Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Wait for the next release. I want usable mugs damn it!

55 (71.4%)

We can use the current one. I like the big trees and slightly smarter dorfs.

17 (22.1%)

I'll take .34.11 thanks. I want to know I'll get to kill things for sure.

5 (6.5%)

Total Members Voted: 77

[Xahnel]

Splint, i came up with an idea for the axe dwarves. Lock their axes in a fancy room, and post a sign, "in case of zombie apocalypse". That allows the compromise of reducing the axe forces without crippling our ability to handle zombies.

EDIT: I'm trying to convince a freind to check out spearbreakers, but she's intimidated by the size. Is there a way to get this into a pdf or something?

[Mr Frog]

I don't really like the idea of the Spawn wearing armour... I think that their animalistic nature is part of what makes them scary. It's a primal-fear thing.

[Talvieno]

@SoulSlicerJames: Actually, Parasol reintroduced the Spawn the second time around. Ballpoint's technology focus is weaponry, and they didn't have the technology to manage it. However, they're trying to steal enough HS-2^{Spearbreakers} samples to form an army of Spawn to take down Parasol and steal all their tech. As quoted:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

    Many years ago, when the world was young, brave dwarven men and women (condemned criminals and the scum of society) set out to build themselves a new home in the wilderness among the uncharted mountains of the north - Boatmurdered. This ended badly, and I won't elaborate on it here, but what was finally left of the labyrinthine fortress was a smoking hole in the ground, surrounded by vast magma plains that went on for miles, as somebody forgot to pull the lever a second time before they left.
    Over the years, demons and foul beasts of the pits collected in the cursed, smoking landmark, calling it their home; their safe haven. It was their stronghold - the first stronghold of the dominions of hell. Dwarfkind shuddered at its mention, and feared its spectral ruler, Sankis.
    Brave dwarves set out - paladins and knights of the most recognized orders - and founded a mighty fortress in the center of the vast lava plains - the last outpost of civilization: Headshoots. For many years, it alone stemmed the tide and kept the evil at bay, until Sankis himself appeared in the pits below the fortress and turned their two best soldiers - Nemo and Holistic Detective - into skeletal, demonic beings. These two monstrosities laid waste to the fortress and then proceeded to kill each other, but Holistic survived and returned to Sankis, her new master. Sankis granted her immortality and the ability to reproduce at will...
    Many years later, a bunch of poor fools settled in a miserable, icy, waterless hellhole they called a fortress, and named it Syrupleaf. They were soon besieged by leagues upon leagues of the Spawn of Holistic - the children of that cursed warrior, created in the image of their mother. They were watched from afar by a strange corporation known as Parasol, but this company made no attempt to interfere or save the fortress from its fate. Eventually the dwarves died out, and the world was destroyed by Armok, and nothing remained.
    But outside the flow of normal spacetime, in a parallel universe, Parasol did remain, and it saw nothingness. "Let there be light", the great scientists spoke, and a light came on in the room - a bulb hanging from the ceiling. And they saw that it was good: they could see their keyboards again. The scientists of Parasol endeavored to turn back time, and so they did: to the moment before Syrupleaf fell. They trapped the falling fortress in a stasis bubble, and Armok was appeased, but still he chose to wipe the Spawn from the face of Everoc so they would never naturally trouble dwarfkind again. Then, largely for his own amusement, he replaced them with Vampires. It was to be many years before the dwarves managed to defeat this threat.
    But outside of Armok's realm of power, Parasol remained - with their captured Holistic Spawn. They made genetic modifications to the species, and eventually needed to test them... releasing them in the wilderness not too far from the Dwarven mainland. They wiped out the mountain barbarians and proceeded onwards towards the dwarven capital, but proceeded no farther! The dwarves founded a fortress as a last defense against the seemingly unstoppable onslaught (of zombies, more than Spawn) - a military fortress with a crew of seasoned veterans of the Vampire wars - a fortress with a name that came to mean hell itself: Spearbreakers.

    However, Ballpoint, a parasitic organization with transdimensional travel, had followed Parasol to Everoc. They saw the genetically mutated creatures that Parasol was testing, and desired them for their own: as instruments of war. Thus began the great time wars in which even Armok himself felt called to play a part, leading the great heroes of Spearbreakers to victory, granting Fischer superdwarven powers and killing The Master for no apparent reason other than the fact he was bored (though possibly Armok just wanted the crazy bastard up there with him to laugh at the dwarves running around below).

@Xahnel... shoot. I've actually been wanting to do that so I could read the thread offline, but I can't find a way to do it.
250+ pages... hrm. Well, technically, the majority of the Spearbreakers story is in side stories, unlike traditional succession games, which tend to be completely focused on the overseer's logs. It's Spearbreakers' primary strength, as well as its weakness - there's so much side story (a lot of that's my fault) that the whole thing would make for a huge PDF. If it could be done, that is. My suggestion would be to give her a choice selection of posts - ones you think she'd like - and let her read those few. If she likes them, and she wants more, there you go. If not... then I'm an idiot and you can give me 9000 negative Internets.

@Splint - thanks. Glad you liked it.

Ninja'd by a Frog. With a monocle. In a top hat.
I don't really like the Spawn armor idea either, honestly... But I would like to see them have tougher skin in the next go.

[Xahnel]

Hey Mr Frog. Check your other account.

[soulslicerjames]

I'm just getting lost in the tangled continuity aren't I?  Still, I think it's not too far a jump in assumptions from something went wrong with introducing spawn to the world (beyond how messed up such a thing is on it's own of course) to whatever went wrong is also causing physical changes in the spawn.  Plus this way they don't need armor.

[Mr Frog]

@Talvi:

Uh-oh... that conflicts pretty badly with what I've been going on, which is that Ballpoint was researching and developing the Spawn themselves. In fact, you could say that it's a core aspect of my character's backstory.

Guess I have to rework a bunch of shit now

[Splint]

Ok so future changes for the spawn:

Overall tougher hide.
Stronger, but not unbreakable bones.
Roving packs of spawn, as well as the assemblage of siege and ambush forces.
Megaspawn semi-megabeasts and possibly as a sub caste to the sieger spawn.
Removing decapitation vulnerability (Not sure if I like this one, cause with literally no senses but touch remaining they wouldn't be useful for anything.)

No matter what happens though, once we have enough railguns and slugs made small groups will suffer from a slight case of exploding against trees and walls.

@ Mr Frog - Not necessarily. They may see the new spawn as more desirable than the ones they have, and thus scrapped these spawn or only kept a few as emergency shock troops in hopes of baging these newer deadlier ones.

[Talvieno]

@Mr Frog: Not necessarily. Parasol may have turned back time and replanted the Spawn, but they've engineered better, tougher ones - the ones Spearbreakers is facing, which can apparently adapt. It could be said that Ballpoint is trying to figure out how to sustain that resiliency over generations, which Parasol didn't manage. If Ballpoint can do this, they have their army... but if not...

How's that explanation?

Ninja'd by Splint, who apparently had the same idea. +1.

[Mr Frog]

If I recall correctly, Mr Frog states directly in his early journals both that [1] he personally oversaw the re-introduction of HS-2 to the world of Spearbreakers and that [2] he helped engineer them himself. If you can figure out a way to work around that without making me ragequit, by all means do so.

[Splint]

Ah, but in thier adaptation, things are happening that went unanticipated. Spawn with the intelligence to withdraw and capable of joining other races is a far cry from the mindless zombie-esque swarms he originally introduced.

Therefore, adaptable spawn can be seen as far more desirable to even the already deadlier ones they had (if they're smart enough to run from the field, then they don't need to keep sending contractors out to capture the damned things. If we're particularly unlucky Ashaber and Softa might figure out a way to open thier cells.)

[Talvieno]

Okay, I'd forgotten about that.

Perhaps both Ballpoint AND Parasol introduced them. Perhaps each thinks they were the first, but they actually just did it around the same time. When this is taken into account, it makes sense, and your posts are all accurate from Mr Frog's viewpoint. However, even with that, Ballpoint can still be wanting Parasol's Spawn, as I said, making both of us correct.

And SoulSlicerJames, I apologize for calling you out on that. You were right.

[Mr Frog]

Can't we just scrap that version of the backstory and come up with something that doesn't require a retroactive handwave to make it plausible?

[soulslicerjames]

Ah, but in thier adaptation, things are happening that went unanticipated. Spawn with the intelligence to withdraw and capable of joining other races is a far cry from the mindless zombie-esque swarms he originally introduced.

Therefore, adaptable spawn can be seen as far more desirable to even the already deadlier ones they had (if they're smart enough to run from the field, then they don't need to keep sending contractors out to capture the damned things. If we're particularly unlucky Ashaber and Softa might figure out a way to open thier cells.)

What's next, those becoming spawn start to do things to help spawn-kind overall even before they transform physically?  (like 'forgetting' to close the bridge during a spawn-seige knowing it would be seen only as normal dwarf stupidity and putting themselves in the middle of large groups of civilians while far away from any military dwarfs just before they fully change)

And SoulSlicerJames, I apologize for calling you out on that. You were right.

all is forgiven.

[Talvieno]

@ Mr Frog: Scrap which version, Parasol or Ballpoint creating the Spawn? I went with Parasol creating them because I thought it made more sense (and I missed where Mr Frog had released the Spawn on the world). Joseph coming from Parasol was based on that idea. It didn't make sense to me that Ballpoint could've possibly re-engineered or released the Spawn, when all they really focus on is strength through firepower. Then came Splint's story about how Ballpoint was trying to capture a specimen reinforced it.

edit: The only early passage I see which could possibly state that Ballpoint released the spawn is:

I am fully aware of the fact that I personally oversaw the re-introduction of HS-2 to this iteration, thank you very much. In fact, I thought that it was a stupid idea then, too. We shouldn't go around stabbing dodos just because some mind-sick vapour-for-brains hooplehead in upmanage thought it'd be funny to see how quickly or slowly they'd die.

It's very vague - it's not hard to see how I missed it. It could've meant almost anything - and it still could.

[Splint]

It's not so much a handwave as it is plausible.


If we go by Mr Frog's account with the spawn he introduced, Ballpoint Spawn as I shall call them were initally smarter by default, and can't be killed with brain trauma, along with thier infectious bite. They however, have replaced some measure of thier still terrifying might with intelligence that they have begun to display.

Parasol's spawn are less intelligent, physically stronger (being able to outright destroy many hardened structures like depots and heavy industy shops) and susceptible to brain trauma, as Urist displayed. These spawn may be bnased off stolen data and thus less intelligent and noninfectious. They were introduced either shortly before or after Mr Frog introduced his for field testing.

You don't need to rework anything and it also explains why some spawn  can still be killed by brain trauma, as per the early part of the Urist saga. They're essentially cheap knockoffs of Mr Frog's prior work.
The spawn showing increasing adaptation makes the ones that are extant more desirable, and as of yet they haven't been able to get any of these smart-spawn, thoughthey still have some of the older specimens from Mr Frog's research to fiddle with.

Also: Double ninja'd.