It is plain impossible. You want him to conquer several rich cities, create a huge branch of cult (Larger than our current cult!!!) AND expand the fortress with the army that will be squashed by a decent infantry regiment with some magic support
Also, giving such strict orders is just not our style. Mischa, Duke, even Kate are relatively free in their actions. Nokluvgn is anything but tyrant.
It is not impossible, it could be done if Malkus kept up the rapid pace 'raze and raise' of villages Nokluvgn had been up to, and with his scepter he could begin to capture and indoctrinate Evil peasants fairly easily, but now that the Empire knows about the destruction of the fortress, that's no longer feasible. But I do agree, it doesn't really fit the way Nokluvgn's been handling things so far.
What we need is for the fortress is to remain hidden for a bit longer. People should be captured and converted if possible so they can report back everything is fine. Just give him general orders to build up undead, recruit cultists and wolves rebuild the fortress and train soldiers.
He should already know the price of failure and the rewards of victory.
Also, the leaders should know this:
Did a message get out about the evil siege?
3.5 months is too short.
He will need more time in my opinion.
Quite a bit more time.
Eh, fair enough.
Also, the leaders should know this:
Did a message get out about the evil siege?
Oh, fair enough. Yes, absolutely. They were able to sneak a trio of messenger birds past you. They were expecting reinforcements.
Those thrice-damned pigeons! We should create demonic falcons specifically dedicated to hunting them! But seriously, now that the cat's out of the bag, there's no way we can hold that fortification with our current resources.
Guys, you are so unwilling to take even minor risks...
Wolf cult is too... wild to be used as a sleeper cell in the empire.
We don't plan to stay with the forces and even if we did fleeing from mortal army is trivial for both us and our daughter
Malkus is a valuable asset. And this means he should be used. Or we can go with a lesser demon. He should be fine organizing a proper fortress. We can organize his evacuation should he lose badly. Ore we can create a lesser demon guardian as I proposed originally.
Third version of the plan. (Aka focus our effort on Fozdoch) ( I like making plans, he-he. Hope Nuke is not mad for me cluttering the thread with various versions)
1) Raze the fortress and corrupt the place
2) Eat rock trolls, they outlived their usefulness.
3) Raise more undead fodder (zombies\skeletons\spectres)
4) Corrupt the silver staff further with the intention of creating a magical staff for Mischa or maybe Kate (she is the most neglected champion)
5) Enhance Malkus favourite concubine into half-human half-succubi. Ideally it should be a lecherous creature fanatically loyal to our general. Torture rest of his concubines to death together with your champion to get energy for this
6) Nokluvgn, his daughter, 6 of our wights mounting brutewolves, Malkus and his new concubine will travel to Nuulyd as fast as possible. Wights will go to the fellshore fortress, brutewolves back to their den
7) Midnight imps, spectres, smokewraths should sneakily travel to Fellshore and hide its labyrinth till they will be called for service again
Remaining undead horde (2 wights, zombies, skeletons, hollow remains) to split in several several directions and terrorize countryside till they are destroyed. Some may even invade Fozdoch and be destroyed by Duke's forces
9) Cult of the wolf should travel to Fozdoch and settle in the den of brutewolves. Their order is worshipping us and enlarging wolf army of both ordinary wolves and brutewolves. They shouldn't be merged in the new way. At least for now.
This plan is another way to go. This one focuses all our valuable resources in Fozdoch and invests cheaper part of undead horde in spreading chaos and destruction
+1, though I have a suggestion,
Along with the undead horde, let's create a handful of Cryptbrains and give them control of the undead. Under their leadership, the undead will be able to recover from wounds, along with being able to use some semblance of tactics. With their ability to renaminate the dead, the undead horde will be able to replace its losses, and will be much harder to destroy, allowing them to destroy more innocent lives, generating that much more Evil for us to put towards our nefarious ends.Also, I'm going to repeat my suggestion for Malkus's Concubine, because it was replying to v2 of Strongpoint's Stratagem.
As for the Concubine, I feel that Malkus has done well enough he deserves such a reward. I don't however, feel that we should go with the appearance of a stereotypical succubi, and have her appearance reflect that Nokluvgn was responsible for her creation, to remind Malkus where his true allegiance lies. Let's give her a small pair of ebony ram's horns, a short, highly dexterous tail, slightly longer, more sensitive fingers, eyes that burn like embers, (in an alluring way, as opposed to a terrifying way like the Brutewolves), smooth skin the color of light charcoal, and of course, make her moderately more beautiful, and bend her mind to make her unshakeably loyal to Malkus, and fanatically loyal to Nokluvgn.
As long as we don't actually boost her Physical or Mental Might, it should cost us a pittance, and at worst, require us to torture a small family to recoup the losses.[/b]
you are basically creating a minor demon in the form of the half succubus.
We had substancial losses, didn't we?
Use two ewes (female sheep) and fuse it with each of his concubines - get a monstergirl instead. Focus on added musclemass and multiple fast growing litter. Horns and hard skull feature, unnaturally thick wool for added protection against arrows and blunt weapons. Have him train them in using a Bardiche or Halberd.
End goal: Think sheep versions of the moo-moo farm in Diablo 2.
The Concubine isn't a minor demon, as she wouldn't have any alterations beyond twisting her mind to be fanatically loyal to Malkus Rom and Nokluvgn, and changing her appearance to be more demonic. At most, it should cost us 1 Might, which we can generate with only a little torture, and even if we don't resort to torture, we can regain that with no issue whatsoever
I like the idea of our footsoldiers being literal sheep led by Nokluvgn, but I don't think a handful of untrained peasant women are the best candidates for mutation. We should wait until we've dealt with that pesky Angel back in Fozdoch, and mutate the cult's strongest Nails instead. If I'm not mistaken, there are several women in our army, and we should be able to get a decent population built up in a few years.
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Fear is the best motivator
You have 2 scenarios here : Either we punish him for failing, or we don't. If we don't punish him, then we encourage insubordination. If we do punish him, then we encourage betrayal. After all, if you're going to be punished no matter what you do, you may as well stick it to the boss.
You're right, we don't want to set a bad example, and with the Empire's legions marching, it's unrealistic to expect Malkus to be able to pull it off. I'd assumed we still had the element of surprise, without that, we're at a disadvantage.