Anyway, a plan, based partially on Strongpoint's plan.
~135 zombies, ~35 skeletons, 10 hollow remnants, 20 spectres, 8 wights, 6 brutewolves, 5 midnight imps, 2 black imps, 2 rock trolls, Malkus, 14 cultists, 1 Wolfmaster, Mkilzk
Prep phase :
1) Loot enemy corpses to arm cult of the wolf and\or hollow remains. Pile remains of the fallen enemies mixed with zombie chunks and put the whole thing on fire. Use evil fumes generated to teach Mkilzk how to manipulate smoke. Sneak the smoke upwards towards the temple, drenching the entire Temple in the sweet mouth-watering smells of roasted human ribs.
2) Sends Spectres out to scout. We don't want to be caught unaware by reinforcements. Should any be on the way, we will cancel all plans below this point, leave the zombies behind, sneak by the rescuing army and attack some of the now unprotected villages that army was defending.
3) Traitors will argue that the fortress needs to be prepped for more defensive action. Barricade entrances, windows and all that. This will make it harder to get in, or out.
4) A message will appear, written on the wall in unremoveable smokey letters. It would proclaim that we (the demon) have decided to reward them for their good fight, and have enchanted the spring water to heal wounds. The water will be perfectly ordinary. Use our mental powers to intensify paranoia about this undetectable demonic influence, hopefully causing many to forgo drink.
5) The wolf cult has not much to do. They can range out and look for local wolves to recruit, or something.
The burning
6) Traitors, midnight imps and trolls will use various means to start fires within the central compound. Using our control of smoke, we will keep it there, within and surrounding the temple.
7) Under the cover and panic of smoke, begin moving the zombies upwards to cut down any escaping stragglers.
8) Use this giant sacrificial pyre to summon something neat.
On a side note, one of the primary issues with zombies is that they're literally braindead. Malkus has to micromanage them to get them to do anything at all. As such, I propose we create sort of unit for later on.
Cryptbrain
An undead with minor necromantic powers, which it uses to control other undead and lead them in battle. Similarly, it can use these powers to mold and repair undead, reattaching or reanimating lymbs. Cryptbrains are actually quite smart, but tend to be weak at least initially. They are perfectly aware of their weakness, and thus tend to use their necromantic power to upgrade themselves with the best bits of their fallen subordinates.
Mm-hmm.
As your cultists arm themselves with the weapons of the fallen (the hollow remnants getting whatever is left, which isn't much), you pile the corpses up onto bonfires built from the torn-down buildings of Seiyojin. As a heavy snow falls over the settlement, you light the fires, which quickly start to give of the unmistakable stench of human flesh.
Mkilzk joins you by the flames. Her bodies have by this point reached the size of regular wolves, and are still growing. Before you can say anything, the smokelike fur on one of her bodies start to ripple, and her entire form changes, becoming that of a young teenage girl, though she still possesses her horns, wings, and tail. She coughs up a little smoke before speaking. "Yesss, father?", she growls, smoke hissing out the side of her mouth. You pause briefly before explaining that she is to learn to control smoke properly. She rolls her eyes and waves her hands, causing the smoke rising from the fire to dance and swirl, forming eldritch shapes before she drops her hands and the smoke returns to normal.
Typical. You try to teach them something, and they think they know it already. Teenagers. Who'd have 'em?
You point out several flaws in her methods, causing her to growl in discontent, though she reluctantly follows your instructions, and is soon manipulating smoke in a far more controlled fashion. Together you draw the smoke out of the pyres and send it wafting towards the temple, flowing in through the windows and taunting the defenders with the smell of their comrades cooking.
You send spectres to scout around for reinforcements, whilst you send the Cult of the Wolf down the mountain, into the forests, where they are to hunt for wolves to recruit.
Once your scouts return to inform you that they found no reinforcements within a week's march of Seiyojin, you commence with the remainder of your plans.
Within the temple, traitors suggest that barricades be created, an idea which the other defenders take to quickly. Barricades are constructed not just at the entrances, but are also strategically placed throughout the temple, creating chokepoints that any attacker would need to go through to get deeper into the temple.
The ethereal message upon the walls is mostly ignored by the defenders; they have seen worse, and have little choice but to keep drinking the water.
"Fire!", someone cries. The weary defenders sit up quickly, and set to work. They have played this game before; several times the enemy has tried to set fire to the building. Several times traitors were caught setting the fires, and were executed. This did nothing to improve morale, of course. And so with practised ease they split up; one team forming a bucket brigade, another setting off to stamp out the fire and remove any burnables from its path. But then comes another cry of "Fire!"; then another. More and more cries echo through the building, and the defenders realise that there are too many to fight. It does not help that some of the cries turn out to be false, the work of yet more traitors in their midst. Divided, they still manage to put out a few budding fires, but by the time they reach others, they are too late. The bucket chains are too slow to stop them, and attempts to block the fire's path are frustrated by the almost intelligent way in which the fire moves, as if directed by some unseen force.
Soon the fire grows out of control, and smoke starts to fill the building. People start to panic, and head outside, only to be hindered by the very barricades meant to protect them. The fire is upon them before they can dismantle them, catching some, forcing others to flee. Eventually one group of survivors manages to open a poorly-barricaded door, only to discover a host of zombies waiting for them. Desperately, they hurl themselves at the undead, and the force of their charge soon bowls over the brainless besiegers, leaving ten zombies destroyed, leaving the way clear for them to escape.
Then the wights arrive, cackling softly as the escapees all but run into them. The shade-cloaked skeletons crush skulls and slit throats, then split up to guard the other exits.
Inside, a group of survivors is clustered in an as yet untouched hall, though smoke is forcing its way under the doors with malignant purpose. Suddenly one of them gets up, walks over to the door, and before anyone can stop him, opens it. Flames burst in, searing his flesh, and people cry in horror. Their dismay is only magnified as he turns round, laughs at them, and shouts "I welcome Nokluvgn's embrace!", before leaping into the roaring fire. They are eerily silent as the heat strips their flesh from their bones, as smoke gathers around their corpse, shrouding it in darkness. Moments later the smoke rears up with purpose, swirls around, and takes the form of the deceased.
It strides back into the room, and people back away fearfully. It regards them with amusement, then holds up a hand, which shimmers and morphs into the shape of a knife. They then lunge forward, slashing wildly at the terrified crowd, who heedless of their safety open the other doors, which fortunately reveals a corridor free of flames, though choking with smoke. They flee down it, the smokewraith hot on their heels, when from around a corner appear three more of the horrifying apparitions, who quickly surround the crowd. Pleas for mercy fall on deaf ears as the creatures carve their way through their former friends, seemingly unstoppable; a few soldiers try to fight back, only for their blades to pass harmlessly through the gaseous forms, whilst the cackling fiends drive daggers of compacted ash into their throats.
Then a gust of wind clears the corridor of smoke, both regular and humanoid. A group of monks, air flowing from their hands, strides towards the group, and leads them to safety. By the main entrance, the remaining survivors are gathered, shielded from the flames by the gusts of divine wind that the monks have managed to summon. Soldiers work quickly to dismantle the barricade, then the entire group bursts out into the fresh air, weapons up, ready to fight for their lives.
A towering demon stands before them, who, speaking directly into their minds, tells them of the horrors he can inflict upon them, demanding they surrender immediately. But the group is steadfast, maintaining their defiance before the creature. Very well, it tells them, then you shall die. With that, the undead horde descends, backed up by rock trolls and brutewolves. The trolls make an opening salvo of boulders, crushing several defenders, before the main body of the horde crashes into them. The defenders fight with the desperation of those who have no other option but to survive; soldiers, by now seasoned against the horrors, hold their own against half a dozen foes, whilst even civilians raise arms against the dead, wielding crude clubs with which they bash zombies and hold off skeletons. Yet they are outnumbered, and through the melee strides the demon himself, striking down handfuls of men at a time, whilst his wicked general rides around hacking off heads and directing troops. The fight does not last long; though the defenders fight valiantly, they manage to inflict only a handful of casualties as they are cut down to a man.
Thus ends the siege of Seiyojin, with the temple burning in the background, the last handful of survivors surrendering to the demonic forces.
You spare the lives of the highest ranking soldiers and monks, in order to scour their minds for the information you originally set out to seek. From them you build a relatively comprehensive understanding of the Tokzoku Empire.
According to legend, the Empire was founded by Tokchoko himself, who anointed a chief of one of the steppe tribes as king, saying; "See the eastern mountains? I grant you these. See the eastern steppes? I grant you these. See the eastern shores? I grant you these." With this divine mandate, the tribe set about integrating their neighbours, through diplomacy, trade, or war, eventually acquiring, as promised by Tokchoko, an empire that stretched across the entire eastern part of the continent.
This kingdom came with a caveat, however. Tokchoko told the chieftan that "You are under my protection, so whilst these lands are yours, they are also mine. So speak my name throughout the land, for if I am forgotten, I will forget the land, and it shall be bathed in darkness." So it is quite understandable that worship of Tokchoko was made mandatory, elevating him above the other gods until they were all but forgotten. Only in regions where their worship was especially strongly rooted, such as the worship of Aeolos in the northern Eastern Mountains, are other gods regularly worshipped.
The Sunlit Kingdom is governed by the emperor, residing in the capital, a great city located at the confluence of two rivers in the middle of the empire. His authority is absolute, being as it is handed to him and his ancestors by divine intervention. Naturally he cannot manage such a large empire alone, so a massive bureaucracy is employed to run the daily affairs of the realm. The powers of local nobility are constrained, as at any time their lands and titles can be stripped away from them by the emperor, for it is only as his proxies that they may rule their domains.
The military of the Daylight Realm is similarly massive, as one would expect. To prevent local uprisings from gaining the support of regional garrisons, soldiers are always posted away from their homelands, and are rotated around the empire frequently.
The Empire of Light is best known in the outside world for their exotic customs, and their merchants; for another of Tokchoko's decrees was to "Send your merchants to all lands, to trade with all people"
((Ask me if there's anything else you want to know))
The death of hundreds of people, and the destruction of the various holy shrines and sacred spaces within the temple, results in a large upswell of Evil. You use said Evil to
-Raise the dead, swelling your undead horde again.
-Summon minor demons to serve you.
-Create some other sort of servant.
-Do something else
With its defenders dead, you are free to do with Seiyojin as you please. And you please to
-Loot anything of value and burn it to the ground.
-Rebuild the temple as a shrine in your honour, and build great walls around your new fortress of darkness.
Once matters are taken care of in Seiyojin, it is time to move on. Your next destination shall be
-Nowhere! We're staying here for a while longer.
-Back to Fozdoch. You suspect something may be afoot there.
-Somewhere else
Six of your wights may be mounted on brutewolves
*, and Malkus has his devil-horse. You and Mkilzk are obviously able to travel at unthinkable speeds. The rest of your forces, however, are on foot, and especially in the case of the zombies, fairly slow moving
*. It would be faster to leave them behind, but it may be useful to have them at your disposal. You eventually decide to
-Leave the slowpokes behind. They can make their own way back. (trip to Fozdoch = 1.5 weeks)
-Take everyone with you, even though it may take longer to get there. (trip to Fozdoch = 4 weeks)
Lost: all traitors, 20 zombies, 2 skeletons. Gained: 10 smokewraiths, 6 spectres (both from dead traitors)
Fire killed a lot of people. They were quite unlucky in that regard.
Name: Nokluvgn
Age: 10.75 months
Physical might: 50 (+2 p/w: province-wide suffering) (-1: leakage)
Mental might: 72 (+2 p/w: province-wide suffering)(+3 p/w: Worship) (-3: leakage)
Followers:397 (262 cultists, 14 cultists (armed), 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 (10 Brutewolves, 13 Smokewraiths, 36 spectres, 4 giant-rat-packs, 12 black imps, 4 ultraviolet imps, 5 midnight imps, 52 skeletons, 14 Hollow Remnants, 6 fungal druids, 135 zombies, 3 Klrntvs, 8 Wights, 2 rock trolls)
Cults:
The New Way: Medium organization. 344 members (218 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: 12 zombies
Power level: 26 (15 used)
Of which: 6 spent recruiting, 6 spent constructing underground temple in Nuulyd (55/100), 3 spent raising the dead
Secrecy estimate: Fine
Resources: 1124 (+30 p/week: Duke's income)(+5 p/w: Copper mines)(-22: constructing underground temple in Nuulyd)(-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: 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. 65 members (65 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: Basic training is almost complete for the recruits. Hopefully their hard work will result in more of them getting assigned higher ranks, or moved on to further training.
The Cult of the Wolf: Low organisation. 15 members (14 cultists (armed), 1 Wolfmaster(armed))
Servants: 6 wolves
Power level: 4 (4 used)
Of which: 1 spent worshipping Nokluvgn, 1 spent worshipping Mkilzk, 2 spent recruiting wolves.
Resources: 0
Locations: Following Nokluvgn
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: 14 (+5: the Vessel)(+2: Increased Necromancy skill)
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)
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 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: 5 (+1: Burnt Silver Medallion, +1: Blade of Eternal Ash)
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)
Other: After killing a few more people with his cursed sword, the number of souls within has increased to the point where he can now draw on their power to defend his mind, and strengthen his effect on the troops.
"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: 4.25/8(?) 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: 6 (youngster)
Mental Might: 3 (youngster)(+1: Worship)
Knowledge: Understands demontongue. Capable of (limited) transformation. Smoke manipulation.
Other: 1.25 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, 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 143460 times)