Second version of the plan
1. Grant Malkus a title of Black king and grant him the right to rule the lands east of Fozdoch.
2. Enhance his favourite concubine into half-human half-succubi creature fanatically loyal to Malkus to be his wife
3. Use massive amount of evil to corrupt the silver staff further, transforming it into Malkus' royal sceptre. Unlike the sword that helps in combat, sceptre powers should be focused on controlling subjects, raising undead servants and other stuff like this
3. Summon black imps and rock trolls to serve as workforce for construction of the fortress.
4. Create few Cryptbrains(c) to act as lieutenants and sort of "healers" for the undead horde. Naturally they should be able to raise minor undeads
5. Leave all forces but brutewolves under the command of Malkus
6. Let him decide what to do with captives. They are his subjects now
7. Malkus' long standing order is to expand the fortress and enlarge the army and prepare for defence against Empire troops that will arrive sooner or later
8. Attach brutewolves to the cult of the wolf. Order them to travel to the lands of Ura tribes to gain more power and followers.
9. Nokluvgn and his daughter will travel to Nuulyd to witness progress of the cult.
10. Give one corrupted silver medallion to Kate, Mischa and Mklizlk
Inside the smouldering, burnt out shell of the temple, a twisted coronation ceremony takes place. Malkus Rom, mercenary captain, walks in through the broken doors, through the rubble and ash, to a makeshift throne of rubble and corpses. You tower over him as he sits, a looming reminder of who is really in charge. You then anoint him with the blood of a sacrificed captive, and name him the Black King of the East. The undead horde bend the knee to their new master, brutewolves let out their ear-splitting howls, spectres and imps cackle and offer sarcastic oaths of fealty, and the two hulking rock trolls salute so hard they knock themselves out.
The ceremony continues, as wolf-cultists bring forth the semi-corrupted silver staff from Ginkozan. You wince slightly as you take it from them, holding it above your head as you draw in the misery, death, and destruction that pervades this place, focusing it all into the hallowed relic. The air grows hazy as Evil soaks into the silver, which begins to tarnish in strange ways, ripples of blackness spreading across the surface. More and more Evil is sucked up, and the atmosphere grows noticeably less oppressive as the malignant energy is drained out of the air.
Eventually, however, the staff is full. Evil swirls around it, but is no longer absorbed by the metal, which by this point has tarnished charcoal black, and gives off its own sinister aura. You lower the staff, and offer it to Malkus, who gingerly takes it from your hands. The metal hisses as it touches his skin, and his medallion physically lifts off of his chest, so drawn towards the cursed metal. Black lines emanate from the staff, spreading across Mallkus's hands and up his arms, flashing across his face as he grits his teeth and focuses his mind towards the staff. Beads of sweat appear on his brow, and one eye begins to twitch, but eventually his will wins out, and the darkness recedes from his skin, returning to the staff, which now sits more easily in his grasp; it now resembles an extension of his body, so naturally does it fit into his hands.
You invite Malkus to try out his new toy, and he aims the tip of the staff (glowing with Evil energy) at a pile of corpses, narrowing his eyes. A bolt of darkness erupts from the staff, striking the corpses, which shudder as it hits them. The shuddering continues, becoming twitching, then spasms, before the four bodies pull themselves off the floor and stand to- what could generously be called- attention.
Malkus's 'concubines' are brought before you. You talk to them, apologising for the destruction of their village, whose name you have already forgotten, and offer them a gift as compensation. None of them take you up on your offer, so you just ask Malkus which one is his favourite. He points to a redhead with a relatively pleasant figure, who flinches nervously as you gaze in her direction.
"DO NOT BE AFRAID", you tell her.
"THIS WILL ONLY HURT TEMPORARILY"You grab her, your long fingers wrapping around her body. She screams and struggles as you squeeze her, and start to mould her to your whims. She almost bites her tongue as you pull a tail out of her backbone, new vertebrae popping into existence. She spits curses in your direction as you massage her shoulders, then shuts up as white-hot pain eliminates her ability to talk, whilst you draw a fresh pair of wings out of them. She moans weakly as you tap her on the head, which causes a pair of horns to sprout from them. Her cries begin to resemble more those of pleasure as you knead her figure into something more pleasing to Malkus's tastes. By the time you are finished, she is giggling happily at your touch, and as you set her down on the floor she whines in disappointment. You point her to Malkus, and inform her that he shall be the object of her affections, which after a brief moment she agrees to, and slides towards him with surprising speed, wrapping herself around him, wings fluttering.
You leave Malkus with his new bride and the rest of his fascinated concubines, to enjoy himself whilst you take care of other matters.
You summon eight more black imps and three more rock trolls to serve as a construction force, who quickly set about sorting rubble into piles of useful material. Then you pick out from amongst the zombies the most intelligent-looking ones, who skulls you surgically open up, inspecting the remnants of their brains. They are uniformly worthless; their brains have been scrambled beyond repair. Instead you turn to the zombies-in-potentia, also know as corpses. You choose five of the deceased, who you have placed in magic circles, whilst the wolf-cultists stand around chanting. You carefully weave Evil into the bodies, avoiding the brute-force approach that you use to summon zombies, instead carefully recreating the mechanisms of life within them. You are especially delicate when it comes to the brains, which you leave as intact as possible, performing a small amount of rewiring to get around the whole 'dead' thing.
After almost an hour of work, they are complete. Though outwardly nothing has changed, just beneath the surface of the skin lurks a complex lattice of Evil. You release the final jolt of darkness needed to complete the ritual, and the corpses begin to cough and splutter, as dead lungs fire back into action, and webs of Evil tug on their heartstrings, forcing it to sluggishly pump blood once more. Limbs creaking as stiffened muscles strain to overcome rigor mortis, they rise from the ground, bloodshot eyes darting around as they try to make sense of their situation. One of them lays eyes upon you, and immediately drops to one knee (muscles creaking in protest), their rebuilt minds being preprogrammed to serve you.
They moan and groan like their more primitive brethren, but also make attempts at speech, slurring their words, but nevertheless making their intentions known. "Everything hurts", they complain. "I'm a monster", they whine. "We unlive to serve", they acknowledge when you berate them for ingratitude at your gift. Then a stomach rumbles, and they all seem to realise that they have not eaten for days (having been dead). "Hunger", one says. "Food", another adds. "Brains", one suggests. "Braaains!", the rest agree. You offer them the brains of the zombies you cut open earlier, which they seem somewhat dissatisfied with, though they reluctantly eat it, and it seems to sate their hunger.
The cryptbrains prove their usefulness as they begin to channel the remaining Evil out of the air to raise their former colleagues as zombies. Though it takes somewhat longer than you might wish, they do not tire or grow bored; so long as there is Evil with which to do so, they will raise the dead. They also demonstrate an ability to control the actions of zombies in their vicinity with ease, granting the zombies around them a semblance of intelligence.
Your cultists raid the warehouses for easily-transported valuables, taking a few bolts of cloth and sacks of spices, along with some gold and silver coins. This proves to be an excellent bounty, especially when they rig up a crude wolf-drawn sleigh to transport more of it. They will sell or barter the goods to get what they need later; there's always someone willing to buy something without asking too many questions.
Looting complete, you direct them to go north-west, into the region inhabited by the Ura tribes, to raid and recruit as they see fit. They set off at once, brutewolves in tow.
Finally, you say goodbye to Seiyojin, and the Eastern Mountains, travelling together with your daughter back to Fozdoch. Neither of you tire, and you can fly, whilst she can run at speeds that would leave a galloping horse in the dust. You race past the snow-covered ruins of the villages you visited in your trip through the mountains, and within a few days the pass leading back to Nuulyd is in sight.
You have Mkilzk change her bodies into their humanoid forms, the further disguise that with a thick cloak, so that only on close inspection would one notice her demonic features. So it is that you walk into Nuulyd, past the guards (who probably wouldn't stop you without the disguise, but it pays to be careful), to the Temple.
Good people walk quickly past the doors to the temple. The once hallowed place now projects a corrupt aura, scaring off those pure of heart (and in so doing, undermines even their faith in the gods, as they learn to fear temples). Some people glance in your direction when you walk up to the doors and open them, letting your daughter enter first. Within, the main hall is relatively unchanged. Though subtly wrong in enough ways to rob it of any power, it still resembles an ordinary temple, so as not to alarm anyone who overcomes their fear and enters in search of spiritual guidance or whatnot.
You are greeted by a cultist, who does not recognise you; a new convert, no doubt, who never truly witnessed your power. You cast off your cloak and stretch out to a more comfortable height. They cower and apologise for not realising it was you, praising your name as they kiss the floor. You kick the snivelling fool and tell him to fetch someone more important. He runs off, and soon Kate emerges from the back rooms. She is enthusiastic to see you, speaking at length about all that has happened since you left.
This includes worrying reports of tax collectors disappearing- the latest news is that the remnants of a convoy were finally (allegedly) found; they say that the corpses had been frozen to death, or blasted by magic. No verification was possible; by the time a contingent of soldiers arrived at the supposed scene, there was not a trace of battle to be found.
You present Kate with one of your Burnt Silver medallions, which she gratefully accepts. She then shows you around the temple. Away from the entrance, the temple has been transformed; your image is everywhere, smoke fills the halls, and frescoes of torture are painted across the walls. To the very back of the temple is the entrance to the as-yet incomplete tunnel network, though progress goes quickly with the aid of the black imps; at this rate they will be finished in four weeks.
That night, over a hundred new cultists bask in your presence as a kidnapped citizen is tortured to death over the temple altar. They bow down before you as you let the energy from the sacrifice wash over them, confirming their absolute devotion to your cause. The sight of so many bowed heads fills you with satisfaction, as their faith fills you with energy.
Later you visit Mischa in the brutewolf clearing. Sitting within the ruined shrine, which has since been repaired to some degree, turning it into a lab/sleeping area (heated by magic), she greets you eagerly, dropping her book, which she has already filled with notes and bookmarks. You hand her a medallion as well, which she accepts curiously, pocketing it and vowing to make good use of it.
She shows you some of her notes, and demonstrates some of her newfound skills, raising a couple of skeletons with a flick of her wrist. She also shows you the brutewolves who were born whilst you were away, who have been fetching her corpses to play with.
Various other cultists have various other things to report. People are beginning to travel the province in groups, as too many people have been disappearing lately. Villages near Fellshore have had people get up out of their beds and walk off into the night, never to be seen again. This is probably the Klrntvs feeding. And the fungal forest has spread across miles and miles of woodland, though miraculously it has not been noticed, or at least, no one is reporting it.
Well then. It's good to be back. Now, you shall
-Do something Evil.
Also, the recruits sent to the capital have finished their basic training, and are now considered soldiers. They will continue to spread their cult throughout the army.
Name: Nokluvgn
Age: 11 months
Physical might: 51 (+2 p/w: province-wide suffering) (-1: leakage)
Mental might: 76 (+2 p/w: province-wide suffering)(+1 p/w: Worship)(+4: Worship (one off))(-3: leakage)
Followers:433 (250 cultists, 14 cultists (armed), 7 magically trained cultists, 50 Nails (armed), 1 Finger (heavily armed), 40 mercenaries (armed), 44 soldiers, 25 senior soldiers. 3 Lesser Wordbearers, 4 Wordbearers, 2 trained Wordbearers (armed), 1 Wolfmaster, 7 knights (heavily armed), 7 mining engineers, 1 Mayor (lesser Wordbearer), 1 Duke)
Slaves: 18 (4 priests, 1 high priest, 7 guards (armed), 6 captives)
Servants: lots (4 Brutewolves, 3 Smokewraiths, 10 spectres, 4 giant-rat-packs, 10 black imps, 4 ultraviolet imps, 20 skeletons, 4 Hollow Remnants, 6 fungal druids, 20 zombies, 3 Klrntvs)
With Malkus:(10 smokewraiths, 26 spectres, 10 black imps, 5 midnight imps, 32 skeletons, 10 hollow remnants, 125 zombies, 8 Wights, 5 rock trolls, 5 cryptbrains)
Cults:
The New Way: Medium organization. 376 members (250 cultists, 13 Acolytes, 50 Nails (armed), 1 Finger (heavily armed), 40 mercenaries (armed), 3 Lesser Wordbearers, 2 Wordbearers, 2 magically trained Wordbearers, 2 trained Wordbearers (armed), 5 knights (heavily armed), 7 mining engineers, 1 Mayor (lesser Wordbearer), 1 Duke)
Slaves: 18 (4 priests, 1 high priest, 7 guards (armed), 6 captives)
Servants: 28 zombies, 4 skeletons.
Power level: 30 (20 used)
Of which: 8 spent recruiting, 4 spent constructing underground temple in Nuulyd (64/100), 4 spent raising the dead, 4 spent training new Nails (4/30)
Secrecy estimate: Fine
Resources: 1128 (+25 p/week: Duke's income)(+5 p/w: Copper mines)(-18: constructing underground temple in Nuulyd)(-8: Kate's recruitment)
Locations: Nuulyd: Merchant & town council & jail connections. Mayor converted.
Castle Brylib: Court connections+.
Oegorda: Nokluvgn may have been detected here. No wizards to be found.
Fözdoch Province (misc): No special features.
Other: Mischa, with nothing else to do, has her acolytes start raising zombies to aid the cultists in their work.
The Arms of He Who Beckons: Medium Organisation. 69 members (44 soldiers, 25 senior soldiers)
Power level: 8 (5 used)
Of which: 3 spent on extra training to stand out, 2 spent recruiting.
Resources: 0
Locations: Barracks near the capital.
Other: Basic training is completed with a small amount of fanfare. A general makes an appearance before the thousand recruits to congratulate them on becoming soldiers of the Grand Army. Some of the newly minted soldiers are chosen to lead their squads, which in many cases are your soldiers, their extra efforts not having gone unnoticed. They now find themselves one rung above grunt, their lack of wealth or noble blood a slight obstacle in the way of further promotion. Nevertheless, the cult vows to expand their influence throughout the army, and continue to engage in private training sessions, whilst recruiting more of their fellow soldiers.
The Cult of the Wolf: Low organisation. 15 members (14 cultists (armed), 1 Wolfmaster(armed))
Servants: 6 wolves, 6 brutewolves
Power level: 4 (4 used)
Of which: 1 spent worshipping Nokluvgn, 1 spent worshipping Mkilzk, 2 spent recruiting wolves.
Resources: 40
Locations: 1 week out of Seiyojin. They must first travel north for two more weeks, before heading west for another week to reach the lands of the Ura.
Other: A successful hunt leads to a pack of six wolves being subjugated by the cult.
Champions:
Mischa Alwiz: The Duke's 'loyal' companion, now corrupted by the allure of evil.
Physical Might: 2 (+1: the Vessel)
Mental Might: 15 (+5: the Vessel, +1: Burnt Silver Medallion)
Knowledge: Magic, competent Necromancy.
Possessions: Grey imp (knowledge of human & demonic magic, disguised as a crow), the Vessel (An urn containing 100 souls and a chunk of Nokluvgn's essence; +1 physical and +5 mental, enhances spell-casting stamina. Large and unwieldy, requires knowledge of Necromancy to use), Necromancy study book (enables further Necromancy progress), Burnt Silver Medallion (+1 Mental, attracts Evil and repels Good)
Other: Studying the book has the intended results; gaps in her basic knowledge of necromancy are filled in, and pathways towards more advanced spells open up before her.
Malkus Rom, the Black King: The captain of the mercenaries in the Duke's employ, he proved an especially eager convert, requiring only the most minor of rewards before pledging his loyalty to you. He now serves as the Black King of the East, ruling from the ruins of Seiyojin over an undead empire.
Physical Might: 11 (+2: Devil-horse, +2: Blade of Eternal Ash, -1: Black Staff)
Mental Might: 4 (+1: Burnt Silver Medallion, +1: Blade of Eternal Ash, -1: Black Staff)
Knowledge: Competent Tactics.
Possessions: Devil-horse (A huge black horse with demonic strength and intellect; +2 physical strength, greatly increased mobility), Blade of Eternal Ash (+2 Physical, captures souls of its victims (increases Mental by 1)), Burnt Silver Medallion (+1 Mental, attracts Evil and repels Good), Black Staff (-1 Mental and Physical. Enables raising zombies (max 20 p/week), basic magic attacks, and minor mind control)
Other: The staff saps the strength of its user, and requires incredible concentration to use. However, its internal reserves of Evil are self-replenishing, allowing for the 'free' raising of zombies (20 p/week, or more provided with a source of evil), and enables the wielder to fire bolts of penetrating darkness at their foes. It also projects an aura of command, further enhancing Malkus's tactical abilities, as he acquires the ability to move troops without speaking, and may even let him (briefly, weakly) control his enemies.
"Kate": A female Wordbearer, trained in combat and magic and provided with arms and armour, now the vessel for your demonic offspring.
Physical Might: 6
Mental Might: 6 (+1: Burnt Silver Medallion)
Knowledge: Adequate Mesmerism, basic Magic.
Possessions: Burnt Silver Medallion (+1 Mental, attracts Evil and repels Good)
Other: 4.5/8(?) months pregnant.
Mkilzk: The child of Nokluvgn and a female brutewolf. Triplets. They have wings, bladed tails, and horns. Her fur ripples like smoke, yet is solid. They only has one soul.
Physical Might: 7 (youngster)
Mental Might: 4 (youngster)(+1: Worship, +1: Burnt Silver Medallion)
Knowledge: Understands demontongue. Capable of (limited) transformation. Smoke manipulation.
Possessions: Burnt Silver Medallion (+1 Mental, attracts Evil and repels Good)
Other: 1.5 months old. Growing quickly. Despite being able to transform into a humanoid form, her mind still more closely resembles that of an extremely intelligent wolf.
Fortresses:
Fellshore: Was a small fishing village nestled between a small lake and a forest (with mountains not so far in the distance), it has now been razed. It is undermined with many tunnels and chambers forming a twisted maze, lit with smoky torches, where the shadows form strange shapes in the corner of your eyes.
Smallish labyrinth (10 defence, increases secrecy)(upgrade to Medium Labyrinth halted: 76/200)
Hidden altar: A suitable place to sacrifice to you and praise your dark name.
Copper Mine: A recently reopened mine. Converted engineers and Black Imps oversee the work of the prison labour.
Copper Veins: Generates income (5 resources p/w) if fully staffed (requires 100 workers and 10 overseers)(currently at 100 workers and 12 overseers, generating 5 r p/w)
Seiyojin: Formerly a monastery/garrison perched precariously on the edge of a steep mountain, Seiyojin was attacked by Nokluvgn, and captured after a brief siege. Now the home of Malkus Rom, AKA the Black King.
Defendable approach (provides defensive bonus against assaults), Parital walls (5 defence. Being upgraded to crude walls: 15/50)
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Topic: Demonhood 2 -Number of giant minions lost: between 0 and 3- (Read 143378 times)