For the child I want:
Many dexterous and deadly fingers Can go from having more than 5 fingers and unusual manual dexterity to being nothing but a mass of wriggling fingers. Comes from the nature of the father
Mastery over aquatic beings Can go from a talent in fishing to ability to control huge amount of creatures
Comes from the heritage of the mother(I assume she is from fishemen dynasty) and location
Musical Talent Can go from being a talented musician and singer to ability to perform a mighty demonic song that twists reality around
Comes from the conceiving ritual
Any comments, suggestions, +1s?
+1, the child should also have an,
Aura of Smoke: Can go from being able to breath smoke and vaguely manipulate the way it blows to outright constantly emitting a cloud of black, demonic tar smoke from their skin and manipulating it into unnaturally sharp bladed tendrils and extremely long and powerful fingers.
If at all possible, the child should have Increased Intelligence, and a Natural Talent for Illusions and Mesmerizing.
Or something along those lines. We shall see what emerges in ~9 months(?)
Cult actions:
1 power\5 resources > Help black imps improving the labyrynth temple
4 power\5 resources > Keep building the wall in fellshore. New official excuse is to not repeat the fate of Lesp village.
5 power\10 resources > Use Nuuylid councilmen, Duke's, Mischa's and High priest authority to control the investigation of events in Lesp. Try to blame witches and\or bandits from foreign lands
5 power\20 resources > Keep expanding the cult by doing more feasts. Try to form branches of cult in villages near Nuuylid and castle Brylib. Do not convert villages near Fellshore, it is dangerous thing to do during the investigation.
2 power\10 resources > Arming and training cultists
Rest of power > maintaining secrecy
Personal actions
1) Order black imps to improve the temple labyrynth. Let them choose improvements be it expansion, decoration, adding traps or whatever but make it clear that little buggers will be eaten should they do a bad job. Don't forget to settle skeletons undeground away from human eyes
2) Restrain yourself from corrupting forests, cult needs some secrecy ATM and corrupting trees near Fellshore is a bad way to achieve it Corrupt a forest some distance from Fellshore.
3) Wait few days to see if the lake creature will show more signs of activity.
4) If not, travel to Oegorda and camp near the city, studiyng dreams of citizens
There are no reason to rush. Our position is secure but those 8 survivors can create problems. We should let our cult to spread slowly in the countryside while we deal with the city.
We should do raids over the boarder rather then keep eating the Duke's people.
I was thinking, instead of evil forest hearts what about infectious dark fungal druids?
Merge humans with a fungal imp that can mutate trees/plants/animals with necromancy. The resulting forest feeds off evil, able to move around have claws and tentacles, produce alchemist ingredients and drug fruits. Also the evil druids are self aware and can control the plants to make mazes and unique monsters and such.
Call the wizard over before we start so we can be told what standard ingredients are and so she can watch us create abominations.
Plus maybe some other stuff.
For a few days you divide your time between directing the Black Imps as they expand the labyrinth (wailing about z-layers and aquifers as they go), and listening by the lake for signs of the creatures within. You think you detect something moving, though it is still slow and weak. Perhaps more Evil would help it awaken quicker? You consider diving into the lake yourself, but some sense of foreboding stops you.
Eventually Mischa arrives, one part annoyed that you dragged her away from her studies, one part eager to learn why you summoned her, two parts happy to see you for some reason. She gets into a fight with Kate after she pridefully informs the wizard that she is the highest ranking of Nokluvgn's followers, which Mischa objects to strongly. She demonstrates her magical abilities, and challenges her to show what makes her so special. Kate smiles, bares her belly, and informs her of the honour bestowed upon her by Nokluvgn himself. Several different expressions flash across Mischa's face; disbelief, revulsion, envy, before settling on condescension. Her work requires more skill than simply spreading her legs, she says. Kate slaps her.
You break up the fight, and ask Mischa if she would like to share the honour. She politely refuses, then asks why you summoned her. You motion for her to follow you as you ride back out into the woods with a trio of cultists in tow.
It is dusk by the time you stop, judging this to be far enough from Fellshore that no one would connect the two locations. Beneath a cowering oak tree, you ask Mischa what sort of ingredients she has trouble acquiring. Confused, Mischa lists a number of substances. You tell her to pick a mushroom from the forest floor and hand it to you. She does so, choosing a large white one with black stripes on it, and places it into your hands. You cup your hands around the fungus and pour your energy into it, causing it to swell up until it is pressing against your fingers, ready to burst. You hurl the resultant mass of mushroom at the ancient oak tree, which it hits with a wet thump. Rather than falling off, the fungal mass sticks to the tree, and soon tendrils start to worm their way across the bark, criss-crossing the tree in a web of mycosis. Leaves start to rain down from above as the fungus drains the life out of the oak with unnatural speed, whilst it grows with the same. Soon bulbs emerge, grow, and burst in a shower of spores, that waft over to neighbouring trees to repeat the process.
"Fascinating", Mischa says "At this rate the entire forest will be corrupted within hours"
Unfortunately not, you explain, as the fungus requires Evil to thrive. It will soon use up what you gave it, and stop growing at its current extreme pace.
"Then why make it?", she asks. As explanation, you pull down a sac growing on the side of the oak tree's corpse, and rip it open. A green slime oozes out, which you scoop up and hand to the confused wizard. Disgusted, she takes the slime in her hands- whereupon her face lights up.
"This- this is Gerevin's Glorious Goop! This fungus produces it in such large quantities?"
Not just that, but near everything you said you needed, you explain. Nihar's Nebulous Nitrate, Cusqua's Curious Charcoal, Mixcot's Marvellous Mixture- and a bunch of things with similarly silly names. The Fungus produces them all, in easy to harvest forms.
Mischa starts to laugh maniacally, overcome by the ease with which you create substances that many wizards made their life's work to create. It is a shame, she says, that the fungal patch is so small.
About that, you say, and summon forwards the three cultists. They prostrate themselves before you, and you command them to hug the infested tree. With varying decrees of reluctance they do so, overcoming their revulsion as their limbs sink into the soft, sponge-like remnants of wood, yellow-green pus oozing over their bare skin. You then direct more energy into your creation, and the cultists shout in alarm as they are pulled into the tree, the fungus growing over their backs, eventually covering them completely, their panicked cries muffled under the thick green mass. Soon the nature of their cries starts to change, become agonised screams as the fungus burrows into their skin, down their throats, and over their eyes. They can no longer speak when they begin to vomit, the liquefied remains of unnecessary internal organs forcing its way out of their bodies, to be soaked up by the ravenous mould. Mischa observes the process with fascination.
After what seems like an hour, the three ex-cultists pull themselves free from the tree, their horrific transformation complete. Every inch of their skin is covered in mycosis, mushrooms sprout out of their back, spores spilling out as they open their mouths to talk. Or grunt, at least- their attempts at communication incoherent by mortal standards. You command them to tend to the fungal forest, to which they give an affirmative moan. They pick branches from the forest floor, which are quickly covered in fungus, and reshape them to serve as staves.
They shall see to it that there are plenty of ingredients to be harvested, you tell Mischa. They will require sacrifices, of course, but their control over the forest should allow them to capture unwary travellers by themselves. Should more of their kind be required, they need only infect a relatively willing victim with the fungus. An unwilling victim would have their mind destroyed, becoming a fungal zombie. Mischa writes all this down, before taking a sample of the fungus to examine later. She intends to return to Brylib to continue her studies, unless you have need of her elsewhere?
-No, she can return to her studies.
-Yes, she should stay by your side, to continue learning from your actions.
-Actually, she should go to Fellshore, and start training any magically gifted cultists.
-Now that you think of it, she should do something completely different.
With the seed of a great fungal forest planted, you decide it is time to go a-feasting, but not in the realm that you more or less control. Not that you care about the lives of its citizens, but, you know, dead people pay no taxes. And there is nothing more demonic than taxes. You fly east, into the mountains that mark the border with the Tokzoku Empire, flying between the peaks until you spy a small cluster of houses clinging to the side of a mountain. A tiny hamlet, it will fall easily before you.
You begin by invading the dreams of the inhabitants, giving them nightmares of unspeakable torment, whilst preventing them from awakening to escape. They thrash around in their beds as in their dreams they are flayed alive whilst thousands of wriggling fingers pick at their flesh. Come the morning, the entire hamlet is a nervous wreck, entirely incapable of mounting any resistance as you crash into their village in monstrous form, your fingers like whips, herding the terrified peasants before you. When the last villager is brought wailing in terror before you, you expose them to the briefest glance of your
true form, not the horns-and-wings form that you adopt to prevent mortals from going incurably mad upon seeing you. Naturally, seeing this for even the briefest moment it the final straw, killing several villagers outright, and driving the rest to utter madness. You gather them all up in your fingers and pop them one by one into your gaping maw, until there is only one left, a gibbering madman covered in the blood and gore of his children, spouse, and neighbours. You decide to leave him alive, seeing as he is utterly incapable of providing any sort of coherent message to anyone, and will probably die anyway before anyone finds him. Nevertheless, it amuses you to leave a 'witness' behind.
With your hunger sated for a good while, you take off from the nameless hamlet, and fly back towards Jilgalia.
You check in at Fellshore to see if there is any sign of activity from the lake (nothing but the faint stirrings still), and decide to upgrade some of your skeletal minions. In a process not dissimilar to that of creating a smokewraith, you burn the skeletons over a pyre, forcing the smoke to permeate their decaying bones, strengthening them, and surrounding them with a permanent haze. Though not much stronger than a skeleton, it should nevertheless help them stand up to a bit more damage than usual. As for being terrifying, well, skelingtons are already pretty scary, but you suppose that their burning eyes and permanent cloud of black smoke might make them a little scarier still.
After creating a few Hollow Remnants, you set off for Oegorda.
Oegorda could reasonably be called either a large town or a small city. With over eight thousand inhabitants, it is by far the biggest concentration of people you have ever seen. You rest in the forest a few miles from the town walls, and observe the dreams of the inhabitants. Even with all your power, it is an overwhelming amount, and you can only make out vague details; concern about increased taxes, worry about the forced conscription, elation at the coming harvest, which stands to be a bumper crop. You also feel the dreams of many priests, dozens of them, in two temples and a handful of shrines- as well as the dreams of a magic user, quite possibly a wizard. Though you could have simply missed it, you do not detect the organised and sensible dreams of a witch in the town, which would lend credence to calling it a city, for witches and cities typically do not mix.
Other than a faint sense of unrest towards the increasingly tyrannical Duke, you do not detect a sense of corruption about the town- you would more or less be starting from scratch if you wanted to corrupt it. Of course, you could simply send in the missionaries, and let them gradually convert the town to your cause. Attacking the town would probably be unwise, as it has many guards and simple but serviceable walls.
You eventually decide to
-Sneak into town, and begin the process of corrupting it personally.
-Order your cultists to infiltrate the town, and begin converting people.
-Attack the town anyway. What's the worst that could happen?
-Do something completely different.
Also how many cultists do you want to be 'recruited' to join the grand army?
Name: Nokluvgn
Age: 7 months
Physical might: 53 (+3 p/w: province-wide suffering)(-4: planting the Fungus)(-3: creating the fungal druids)(-4: creating Hollow Remnants)
Mental might: 58 (+3 p/w: province-wide suffering)(-2: planting the Fungus)(-2: creating the fungal druids)
Followers:195 (111 cultists, 8 cultists (armed), 29 trained cultists (armed), 40 mercenaries (armed), 3 Wordbearers, 3 knights (heavily armed), 1 Duke)
Slaves: 12 (4 priests, 1 high priest, 7 guards (armed))
Servants: 42 (4 Brutewolves, two Smokewraiths, 15 spectres, 3 giant-rat-packs, 3 black imps, 8 skeletons, 4 Hollow Remnants, 3 fungal druids)
Cults:
The New Way: Low organization. 195 members (111 cultists, 8 cultists (armed), 29 Nails (armed), 40 mercenaries (armed), 3 Wordbearers, 3 knights (heavily armed), 1 Duke)
Slaves: 12 (4 priests, 1 high priest, 7 guards (armed))
Power level: 28 (17 used)
Of which: 1 spent improving the labyrinth in Fellshore, 4 spent building wall at Fellshore, 5 spent manipulating Lesp investigation, 5 spent recruiting (with feasts), 2 spent arming cultists.
Secrecy estimate: Good.
Resources: 1072 (+40 p/week: Duke's income)(-2p/w: building labyrinth)(-2p/w: building wall in Fellshore)(-10p/w: recruitment feasts)(-4p/w: arming cultists)
Locations: Fellshore: Fortress
Nuulyd: Merchant & town council connections.
Castle Brylib: Court connections.
Fözdoch Province (misc): No special features.
Other: 22 new recruits are lured in by the excessively extravagant feasts the cultists throw over the course of these last two weeks. Meals fit for a king are set down before baffled peasants, who naturally welcome the generous New Way into their lives in this time of shortages. Meanwhile, the investigation into the Lesp incident is carefully manipulated into the hands of your loyal cultists, who throw all the evidence out the window and conclude that it was the work of witches, working in tandem with foreign bandits. They make no mention of 'Nokeluvegen' in their report. The Duke dutifully approves of the report and concludes that there is no need to bother the capital with this news, or anyone else for that matter. The witnesses who were brought in for questioning 'decided to move to a different province' and are never seen again.
Champions:
Mischa Alwiz: The Duke's 'loyal' companion, now corrupted by the allure of evil.
Physical Might: 1
Mental Might: 7 (+1: increased Necromancy skill)
Knowledge: Magic, adequate Necromancy.
Possessions: Grey imp (knowledge of human & demonic magic, disguised as a crow)
Other: Who knows what she is up to, it all depends on what you asked of her.
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: 9 (+2: Devil-horse)
Mental Might: 2
Knowledge: Competent Tactics.
Possessions: Devil-horse (A huge black horse with demonic strength and intellect; +2 physical strength, greatly increased mobility)
Other: Converts many of his subordinate mercenaries to the New Way, ready to be 'recruited' into the army. Would like to know how many cultists he should 'recruit'- 10? 50? 100?
"Kate": A female Wordbearer, trained in combat and provided with arms and armour, now the vessel for your demonic offspring.
Physical Might: 6
Mental Might: 3
Knowledge: Basic Mesmerism.
Other: 0.5/9(?) months pregnant. After recovering from the conception, she became even prouder and more arrogant, if such a thing were possible, referring to herself as the Prime Wordbearer, and the Maiden of the New Way, demanding that the cultists treat her like royalty. The cultists consider her to be making a valid point, reasoning that if Nokluvgn himself bestows such honour upon her, then so should they.
She also develops a hunger for human flesh, which is easy enough to provide at first, the smoked remains of the pyre-victims serving as a well preserved food supply.
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 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 8/200), Crude wall (under construction 28/100)
Small (hidden) altar: A suitable place to sacrifice to you and praise your dark name. 
Author
Topic: Demonhood 2 -Number of giant minions lost: between 0 and 3- (Read 143975 times)