My proposal and vote
1) Send our smoke wraiths\spectres in, do reconnaissance of the area, see where their defences are strongest, and what assets this town has to bear
2) Carefully poke in the dreams of the citizens. Consider corrupting a guard or two should we find a good target
3) Consider summoning few black imps to prepare an attack from below if scouts will find that this route is good
4) Spend some time with daughter(s) trying to communicate with her and generally enjoy time spent with kids
5) Order the wolf cult to sacrifice a volunteer to be the first real meal of Mkilzk. (wolf pups start eating meat in 4 week age, Mkilizk should be able to do it earlier)
6) Try to corrupt dogs of the city from the safe distance. Maybe Mkilzk and Wolfmaster can help
7) Try to hide the undead army from the eyes of citizens
You decide to send in the spectres to do some reconnaissance. After spending a day scouting the settlement, they return with a report, which they thankfully deliver in prose form.
The settlement is home to about 400 people, a quarter of which are soldiers, and another quarter of which appear to be monks. The soldiers wear the same uniform you saw back when you entered the mountains; polished bronze armour emblazoned with a stylised image of the sun, with leather covering that not covered by the bronze. The monks wear robes of light blues and greys, with eagle feathers as decoration.
The soldiers and monks inhabit the central compound, the interior of which is filled with large airy halls, decorated with many statues of Aeolos, god of the sky, with the occasional statue of Tokchoko in there as well. The outlying buildings are home to the rest of the population, mostly shepherds and craftsmen. There is also a large granary, and several warehouses, which amongst other things store the goods of various merchants who have decided to spend the winter here.
Many of the buildings, including the central compound, extend below ground. An underground spring provides water, and tunnels connect a few of the larger buildings to each other.
Though the settlement appears to be laid out in no particular order, a more careful examination reveals that thanks to the placement of the buildings and a few strategic walls, any attacking army would be forced along a winding path to reach the gates to the central compound and the granary, during which time they would be exposed to archery fire from the defenders within, with several chokepoints along the way which could easily be blocked off to slow their progress.
In light of this news, it occurs to you that attacking head on would have been ill-advised. Instead, you order your forces to lie low. This is not as difficult as it would seem; despite their large numbers, the undead are, obviously, not alive, and therefore have no need to move around or light camp fires which would make them easier to spot, and will happily cram themselves into small and uncomfortable locations. You secrete your forces on the slopes of the mountain, with a large ridge between you and the settlement, and sufficiently far from the road that someone would have to be looking quite hard to spot your forces lying between the rocks and shrubs.
You summon six black imps to start digging a tunnel towards the settlement. They reckon it will take them a long time to complete, and they complain bitterly at the lack of alcohol.
During the night, you enter the dreams of the settlement. You quickly learn that it is called 'Royoko's Seiyojin', or just Seiyojin
*. The monks are followers of Aeolos, whose worship is tolerated by the empire, and the soldiers are men from a distant part of the realm, a land of steppes and rivers.
You search the dreamscape for signs of corruption, and manage to find a few promising individuals, whose dreams you quickly fill with madness and forbidden pleasures. After few nights of this, you reckon they are ripe for recruitment, though you hold off for now, since you have no use for them yet. Half a dozen guards, one monk, and a merchant are all but yours, should you need them.
You spend some time talking to your daughter in demontongue. She understands what you are saying, but her attempts to repeat it fall foul of her limited canine vocal chords. However, you are quite capable of reading her mind, rendering the need for speech moot, and you have several useful conversations with her.
As she grows, so does her hunger. No longer satisfied with milk, she begins to cry out for fresh meat. You turn to your cultists and command one of them to volunteer for the honour of being your daughter's first meal. No one steps forward. You rephrase your command, telling them to choose one of them to be volunteered. After a brief squabble, the Wolfmaster steps in, knocks a few heads together, and picks a scrawny woman to be the sacrifice. She is clearly unwilling, struggling as she is dragged away, though she does not struggle hard enough to cause an issue. The Wolfmaster does the honours, stabbing her in the stomach, slicing her open, then offering her still-living body to Mkilzk, whose three mouths hungrily dive into the mess of entrails, quite appropriately wolfing down the soft warm meat. The cries of the dying cultist only seem to heighten her appetite, as they should.
As Mkilzk feasts, you summon the Wolfmaster for another task. The shepherds living in Seiyojin posses sheepdogs, and you tell him to try to take control of them. He nods, then takes a deep breath and howls loudly into the evening sky. Shepherds look nervously out their windows, weary of wolves so close to their flock, whilst their dogs let out a handful of howls rise up in response. He listens carefully, then informs you that he would be able to control many of the dogs there if he were closer to them, but cannot break their loyalty to their owners from this distance.
You consider your options. Malkus agrees that a head on attack would be foolish, resulting at best in massive casualties, and that starving them out is not really an option. After mulling it over for a while, you decide to
-Screw it all and attack anyway. Hubris? Never heard of it.
-Continue corrupting people within the settlement, until you can march in without a fight.
-Leave Seiyojin behind, and travel further east.
-Do something else.
Whilst you are doing that, your cultists, along with Mkilzk and the brutewolves, should
-Leave you behind, returning to the west to wreak havoc there.
-Bide their time despite the cold. There are plenty of sheep for them to eat.
-Assault travellers here, attempting to lure out the defenders.
---
Meanwhile, Kate sits discontentedly in the back room of Nuulyd's temple. Another report has arrived from the Duke informing her of the loss of another tax collector, again without a trace. Though the cult does not really need all the money collected, it is nevertheless nice to have, and provides a material reminder of the heavy burden placed upon the people of Fozdoch. She wonders whether she should send some Nails along with the next lot to go out, but decides that the Duke has enough soldiers- let him take care of it.
The ground beneath her rumbles, and the entire temple shakes slightly. A black imp pops its head out of a hole in the floor and informs her in a gruff voice that they have suffered a wee bit of a cave-in, nothing to worry about, just some idiot channelling the edge tiles before doing the center. She sighs loudly and tells it to just deal with it. It mentions that there may have been a tiny little casualty. She reiterates her lack of interest; there are always more where that came from. Indeed, recruitment numbers have been growing dramatically since she started handing out free food to people willing to listen to the New Way's pitch.
A cultist arrives bearing more reports. She rolls her eyes and gets back to work.
Those reports include, by the way, a report that after three months of growth, the fungal druids have finally decided to 'recruit' some more people into their ranks, leading to disappearances near the corrupted forest. In addition, they are harvesting the fruits of the forest and delivering them to Mischa, who eagerly accepts the arcane reagents.
Also, the giant rat population has declined slightly.
Name: Nokluvgn
Age: 10 months
Physical might: 61 (+2 p/w: province-wide suffering)(-3: summoning Black Imps)(-2: Leakage)
Mental might: 70 (+2 p/w: province-wide suffering)(-3: summoning Black Imps)(+3: Worship)(-3: Leakage)
Followers:343 (222 cultists, 7 magically trained cultists, 50 Nails (armed), 1 Finger (heavily armed), 40 mercenaries (armed), 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 (12 Brutewolves, 3 Smokewraiths, 30 spectres, 4 giant-rat-packs, 16 black imps, 4 ultraviolet imps, 5 midnight imps, 95 skeletons, 14 Hollow Remnants, 6 fungal druids, 290 zombies, 3 Klrntvs, 8 Wights)
Cults:
The New Way: Medium organization. 272 members (146 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)
Power level: 25 (15 used)
Of which: 6 spent recruiting, 6 spent constructing underground temple in Nuulyd (22/100), 3 spent searching for Necromancers.
Secrecy estimate: Probably fine
Resources: 1108 (+30 p/week: Duke's income)(+5 p/w: Copper mines)(-22: constructing underground temple in Nuulyd)(-5: Mischa's search)(-6: 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:
The Arms of He Who Beckons: Medium Organisation. 57 members (57 cultists)
Power level: 7 (4 used)
Of which: 3 spent on extra training to stand out, 1 spent recruiting.
Resources: 0
Locations: Army camp near the capital. Divided amongst several units of trainees.
Other:
The Cult of the Wolf: Low organisation. 15 members (14 cultists, 1 Wolfmaster)
Power level: 4 (4 used)
Of which: 3 spent worshipping Nokluvgn, 1 spent worshipping Mkilzk.
Resources: 0
Locations: Following Nokluvgn
Other:
Champions:
Mischa Alwiz: The Duke's 'loyal' companion, now corrupted by the allure of evil.
Physical Might: 2 (+1: the Vessel)
Mental Might: 12 (+5: the Vessel)
Knowledge: Magic, adequate 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)
Other: Mischa continues to search for Necromancers, leading cultists on wild goose chases to abandoned towers and hidden caves, having no luck in finding anything.
Malkus Rom: 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.
Physical Might: 11 (+2: Devil-horse, +2: Blade of Eternal Ash)
Mental Might: 4 (+1: Burnt Silver Medallion)
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)), Burnt Silver Medallion (+1 Mental, attracts Evil and repels Good)
Other: Cold and miserable. His concubines are similarly cold, both literally and figuratively.
"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: 5
Knowledge: Adequate Mesmerism, basic Magic.
Other: 3.5/8(?) 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: 1.5 (child)
Mental Might: 1.5 (child)(+1: Worship)
Knowledge: Understands demontongue.
Other: 0.5 months old. Growing extremely quickly.
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, increases secrecy)(being upgraded to Medium Labyrinth 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)
Author
Topic: Demonhood 2 -Number of giant minions lost: between 0 and 3- (Read 143584 times)