Three CaptainsThe three skiffs who survived the exchange with Kasgyre's corvette manage to escape without incident, heading deeper into enemy territory.
Inside the SpireThe battle within the Spire is vicious. Now that the Wreth squads are aware of the presence of Kasgyre's infantry, they focus heavily on drawing tactics as dictated by CCC, to reasonable effect. The fights usually begin and end with the PLACE being fired, while remaining pincushion and gauntlet shots only serve to harry the retreating Kasgyrite marines. It's an ambush game, like a falcon taking a gull out of the air- if the falcon happened to be using a flaming sledgehammer.
The high morale of the troops makes it all the worse when a Kasgyrite counterblow strikes home. The ambush went fairly well, but the Kasgyrite troops who survived the initial PLACE shot only retreated to the next available cover before launching their attack. For the first time, the Wreth officer seemed to have numerical superiority, and a definite superiority in terms of number of men with ranged weapons. It seemed as though it would be the first decisive victory, until the Kasgyrite soldiers began coming out of the larger holes in the walls the spiders used to use.
Bolts and gauntlet fire cut into the Wreth defenders as their ambush suddenly turned against them. Men with cutlasses crawl out from the walls to hack at legs, while Kasgyrite marksmen fire and reload from their cubbies by virtue of crank. The PLACE itself is very nearly lost when a Kasgyrite officer with a cutlass hacks apart her gunner, but overwhelming gauntlet fire is able to at least win a retreat. Man men end up with burned arms, but it's only through the gauntlet's ability to rapidly and decisively respond to threats that the Kasgyrite counter-ambush doesn't result in a fatal rout.
The ranking officer, now in charge of less than forty men, is growing concerned. They are clearly outnumbered, and if the Kasgyrites keep behaving like goddamn spiders, they're not going to be as easy to murder. He needs more men, or lady luck might be the one who decides who wins the day.
Confirmed Kills: At least one and a half Kasgyrite Squads
Losses: 50% of Squad D, 50% of Squad A.
Neither side has gained or lost ground in the Three Captains
Kasgyrite Leftmost SpireThe report from the five skiffs sent to interdict possible Kasgyrite reinforcements is a mixed bag.
The rendevous was successful, and the Skiffs at the Three Captains were able to get free without further encounters with the Kasgyrite corvette, and the two skiffs who had buzzed the spire in the middle of Kasgyrite territory reported no military presence on their way over.
They even encounter exactly what they'd hoped, moving from the direction of Spire Kasgyre toward the Three Captains: a transport. The only problem is that the transport isn't just defended by a pair of skyskiffs (an easy kill) but also by yet another Kasgyrite corvette.
The ensuing combat is, at first, a standard exercise in patience and deliberate timing. The Skiffs spot their targets before the the Kasgyrites spot them, but not by enough to fully capitalize on it with existing maneuvers. The Kasgyrite vessels close to engage in typical fashion while the transport does its best to slowly evade, and the battle takes the pattern of that at Three Captains. The two Kasgyrite skiffs are peeled away first, their weak shrouds and wholly inferior design succumbing to aetherfire as soon as their cannons stop squealing. The new corvette, however, is still a potent threat, and one that greatly retards the ability of the Wreth captains to focus fire on the transport. Like the one at the Three Captains, its shroud is vastly powerful, and it's ability to fire spreads of cannon fire is lethal. This one does, however, seem to be slightly less maneuverable than the one deployed at the Three Captains.
Despite killing the skiffs easily, the Wreth captains are unable to bring the shroud down on the transport. Their fire is too evenly scattered from their work evading the Corvette, and attrition there takes its toll. In particular, the Wreth attack is broken when the corvette's guns, having stopped screaming minutes ago, suddenly begin screaming and piping out steam once more, vastly increasing their rate of fire once more. The sudden increase proves fatal, and forces the remaining captains to break pattern and hide.
In total, three friendly skiffs were splashed, but they were able to substantially delay the delivery of troops to the Three Captains.
Confirmed Kills: 2 Kasgyrite Skyskiffs
Losses: 3 Skyskiffs
The Haze MazeThere's much rejoicing at the Haze Maze as reconstruction is finally completed, bringing the colony back to its pre-war glory.
Spire WrethTwo more squads of marines have completed training and stand ready, two more skyskiffs have been constructed, and six fresh reams of webbing have been completed.
The WOSV Herbie has its faithful Itshana Select VS core crystal replaced with a fresh small core crystal, and the old core is slotted into one of the new Skyskiffs- informally called the Vomit Comet for its ability to make sudden changes in vertical altitude.
EVENT: War Never Changes
The speech from the head of the Bureau of Culture is thoroughly inspiring to the common man and the ranking official alike. Copies are cut and run for weeks, with the speech showing up in the three Demi-Spires only short while after its delivery, and repeated by the governors with a fire that approaches, though could hardly equal, that of the original.
Many bright and promising new minds join the Military, aiming to do their part to depose the Kasgyrite tyrants and their unspeakable spider queen. It's an influx of new blood and new ideas, and should do much to relieve and stagnation in a department unused to war.
Wreth has won the credit. On a single design, you can choose to apply this credit to any of the three rolls that will eventually be made for the prototype in order to force that roll to a six. REMEMBER: You must make this decision when you propose the design. You cannot apply it to any existing design, regardless of stage.
It is the beginning of 358 AR.
Spire Wreth's production stands at
13/y Crystal, 50/65 Banked
17/y Ore, 38/85 banked
19/y Wood, 78/95 banked
10/y Silk, 33/50 banked
It is the now the design and project maintenance phase. You have 5 dice left to spend.
PLACE: 8/15 | 1 Ore, + 2 from Silk OR Ore OR Crystal | Rushed 0 Times | 2 ore, 4 silk invested | Prototype Deployed
Windrider Corvette: 8/16 | 6 wood + 3 Ore | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
The Calm: The calm is a region of the aerosphere with almost no wind beyond fleeting turbulence, and absolutely no aetheric currents. It's frigidly cold, and filled with fine red 'snow' that barely moves. Traversing it with a conventional vessel is impossible due to the lack of energy to fuel the lift and trim crystals.
The Everstorm: As the name suggests, the everstorm is a region of the aerosphere dominated by an enormous and eternal thunderstorm. It's a chaotic region of raging winds and surging aetheric energy that manifests in terrible bursts of prismatic flame. No conventional vessel could hope to survive the nightmarish storm conditions.
Wreth TerritoryHaze-Maze Marine Presence: K 0/8 | W 1/8
--->
Marines---> Squad G (No Equip)
Territory: 0/4 | 4/4
Resources: 1C, 3O, 1W, 2S
Conditions: Deadly Gas Pockets, significant vertical shafts and steep tunnels.
Miner's Folly Marine Presence: K 0/18 | W 1/18
--->
Marines---> Squad G (No Equip)
Territory: 0/4 | 4/4
Resources: 1C, 6O, 0W, 1S
Conditions: Toxic Stone, Massive Caverns, pitch-black
The Verdant Vista Marine Presence: K 0/18 | W 0/18
Territory: 0/4 | 4/4
Resources: 1C, 0O, 8W, 2S
Conditions: Mostly earth and soil, Unstable pocket caves
The BeltThree Captains Marine Presence: K ?/20 | W 4/20
--->
Marines---> Squad D (Pincushion, Fireteam | Cutlass, All) [50%]
---> Squad 2A (Gauntlets, all | Cutlass, all | Silk Vests,Commander | 1 PLACE [50%]
---> Squad 2B (Gauntlets, all | Cutlass, all | Silk Vests,Commander
Territory: 1/4 | 3/4
Resources: 1C, 6O, 2W, 6S
Conditions: Kinetoluminescent Ores, Heavily Infested
Wrackspire Marine Presence: K ?/12 | W 0/12
Territory: ?/4 | 0/4
Resources: 3C, 4O, 4W, 2S
Conditions: Unstable Aetheric Phenomena, Broken Spire
Burned MountainMarine Presence: K ?/24 | W 0/24
Territory: ?/4 | 0/4
Resources: 1C, 10O, 1W, 0S
Conditions: Inexplicably Molten Core, Hundreds of narrow tunnels and small galleries.
The UnfinishedMarine Presence: K ?/45 | W 0/45
Territory: ?/4 | 0/4
Resources: 8C, 0O, 6W, 2S
Conditions: Unfinished infrastructure, Massive open rooms and halls.
Skiffs With No Name - Skyskiff Class (x2)
Loadout
2 Light Aether Cannons+ (Flanged Heatsinks, Itshana Refinement).
1 Very Small Basic Core Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
4 Trim Crystals+ (Itshana Refinement)
2 reams of webbing
Location: Kasgyrite Leftmost Spire
Status: All papers are in order.
WOSV Herbie - Transport Barge
Loadout
1 Small Core Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
1 Small Basic Lift Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
2 Trim Crystals+ (Itshana Refinement)
1 reams of webbing
Carrying: 0/6
Location: Spire Wreth
Status: All papers are in order.
Skiffs With No Name - Skyskiff Class (x3)
Loadout
2 Light Aether Cannons+ (Flanged Heatsinks, Itshana Refinement).
1 Very Small Basic Core Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
4 Trim Crystals+ (Itshana Refinement)
2 reams of webbing
Location: Spire Wreth
Status: All papers are in order.
'Vomit Comet' - Skyskiff Class
Loadout
2 Light Aether Cannons+ (Flanged Heatsinks, Itshana Refinement).
1 Very Small Itshana Select Core Crystal
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
4 Trim Crystals+ (Itshana Refinement)
2 reams of webbing
Location: Spire Wreth
Status: All papers are in order.
Current Technology
Infantry
Flint-Lock Pistol: Cost: 2 ore to give one of either to every fireteam in a squad, 8 to give to every man. Inaccurate beyond spitting distance, incapable of dealing significant damage against hard armor, and liable to explode when used regularly even when given the most expert maintenance, the primary advantage of these weapons is that they can punch straight through shrouds like they didn't exist, and they're slowed by aethersilk officer's coats as much as by an ordinary silk shirt.
Flint-Lock Rifle: Cost: 3 ore to give one of either to every fireteam in a squad, 12 to give to every man. Reasonably accurate, but slow to reload and still incapable of dealing significant damage against hard armor or ship hulls. These weapons still require expert maintenance to keep them from being single-use weapons, and sustained use still makes these weapons terrifyingly unreliable as service weapons. Still, an excellent choice for shooting through silk shirts and ignoring shrouds.
Suppressor Repeating Crossbow: Cost: 2 wood+ 1 ore per fireteam, 8 wood + 4 ore to give to every man. | A repeating crossbow with a forty pound lever weight. Field modification allow it to operate has a standard repeating crossbow, or as a light crossbow using a goat's foot lever. The latter is underpowered, the former is inaccurate.
Pincushion Repeating Crossbow: Cost: 3 wood to give one to every fireteam, 12 wood to give to every man. | A lighter and nearly all wood version of the Suppressor. Limited draw weight and not terribly robust, but cheap.
Grappling Gear: Cost: 1 ore to give to every member of a squad. Standard issue ropes and hooks for boarding vessels or climbing the outside of spires. Cumbersome if you're not going to use it.
Aetheric Gauntlet*: Cost: 1 Ore, 1 crystal to give one to every fireteam in a squad, 4 of each to give one to everyone. A gauntlet (usually left handed to keep the right hand free) of copper and leather with a tiny weapons crystal locked into the palm. Capable of firing dozens of low energy blasts of aetheric energy at the user's discretion, but is difficult to aim and the copper cage used to draw heat from the crystal has the unsettling tendency to leave disfiguring gauntlet burns, melt, or set the user on fire if used too frequently.
---> A.G.I: Some small QoL changes have been made to the gauntlet, slightly increasing its sustained rate of fire and giving the user a bit more time before the gauntlet burns their arm.
Bronze Cutlass: Cost: 2 Ore to give to every member of a squad. A simple, heavy blade of bronze attached to a wooden handle. Simple, and brutally effective in close quarters.
Aethersilk Vest: Cost: 1 Silk to give to a squad's ranking officer, 5 silk to provide to ranking officer and team leads, 16 silk to give to every member of a squad. A double layer vest of dense aethersilk, capable of absorbing a considerable amount of Aetheric energy. Can stop multiple point-blank shots from a gauntlet, but doesn't cover the arms, legs, or head. Does nothing against physical weapons or projectiles.
Ship Tech
Light Aether Cannon*: 1 Crystal, 1 Ore for one. A small cannon, capable of being mounted on deck without reinforcement. Fires powerful blasts of aetheric energy, and uses a removable block of copper as a heat-sink. Relatively inaccurate, short ranged, hot, power hungry, and prone to exploding violently if hit directly by enemy fire. Still, it can blow wood into flaming cinders and will melt through light plating in a few shots.
---> The Itshana Process has improved crystal purity, allowing for a slight increase in power.
---> Can be manufactured using Itshana Select crystals, which gives a 175-200% increase in power, at the cost of increasing the ore cost of the component by an amount equal to the base crystal price. WARNING: Cannons have not been modified to compensate for the increased energy output.
---> Improved Dissipation enable it to be fired 25% faster than normal once hot.
Basic Core Crystal+: [VS 3 Crystal | S 6 Crystal] A massive rough gem, grown in vats and used to transduce aetheric energy into electric current. This particular model is relatively inefficient, both as a transducer and as a storage unit. It can generate a defensive shroud around a vessel, but more than a single shot from a light Aether cannon on the same point will knock a hole in the shroud. Will explode spectacularly if hit directly.
---> The Itshana Process has improved crystal purity, allowing for a slight increase in efficiency.
---> Can be manufactured using Itshana Select crystals, which gives a 175-200% increase in power, at the cost of increasing the ore cost of the component by an amount equal to the base crystal price.
Basic Lift Crystal*: [VS 2 Crystal, 2 ore | S 3 Crystal, 2 ore for one] A chunk of crystal the size of a bathtub, heavily reinforced so that it can be locked into a ship's spine. When fed electricity, it will progressively invert gravity's effect on itself, flying upwards and pulling anything attached up with it. This basic model is incredibly power hungry, produces only enough lift for a small ship and internal flaws mean that extreme maneuvers could easily cause it to crack.
---> The Itshana Process has improved crystal purity, allowing for a slight increase in lift.
---> Can be manufactured using Itshana Select crystals, which gives a 175-200% increase in power, at the cost of increasing the ore cost of the component by an amount equal to the base crystal price.
Basic Trim Crystals*: 1 Crystal for two. Head sized chunks of crystal, similar to lift crystals, though of greater refinement. These produce directional gravity when powered, allowing a ship to make finer maneuvers. Like the basic lift crystal, these are power hungry and prone to fracture of used for rapid maneuverability.
---> The Itshana Process has improved crystal purity, allowing for a slight increase in maneuverability.
---> Can be manufactured using Itshana Select crystals, which gives a 175-200% increase in power, at the cost of increasing the ore cost of the component by an amount equal to the base crystal price.
Basic Webbing: 2 Silk per ream. Aethersilk webbing, designed to catch hold of aetheric currents and shunt them into a ship's core crystal. Particularly susceptible to fire from aetheric weapons, which will rapidly cause overloads that burn out whole sections of webbing.
Light Copper Ship Plating: 3 ore per section. Nearly pure copper plates, heavy, but with good thermal conductivity. Useful for spreading out the heat generated by an aether blast. Low melting point does mean that repeated impacts will melt the armor and set fire to the wood beneath.
Ship Hulls
Skyskiff 5 wood, 2 ore for one.
At her heart, the Skyskiff is an 18ft long frame of sleek timber and brass reinforcement, built from the ground up to be light on the air and quick to handle. Her basic design is quite old, dating back before the perfection of trim crystals, and she still sports a rudimentary mast that a sail can be run from in addition to the normal spars to run out web. In service, she's typically run by a crew of four. Two gunners who worked crouched in the middle of the ship, a pilot who spends their time practically laying on top of the core crystal in order to manipulate the power control, and the spotter who usually stands at the rear of the ship and calls out directions and threats. Generally, the captain of the vessel is the spotter, due to their superior vantage point and ability to see the entire local theatre.
A notable problem with the Skyskiff is that despite her speed, her web is cumbersome to replace, and without it she's painfully slow. In addition, both her Core Crystal and Her Lift Crystal slots are only designed to fit small crystals. Her small lift crystal means a lot of the burden for vertical maneuvers is still placed on the power hungry trim crystals, which in turn puts more demand on her small core. As a result, her shroud is weak, and a single light cannon blast will knock a hole in it. It still takes two or three more shots before her shroud will buckle entirely, but if another shot comes in the same spot swiftly enough- that's the end of the skiff. Except in the most fortunate of circumstances, a single cannon blast to an unshrouded skiff will destroy it.
She has no usable cargo capacity.
Armament
2 light cannon mounts. One on each side.
Requires:
1 Core Crystal (Up to Very Small in size)
1 Lift Crystal (Up to Very Small in size)
4 Trim Crystals
2 reams of webbing
Transport barge 7 wood, 2 ore for one.
In times of peace, this was the vessel most frequently seen going to and from Spires. She's little more than a wooden oval with a few metal bands designed to support the lift crystal. She's got capacity for crew and cargo, but she's quite slow when fully loaded, and her lack of significant trim crystals means that she can't maneuver with any speed. Her only real defense against attack is to dive down into the mist layer and hope that the attacking vessel loses her trail before the mistmaw comes lurking.
She can hold six units of cargo.
Armament
None
Requires:
1 Core Crystal (Up to small size)
1 Lift Crystal (Up to small size)
2 Trim Crystals
1 ream of webbing
Basic Dinghy (Special, used automatically by Marines to embark/disembark transports)
A very small boat, technically capable of transporting eight people as long as they aren't too broad, don't have a fear of heights, and their legs aren't too long. Her core crystal is about the size of a housecat, and kept powered by a fixed ventral web. She's solid wood, unarmed, and has the tendency to tip alarmingly as she doesn't actually use a lift crystal, but makes do entirely on a trio of small trim crystals. It's a slow and terrifying way to travel. Though she's the primary lifeboat of transports, your chances of survival are alarmingly small if you find yourself alone in a dingy .
When used by marines, she's typically crewed by five, with the squad leader acting as an extra member in every set of three boats. When going into a hostile spire, one marine steers, the other four act as spotters or (if one or more has a gauntlet or rifle) shooters. She's such a small vessel that it doesn't take more than a dozen gauntlet shots for her to break apart completely, and a single shot to her ventral web will (at best) cripple her.
Her core crystal is, technically, capable of generating a shroud. However, the limited energy the miniscule core crystal can process limits the crew to picking two of three options: Maintain Altitude control, maintain thrust, raise shroud. For obvious reasons, raising the shroud is something of a last resort. Worse, even when powered, the shroud can be penetrated by sustained gauntlet fire. This is to say nothing of a shot from a light cannon. The shroud will buckle completely after a single shot from a light cannon, though to its credit, that's one more cannon shot than the Dinghy would have survived normally.
Marines
Massed Fire and Charge: When engaging, Marines will bunch up to focus fire with their ranged weapons until they run out of ammunition or become too hot to use (depending on weapon type), at which point they will charge in with melee weapons.
Crossbow Corridors of Carnage: When engaging, Marines will attempt to find cover, or at least concealment, and fire from behind that. Advancement is a leap-frog between cover, and retreat is a similar series of backward jumps.
Ships
Close Aggressively: Ships will attempt to close distance with enemy vessels and engage at close range, firing all cannons until the enemy is destroyed.
High Vigil: Tells a fleet to maintain a vessel as a high-altitude lookout. The lookout will give a warning shot if they spot an enemy vessel. After raising the alarm, the scout rejoins the fleet and follows the same tactic as her fellow ships.
AGILE: Ships using AGILE will attempt to evade and outmaneuver enemy vessels, focusing on evasive action rather than maximizing damage.
Small Docks: Relatively simple affairs of wood jutting out into the void, capable of servicing a relatively small number of light craft. These docks are best suited to peace time usage, and are ill-equipped to service or build true warships. Light defensive cannons have been mounted in strategic positions, and will be upgraded automatically when needed.
Provides a single production line that can be used for any small or smaller production pattern.
Marine Academy: The basic and unaugmented marine academy, where men and women are transformed from milksop civilians into hardened marines.
Provides a single production line to be used ONLY on Marine production.
Crude Fuses: Extremely rudimentary fuses. You can make them fail safe, but they're going to fail often.
Production Patterns
Basic Marine Training: [Max: 25 | Rate: 2]
Generates Marine units at the spire. These marines are capable in hand-to-hand combat, but are not provided any initial weapons. You might want to buy them swords, at the very least.
Skyskiff Pattern A: [Max: 10 | Rate: 2]
Creates two Skyskiff units per turn, up to a max of 10. Each skyskiff is outfitted with
2 Light Aether Cannons.
1 Very Small Basic Core Crystal
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal
4 Trim Crystals
2 reams of webbing
Buyback cost: 9 crystal, 6 ore, 5 wood, 4 silk
Author
Topic: Arms Race: War of the Cinder Spires | Spire Wreth (Read 161922 times)