My plan mainly involves reacting to opportunity, so it probably won't happen in the exact order below:
1. Invite the High-Priest to the temple and give him a "Join me or Suffer for Eternity" offer similar to the ex-priest. I suspect he'll say no, in which case we break his mind.
2. At night, we should give each knight nightmares, corrupting them and generally making sleep unpleasant. As we're now more powerful and focusing on less people, we should be able to tailor each dream for their recipient and start them on the track a lot more quickly than otherwise.
3. I'm least certain on what to do with the Wizard, as he's both the most unpredictable and as likely to recognise demonic incursions as the High-Priest is. Maybe corrupt all his magic to evil, slowly converting him in the process? It'd be nice to have a skilled caster on our side after all.
4. Preferably after we've successfully broken/converted everyone else, we should whisper blasphemies and ambitious thoughts in the Duke's ear. If only those subordinates of yours were more competent or more loyal, if only you had the power to demonstrate your worth, you could do great things. Oh look, all your followers will do exactly what I say. Oh look, I could you all this power. If only you serve me, you will have everything you ever wanted...
The Duke and his entourage move slowly through the city, coolly observing the remains of last night's feast. They make their way to the mayor's mansion, where they are welcomed with as much pomp and circumstance as can be mustered at such short notice. The mayor, doing her best to suppress a killer hangover (due in part to the fear that if discovered it may become a
literal killer) greets the Duke with a deep bow, then asks the reason for his visit. The Duke makes a comment about hearing strange news from these parts, regarding the death of some local priests? "Ah yes", the mayor replies, "Such an unfortunate business. I believe the situation is resolved, but if your lordship wishes to investigate the matter, I shall have my scribes prepare a full report" The Duke indicates that she should do so, then enters the mansion to rest from the journey. His attendant priest excuses himself and makes his way to the temple.
Regarding with a mixture of confusion and disapproval the workers cleaning yesterday's detritus from the temple square, he approaches the doors- noting with displeasure their closed nature- and pushes them open. Then frowns when this fails, and instead knocks on the doors with his staff. Eventually the door opens a crack, and a priest looks out.
"In the name of the gods, let me in at once! What dark times are these that the temple doors must not only be closed to the public, but locked as well?"
The priest stares blankly for a moment, then jerks to life, opening the door wide enough for the high priest to storm in, then closes it again. He then turns to the high priest and asks him to wait a moment whilst he fetches the head priest. The high priest looks around with a look that goes from being merely displeased to utterly appalled. By the time you arrive he is red in the face, absolutely livid, and immediately starts ranting at you about the horrific state of the temple- the seals of the gods defiled, the statue of Jilganheim missing, some sort of random doodling on the floor- and that's ignoring the stench of wine!
"SILENCE", you tell him. However this is a priest of considerable rank, and as such carries some level of divine protection, thereby nullifying your base mesmerism. Instead of rendering him silent, your command has the opposite effect- he begins yelling something about impudence and disrespect, waving his staff around menacingly. You quickly tire of his antics, and seal the doors as you drop your disguise. The high priest takes a moment to react- and curiously, his reaction is different from others who first witness your form. Rather than utter disbelief, confusion, and fear, his face is one of horrified recognition- as if he has seen your ilk before.
"DEMON!", he cries, and smites you with his staff.
This has no effect, obviously.
"SUBMIT", you say, but he ignores you, pulling out a silver medallion and holding it in front of him. The sight of the metal gives you a flash of discomfort, but a quick flick of the wrist sees the trinket go flying through the air, the brief contact causing no more than a slight itch.
Shocked at how easily you managed to disarm him, he pulls back, a more familiar look of fear now creeping across his face.
"SUBMIT", you repeat, this time combining it with a mental assault. His mind is shielded by some sort of divine barrier, but you smash through it and amplify the fear he is already feeling until he shakes in abject terror. He manages to hold himself together enough to hold up a trembling staff between you, stammering something incoherent.
"SUBMIT", you say for the third time, adding
"OR DIE". His wavering faith is evident on his face, but he refuses to back down.
Having given him enough chances, you assault his mind again, pulling it apart, locking his soul away in a mental maze of his own creation. His body shudders briefly as control is wrested away from its former owner, before settling down, an unthinking puppet of your will.
A runner arrives at the mayoral mansion, to inform the Duke's party that the high priest will be staying at the temple for the next few days to discuss religious matters. The runner notices the wizard muttering "good riddance", but must leave before investigating further.
Later that night, a cloud of smoke drifts towards the mansion, before settling above the open window of the wizard's room. Though the wizard had set a trap to detect such supernatural intrusions, the smokewraith detects and avoids it with relative ease, and settles in to learn what it can of the mage.
The first interesting factoid emerges as the wizard undresses. For it appears that under their baggy robes, this mage is of the female persuasion, albeit not possessed of an especially feminine figure. Though you have little experience with wizards, you had come to the vague understanding that they were generally male, with females of magical talent gravitating towards witchcraft instead. A curious thing, though barely relevant- gender having little meaning to you.
The second interesting thing is that she seems to spend an awful lot of time writing in a small leatherbound journal, which she guiltily conceals when someone knocks at the door.
The smokewraith notes this for later.
The third interesting thing is the lack of other interesting things. The wizard is a relatively secretive person, looking around carefully, despite knowing full well that no one is there, before concealing the journal under a floorboard. She does nothing else interesting before going to bed- or at least nothing the smokewraith can detect.
Once the smokewraith is certain that she is asleep, it sneaks into the room- avoiding another magical tripwire- drifts over towards the floorboard, lifts it up carefully, reaches in... and sets off an alarm. Panicking, the smokewraith grabs the journal and flees through the open window, setting off both tripwires as it goes. The wizard jumps awake, catching a brief glimpse of a cloud of smoke disappearing through her window, and leaps out of bed, a spell upon her lips. She flings a fireball out the open window, but manages to hit nothing but a bale of hay in the courtyard, which promptly catches fire.
As the shouting of the volunteer fire brigade echo through the night, you flick through the wizard's oh-so-precious journal. It is mostly tat- a private diary in which she bemoans almost every aspect of her life, from the discrimination she faces from her fellow wizards to the annoying holier-than-thou attitude of the high priest. Well, these things have some value, offering hints as to how she might be corrupted, but it lacks the explosive secrets that would warrant the extreme secrecy. You muse on this as you sit on the temple roof, watching the townsfolk scurry about with buckets of water, slowly but methodically extinguishing the fire. Eventually calm returns, people return to their beds, and you return to invading the dreams of the Duke's knightly bodyguard.
One knight dreams of a field of fingers, rising up like corn, grabbing him, pulling him into their horrid embrace.
Another dreams of his friends and family, dissolving into clouds of smoke whenever he draws near.
A third dreams of a thousand knives slowly carving off his skin, which grows back only to be flayed anew, ad infinitum.
Others dream of burning eyes and hooded figures, wicked witches and fearsome beasts.
Each dreams a dream tailored to them personally, preying on their fears, breaking them down until they finally awake, finding their sheets a tangled, sweaty mess. None of them speak of their dreams, yet they all see their own terror reflected in their companions' eyes. They spend the day jumping at shadows and shivering at the sight of wriggling fingers, only to have the dreams return the next night, and the next, and the next. After five days of this their morale begins to break down to such levels that even the Duke notices that something is wrong. He demands an explanation, and upon hearing that his knights are plagued by persistent nightmares, he orders the wizard to perform an investigation.
She insists that she must find the thief who stole her
mumble mumble mumble. The Duke reminds her that he is her boss, and that if he says levitate she asks how high. Grumbling, she performs a rite of divination upon the knights, and comes to the conclusion that there is indeed an evil force acting upon them, though she cannot tell what or how. Could these rumours of evil witches be true, the Duke asks. She doesn't know about that, she replies, as far as she knows witches are just a bunch of harmless idiots. She would sooner suspect Necromancy, she explains.
The wizard sets out to track down the source of the nightmares, reasoning (correctly) that the source and the journal thief may be the same person. She performs divinations throughout the town, eventually triangulating the evil presence within the town as being- oh no, she thinks- in or around the temple. Now she will have to deal with priests.
Great.The wizard approaches the temple. You detected her performing the divinations, but found yourself incapable of misdirecting them. Indeed, it is hard to use evil to misdirect a spell looking for evil. Thus you must deal with this meddlesome mage some other way. You shall have to
-Call her a witch- she is a female magic user, after all- and have the townsfolk burn her.
-Use what you learnt from her journal to tempt her into darkness, and thence into your service.
-Have your high-priest puppet talk to her, and convince her to stay out of the temple.
Name: Nokluvgn
Age: 4 months
Physical might: 28
Mental might: 28
Followers:97 (74 villagers, 4 Wordbearers, 11 criminals, 7 rich men, 1 ex-priest)
Slaves: 13 (4 priests, 1 high priest, 8 guards (armed))
Servants: 7 (4 Brutewolves, two Smokewraiths, one devil-horse)
Cults: The New Way (Fellshore): Low organization. 76 members in Fellshore (74 villagers, 2 Wordbearers)
Power level: 13
Of which: 6 spent gathering resources, 5 spent expanding the labyrinth
Resources: 6
Other:
The New Way (Nuulyd): 21 members in Nuulyd. (11 criminals, 2 Wordbearers, 7 rich men, 1 ex-priest)
Power level: 6
Resources: 0
Other: As they cannot exchange resources freely (yet), the two branches of The New Way will temporarily be tracked separately
Fortresses: Fellshore: A small fishing village nestled between a small lake and a forest (with mountains not so far in the distance), now undermined with tunnels and chambers forming a twisted maze, lit with smoky torches, where the shadows form strange shapes in the corner of your eyes.
Small tunnel network: increases secrecy of local cult. Being upgraded (10/50)
Small (hidden) altar: A suitable place to sacrifice to you and praise your dark name.
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Topic: Demonhood 2 -Number of giant minions lost: between 0 and 3- (Read 143776 times)