant tundra where Ingvar had invited Cinders to join him. The same as the raiders at Glassalia.
The door to the bakery opened with a slam, and heavy trays of loaves were loaded into the cage. Filling it took almost amiable twenty minutes. The two groups called to one another, the bakers bragging about the quality of their produce and the flight crew thanking the for their hard work. Once full, the eastfolk hauled it aboard their floating vessel before it rose further into the air and headed back towards the flying city. With the delivery complete, the bakers returned to their work, happily churning out more food for their oppressors.
Nuava, Cook and the stocky Helis gathered together to debate next steps,
"What in the sixteen hells if wrong with them? Why aren't they fighting back? They fought us tooth and nail when we freed them from that crazy cult. Somebody else turns up in a flying city and suddenly they are just freely helping them and working through the night?"
"We could wait until they stop and grab one of them? See what's up?"
Cook made the final decision,
"No. I don't like it, and I don't want to hang around. We had an agent here, back before the liberation even. We'll pay her a visit."
They crossed the town, stopping to briefly to investigate any sources of activity. A group of peasants loaded carts with various dry goods taken from a store off the market square, a strangely ordered looting. An abattoir was a similar bustling hive, Helis took a chance and eased open one of the doors. Inside, she found a similar scene to the bakery. A very clean, well-ordered and bafflingly cheery scene with a little magic helping out as they stripped down de-boned carcasses. Slipping into the ice-house, Helis found it packed and not just with goats and sheep. Some of those forms were unmistakeably human, locals and tattooed eastfolk alike. And all of them had already had all of their bones removed. She quietly retched and made a hasty exit. She refused to tell Cook and Nuava what she had seen.
A little way before the agent's house was a broad empty expanse. A wide circle of undulating glass. A very intense heat had burnt here all too briefly, consuming the buildings around it and melting the stone into a single mass. It was still warm to the touch.
When they reached their destination, they found it empty. They searched thoroughly hoping for some note or clue as to how the populace had been so quickly turned. What they found was a coffer crammed with coins from the five corners of the world. The agent's retirement fund. It was enough to buy a very healthy set of twilight years. Taking their prize and decided to report what they had found rather than risking capture beneath the flying city, the scouts returned home.
[Explorer check successful, +5 silver!]
Cinders had made a narrow bridge between her tower and The Weir. She stood on it now before that emptiness, enjoying the salty air rising up from the shallows below, working to decipher its secrets. Despite her efforts, she was making slow progress. Still, she was sure that if she could come to terms with this then she would understand something very fundamental not just about the source of her power, but about the world and magic itself.
A sound made her turn from her work. A shape in the air rapidly fading as she saw it. The impression of a familiar elaborate mask was quickly gone. Shaking her head, she returned inside. She was clearly working too hard and too solitary a manner.
Since perfecting her knowledge of bindings and sealed, Alaine, Ludovic and Garin had not managed to venture outside of their permitted chambers. She felt comfort when she spoke with them and despite their rotted minds, they offered a few useful insights that were helping her studies along. Despite their own lack of knowledge of their histories, she found herself feeling coming up with strange little details. Odd half-formed things. Garin had once borne another name, one that he stripped himself of. Alaine was the one who had first conceived of the castle in the mountains. Ludovic had lost his only love, and now he wore a mask to the outside world, presenting himself as whole when he was far from it.
[+3 study from acceleration]
[Growth, +3 peasants]
Cinders' conversation was interrupted. Another messenger from New Thett had arrived. Previously she had fobbed them off to buy time, but this one was adamant that the message had to be delivered in person to Mitel and was waiting in one of the tower's reception rooms.
Decision Time
(A letter, a number, symbol and (if you like) your vote bonus)
Peasant action:
A: Build houses (shelter for 25 peasants) (pay 15 resources)
B: Build a farm (+12 food) (pay 15 resources)
C: Build a burning fishery (+25 food, -1 mana/turn) (pay 20 resources and 10 mana) Form the Explorer's Guild (all scout actions now generate bonuses, +1 study / turn, +1 silver pieces / turn) (pay 50 resources and 25 silver)
E: Construction of an article of devotion [specify the form] (+1 mana / turn) (pay 25 resources and 25 silver. Cannot be paid for in mana) F: Construction of defensive walls [specific Glassalia or Caldeot] (5 dice, N/A strength [Defender 5] [Non-combatant]))(pay 100 resources and 10 silver) G: Construction of the Cosmic Looking Glass (+1 fortune / turn, allows the type of fortune to be chosen) (pay 50 silver, 50 resources and 50 mana)
H: Scout the world [specify direction] (difficulty 15 for an additional bonus)
I: Go whaling (difficulty 5 or lose 1d6 peasants, produces 5+1d6 silver pieces)
J: Train Glaivekin (2 dice, 7+ strength with [swarmfighting], [sharp] and [ranged(short)]) (pay 5 resources and 5 peasants)
K: Train Graniteguard (2 dice, 9+ strength with [armoured 2] and [defender 2]) (pay 5 resources and 5 peasants)
L: Train Magma Cultists (4 dice, 6+ strength [hellfire] [inferno 2] [manaburn] [unstable]) (pay 5 resources, 5 mana, 5 silver pieces and 3 peasants) (difficulty 15 to also produce a new apprentice)
M: Train Foreseen Cultists (3 dice, 3+ strength [destined] [lucky] [manaburn] (pay 5 resources, 5 mana, 5 fortune and 3 peasants) (difficulty 15 to also produce a new apprentice)
N: Have the peasants work a double shift (produce 1d6+5 resources)
O: Flood the trade markets (pay 50 resources, produce 3d6+10 silver pieces)
Cinders action:
1: Help the peasants (Pay 2x resource cost in mana and 0 resources on build, or pay 5 mana on production to obtain +1d8 resources, or pay 5 mana on whaling to remove check)
2: Try to draw more mana from the crystal shards (difficulty 8: Gains 4d8+4 mana, Failure is bad)
3: Devour resources (pay 25 resources, produces 2d8 mana and 1d4 study)
4: Accelerate the experiments (pay 3 mana, produces 1d8 study)
5: Summon Smoulderlings (produces a [Smoulderling] unit, 4 dice, 6+ [Obscuring], pay 38 mana)
6: Summon an Elephantite (produces labour equivalent to 15 peasants, pay 29 mana and 1mana/turn)
7: Summon a Grand Worm (produces a [Grand Worm] unit, 10 dice, 7+ [Digest], pay 72 mana) 8: Raise a volcano (specify location) (+1 mana / turn, +1 resource / turn, destroys the local area) (pay 100 mana) 9: Invoke the ritual of the statues (specify question) (also potentially gain Stillborn Memory units ) (pay 125 mana) 10: Part the sea and create a path to Drome (pay 100 mana)
11: Extract a peasant's time (-1 peasant, +3d6 time)
12: Attack somewhere (specify where & units)
13: Do some other diplomacy (specify who and what)
14: Rearrange military (specify the split of units between Tradersand Glassalia)
15: Muse quietly on your throne
£: Send the messenger back without explanation
$: Tell the truth, Mitel is missing and possibly dead
%: Make up an elaborate lie about Mitel having a contagious illness that had prevented him penning any corresponance for the last weeks and also prevents him from recieving the messanger in person
&: Have a peasant wear the synthetic face of the automata that had replaced Mitel and pretend to be him to receive the message and reassure his siblings that all is still okay
Mojo_Jojo on
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
D 13 (offer burning fishery to starving Thett) $[half truth, shortly after fathering a child we were attacked, the mechanical ones took Mitel and Caldeot, so Mitel is gone and maybe dead]. Mana
Thett is still starving and still likely to have massive uprisings, and we have a good chunk of mana savings. If we keep the spending low we'll be fine. And telling a lie with the truth can help us keep Thett on our side and maybe future joint action to take out the robots.
Building for silver and study, duh.
mojo, since the spy is pretty clearly deboned by now, we don't pay the upkeep anymore, right?
E(Statue showing Cinders destroying the floating island over Glassalia) 4 $
"He was taken in the recent attack on Glassalia. We plan on reclaiming our husband from the monsters that took him, and we pity those who stand in our way." etc etc
Giant bone golems and no rebels, I think that says enough about what happened. They were clearly subjugated, and the dissenters are now in one or more of those bone golems.
I still think we should summon a wurm or devour resources, accelerating the experiments seems like a weak option at this point. We need combat units and we certainly can not afford to use our handful of peasants.
He's a shy overambitious dog-catcher on the wrong side of the law. She's an orphaned psychic mercenary with the power to bend men's minds. They fight crime!
Also I wonder if when we finish the study we can destroy the negative weir.
Void Slayer on
He's a shy overambitious dog-catcher on the wrong side of the law. She's an orphaned psychic mercenary with the power to bend men's minds. They fight crime!
I think this is Tzo'lins work, he has created his God and now all is in unison with it. Weak-willed are bent to it, and the rest are broken and reformed into giants.
K11& - Mana, when they are finished looting Caldeot they'll go after us. We need to prepare for their attack.
@Tiphareth why do you want to extract time? We got 12 in the bank, the old coots only take 1 a turn.
And Void, I think Forseen are a poor choice for more units, they each up fortune and mana in huge chunks to avoid dice loss.
Finally, I think it hilarious how wearing a Mitel mask is an option. Just listening to the messenger, nodding along and trying to express everything with non-verbal body language and coughs that sound like words.
Your right, glavekin would be a better choice for soldiers (as they are likely to be doing backup combat with so many other combatants) or magma cultists for possible mages.
He's a shy overambitious dog-catcher on the wrong side of the law. She's an orphaned psychic mercenary with the power to bend men's minds. They fight crime!
Oi, chicken littling on the mana while Thett is about to crumble from starvation (and robot infiltration). Because I'm sure Ingvar has gotten more than a few inside the royal throne room if he got in ours.
0
Options
Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
@Tiphareth why do you want to extract time? We got 12 in the bank, the old coots only take 1 a turn.
And Void, I think Forseen are a poor choice for more units, they each up fortune and mana in huge chunks to avoid dice loss.
Finally, I think it hilarious how wearing a Mitel mask is an option. Just listening to the messenger, nodding along and trying to express everything with non-verbal body language and coughs that sound like words.
I don't want to use any mana since we are leaking it right now, and none of the other options seem wortwhile. So, better to extract some time now so we won't end up with a situation where we have to decide between losing the 3 stooges and something really bad.
@Tiphareth why do you want to extract time? We got 12 in the bank, the old coots only take 1 a turn.
And Void, I think Forseen are a poor choice for more units, they each up fortune and mana in huge chunks to avoid dice loss.
Finally, I think it hilarious how wearing a Mitel mask is an option. Just listening to the messenger, nodding along and trying to express everything with non-verbal body language and coughs that sound like words.
I don't want to use any mana since we are leaking it right now, and none of the other options seem wortwhile. So, better to extract some time now so we won't end up with a situation where we have to decide between losing the 3 stooges and something really bad.
This seems fair, but why aren't you sacrificing the messenger to the oldies Tiph?
Sanders, The Magma Wyrm [adds +25 to fortune threshold. Improves fortunes]
Elephantite x1
-1 mana/turn
15 peasants of labour
Ludovic, Garin and Alaine: The three senile wizards
Living in Shady Mages Retirement Community within the Obsidian Tower
+1 study/turn
-1 time/turn]
Mitel the husband
Missing!
[*] In Caldeot
[**] With traders
[Adaptable] During a round, one positive trait of the target is cancelled
[Lucky] One reroll per round
[Very lucky] Two rerolls per round
[Ranged(short)] Make one attack without retaliation before melee
[Wizard] Must spend 1 mana / round or lose all but one dice
[Mana eater] An engaged wizard must spend an extra 1 mana / round
[Swarmfighting] +1 on rolls when targeting an enemy targeted by another ally
[Hard to kill] If beaten in combat make a difficulty 8 check. On success the unit is not destroyed
[Sluggish] Only rolls dice every second round
[Battle Scholar] +1 study / round and +1 study on a natural 10
[Armoured N] Unit has N armour that are lost in place of dice
[Obscuring]: target rolls one fewer dice (cannot reduce dice rolled to fewer than one)
[Deadslayer]: Makes a difficulty 8 check each round. On success deals a dice of damage to a random bonemancy enemy unit
[Distracting]: All target rolls are made at -1
[Aftermath]: Each turn, make a one dice attack against a random enemy unit other than the current target
[Hellfire] = Any natural 10s rolled in combat grant an immediate extra attack roll
[Manaburn] = Must spend 2 mana / round or be destroyed
[Unstable] = Any natural 1s rolled in combat deal one dice of damage to the unit
[Boil A/B] = One additional attack roll if a friendly unit with an unmatched trait is in combat
[Defender X]: Engages X enemy units
[Noncombatant] : Does not roll attack dice
[Destined]: Instead of losing a dice pay 5 fortune and 10 mana
[Digest]: Every unit destroyed produces resources equal to its number of dice
[Defender N]: Will always be targeted first by enemies and will be targeted by N enemy units
[Sharp]: A roll of 9 or 10 deals 2 dice of damage
[Inferno N]: When destroyed, immediately make N extra attacks
Artifacts
Vulcanus
Grants Ranged(short) to the bearer
Intelligent(?)
The Archive
Reflections on the twin shards and their ultimate connection to the artifact once known as The Weir
Lowers difficulty of drawing by 2
Increases output of drawing by +1/dice
Increases mana income by +1 / turn
Allows shard fusion/destruction
A detailed consideration of the entities which lurk below and how to effectively bind them into perpetual servitude
Allows Smoulderlings and Elephantites to be summoned
Of the interplay between bonemancy and lavashaping: Flaming skulls or smouldering corpses?
Grants [Wizard] units [deadslayer] ability
On the origin of Vulcanus by means of ethereal selection, and the sub splintering of the world crystal]/i]
Grants Cinders [Aftermath]
Allows construction of the Shardforge
Makes Vulcanus loyal
On the interactions of lavashaping with the wider inherent energies of the natural world, a study into previously forbidden aspects of the college
Allows construction of the Glassworks
Allows volcanoes to be raised
+1 dice, +1 strength to lavashaper [Wizard]s
+1 dice to Magma culstists
A discourse concerning cosmological systems: On the marvellous proportion of the celestial spheres and on the true and particular causes of the number, magnitude and periodic motions of the heavens completed
Mercantile guild improves from 1d4-1 to 1d6+1
Can train Foreseen Cutists
Can construct the Cosmic Looking Glass
Can trade fortune
Cinders is now [Very Lucky] rather than [Lucky]
A primer on locks, seals and bindings
Allows the Institute within the city to be unlocked
All summon spell mana costs reduced by 5%
The triumph of life at the expense of cultivation: The lingering question in the dying world
Farms produce +2 food
May now produce Burning Fisheries
Dismemberment of the physical form and distillation of the dominant ethers within the autonomous construct gifted by the wizard Ingvar
May now detect hidden automata
Lumbermill improves to +1 resource / 8 peasants / turn
Diplomacy
Sultan Ofan: New Thett, the merchant hub Relations: Slightly perturbed Spy in place: Undetected Military: 8 dice at 7+ strength
The Senate: Drome, the plague-ridden city state Relations: Hatred of all wizardry
The Drowned Lady: In the dungeon Relations: Seething hatred
Caldeot The town by the (un)Drowned City Relations: ??? Status: Held by enemy forces
Tzo'lin: The Undying Pious servant of The Bound Giant Relations: Hostile Status: Possibly now fused with his god
Ingvar: The Instigator Mechano-Sage Relations: Unknown
Talen: The other one
Axiom: The Fistcaster Loyalist
Nephroditi: The Bonemancer Wanderer
Selin:The Silver-tongued Spirit-Weaver
Summary
Some claimed that the truth would set you free. To be perfectly honest though, Cinders did not particularly feel like she was in any kind of prison constructed of lies. She had just fobbed off a few servants who asked too many questions. And now that was getting boring and it was time for it to end. She brought the head of the mechanical Mitel along with her. The thing no longer looked even remotely lifelike, it was a disturbing fleshy mask drapped across a split metal orb holding a hidden spike. Arriving in the grand reception room to meet the messenger, she dropped the head into her lap.
"There. That is what remains of the man I thought to be my husband."
Despite years of careful training to maintain her decorum at all times, the messenger's jaw dropped.
"I do not know where the real man is, but I will find him. Alive or dead. He bound himself to me and he has been taken. I will burn this world to its roots if I have to. You should warn the Sultan and the rest of his children. These machines look and act like us."
She turned and left the room. Almost half an hour past before the envoy realised that she had been dismissed.
The famines that afflicted the rest of this world continued as magic fundamentally changed things, but in Glassalia at least there was sufficient food for the moment. The farmers complained of hares making off with their lifestock and the nights were haunted by strange shapes in the sky. Still, it was a far easier life than it had been and the citizens used their increased leisure time wisely. They used it to build a fantastic new statue in the centre of the town. One that celebrated a future victory against the huge floating city which had just conquered Caldeot. A vast construction of stone and bronze that depicted a huge island crashing dramatically into the ground. It was studded with tiny figures slaughtering savage looking raiders. Their efforts flowed into Cinders. It was a trickle against the flood that poured into The Weir; her strength still ebbed.
Elsewhere, Nuava had founded a new guild within Glassalia. The explorer's guild subsumed the previous adhoc scouting efforts entirely. Now their efforts were constant and already they returned with odd curiosities from the lands around.
Despite the progress, Cinders was uneasy. Without Mitel she had almost certainly lost her grip on New Thett and in her mind there was little doubt that the floating city would come to Glassalia next. That it would turn its domination upon her people. Irritatingly, the fortunes did not confirm these fears. Nor did they deny it. There was just a strange uncertainty looming in every future. At least for the moment.
Decision Time
(A letter, a number and (if you like) your vote bonus)
Peasant action:
A: Build houses (shelter for 25 peasants) (pay 15 resources)
B: Build a farm (+12 food) (pay 15 resources)
C: Build a burning fishery (+25 food, -1 mana/turn) (pay 20 resources and 10 mana) Construction of an article of devotion [specify the form] (+1 mana / turn) (pay 30 resources and 30 silver. Cannot be paid for in mana) E: Construction of defensive walls [specific Glassalia or Caldeot] (5 dice, N/A strength [Defender 5] [Non-combatant]))(pay 100 resources and 10 silver) F: Construction of the Cosmic Looking Glass (+1 fortune / turn, allows the type of fortune to be chosen) (pay 50 silver, 50 resources and 50 mana)
G: Explore the world [specify direction] (Always yields a minor bonus)
H: Go whaling (difficulty 5 or lose 1d6 peasants, produces 5+1d6 silver pieces)
I: Train Glaivekin (2 dice, 7+ strength with [swarmfighting], [sharp] and [ranged(short)]) (pay 5 resources and 5 peasants)
J: Train Graniteguard (2 dice, 9+ strength with [armoured 2] and [defender 2]) (pay 5 resources and 5 peasants)
K: Train Magma Cultists (4 dice, 6+ strength [hellfire] [inferno 2] [manaburn] [unstable]) (pay 5 resources, 5 mana, 5 silver pieces and 3 peasants) (difficulty 15 to also produce a new apprentice)
L: Train Foreseen Cultists (3 dice, 3+ strength [destined] [lucky] [manaburn] (pay 5 resources, 5 mana, 5 fortune and 3 peasants) (difficulty 15 to also produce a new apprentice)
M: Have the peasants work a double shift (produce 1d6+5 resources) N: Flood the trade markets (pay 50 resources, produce 3d6+10 silver pieces)
Cinders action:
1: Help the peasants (Pay 2x resource cost in mana and 0 resources on build, or pay 5 mana on production to obtain +1d8 resources, or pay 5 mana on whaling to remove check)
2: Try to draw more mana from the crystal shards (difficulty 8: Gains 4d8+4 mana, Failure is bad) 3: Devour resources (pay 25 resources, produces 2d8 mana and 1d4 study)
4: Accelerate the experiments (pay 3 mana, produces 1d8 study)
5: Summon Smoulderlings (produces a [Smoulderling] unit, 4 dice, 6+ [Obscuring], pay 38 mana)
6: Summon an Elephantite (produces labour equivalent to 15 peasants, pay 29 mana and 1mana/turn)
7: Summon a Grand Worm (produces a [Grand Worm] unit, 10 dice, 7+ [Digest], pay 72 mana) 8: Raise a volcano (specify location) (+1 mana / turn, +1 resource / turn, destroys the local area) (pay 100 mana) 9: Invoke the ritual of the statues (specify question) (also potentially gain Stillborn Memory units ) (pay 125 mana) 10: Part the sea and create a path to Drome (pay 100 mana)
11: Extract a peasant's time (-1 peasant, +3d6 time)
12: Attack somewhere (specify where & units)
13: Do some other diplomacy (specify who and what)
14: Rearrange military (specify the split of units between Traders and Glassalia)
15: Muse quietly on your throne
Mojo_Jojo on
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
I'm thinking we can maybe get the fishery up and offer to send it with New Thett as a way to tide over them getting angry. Maybe next turn draw, then the turn after we can summon a worm?
Posts
All votes, bonus mana not fortune!
PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
K2Mana
It seems all we've managed to do is give Ingvar more mana from letting him siphon off ours now.
Decision K 2: Mo' graniteguard, mo' drawing,
Bonuses: +6 Mana, +1 Fortune
Things
Fortune: 16/50 [+1/turn]
Growth: 9/10 [+2/turn]
Peasants: 7 (22 labour)
Population: 19
Shelter: 50
Food: 53
Resources: 59 [+7*/turn]
Silver Pieces: 23 [+1*/turn]
Study: 2/- [+5/turn] [The machines]
Husbands: 0?
Time: 13 [-1/turn]
*+1d6+3 to lowest total
The Obsidian Tower
Ambient magic: +2 mana / turn
Fused shards: Foreseen, Loyalist: +11 mana / turn, +1 resource / turn, +1 growth / turn, +1 study / turn, +1 fortune / turn
The Weir: -10 mana/turn
[Ashvent] - Prevents scrying in the region
[Scholar's Hall] - Allows research, +1 study/turn
Glassalia
[Fertile Farm] = +17 food
3 [Farm]s (+12 food each = 36 food)
[Glass houses] = +25 shelter
[Granite houses] = +25 shelter
[Lumber yard] = +1 resource / 8 peasants / turn)
[Tavern] = +1 growth / turn
[Mercantile Guild] +1d6+1 / turn to lowest of silver pieces or resources
[Shardforge] = + 1 resource / turn
[Mine] = +3 resources / turn, +2 silver / turn
[Scouting] = Difficulty 15 check when exploring to uncover additional bonuses
[Galleon] = Allows whaling and sea movement
[Mana Focus] = +1 draw dice, -3 to draw difficulty
[College of Wizardry] = Allows cultists, +1 study / turn
Augment in College: +1 study/turn, apprentice check difficulty reduced by 1
[Devotion] Statue of Cinderella striking down Axiom= +1 mana / turn
[Glassworks]: -5 mana/turn. Gives non-summoned trainable units new traits
New Thett
Spy = -1 silver pieces / turn, +1 to mercantile guild
Trade route: +1 silver pieces / turn
Individuals & Armies
Combat: 6 dice, 3+ strength [Very Lucky] [Battle Scholar] [Wizard] [Ranged(short)] [Deadslayer] [Aftermath] [boil A]
Equipment: Vulcanus
Vote bonuses: +1 Mana or +1 Fortune per vote
Misty, The Ivory Apprentice Rainbringer
Combat: 3 dice, 6+ strength [Distracting] [Wizard] [Deadslayer] [boil B]
Knowledge: +1study/round
Runed golem
Combat: 5 dice, 7+ strength, [Armoured 2]
Glaivekin
Combat: 2 dice, 7+ strength, [swarmfighting] [ranged(short)]
Graniteguard
Combat: 2 dice, 9+ strength [armoured 2][defender 2])
Graniteguard
Combat: 2 dice, 9+ strength [armoured 2][defender 2])
Magma cultists[**]
Combat: 4 dice, 6+ strength, [hellfire] [manaburn] [unstable] [boil A]
Stillborn Memories
Combat: 3 dice, 5+ strength, [sluggish] [mana-eater]
Stillborn Memories
Combat: 3 dice, 5+ strength, [sluggish] [mana-eater]
Stillborn Memories
Combat: 3 dice, 5+ strength, [sluggish] [mana-eater]
Foreseen cultists
Combat: 3 dice, 3+ strength, [destined] [manaburn]
Sanders, The Magma Wyrm [adds +25 to fortune threshold. Improves fortunes]
Elephantite x1
-1 mana/turn
15 peasants of labour
Ludovic, Garin and Alaine: The three senile wizards
Living in Shady Mages Retirement Community within the Obsidian Tower
+1 study/turn
-1 time/turn]
Mitel the husband
Missing!
[*] In Caldeot
[**] With traders
[Adaptable] During a round, one positive trait of the target is cancelled
[Lucky] One reroll per round
[Very lucky] Two rerolls per round
[Ranged(short)] Make one attack without retaliation before melee
[Wizard] Must spend 1 mana / round or lose all but one dice
[Mana eater] An engaged wizard must spend an extra 1 mana / round
[Swarmfighting] +1 on rolls when targeting an enemy targeted by another ally
[Hard to kill] If beaten in combat make a difficulty 8 check. On success the unit is not destroyed
[Sluggish] Only rolls dice every second round
[Battle Scholar] +1 study / round and +1 study on a natural 10
[Armoured N] Unit has N armour that are lost in place of dice
[Obscuring]: target rolls one fewer dice (cannot reduce dice rolled to fewer than one)
[Deadslayer]: Makes a difficulty 8 check each round. On success deals a dice of damage to a random bonemancy enemy unit
[Distracting]: All target rolls are made at -1
[Aftermath]: Each turn, make a one dice attack against a random enemy unit other than the current target
[Hellfire] = Any natural 10s rolled in combat grant an immediate extra attack roll
[Manaburn] = Must spend 2 mana / round or be destroyed
[Unstable] = Any natural 1s rolled in combat deal one dice of damage to the unit
[Boil A/B] = One additional attack roll if a friendly unit with an unmatched trait is in combat
[Defender X]: Engages X enemy units
[Noncombatant] : Does not roll attack dice
[Destined]: Instead of losing a dice pay 5 fortune and 10 mana
[Digest]: Every unit destroyed produces resources equal to its number of dice
[Defender N]: Will always be targeted first by enemies and will be targeted by N enemy units
[Sharp]: A roll of 9 or 10 deals 2 dice of damage
[Inferno N]: When destroyed, immediately make N extra attacks
Artifacts
Grants Ranged(short) to the bearer
Intelligent(?)
The Archive
Lowers difficulty of drawing by 2
Increases output of drawing by +1/dice
Increases mana income by +1 / turn
Allows shard fusion/destruction
A detailed consideration of the entities which lurk below and how to effectively bind them into perpetual servitude
Allows Smoulderlings and Elephantites to be summoned
Of the interplay between bonemancy and lavashaping: Flaming skulls or smouldering corpses?
Grants [Wizard] units [deadslayer] ability
On the origin of Vulcanus by means of ethereal selection, and the sub splintering of the world crystal]/i]
Grants Cinders [Aftermath]
Allows construction of the Shardforge
Makes Vulcanus loyal
On the interactions of lavashaping with the wider inherent energies of the natural world, a study into previously forbidden aspects of the college
Allows construction of the Glassworks
Allows volcanoes to be raised
+1 dice, +1 strength to lavashaper [Wizard]s
+1 dice to Magma culstists
A discourse concerning cosmological systems: On the marvellous proportion of the celestial spheres and on the true and particular causes of the number, magnitude and periodic motions of the heavens completed
Mercantile guild improves from 1d4-1 to 1d6+1
Can train Foreseen Cutists
Can construct the Cosmic Looking Glass
Can trade fortune
Cinders is now [Very Lucky] rather than [Lucky]
A primer on locks, seals and bindings
Allows the Institute within the city to be unlocked
All summon spell mana costs reduced by 5%
The triumph of life at the expense of cultivation: The lingering question in the dying world
Farms produce +2 food
May now produce Burning Fisheries
Dismemberment of the physical form and distillation of the dominant ethers within the autonomous construct gifted by the wizard Ingvar
May now detect hidden automata
Lumbermill improves to +1 resource / 8 peasants / turn
Diplomacy
Sultan Ofan: New Thett, the merchant hub
Relations: Slightly perturbed
Spy in place: Undetected
Military: 8 dice at 7+ strength
The Senate: Drome, the plague-ridden city state
Relations: Hatred of all wizardry
The Drowned Lady: In the dungeon
Relations: Seething hatred
Caldeot The town by the (un)Drowned City
Relations: ???
Status: Held by enemy forces
Spy: Undetected (-1 silver piece / turn cost)
Tzo'lin: The Undying Pious servant of The Bound Giant
Relations: Hostile
Status: Possibly now fused with his god
Ingvar: The Instigator Mechano-Sage
Relations: Unknown
Talen: The other one
Axiom: The Fistcaster Loyalist
Nephroditi: The Bonemancer Wanderer
Selin:The Silver-tongued Spirit-Weaver
A new day dawned while the coming conflict loomed over Glassalia. Cinders looked down on the town still recovering from the rain of shattered obelisks yesterday. She absently popped a tiny pebble into her mouth and rolled it around in her mouth, savouring the rich strata of flavours. Below the streets she could see the glowing rivulets of the world's lifeblood pulsing and shifting as they counted down through the last remaining hour. Another unit of grantiteguard, fresh recruits with armour only finished that morning, were stamping their way to man the southern edge of the town while the others aimed to hold the east. Cinders planned to remain within her tower and hurl down her own brand of fiery destruction when the enemy arrived. The skies above were dark with storm clouds. The battle would be accompanied by suitably dramatic weather.
She had decided to leave Caldeot with only one of her cultist triads. If the attack there was anything more than the very lightest of feints then she would lose the recently undrowned city and Caldeot itself, but having moved The Weir... It still hung outside grasped by a half dozen gigantic stone arms but straining against them at every moment, desperate to break free and unite itself with Cinders' shards. She could not risk that being captured by the enemy. And so she had gathered her forces here. The strange animated statues from her communion would also be tested for the first time. They responded well enough to instruction, seemingly content to be led by whichever of her cultists was nearest.
Turning back from the open window, Cinders walked back within the tower. She bit down on the pebble, shattering it into even smaller pieces and revealing a tiny fleck of sour quartz at the centre. Another couple of stones found their way into her mouth as she made her way to the central shard chamber. Arriving, she pressed both hands against its surface and did her best to ignore the constant outpour of energy that no longer fed into her own reserves but were lost elsewhere. She reached inside and the energies flowed out into her once more. Still the shard itself did its best to drag a little of Cinders into itself, but she resisted this easily enough. After a few moments she closed the connection. It was time. She left to head for the top of the tower.
[Drawing success: +30mana]
A rumble of thunder roared through Glassalia and the heavens opened. The droplets of rain hissed and disappeared a few inches before reaching Cinders' skin, such was the forge inside her stoked. The rain was black and sulphurous with ashes from the protective vent. Misty joined her master at the top of the tower and began her work in ending the rain to ensure that the Glassallian troops could see clearly and stand firm without slipping on the grey slurry that was already being deposited across every flattish surface.
When the attack came, it came from the air.
A dozen slender cables burst through the black clouds and bit through the glass paved streets of the town below. Some snapped away, failing to grip, but most managed to anchor themselves into the stony ground. Tiny bulges emerged shortly after, shapes rushing along those cables and down towards Glassalia at a tremendous rate. Looking up, a flash of lightning briefly illuminated a shape hiding within the clouds: the source of those cables and their riders. The first figures hurtling down the cables reached the ground, detaching themselves shortly before the end to fall the final half dozen feet. The rain had stopped almost entirely now and through the clearing air, both Cinders and Misty could see that the enemy soldiers. They looked feral, clad in furs and skulls, but their movements betrayed considerably martial skill. These were no simple savages.
The cables snapped as Cinders bade their twisted fibres melt. The sudden break in tension caused them to whip upwards dramatically and the final two thirds of the raiders were flung widely. Dropping from such heights there would be no hope of survival for them.
Glaives scythed through the air attackers as the attackers recovered from their rapid descents. Despite having been positioned at the fringes of the town, the glaivekin adapted easily and launched their own attack. Many of the enemy fell to the viscously spinning discs before they could even unsheathe weapons. The raiders formed up, determined to fight on despite their losses. Most carried a weapon either hand, hammers, axes and swords were all in evidence and only a scant few bothered with a shield at all. There was no doubting that these were experienced soldiers as they arranged themselves to cover flanks and maximize visibility. It was the foreseen that arrived toe-to-toe first. They moved quickly in a strange stuttering dance. Around their feet the corpses of the fallen raiders, those slain by the ranged barrage or cut from the cables, twitched and shuddered before erupting dramatically. A field of razor sharp bone fragments erupted upwards. There was no doubting that this was the work of bonemancy. No other magic could command the very skeletons to leap from within corpses. Such base tricks were insufficient to even draw blood from the cultists, however. They crouched and weaved, rolled and dodged, turned and side-stepped. The paths of fortune were open to them; the trajectory of each pointed shard of bone were all too clear.
With that trap having failed, there was nothing stopping the foreseen cultists from closing. Slender daggers, razor tipped limbs, swerved wildly and found their way around chain vests and horned helmets to land in any patch of exposed skin. A throat, an eye, an armpit. All at once those few raiders joined their deceased colleagues.
Stretching her hands wide, Cinders commanded the metal cables as they slashed through the air. They pulled taut once more, eager to anchor themselves once again. The shape in the clouds was clear now. A tiny island of stone and dirt floating in the sky. A mass of stuff that also longed to obey the whims of the lavashaper. It did not wish to fly and Cinders was only too happy to help it. A swarm of figures were flicked from its surface as the island twisted in the air. She called it to her. Pulled it before her for inspection.
The island was thirty yards across if not less, its surface studded with the metallic protrusions of various machines around a long wooden structure that took up most of its available flat area - a barracks that had housed the raiders during their journey through the sky. Whirring blades ringed the underside; apparently some kind of propulsion mechanism. They strained pathetically as they fought to break her grasp on the island. Vulcanus arrived now, excitedly circling the snared island. He clipped some of those rotors and hacked a chunk from the stony mass. It fell away into the sea revealing an internal mass of odd machinery within the island itself. These were its organs. The flying platform itself had been alive. Or at least had some strange parody of life. Screaming with delight, Vulcanus vanished within the island. Gouts of steam, smoke, lubricating oils and quicksilver spurted out in response. Cinders tossed the island aside, sending the wounded mechanical beast to die beneath the waves.
It did not take long to realise that the main attack must have been aimed at Caldeot, but it was too late to do anything about that. The small group of aerial ambushers had been nothing more than a distraction.
[Two rounds of combat in Glassalia. No troops lost. +2 study, -4 mana from turns, -5 fortune and -10 mana avoiding Foreseen cultists dice loss]
It was hours later before news arrived from Caldeot. The town was gone. Overwhelming forces had arrived from the air and the sea, and at their heart was a flying city. A huge version of the thing that Cinders and Vulcanus had torn into pieces in Glassalia. The attackers had moved quickly to overcome the town's defences and prevent the residents from fleeing, but most had headed into the undrowned city as soon as it was clear that the organised resistance was overcome. For now, it was not clear whether Cinders' agent within those walls had survived. If she had, then word would come as soon as she was able. But that could be some time.
[One round of combat in Caldeot, -2 mana. Magma cultists are lost. Caldeot is lost. -80 peasants, - 8 farms, - 8 housing, +5 silver/turn, trade route broken, devotion lost.]
Muted celebrations spread through Glassalia. They had beaten off the invaders but the domain of Cinders the lavashaper had been dramatically reduced in size. Cinders herself returned to her study in a black mood. Ingvar's creation lay upon a basalt table, dissembled into a mess of component parts. The remains of several more humanoid automata were similarly broken down. Both were unquestionably the work of the same magic, if it could really be called magic at all. The mechano-sages practised an unusual set of skills, closer to common engineering than the noble magical traditions for the most part. Back in the Institute, the mechano-sages had been regarded with a combination of suspicion and derision. The sparks of thought and intelligence within the animate machines were clearly something other, but they responded uniquely to the probing of Cinders, unlike a creation born of a more usual branch of arcana. It was entirely other, and would not be bent to her will.
Ingvar's machine, that gift to Cinders so long ago, was evidently much more able than it had first appeared. He had hobbled it as he offered its service to her. And if the time came, he had been fully able to resume his command of it and unleash its considerable violence upon Cinders and her troops. A trap she had not fallen for.
The human-looking machines were works of art. The outer shells were so incredibly lifelike, far beyond any illusion or prestidigitation that Cinders had ever known. But inside there was no flesh and blood. Instead a complex, tangled mass of machinery. Most of which existed to drive the automaton but not all. Like Mitel's replacement, each housed various hidden weapons with a strong preference given to slender, poison-coated blades. She held a rubbery half-circle in her hands, a part of the face that was so close to her husband. She would not be fooled again. Looking within the things, she saw how she could detect them. How their strange driving sparks caused destiny to warp ever so slightly.
And beyond that, there were certain mechanical insights that the dissections had provided. This elegance would be transferred to her own people and their labours immediately.
[Research complete: You may now detect any automata hiding within your troops, lumbermill output is now +1 resource / 8 peasants / turn]
Looking back within the world, Cinders was troubled. The fates were cloudy now. Destiny seemed foreshortened and fluid.
Decision Time
(A letter, a number, study number and (if you like) your vote bonus)
Peasant action:
A: Build houses (shelter for 25 peasants) (pay 15 resources)
B: Build a farm (+12 food) (pay 15 resources)
C: Build a burning fishery (+25 food, -1 mana/turn) (pay 20 resources and 10 mana)
E: Construction of an article of devotion [specify the form] (+1 mana / turn) (pay 25 resources and 25 silver. Cannot be paid for in mana)
F: Construction of defensive walls [specific Glassalia or Caldeot] (5 dice, N/A strength [Defender 5] [Non-combatant]))(pay 100 resources and 10 silver)
G: Construction of the Cosmic Looking Glass (+1 fortune / turn, allows the type of fortune to be chosen) (pay 50 silver, 50 resources and 50 mana)
H: Scout the world [specify direction] (difficulty 15 for an additional bonus)
I: Go whaling (difficulty 5 or lose 1d6 peasants, produces 5+1d6 silver pieces)
J: Train Glaivekin (2 dice, 7+ strength with [swarmfighting], [sharp] and [ranged(short)]) (pay 5 resources and 5 peasants)
K: Train Graniteguard (2 dice, 9+ strength with [armoured 2] and [defender 2]) (pay 5 resources and 5 peasants)
L: Train Magma Cultists (4 dice, 6+ strength [hellfire] [inferno 2] [manaburn] [unstable]) (pay 5 resources, 5 mana, 5 silver pieces and 3 peasants) (difficulty 15 to also produce a new apprentice)
M: Train Foreseen Cultists (3 dice, 3+ strength [destined] [lucky] [manaburn] (pay 5 resources, 5 mana, 5 fortune and 3 peasants) (difficulty 15 to also produce a new apprentice)
N: Have the peasants work a double shift (produce 1d6+5 resources)
O: Flood the trade markets (pay 50 resources, produce 3d6+10 silver pieces)
Cinders action:
1: Help the peasants (Pay 2x resource cost in mana and 0 resources on build, or pay 5 mana on production to obtain +1d8 resources, or pay 5 mana on whaling to remove check)
2: Try to draw more mana from the crystal shards (difficulty 8: Gains 4d8+4 mana, Failure is bad)
3: Devour resources (pay 25 resources, produces 2d8 mana and 1d4 study)
4: Accelerate the experiments (pay 3 mana, produces 1d8 study)
5: Summon Smoulderlings (produces a [Smoulderling] unit, 4 dice, 6+ [Obscuring], pay 38 mana)
6: Summon an Elephantite (produces labour equivalent to 15 peasants, pay 29 mana and 1mana/turn)
7: Summon a Grand Worm (produces a [Grand Worm] unit, 10 dice, 7+ [Digest], pay 72 mana)
8: Raise a volcano (specify location) (+1 mana / turn, +1 resource / turn, destroys the local area) (pay 100 mana)
9: Invoke the ritual of the statues (specify question) (also potentially gain Stillborn Memory units ) (pay 125 mana)
10: Part the sea and create a path to Drome (pay 100 mana)
11: Extract a peasant's time (-1 peasant, +3d6 time)
12: Attack somewhere (specify where & units)
13: Do some other diplomacy (specify who and what)
14: Rearrange military (specify the split of units between Tradersand Glassalia)
15: Muse quietly on your throne
Study options:
S1: A treatise around the beast which lurks at the heart of the world, its unfathomable and terrible energies and how to effectively direct them [Improves summoning] (50 study)
S2: The fundamental fields and energies concerned with the diametric opposition to lavashaping upon the great wheel [Improves rainbringing wizardy for Misty] (25 study)
S3: A new way of dividing the cosmos? An inquiry into the elemental magics that rest between lavashaping and mud singing [Improves taster of stone wizardry] (50 study)
S4: Extractions and tinctures of an individual body's inherent longevity: A manual of how to prolong life [Improves time extraction] (25 study)
S5: On the origin and nature of the primordial great ones and the signs marked upon this world [Improves Stillborn Memories] (25 study)
S6: Of the castle in the mountains and its base rituals concerned with remote viewing [Improves scying] (10 study)
S7: In Which the Origin, Nature, Characteristics, and Use of Wormwood, Sulfur, and Quartz are Described in Three Parts [Allows alchemy] (50 study)
S8: That no one of true name doth perish, but men in error speak of their changes as destructions and as deaths [Allows symbology] (50 study)
S9: A hierarchy of pure metals and their alloys and their utility to trapping imprinted works [Allows crafting enchanted arms and objects] (50 study)
S10: Reflections on the fundamental truth that The Weir existed not as one artifact but two distinct halves spread across worlds [???] (50 study)
Need to flush out Ingvar and get the weir studied. But worried about Thett, I think offering a new source of fish for some silver is a good trade.
Edit- Weir bigger worry, got good mana store, reading is POWER!
We can create an article of devotion tomorrow if nothing happens, so I vote we not do anything that will lose us resources or silver. We kind of want to get 2 more so we can get to neutral on mana instead of having to draw every few turns.
Maybe we should scout Caldelot instead? I wonder if Ingvar is going all cylon on them or not.
Mojo, is that a a legit move?
Let's see what kind of horrible steampunk apocalypse awaits our former vassal state.
PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
Decision H(Caldeot) 4 S10: Scouting old hangouts, science rushing to find out what the swiggity swooty is going on with that second one of a kind artifact
Bonuses: +4 Mana, +5 Fortune
Things
Fortune: 22/50 [+1/turn]
Growth: 1/10 [+2/turn]
Peasants: 10 (25 labour)
Population: 22
Shelter: 50
Food: 53
Resources: 66 [+8*/turn]
Silver Pieces: 35 [+2*/turn]
Study: 10/50 [+5/turn] [The Weir(s)]
Husbands: 0?
Time: 12 [-1/turn]
*+1d6+3 to lowest total
The Obsidian Tower
Ambient magic: +2 mana / turn
Fused shards: Foreseen, Loyalist: +11 mana / turn, +1 resource / turn, +1 growth / turn, +1 study / turn, +1 fortune / turn
The Weir: -10 mana/turn
[Ashvent] - Prevents scrying in the region
[Scholar's Hall] - Allows research, +1 study/turn
Glassalia
[Fertile Farm] = +17 food
3 [Farm]s (+12 food each = 36 food)
[Glass houses] = +25 shelter
[Granite houses] = +25 shelter
[Lumber yard] = +1 resource / 8 peasants / turn)
[Tavern] = +1 growth / turn
[Mercantile Guild] +1d6+1 / turn to lowest of silver pieces or resources
[Shardforge] = + 1 resource / turn
[Mine] = +3 resources / turn, +2 silver / turn
[Scouting] = Difficulty 15 check when exploring to uncover additional bonuses
[Galleon] = Allows whaling and sea movement
[Mana Focus] = +1 draw dice, -3 to draw difficulty
[College of Wizardry] = Allows cultists, +1 study / turn
Augment in College: +1 study/turn, apprentice check difficulty reduced by 1
[Devotion] Statue of Cinderella striking down Axiom= +1 mana / turn
[Glassworks]: -5 mana/turn. Gives non-summoned trainable units new traits
New Thett
Spy = -1 silver pieces / turn, +1 to mercantile guild
Trade route: +1 silver pieces / turn
Individuals & Armies
Combat: 6 dice, 3+ strength [Very Lucky] [Battle Scholar] [Wizard] [Ranged(short)] [Deadslayer] [Aftermath] [boil A]
Equipment: Vulcanus
Vote bonuses: +1 Mana or +1 Fortune per vote
Misty, The Ivory Apprentice Rainbringer
Combat: 3 dice, 6+ strength [Distracting] [Wizard] [Deadslayer] [boil B]
Knowledge: +1study/round
Runed golem
Combat: 5 dice, 7+ strength, [Armoured 2]
Glaivekin
Combat: 2 dice, 7+ strength, [swarmfighting] [ranged(short)]
Graniteguard
Combat: 2 dice, 9+ strength [armoured 2][defender 2])
Graniteguard
Combat: 2 dice, 9+ strength [armoured 2][defender 2])
Magma cultists[**]
Combat: 4 dice, 6+ strength, [hellfire] [manaburn] [unstable] [boil A]
Stillborn Memories
Combat: 3 dice, 5+ strength, [sluggish] [mana-eater]
Stillborn Memories
Combat: 3 dice, 5+ strength, [sluggish] [mana-eater]
Stillborn Memories
Combat: 3 dice, 5+ strength, [sluggish] [mana-eater]
Foreseen cultists
Combat: 3 dice, 3+ strength, [destined] [manaburn]
Sanders, The Magma Wyrm [adds +25 to fortune threshold. Improves fortunes]
Elephantite x1
-1 mana/turn
15 peasants of labour
Ludovic, Garin and Alaine: The three senile wizards
Living in Shady Mages Retirement Community within the Obsidian Tower
+1 study/turn
-1 time/turn]
Mitel the husband
Missing!
[*] In Caldeot
[**] With traders
[Adaptable] During a round, one positive trait of the target is cancelled
[Lucky] One reroll per round
[Very lucky] Two rerolls per round
[Ranged(short)] Make one attack without retaliation before melee
[Wizard] Must spend 1 mana / round or lose all but one dice
[Mana eater] An engaged wizard must spend an extra 1 mana / round
[Swarmfighting] +1 on rolls when targeting an enemy targeted by another ally
[Hard to kill] If beaten in combat make a difficulty 8 check. On success the unit is not destroyed
[Sluggish] Only rolls dice every second round
[Battle Scholar] +1 study / round and +1 study on a natural 10
[Armoured N] Unit has N armour that are lost in place of dice
[Obscuring]: target rolls one fewer dice (cannot reduce dice rolled to fewer than one)
[Deadslayer]: Makes a difficulty 8 check each round. On success deals a dice of damage to a random bonemancy enemy unit
[Distracting]: All target rolls are made at -1
[Aftermath]: Each turn, make a one dice attack against a random enemy unit other than the current target
[Hellfire] = Any natural 10s rolled in combat grant an immediate extra attack roll
[Manaburn] = Must spend 2 mana / round or be destroyed
[Unstable] = Any natural 1s rolled in combat deal one dice of damage to the unit
[Boil A/B] = One additional attack roll if a friendly unit with an unmatched trait is in combat
[Defender X]: Engages X enemy units
[Noncombatant] : Does not roll attack dice
[Destined]: Instead of losing a dice pay 5 fortune and 10 mana
[Digest]: Every unit destroyed produces resources equal to its number of dice
[Defender N]: Will always be targeted first by enemies and will be targeted by N enemy units
[Sharp]: A roll of 9 or 10 deals 2 dice of damage
[Inferno N]: When destroyed, immediately make N extra attacks
Artifacts
Grants Ranged(short) to the bearer
Intelligent(?)
The Archive
Lowers difficulty of drawing by 2
Increases output of drawing by +1/dice
Increases mana income by +1 / turn
Allows shard fusion/destruction
A detailed consideration of the entities which lurk below and how to effectively bind them into perpetual servitude
Allows Smoulderlings and Elephantites to be summoned
Of the interplay between bonemancy and lavashaping: Flaming skulls or smouldering corpses?
Grants [Wizard] units [deadslayer] ability
On the origin of Vulcanus by means of ethereal selection, and the sub splintering of the world crystal]/i]
Grants Cinders [Aftermath]
Allows construction of the Shardforge
Makes Vulcanus loyal
On the interactions of lavashaping with the wider inherent energies of the natural world, a study into previously forbidden aspects of the college
Allows construction of the Glassworks
Allows volcanoes to be raised
+1 dice, +1 strength to lavashaper [Wizard]s
+1 dice to Magma culstists
A discourse concerning cosmological systems: On the marvellous proportion of the celestial spheres and on the true and particular causes of the number, magnitude and periodic motions of the heavens completed
Mercantile guild improves from 1d4-1 to 1d6+1
Can train Foreseen Cutists
Can construct the Cosmic Looking Glass
Can trade fortune
Cinders is now [Very Lucky] rather than [Lucky]
A primer on locks, seals and bindings
Allows the Institute within the city to be unlocked
All summon spell mana costs reduced by 5%
The triumph of life at the expense of cultivation: The lingering question in the dying world
Farms produce +2 food
May now produce Burning Fisheries
Dismemberment of the physical form and distillation of the dominant ethers within the autonomous construct gifted by the wizard Ingvar
May now detect hidden automata
Lumbermill improves to +1 resource / 8 peasants / turn
Diplomacy
Sultan Ofan: New Thett, the merchant hub
Relations: Slightly perturbed
Spy in place: Undetected
Military: 8 dice at 7+ strength
The Senate: Drome, the plague-ridden city state
Relations: Hatred of all wizardry
The Drowned Lady: In the dungeon
Relations: Seething hatred
Caldeot The town by the (un)Drowned City
Relations: ???
Status: Held by enemy forces
Tzo'lin: The Undying Pious servant of The Bound Giant
Relations: Hostile
Status: Possibly now fused with his god
Ingvar: The Instigator Mechano-Sage
Relations: Unknown
Talen: The other one
Axiom: The Fistcaster Loyalist
Nephroditi: The Bonemancer Wanderer
Selin:The Silver-tongued Spirit-Weaver
It had been less than three full days since Caldeot had fallen and from a distance it looked eerily peaceful. At least if it wasn't for the vast hunk of the world hanging in the air above the centre of the drowned city and the numerous smaller things drifting this way and that above Caldeot proper. Those rather stood out and let the trio know that the attackers had not at all moved on at all.
Seven vast chains anchored the city-island in place, each made landfall somewhere in the city that had once lurked beneath the lake. It floated too high for Cook and the others to make out much about the surface aside from the presence of structures. The underside was a tangle of spinning rotors and strange fiery jets jutting out of what looked a great deal like the bedrock it was. There was no doubting that the city-island had once been part of the world, although now it was scattered with metallic sections of machinery which artificially supported its vast mass. The smaller islands were similar to the one which had brought the raiders to Glassalia. They flew rather lower and seemed to be shuttling back and forth between their mother and Caldeot.
For a few hours the scouts silently traced a wide circle around the town, watching the creatures that must have been border guards. There were four in total, giants at least twice the height of Cook, and formed entirely of bones. Despite their material, Cook did not feel he could describe them as skeletons at all. While their forms were humanoid, the bones used to form their various bodyparts were haphazard and unnatural. And much too small. Each bone sentinel was made from ordinary bones that seemed at least partially human in origin. They moved strangely too. Nephroditi's skeletons had moved something like a person despite their lack of ligaments and muscle. These things broke down and reformed constantly as they shifted position. Taking a step saw the bones of the back leg racing one at a time through the air to form into the new front leg. Whatever part of the things had been stationary for the longest was the bone that moved to form an extending limb or pivotong torso. And despite all of this they still moved in a mockery of normality, planting one foot after another. Rather than having a composite or an undersized skull, the things lacked heads as such. Three orbs of blue fire made up what passed for a head.
Fortunately their constant reforming steps made them fairly slow too move and the four traced an endless pattern in their patrol allowing the three scouts to slip into the town undetected. Those familiar streets bore little evidence of the recent attack. In fact they were substantially freer of detritus and muck than they had been under both The Drowned Lady and Cinders' rule.
"I've never seen a town so clean and tidy. It's like a damn model."
Cook spoke out loud despite himself earning a sharp glance from the Nuava, the newest addition to the group of irregular scouts. She gestured to the windows. Despite the sinking sun there was no sign of light within. This street was deserted. Turning, the smell of baking bread tugged at the stomach of each of the three. A bakery at the end of the street was clearly not abandoned and was still working. Smoke rose from the chimney and light crept between the closed shutters.
Fanning out, Nuava pressed he head against the side of the wall and squinted with her one eye through the crack between the shutter and the wall. The view confirmed that this the bakery was indeed still fully active. Possibly moreso than it ever had been before. At least half a dozen peasants were working inside. She watched dough being mixed, kneaded and formed. Loaves loaded into the great ovens and left to cool. Racks of fresh bread were nearly arranged in what had once been the shop front. The bakers worked in incredible unison, and seemed to be happily chatting between themselves. Nuava couldn't make out the words, but she could spy the influence of magic at work. A lump of coal rolled out of the scuttle by the oven without a care for natural laws and hurled itself into the furnace beneath. The floor too was entirely free of the floury coating that was entirely unavoidably in any mundane bakery. She watched, a double handful of flour being taken from a large sack and dumped onto a worksurface, the streamers of spillage whipping themselves into a brief eddy before returning to the sack.
A shadow above alerted the trio to the arrival of one of the small floating rocky islands. It hovered on the opposite side of the bakery to the scouts, who took up positions to watch as a metal cage was lowered on slender metals cables from the edge. Four or five figures were visible at the edge of the island. Cook thought he could make out the strange cream-coloured tattoos standing out against exposed skin that marked them as eastfolk. People from the distant tundra where Ingvar had invited Cinders to join him. The same as the raiders at Glassalia.
The door to the bakery opened with a slam, and heavy trays of loaves were loaded into the cage. Filling it took almost amiable twenty minutes. The two groups called to one another, the bakers bragging about the quality of their produce and the flight crew thanking the for their hard work. Once full, the eastfolk hauled it aboard their floating vessel before it rose further into the air and headed back towards the flying city. With the delivery complete, the bakers returned to their work, happily churning out more food for their oppressors.
Nuava, Cook and the stocky Helis gathered together to debate next steps,
"What in the sixteen hells if wrong with them? Why aren't they fighting back? They fought us tooth and nail when we freed them from that crazy cult. Somebody else turns up in a flying city and suddenly they are just freely helping them and working through the night?"
"We could wait until they stop and grab one of them? See what's up?"
Cook made the final decision,
"No. I don't like it, and I don't want to hang around. We had an agent here, back before the liberation even. We'll pay her a visit."
They crossed the town, stopping to briefly to investigate any sources of activity. A group of peasants loaded carts with various dry goods taken from a store off the market square, a strangely ordered looting. An abattoir was a similar bustling hive, Helis took a chance and eased open one of the doors. Inside, she found a similar scene to the bakery. A very clean, well-ordered and bafflingly cheery scene with a little magic helping out as they stripped down de-boned carcasses. Slipping into the ice-house, Helis found it packed and not just with goats and sheep. Some of those forms were unmistakeably human, locals and tattooed eastfolk alike. And all of them had already had all of their bones removed. She quietly retched and made a hasty exit. She refused to tell Cook and Nuava what she had seen.
A little way before the agent's house was a broad empty expanse. A wide circle of undulating glass. A very intense heat had burnt here all too briefly, consuming the buildings around it and melting the stone into a single mass. It was still warm to the touch.
When they reached their destination, they found it empty. They searched thoroughly hoping for some note or clue as to how the populace had been so quickly turned. What they found was a coffer crammed with coins from the five corners of the world. The agent's retirement fund. It was enough to buy a very healthy set of twilight years. Taking their prize and decided to report what they had found rather than risking capture beneath the flying city, the scouts returned home.
[Explorer check successful, +5 silver!]
Cinders had made a narrow bridge between her tower and The Weir. She stood on it now before that emptiness, enjoying the salty air rising up from the shallows below, working to decipher its secrets. Despite her efforts, she was making slow progress. Still, she was sure that if she could come to terms with this then she would understand something very fundamental not just about the source of her power, but about the world and magic itself.
A sound made her turn from her work. A shape in the air rapidly fading as she saw it. The impression of a familiar elaborate mask was quickly gone. Shaking her head, she returned inside. She was clearly working too hard and too solitary a manner.
Since perfecting her knowledge of bindings and sealed, Alaine, Ludovic and Garin had not managed to venture outside of their permitted chambers. She felt comfort when she spoke with them and despite their rotted minds, they offered a few useful insights that were helping her studies along. Despite their own lack of knowledge of their histories, she found herself feeling coming up with strange little details. Odd half-formed things. Garin had once borne another name, one that he stripped himself of. Alaine was the one who had first conceived of the castle in the mountains. Ludovic had lost his only love, and now he wore a mask to the outside world, presenting himself as whole when he was far from it.
[+3 study from acceleration]
[Growth, +3 peasants]
Cinders' conversation was interrupted. Another messenger from New Thett had arrived. Previously she had fobbed them off to buy time, but this one was adamant that the message had to be delivered in person to Mitel and was waiting in one of the tower's reception rooms.
Decision Time
(A letter, a number, symbol and (if you like) your vote bonus)
Peasant action:
A: Build houses (shelter for 25 peasants) (pay 15 resources)
B: Build a farm (+12 food) (pay 15 resources)
C: Build a burning fishery (+25 food, -1 mana/turn) (pay 20 resources and 10 mana)
E: Construction of an article of devotion [specify the form] (+1 mana / turn) (pay 25 resources and 25 silver. Cannot be paid for in mana)
F: Construction of defensive walls [specific Glassalia or Caldeot] (5 dice, N/A strength [Defender 5] [Non-combatant]))(pay 100 resources and 10 silver)
G: Construction of the Cosmic Looking Glass (+1 fortune / turn, allows the type of fortune to be chosen) (pay 50 silver, 50 resources and 50 mana)
H: Scout the world [specify direction] (difficulty 15 for an additional bonus)
I: Go whaling (difficulty 5 or lose 1d6 peasants, produces 5+1d6 silver pieces)
J: Train Glaivekin (2 dice, 7+ strength with [swarmfighting], [sharp] and [ranged(short)]) (pay 5 resources and 5 peasants)
K: Train Graniteguard (2 dice, 9+ strength with [armoured 2] and [defender 2]) (pay 5 resources and 5 peasants)
L: Train Magma Cultists (4 dice, 6+ strength [hellfire] [inferno 2] [manaburn] [unstable]) (pay 5 resources, 5 mana, 5 silver pieces and 3 peasants) (difficulty 15 to also produce a new apprentice)
M: Train Foreseen Cultists (3 dice, 3+ strength [destined] [lucky] [manaburn] (pay 5 resources, 5 mana, 5 fortune and 3 peasants) (difficulty 15 to also produce a new apprentice)
N: Have the peasants work a double shift (produce 1d6+5 resources)
O: Flood the trade markets (pay 50 resources, produce 3d6+10 silver pieces)
Cinders action:
1: Help the peasants (Pay 2x resource cost in mana and 0 resources on build, or pay 5 mana on production to obtain +1d8 resources, or pay 5 mana on whaling to remove check)
2: Try to draw more mana from the crystal shards (difficulty 8: Gains 4d8+4 mana, Failure is bad)
3: Devour resources (pay 25 resources, produces 2d8 mana and 1d4 study)
4: Accelerate the experiments (pay 3 mana, produces 1d8 study)
5: Summon Smoulderlings (produces a [Smoulderling] unit, 4 dice, 6+ [Obscuring], pay 38 mana)
6: Summon an Elephantite (produces labour equivalent to 15 peasants, pay 29 mana and 1mana/turn)
7: Summon a Grand Worm (produces a [Grand Worm] unit, 10 dice, 7+ [Digest], pay 72 mana)
8: Raise a volcano (specify location) (+1 mana / turn, +1 resource / turn, destroys the local area) (pay 100 mana)
9: Invoke the ritual of the statues (specify question) (also potentially gain Stillborn Memory units ) (pay 125 mana)
10: Part the sea and create a path to Drome (pay 100 mana)
11: Extract a peasant's time (-1 peasant, +3d6 time)
12: Attack somewhere (specify where & units)
13: Do some other diplomacy (specify who and what)
14: Rearrange military (specify the split of units between Tradersand Glassalia)
15: Muse quietly on your throne
£: Send the messenger back without explanation
$: Tell the truth, Mitel is missing and possibly dead
%: Make up an elaborate lie about Mitel having a contagious illness that had prevented him penning any corresponance for the last weeks and also prevents him from recieving the messanger in person
&: Have a peasant wear the synthetic face of the automata that had replaced Mitel and pretend to be him to receive the message and reassure his siblings that all is still okay
Thett is still starving and still likely to have massive uprisings, and we have a good chunk of mana savings. If we keep the spending low we'll be fine. And telling a lie with the truth can help us keep Thett on our side and maybe future joint action to take out the robots.
Building for silver and study, duh.
mojo, since the spy is pretty clearly deboned by now, we don't pay the upkeep anymore, right?
"He was taken in the recent attack on Glassalia. We plan on reclaiming our husband from the monsters that took him, and we pity those who stand in our way." etc etc
I still think we should summon a wurm or devour resources, accelerating the experiments seems like a weak option at this point. We need combat units and we certainly can not afford to use our handful of peasants.
Also I wonder if when we finish the study we can destroy the negative weir.
K11& - Mana, when they are finished looting Caldeot they'll go after us. We need to prepare for their attack.
And Void, I think Forseen are a poor choice for more units, they each up fortune and mana in huge chunks to avoid dice loss.
Finally, I think it hilarious how wearing a Mitel mask is an option. Just listening to the messenger, nodding along and trying to express everything with non-verbal body language and coughs that sound like words.
"He was taken in the recent attack and we humbly request the new heir for military aid in rescuing him."
Eh. Changed to more study and silver.
Yep. Have I got the silver income wrong? It's possible I missed something. I'll check the totals tonight
I don't want to use any mana since we are leaking it right now, and none of the other options seem wortwhile. So, better to extract some time now so we won't end up with a situation where we have to decide between losing the 3 stooges and something really bad.
What better way to destroy a flying island than by sending a giant worm, rising on a column of magma, to devour it from the inside?
PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
This seems fair, but why aren't you sacrificing the messenger to the oldies Tiph?
Decision D+E 4 $: Explorer's Guild (+ a free devotion as this update has taken so long), research, truthing
Bonuses: +5 Mana, +1 Fortune
Things
Fortune: 24/50 [+1/turn]
Growth: 3/10 [+2/turn]
Peasants: 10 (25 labour)
Population: 22
Shelter: 50
Food: 53
Resources: 24 [+8*/turn]
Silver Pieces: 21 [+3*/turn]
Study: 15/50 [+6/turn] [The Weir(s)]
Husbands: 0?
Time: 11 [-1/turn]
*+1d6+3 to lowest total
The Obsidian Tower
Ambient magic: +2 mana / turn
Fused shards: Foreseen, Loyalist: +11 mana / turn, +1 resource / turn, +1 growth / turn, +1 study / turn, +1 fortune / turn
The Weir: -10 mana/turn
[Ashvent] - Prevents scrying in the region
[Scholar's Hall] - Allows research, +1 study/turn
Glassalia
[Fertile Farm] = +17 food
3 [Farm]s (+12 food each = 36 food)
[Glass houses] = +25 shelter
[Granite houses] = +25 shelter
[Lumber yard] = +1 resource / 8 peasants / turn)
[Tavern] = +1 growth / turn
[Mercantile Guild] +1d6+1 / turn to lowest of silver pieces or resources
[Shardforge] = + 1 resource / turn
[Mine] = +3 resources / turn, +2 silver / turn
[Scouting] = Difficulty 15 check when exploring to uncover additional bonuses
[Galleon] = Allows whaling and sea movement
[Mana Focus] = +1 draw dice, -3 to draw difficulty
[College of Wizardry] = Allows cultists, +1 study / turn
Augment in College: +1 study/turn, apprentice check difficulty reduced by 1
[Devotion] Statue of Cinderella striking down Axiom= +1 mana / turn
[Devotion] Statue of a crashed flying island= +1 mana / turn
[Glassworks]: -5 mana/turn. Gives non-summoned trainable units new traits
[Explorer's Guild]: all scout actions now generate bonuses, +1 study / turn, +1 silver pieces / turn
New Thett
Spy = -1 silver pieces / turn, +1 to mercantile guild
Trade route: +1 silver pieces / turn
Individuals & Armies
Combat: 6 dice, 3+ strength [Very Lucky] [Battle Scholar] [Wizard] [Ranged(short)] [Deadslayer] [Aftermath] [boil A]
Equipment: Vulcanus
Vote bonuses: +1 Mana or +1 Fortune per vote
Misty, The Ivory Apprentice Rainbringer
Combat: 3 dice, 6+ strength [Distracting] [Wizard] [Deadslayer] [boil B]
Knowledge: +1study/round
Runed golem
Combat: 5 dice, 7+ strength, [Armoured 2]
Glaivekin
Combat: 2 dice, 7+ strength, [swarmfighting] [ranged(short)]
Graniteguard
Combat: 2 dice, 9+ strength [armoured 2][defender 2])
Graniteguard
Combat: 2 dice, 9+ strength [armoured 2][defender 2])
Magma cultists[**]
Combat: 4 dice, 6+ strength, [hellfire] [manaburn] [unstable] [boil A]
Stillborn Memories
Combat: 3 dice, 5+ strength, [sluggish] [mana-eater]
Stillborn Memories
Combat: 3 dice, 5+ strength, [sluggish] [mana-eater]
Stillborn Memories
Combat: 3 dice, 5+ strength, [sluggish] [mana-eater]
Foreseen cultists
Combat: 3 dice, 3+ strength, [destined] [manaburn]
Sanders, The Magma Wyrm [adds +25 to fortune threshold. Improves fortunes]
Elephantite x1
-1 mana/turn
15 peasants of labour
Ludovic, Garin and Alaine: The three senile wizards
Living in Shady Mages Retirement Community within the Obsidian Tower
+1 study/turn
-1 time/turn]
Mitel the husband
Missing!
[*] In Caldeot
[**] With traders
[Adaptable] During a round, one positive trait of the target is cancelled
[Lucky] One reroll per round
[Very lucky] Two rerolls per round
[Ranged(short)] Make one attack without retaliation before melee
[Wizard] Must spend 1 mana / round or lose all but one dice
[Mana eater] An engaged wizard must spend an extra 1 mana / round
[Swarmfighting] +1 on rolls when targeting an enemy targeted by another ally
[Hard to kill] If beaten in combat make a difficulty 8 check. On success the unit is not destroyed
[Sluggish] Only rolls dice every second round
[Battle Scholar] +1 study / round and +1 study on a natural 10
[Armoured N] Unit has N armour that are lost in place of dice
[Obscuring]: target rolls one fewer dice (cannot reduce dice rolled to fewer than one)
[Deadslayer]: Makes a difficulty 8 check each round. On success deals a dice of damage to a random bonemancy enemy unit
[Distracting]: All target rolls are made at -1
[Aftermath]: Each turn, make a one dice attack against a random enemy unit other than the current target
[Hellfire] = Any natural 10s rolled in combat grant an immediate extra attack roll
[Manaburn] = Must spend 2 mana / round or be destroyed
[Unstable] = Any natural 1s rolled in combat deal one dice of damage to the unit
[Boil A/B] = One additional attack roll if a friendly unit with an unmatched trait is in combat
[Defender X]: Engages X enemy units
[Noncombatant] : Does not roll attack dice
[Destined]: Instead of losing a dice pay 5 fortune and 10 mana
[Digest]: Every unit destroyed produces resources equal to its number of dice
[Defender N]: Will always be targeted first by enemies and will be targeted by N enemy units
[Sharp]: A roll of 9 or 10 deals 2 dice of damage
[Inferno N]: When destroyed, immediately make N extra attacks
Artifacts
Grants Ranged(short) to the bearer
Intelligent(?)
The Archive
Lowers difficulty of drawing by 2
Increases output of drawing by +1/dice
Increases mana income by +1 / turn
Allows shard fusion/destruction
A detailed consideration of the entities which lurk below and how to effectively bind them into perpetual servitude
Allows Smoulderlings and Elephantites to be summoned
Of the interplay between bonemancy and lavashaping: Flaming skulls or smouldering corpses?
Grants [Wizard] units [deadslayer] ability
On the origin of Vulcanus by means of ethereal selection, and the sub splintering of the world crystal]/i]
Grants Cinders [Aftermath]
Allows construction of the Shardforge
Makes Vulcanus loyal
On the interactions of lavashaping with the wider inherent energies of the natural world, a study into previously forbidden aspects of the college
Allows construction of the Glassworks
Allows volcanoes to be raised
+1 dice, +1 strength to lavashaper [Wizard]s
+1 dice to Magma culstists
A discourse concerning cosmological systems: On the marvellous proportion of the celestial spheres and on the true and particular causes of the number, magnitude and periodic motions of the heavens completed
Mercantile guild improves from 1d4-1 to 1d6+1
Can train Foreseen Cutists
Can construct the Cosmic Looking Glass
Can trade fortune
Cinders is now [Very Lucky] rather than [Lucky]
A primer on locks, seals and bindings
Allows the Institute within the city to be unlocked
All summon spell mana costs reduced by 5%
The triumph of life at the expense of cultivation: The lingering question in the dying world
Farms produce +2 food
May now produce Burning Fisheries
Dismemberment of the physical form and distillation of the dominant ethers within the autonomous construct gifted by the wizard Ingvar
May now detect hidden automata
Lumbermill improves to +1 resource / 8 peasants / turn
Diplomacy
Sultan Ofan: New Thett, the merchant hub
Relations: Slightly perturbed
Spy in place: Undetected
Military: 8 dice at 7+ strength
The Senate: Drome, the plague-ridden city state
Relations: Hatred of all wizardry
The Drowned Lady: In the dungeon
Relations: Seething hatred
Caldeot The town by the (un)Drowned City
Relations: ???
Status: Held by enemy forces
Tzo'lin: The Undying Pious servant of The Bound Giant
Relations: Hostile
Status: Possibly now fused with his god
Ingvar: The Instigator Mechano-Sage
Relations: Unknown
Talen: The other one
Axiom: The Fistcaster Loyalist
Nephroditi: The Bonemancer Wanderer
Selin:The Silver-tongued Spirit-Weaver
Summary
Some claimed that the truth would set you free. To be perfectly honest though, Cinders did not particularly feel like she was in any kind of prison constructed of lies. She had just fobbed off a few servants who asked too many questions. And now that was getting boring and it was time for it to end. She brought the head of the mechanical Mitel along with her. The thing no longer looked even remotely lifelike, it was a disturbing fleshy mask drapped across a split metal orb holding a hidden spike. Arriving in the grand reception room to meet the messenger, she dropped the head into her lap.
"There. That is what remains of the man I thought to be my husband."
Despite years of careful training to maintain her decorum at all times, the messenger's jaw dropped.
"I do not know where the real man is, but I will find him. Alive or dead. He bound himself to me and he has been taken. I will burn this world to its roots if I have to. You should warn the Sultan and the rest of his children. These machines look and act like us."
She turned and left the room. Almost half an hour past before the envoy realised that she had been dismissed.
The famines that afflicted the rest of this world continued as magic fundamentally changed things, but in Glassalia at least there was sufficient food for the moment. The farmers complained of hares making off with their lifestock and the nights were haunted by strange shapes in the sky. Still, it was a far easier life than it had been and the citizens used their increased leisure time wisely. They used it to build a fantastic new statue in the centre of the town. One that celebrated a future victory against the huge floating city which had just conquered Caldeot. A vast construction of stone and bronze that depicted a huge island crashing dramatically into the ground. It was studded with tiny figures slaughtering savage looking raiders. Their efforts flowed into Cinders. It was a trickle against the flood that poured into The Weir; her strength still ebbed.
Elsewhere, Nuava had founded a new guild within Glassalia. The explorer's guild subsumed the previous adhoc scouting efforts entirely. Now their efforts were constant and already they returned with odd curiosities from the lands around.
Despite the progress, Cinders was uneasy. Without Mitel she had almost certainly lost her grip on New Thett and in her mind there was little doubt that the floating city would come to Glassalia next. That it would turn its domination upon her people. Irritatingly, the fortunes did not confirm these fears. Nor did they deny it. There was just a strange uncertainty looming in every future. At least for the moment.
Decision Time
(A letter, a number and (if you like) your vote bonus)
Peasant action:
A: Build houses (shelter for 25 peasants) (pay 15 resources)
B: Build a farm (+12 food) (pay 15 resources)
C: Build a burning fishery (+25 food, -1 mana/turn) (pay 20 resources and 10 mana)
E: Construction of defensive walls [specific Glassalia or Caldeot] (5 dice, N/A strength [Defender 5] [Non-combatant]))(pay 100 resources and 10 silver)
F: Construction of the Cosmic Looking Glass (+1 fortune / turn, allows the type of fortune to be chosen) (pay 50 silver, 50 resources and 50 mana)
G: Explore the world [specify direction] (Always yields a minor bonus)
H: Go whaling (difficulty 5 or lose 1d6 peasants, produces 5+1d6 silver pieces)
I: Train Glaivekin (2 dice, 7+ strength with [swarmfighting], [sharp] and [ranged(short)]) (pay 5 resources and 5 peasants)
J: Train Graniteguard (2 dice, 9+ strength with [armoured 2] and [defender 2]) (pay 5 resources and 5 peasants)
K: Train Magma Cultists (4 dice, 6+ strength [hellfire] [inferno 2] [manaburn] [unstable]) (pay 5 resources, 5 mana, 5 silver pieces and 3 peasants) (difficulty 15 to also produce a new apprentice)
L: Train Foreseen Cultists (3 dice, 3+ strength [destined] [lucky] [manaburn] (pay 5 resources, 5 mana, 5 fortune and 3 peasants) (difficulty 15 to also produce a new apprentice)
M: Have the peasants work a double shift (produce 1d6+5 resources)
N: Flood the trade markets (pay 50 resources, produce 3d6+10 silver pieces)
Cinders action:
1: Help the peasants (Pay 2x resource cost in mana and 0 resources on build, or pay 5 mana on production to obtain +1d8 resources, or pay 5 mana on whaling to remove check)
2: Try to draw more mana from the crystal shards (difficulty 8: Gains 4d8+4 mana, Failure is bad)
3: Devour resources (pay 25 resources, produces 2d8 mana and 1d4 study)
4: Accelerate the experiments (pay 3 mana, produces 1d8 study)
5: Summon Smoulderlings (produces a [Smoulderling] unit, 4 dice, 6+ [Obscuring], pay 38 mana)
6: Summon an Elephantite (produces labour equivalent to 15 peasants, pay 29 mana and 1mana/turn)
7: Summon a Grand Worm (produces a [Grand Worm] unit, 10 dice, 7+ [Digest], pay 72 mana)
8: Raise a volcano (specify location) (+1 mana / turn, +1 resource / turn, destroys the local area) (pay 100 mana)
9: Invoke the ritual of the statues (specify question) (also potentially gain Stillborn Memory units ) (pay 125 mana)
10: Part the sea and create a path to Drome (pay 100 mana)
11: Extract a peasant's time (-1 peasant, +3d6 time)
12: Attack somewhere (specify where & units)
13: Do some other diplomacy (specify who and what)
14: Rearrange military (specify the split of units between Traders and Glassalia)
15: Muse quietly on your throne
I'm thinking we can maybe get the fishery up and offer to send it with New Thett as a way to tide over them getting angry. Maybe next turn draw, then the turn after we can summon a worm?