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[freeformschooler]

"I would see to it that he never sees this place as worth the trouble of taking over in the first place. Perhaps we could conveniently lure a group of do-gooders capable of fighting the Armada into the path between the two of us... In any case, we would want to avoid an invasion in the first place. We may be powerful, but none of us have the strength of multiple gods, and that's what it would take to drive off the Armada, let alone slay it. Artimeus cannot be subdued or recruited, only driven away or destroyed, and his resources far exceed our own."

Orcas nods.

: "The question was not one of trivia but one of tactics. Your knowledge is commendable, but not the point. That said, I believe you best understand: when faced with a foe of uncertain - possibly unimaginable - strength, is not the best offense an impenetrable defense? I question those who would take on any uncertain forces head-on."

"First I would - assuming we have transports of our own to reach his Armada - send the creations and the monsters in to board one of his ships, with Seerus along to oversee them. They would take over the ship and use it to attack the flagship of the Armada. At the same time, I would ask you and Derm to come with me and the thralls to board the flagship and assault Artimeus directly once Seerus has caused a diversion. If all goes to plan, we can subdue Artimeus quickly and I can convert him - and therefore his entire fleet - to our cause."

: "As for your ruling, Isis, I see a most fatal flaw in this plan. You would deploy us, the Lords of Terror, directly onto a flagship of unknown strength solely for your own gain. If you worked as the High Lord, who would be defending our towers in this scenario? Who would be defending our stockpiles of resources? Seerus alone?"

Orcas rested his broadsword upon the ground and leaned on it in deep meditation.

: "For anyone wondering: as a High Lord, I would not focus on building a large force of expendable troops. We are, as far as we know, the first assailants on this untouched world of riches and prosperity. Who is to say we shall be the last? As a good defense is the best offense against a planetary invader, I would focus my military strategy on weaponizing the four towers themselves. Using Seerus' skill with invention, Derm's creativity with raw destruction and the tools of war Isis would likely collect in her desire for riches and power, we would create, under my rule, the deadliest automatic defense system this planet has ever known. Woe unto those who would try to take from us our profits."

Orcas looked around the group and then back at the throne in front of them.

: "I am afraid I must retract my vote for Isis. I remain undetermined at this time, but if I am nominated as High Lord, know this: all our treasures will be protected, not by the power of one but by the tenacity of four."

[Burkhart]

: "We would create, under my rule, the deadliest automatic defense system this planet has ever known. Woe unto those who would try to take from us our profits."

"See? This is what I was talking about. There are clearly two among us with a mind for leadership, and I thoroughly enjoy that phrasing. Profits... hehehe. I can agree with that sentiment wholeheartedly."

Taking a seat at the table, Seerus kicked up his heavy boots and leaned back, his characteristic grin never fading.

"While defense is extremely important, and probably should be the first thing we concentrate on, having an information network is just as vital. Tactics are only as good as the information that fuels them. I never want to be caught by surprise by the enemy. Ever. It's just easier to outthink someone when you know exactly how they think."

[Dermonster]

: "Question, why the hell does this matter? We can just do a council thing or whatever, it's not like the guy on the chair is de facto tyrant. Either way, I vote for Armor dude. Judgement elemental probably has the best judgement. Hehehe."

Derm slouched down. "Also, I'm bored. This is boring. You're boring. I'm tired."

And with that, he flopped his muscley arm upon the table and flopped face first into it.

He sat back up. "Side note, this arm is both an amazing pillow and apparently fucking delicious. I mean seriously, with a bit of salt I could just eat this thing all day. Luckily I'm not retarded and won't do that but man. Tasty."

With that, he flopped back down. Magic sparked and faint green 'Z's started to float above his head.

[SeriousConcentrate]

Although a bit disappointed, Isis nodded and stood.

"Very well... I'll renounce my claim and also back Orcas for the throne."

[Burkhart]

The comical little Z's floating from Derm made Seerus smile.

"He will be an interesting specimen to study..."

He sat up in his chair letting his feet fall to the floor, and put his elbows on the table.

"Well, it seems that we've reached a consensus. Provided that our armored friend approves of taking the role himself, it seems that he will take the seat. I believe that you will use the command in much the same way I would, and as long as you're doing the leadership work, that leaves me more time to devote to my craft. All in all, I'm happy with it."

[freeformschooler]

: "I accept the role of High Lord of Terror."

Orcas walked over to the throne, ran his right gauntlet over the chains behind it and turned around to face the other lords.

: "My friends, let us begin scouting the towers and surrounding areas immediately. We need to know what resources are available to us."

He then sat in the throne.

[Dermonster]

: "zzzzzzzzgottasitinthethronefirstdumbasszzzzzzzz..."

[Dexexe1234]

Orcas turns around and with a slight anticipation, he sits down. As the cushion starts to contort to his bodyless armored self, the entire throne ignites in the same vicious white flames! Orcas doesn't make a sound, as he is being trialled by fire. Soon, the flame stops, the throne and Orcas unscathed. The flames form words above him:

"High Lord Orcas of Hatred, has taken his throne. Force has been chosen as the master of the main tower."

The entire tower started to creak, as they all felt a horrible yank in their bodies. The tower had crashed into something with a violent slam, the ground itself was settling under the weight of the mighty fortress.



The Lords of Hatred have landed. Their reign of terror can begin.

Orcas starts to cringe as the entire tower shakes, the walls and flooring pops out of their sockets, but lands back in them. The entire decor is changing to suit the Judgement Elemental's needs. The sides of the throne room grows great book cases and chests, while tons of paper and writing utensils are born with the new furniture. The tower is still shaking as the decor is reconstructing itself.

As the place settles a little, the others begin to move as to check the towers, but Orcas has had some stuff burned into his memory by now. He halts the others and instead gathers some paper and starts sketching out some maps with a nearby pencil.



The four stands there, pondering their next move inside the towers. Orcas thought about why he knew what some of the areas were called, but chalked it up as more imprinting knowledge from the "crowning ceremony".

[Burkhart]

The sudden shifting of the tower was a surprise to the scientist, but Seerus was more interested in the sudden materialization of objects that made the room feel like Orcas's "home."

"Hmm... I wonder if each of us will receive a similar welcome when it comes time for the claiming of our OWN personal spaces. Still though, very nice. I like libraries, but I prefer to do learning in a more "hands-on" way."

Seerus cracked his neck and looked curiously at the map.

"I'm most curious about the 'spawning pools' area. The rest of the tower appears to be either empty or self explanatory, so perhaps that would be a good place to start. I'll see you down there if anyone cares to come with me."

With that, Seerus pushed in his chair and turned for the door leading to the downward staircase.

[SeriousConcentrate]

Isis shrugged. There was nothing in the main tower of interest to her; the bookcases were nice and all, but she didn't have much interest in reading. She didn't particularly feel the need to be in the war room or head to the spawning pits. Instead she climbed into the nearest window and spread her wings.

"I'm going to take a look around the area and see where we landed. I'll be back in a moment."

With that, she leaped from the window and started gliding around to scope out their new environs.

[freeformschooler]

: "Meet in the main tower when you are finished scouting."

Orcas rose from his seat and walked over to the bookcases. He took inventory of them, seeing if there were any that were already filled with words (and if they might be of help to him.)

[Dermonster]

: "zzzzzzzzzzzzzz Whuzzah?

Derm started awake. He looked around wildly, only seeing Orcus the newly refurbished room, and the map.

: "Gratz, guy. Map! Spawning pools! Probably minion generators. What's on the third floor?"

Third floor!

[Burkhart]

The dark hallway echoed with each of Seerus's steps. It was oddly peaceful considering that only a short while ago, the four new lords of this place had been wading through enemies, slaughtering anything in their path. Indeed, the smell of blood and ichor was still strong, but the scientist reveled in it. It wasn't a new smell to him, of course, but it was missing the pungent tang of formaldehyde that he so enjoyed. The delicious chemicals and poisons and venoms and acidic concoctions that Seerus thrived on were once again within his reach now that he and his new-found allies had achieved the first step of the overall plan. For the first time since Seerus had set out in search of this place, he could have a respectable lab. This thought was pleasing to him, and the scientist chuckled with an excited anticipation.

As his steps carried him through the darkness to the stairwell leading to the War Room, Seerus's mind began to wander to each of his new compatriots. Surely, he hadn't had allies like this before, and each one was interesting in a myriad of ways. It would take a grand amount of effort and study to discover how to manipulate each one to his advantage.

<Such a strange lot I find myself attached to. It will take some time before I can discover each of their motivations. No matter though, they have all proven useful. It's just going to take a lot of effort learning what gets them to react in favorable ways... Oh hohohoh... This new place is going to have such interesting times.>

A corpse laid between Seerus and the downward staircase. It was half melted, exposing the creature's skeleton to the open air, and Seerus faintly remembered spraying it down with his poisons. He sneered, then with a mighty kick, sent the corpse tumbling down the stairwell. Its bones snapped and shattered against the steps as it rolled, making a sickening noise. When it finally hit the bottom, it landed with a wet crunch that was satisfying to Seerus's ears.

<That was fun. Now where was I... Oh yes... Isis... Isis, Isis, Isis. How rare it is to find a demoness... Kehehehehe... I would very much like to closely study her and see what makes her tick. Who knows if I'll ever get a chance to study demon physiology ever again? If she agrees, I'd even put all the pieces back exactly how I found them! Oh ha ha ha... Seerus, you dog, you always were a sucker for a pretty face.>

Taking the last step in the staircase, Seerus came across the corpse he had recently kicked down, lying in a pool of its own foul smelling fluids. He booted it again to remove it from his path.

<Disgusting creature. Useless even in death. Perhaps the chaos mage would find your mangled corpse more useful? Speaking of him, he's certainly an oddity. I would like to study his methodology, and perhaps how his body has mutated. Plus, I want to see if his arm is really as delicious as he says... If it is and I can get a sample, I can clone it and perhaps add a new line of snack foods to my corporate offerings. Hmmm... One thing at a time, though.>

Seeing the War Room while undistracted for the first time was interesting for the scientist. The table was far too large for the four of them, and the bookcases along the sides would have to be looked through later, though the tomes they held were undoubtedly uninteresting. Likely nothing but strategy manuals and perhaps maps of previously conquered areas. Useless.

"HMPH! Useless useless useless! This room is useless!"

Seerus made a beeline for the downwards stairway after expressing his disgust.

<The floating armor would probably like that room better, but it's so dreadfully BORING right now. Maybe it will prove useful later, but there's nothing of interest now. Hmm... As for Orcas, I am content with him being the master of the main tower, but as with all of the lords, keeping a close eye on him will be necessary. He's the most enigmatic of my three compatriots, and likely the hardest of us to kill... after myself, of course.>

<Seerus Haze never dies.>

Seerus let out a menacing cackle as he descended down the stairs to his destination.

[Dexexe1234]

Having soared out the window and drifted around for a bit, Isis had gained a good look at the immediate surroundings. Behind the landing spot, two giant mountains stretched far into the sky, yet the tower, resting upon the giant supporting blade at it's base, still sat higher than the peaks of the two mountains. Even more curious, the mountains seemed "torn", like something had in ages past, cut the mountains to pieces, as they were with a lot of peaks and spikes, along with craters and crevices all around.

On ground zero of the fallzone, a vast darkgray ashen land has spread, obviously being created from the dangerous impact of the spacefaring castle.

To the immediate south east of the impact zone, a smallish town had it's roots planted firmly. Some of the townlings seemed a little rattled, but Isis could not see the horror on their faces or shivering of their hands, she was simply too far away.

To the west, a vast forest stretched itself. One giant tree stretched above the rest, it's leaves a delightful blue instead of the usual green of the rest of the forest. Surely, besides the ashen scorchmark and rather ominous tower in the middle of it, this place seemed like a fancy little spot to call home!

Isis was a few miles away from the fortress by now.

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Orcas was perusing the different bookcases and grimoires that had spawned, but sadly the books seemed to all be empty. They had no title and nothing but fancy colored binding to them. It seemed that this was a place for him to contain his knowledge from then on, instead of being a wellspring of knowledge itself. As he looked around, he found a rather large book with predrawn "atlas" lines, but he could not verify if any of this aligned with the world they had landed on. He was no geomancer or natural architect, after all.

All in all, for now the books seemed worthless, but brimming with potential.

_______________________________
//==---<><><> - - - <><><>---==\\

Rushing downstairs in the heels of Seerus, Derm stopped at the third floor and started to snoop around. This looked like some kind of barracks, fashioned to house humanoid soldiers of some kind! It was pretty barren actually, but kind of roomy, able to hold a lot of whatever you would want to sleep in here... This was a lot more boring than Derm had anticipated.

_______________________________
//==---<><><> - - - <><><>---==\\

Seerus kept going downwards until he hit the spawning pools. Two large green glowing vats of green goo resided in here, aling with an odd rough covering of the flooring and walls. It was as if everything was covered in scales! Maybe this was to protect against the goo of the pools? Oh the ideas that twisted inside of Seerus as he perused the pools were many indeed.

As he was about to touch it, he noticed how the pool behind him had started to produce a swelling hill of goo, which slowly got more seethrough. He stood up and turned around, readying for whatever heinous beast will leap out at him, but instead the goo belly just popped with a loud snap. The sound alone somehow made Seerus cringe, closing his eyes for a couple of seconds. Both Orcas and Derm heard the loud snap from downstairs, much to their confusion.

???: "Well! Who do we have here? The new owner of the big boss' establishment?"

The bandaged man opened his eyes and was... Perplexed by what he saw.



An odd one eyed humanoid creature with a sharply fine dress suit, a broken top hat, some odd rag and a fancy skull walking stick had appeared before him. He could only put together that the creature had come from the goo bubble that popped before, yet the clothing of it seemed perfectly fine and without a single stain or body of liquid anywhere on it.

Odd Creature: "D' names Eddevot, planning master and organizer of this 'ere organization. Or, tower, if you want to be medieval about 'it."

Seerus just stares at the odd little showmonster.

Eddevot: "Wuts the matter, Wackajackal ate your neck or somethin'? Speak up mummyman, you the new landlord or somethin'? The lord high lord of the Fortress of Shorladiir?? Maybe you are confused about littl' ol' me being about, but hey, as I said, I am the main plan man o' this place, or rather, I CAN be! I could just hand o'er the controls and have you master all the plannin's and such, but every king needs a jester, don' they? Sure they do! Also if the clothes are a little much, I do have a fully stocked chest of costumes I could wear fo' your twisted pleasure!"

[Dermonster]

"Well this is a boring load of crap." Derm muttered, poking through the barracks.

He thought back to the map, and grew irritated. "Where in all the bleeding hells is my room then!?"

Annoyed, he turned back to the stairs. He paused for a half second raised a tentacle.

"Bein' bland is a crime! Chaos seed!" He said, tossing a ball of magic over his shoulder. Without pausing to see the results, he descended further.

He stopped off at the base level. "Hey guy, whats all up in here?" he asked the bandaged man.