☼Hexhaunt☼
A Warlock Story-Tutorial Game
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The name of this place is a bane and a lure, drawing both the aware and unsuspecting adventurers, mercenaries, and even vengeful armies, to their doom.
It is a cursed, evil place, at least in the minds of the people who live near it.
Day and night one can see them: Lost souls and zombies wandering amid the ancient graves, insane cannibals patrolling the grounds and prowling for remains to consume. Skeletons move with purpose along the walls armed with swords and bows, sometimes called “The Thin Men” by the dwarves, and “Bonewalkers” by men.
Hundreds died there in days long past, assailing the walls and clashing with the undead amid ancient headstones and mass graves, as the most feared sight was seen: Men and women clad in dark robes over hellish red armor, fighting among the ghoulish cannibals and bonemen armed with fiendish swords and lances that fired boulders of otherworldly stone or sapped the quickness of a man's sword-arm.
These foul sorcerers were believed to be the source of this unpleasantness. Called The Eternal Seers, these evil men and women of both foreign and domestic stock claimed an area of ground oft used to bury those who died in the countless skirmishes and battles between an alliance of dwarves and men and their frogman foes.
But stories of ancient crypts and dungeons haunted by the restless dead always have a source, a beginning, and Hexhaunt is no different, but only those who managed to penetrate its defenses know its history after the coming of the Seers.
And none who have accomplished this feat, have returned.
Until now.
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Hello! Welcome to Hexhaunt!
This is a 34.11 story/tutorial fortress featuring Meph's warlocks, who were perhaps his most ambitious project that underwent numerous revisions to get to a satisfying and playable state, as it had numerous problems, including a botched “control” mechanic for skeletons (that the game seemed hellbent on sabotaging,) to a lack of warlocks making late-game “banners” highly unattractive at best.
I'm making this for two reasons: Many people still play 34.11 for one reason or another and will likely continue to do so until the next release when invasions will be properly fixed, and Warlocks never got a proper fort.
Currently they're probably as good as they'll get, as everything appears to more-or-less work as intended: Portals, raiding, everything. Could it benefit with some enhancements? Sure. But it's also a largely finished product, and suitably epic in scale of labor put in.
Warlock units don't learn most skills very well or at all without some assistance, learning only a select number of skills each, and some units can be resurrected.
- Warlocks only learn a handful of skills, mainly relating to research and spell work, such as prayer (strand extraction) medical skills, research, and gem working, as well as Magic Weapon user (essentially pikeman) for when they want to fight. Warlocks can be resurrected by a later-game workshop every few months for ten souls should they be killed.
- Skeletons can only learn combat skills, at a rate comparable to their caste: Basic ones learn them at 25% normal, while Dreadnaughts learn at the normal rate if I'm not mistaken. They can have their skills upgraded artificially at the inscriptor, and all fresh skeletons come with at least 6 mining. Skeletons can be resurrected in bunches of up to three at a time for a soul. So if you lay claim to a dusty ol' bonewalker and he bites it, fear not! He won't stay dead long.
They suffer a noticeable speed penalty without warlocks or pylons nearby for extended periods.
- Ghouls learn the skills for meat-related skills such as animal training, butchery, and fishing skills, and whips as well as unarmed combat. They come with decent skills in unarmed combat and butchering as well. Ghouls cannot be resurrected.
- Zombies can be raised for virtually no resource investment, and are an excellent use for those animals that can't be butchered at all. However they only have contagious zombie-ness to their name and can't learn skills at all. However, they do make for good orderlies, haulers, and mass-digging crews as well as being used to overwhelm intruders with sheer weight of numbers. They cannot be resurrected, but then you can replace them so easily that it doesn't matter.
- Warlocks use souls to get virtually everything done. This means trying to keep decapitation of butcherable critters to a minimum (as the soul is located in the head for gameplay purposes,) while a warlock or two may need to keep prowling graveyards just to keep things running smoothly soul-wise.
- Our nobles all need some requirements, and consist of the Mistress (female only, law enforcement,) Keeper of Secrets (managerial tasks,) Fleshmonger (doctor,) and the Overlord (basically a king who rules the place and can lead a massive horde of 100 fighters.) There's also skeleton and ghoul sergeants: Cryptlords and Ghoul Masters. Sadly, there is no warlock-lead squad for early game besides the Overlord. So keep that in mind if you want to be one of those.
=+=+=+=THINGS OF NOTE ABOUT THIS GAME=+=+=+=
Caravans are enabled. This was an oversight on my part, but having a civ called “The Bloody Sword” was too good to pass up. I will not trade unless you guys want me to (note, this will result in migrants, but also encourage sieges.)
I will be focusing more on story than tutorial, but I'll do my best to explain things IC and OOC.
I will be trying to keep up with this better than Trampledlantern.
That being said, I work a physically demanding job in a furniture warehouse, and I may not always be possible to keep a good pace.
The calendar speed has been reduced to .25 if memory serves. It will be restored to normal once we have at least the bottom floor of our tower and some barrows with a few skeletal guards on standby ready to go.
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That all said, let's get the show on the road! Feel free to lay claim to a warlock, ghoul, or skeleton as well, perhaps partake in some roleplaying or what have you. Anything's possible with these buggers, as they likely come from all walks of life, but do note they are likely human in origin.
Also might try to make some profile pictures for'em.
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They had stumbled upon eachother by chance on the road. Seven of them, in all. They had come to they somewhat marshy ground around the great lake called “The Blueness of Humility,” to make use of the ample dead there, victims of wars that had raged for decades.
To their north were numerous tribes of barbarian frogmen, while to the south and within sight of a city belonging to the Empire, were both the lands of uncorrupted men, and far away, barely visible on the horizon, the mountains dominated by the dwarves, though gnomes also called the range home. There were also signs of the ad hoc nests of beak wolves, signs of blendec war camps, and even the strange cuneiform-like symbols used by raptor men to mark paths for their war parties through the Intricate Jungles, amid signs of other peoples nearby.
It was happenstance that lead them to eachother, the group meeting at the site of a raided caravan.Bell Dawndistance - Bell is a fighter first and foremost, and delights in the cruelty and suffering of war itself. She had come to the battle site to see if any of the bodies would make suitable soldiers for her planned “pilgrimage of screams” into the southern Empire's lands, intent on marching on the capital just to see if she could get an army that far.
Mia Starsong, Baroness of Tagdaran - Hailing from a faraway nation known as Tagdaran, Mia alleges her homeland is ruled by the succubi and learned the arts of life and death to reclaim her home and rightful standing. However, as the decades wore on she found it a futile gesture as the succubi sent countless battle guides and their hosts to destroy her build-ups of undead warriors. She and Bell became fast friends, as she sympathized with her inability to muster large numbers of undead soldiers.
Aki Falmansire, The Black Widow - Known by numerous names in the imperial lands, she had taken to roaming the region's mightier human nations, acting as an adviser of the arcane for nobles, and before long, slaying those who professed affection for her - simply for her own amusement as their holdings suffered from loss of leadership.
Mirkweb - A quiet woman who refuses to discuss how she came to be a practitioner of the dark arts or what her given name is. Little is known about Mirkweb other than she prefers to be called a Witch and likes to carve bone and rock.
Aurelia of Reichland - A foreigner of a faraway land, claiming to be on the run from bounty hunters. She, like Mirkweb, refuses to discuss certain matters.
Falkner the Talon - Once a notable mercenary captain, Falkner became a warlock in the wake of the loss of a terrible battle, and his misguided attempt to save the lives of his men who had died in said battle. In the aftermath of having to rekill his comrades out of grief, he has since wandered the region trying to find others like himself, practitioners of fell magics.
Bach, Terror's Conductor - Like Aurelia, he is simply a dark wizard, fleeing for his life from those who would slay him. How he got his epithet is “best left unsaid,” as it had to have been pretty bad for it to be on the bounty notices. The fact he had two heavily maimed captives with him, a drow from his homeland and a local goblin, spoke enough for his title.
It was a week's travel before they arrived at the old cemeteries. Bach had his two minions untethered, and the group had an informal vote which elected Bell as leader for the time being, as they set about their work.
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Topic: ☼Hexhaunt - Warlock tutorial/Story fort [MDF 34.11]☼ (Read 4204 times)