Three CaptainsAll is well at the Three Captains. No enemy vessels are sighted, and the skiffs present report that all is well. The Kasgyrite ships appear to have fled, though no trace of them leaving was seen. Still, that could easily be attributed to gaps in the sentry network.
Inside the SpireWith only one squad and change, the remaining officers within the Three Captains fight a defensive war. Heartened by the assurances that they'll receive more men and more firepower 'soon', they dig in to the ground they already have. With crossbow and cutlass, they can hold against the smaller spiders fairly reliably- though the battle is not without attrition. A bite even from the smaller creatures proves deadly much of the time, and the squads sleep in short shifts and watch the ground constantly for spiders trying to crawl into camp.
Still, the men survive. Most of them, anyway. They can defend this area for a time, but they'll need that firepower in order to go deeper.
Losses: None
No ground has been gained at the Unfinished.
The UnfinishedThe Wreth skiffs around the Unfinished maintain a loose patrol around the Spire, their captain's blissfully unaware of the
infantry's situation. With the limited number of skiffs available, the extremely limited communication between the vessels, and the virtually un-limited amount of sky, it would take a miracle for the skiffs to catch sight of any ship not making a dead line for the demi-spire.
Thankfully, there's still room for a couple miracles.
A Wreth skiff captain catches sight of a few specks on the northern horizon, just slightly darker than the mist below them. Normally, he would have been watching the southerly skies in order to spot incoming Wrethan vessels, but he'd turned north to watch the transport limp home. Apparently, the Kasgyrites had been waiting to watch the same thing. The Jackals had been lurking, just waiting for the chance to take Wreth lives without risking a fair fight.
The other skiffs are signaled messily, using a burst of cannon fire and a sudden charge in order to get the attention of the other friendly vessels. It works, to a degree. The Wreth Skiffs begin to converge in a badly staggered cluster, trying to run down the Kasgyrite vessel before they can sink the stranded transport.
The rescue mission is successful, though it is not without sacrifices. The captain who spotted the Kasgyrite vessels is the first to arrive, and makes a valiant attempt to fight the Jackals despite being outnumbered three-to-one. By the time he arrives, the Transport's shroud has already taken a beating, and the inferior Kasgyrite cannons have managed to knock a hole in the shroud by sheer force of numbers.
The captain does the only thing he can to buy time against a superior force. He orders the pilot to position the skiff in front of the breach in the transport's shroud.
He holds against enemy fire for as long as a skiff can. Which is to say he exists for as long as it takes the Kasgyrites to fire four shots, at which point the captain dissolves into a cloud of burning aether. Still, this buys enough time for the remaining three Wreth Ships to catch up and make things a fair fight- which is the kind of fight a Kasgyrite just can't win.
The Kagyrites and their damn whistling cannons hold a strong initial advantage in a firefight, but the Wreth ships can outmaneuver them enough to keep them off the transport. Another Wrethan skiff is lost in the initial exchange, but then that damn whistling cuts out, and the Kasgyrite ships become inferior in nearly every respect. Once at that point, the tables turn. The remaining pair of Wreth vessels cuts down one vessel during the dogfight, and burns another to ash when the Kasgyrites attempt to disengage.
The last Skyskiff almost makes it out. Almost. A shot from one of the pair of remaining Skyskiffs breaches a hole in its shroud, the other Wreth vessels manages to snipe second shot through the same hole. It doesn't destroy the Kasgyrite vessel outright, but it sends it plummeting in a free-fall straight into the mist.
Inside the SpireThe reports that come back from the Unfinished are confused, and they carry an edge that borders on panic. Repeated requests for reinforcements and new equipment gradually give way to requests and pleas for evacuation. The female squad leader who originally noted that she could hear voices is the sole exception. Her letters are more... disturbing. She hints strongly that she believes the voices are real, and that she believes that everyone who can hear them is 'getting one small part of a conversation beyond our comprehension'. She too requests additional men, but flatly states that they do not need to be equipped, only to be present so that she may record what they hear in order to piece together the whispers.
Morale among the rest of the soldiers improves greatly when she disappears from the camp one night.
The attacks by the peculiar humanoid figures continue, and the squad captains have redistributed the cutlasses carried by the dead in an effort to retain some measure of combat efficacy. Exploration has nearly ground to a halt. The former squad leader of the B unit is firm in his belief that they could push in further if they had more men, even if they only had swords.
Those reports stop after a few more months, and the sole remaining squad leader makes a note that the man was killed during a raid.
Confirmed Kills: 3 Kasgyre Skyskiffs
Losses: 2 Skyskiffs, Squad C
Wreth forces have successfully prevented the Kasgyrite pursuit of the WOSV Implacable
No ground has been gained at the Unfinished.
The Haze MazeThe WOSV Herbie delivers her remaining payload of unarmed marines to aid whatever survivors are left in the Haze Maze. It's a hostile environment, but their maps are good, and the territory is still familiar. Progress may be methodically paced, but it will be safe and steady.
Unloading the marines goes smoothly, but moments after the last Marine Dinghy departs the Herbie, the captain of the the Herbie spots bright flashes on the horizon. Aether cannons in the distance.
The WOSV Jigsaw, scheduled to come back to Spire Wreth for repairs, was ambushed while limping home. Three Kasgyrite Skyskiffs dance around it, pummeling it with cannon fire. There's nothing the captain of the Herbie can do but watch in horror as the other transport's shroud buckles in a spray of sparks, followed shortly by the ship itself disintegrating from repeated cannon shots.
The Skiffs do not turn back. They keep moving towards the Haze Maze, and towards the Herbie. Unarmed and underpowered, the captain of the Herbie does the only thing she can do- dive into the mist and hope the reduced crystals can keep the transport up at lower altitude.
The gambit seems to work. The Skiffs don't pursue the Herbie into the mists, and (as of the last letter) the ship hasn't been devoured by a mistmaw yet.
Losses: WOSV Jigsaw
Wreth has Gained Ground at the Haze Maze
Miner's FollyReconstruction proceeds well at the Miner's Folly spire. Pockets of survivors have been recovered and set back to work on repairs. With a bit of luck, the Mines will be running back to full steam in two years, without any trace of the damages dealt by the Kasgyrite oppressors.
Wreth has Gained Ground at the Miner's Folly
Spire WrethThe WOSV Implacable has arrived back home safely and has been repaired.
Two Skiffs have been completed and are ready for use.
Two more squads of Marines have completed training.
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 | 1/4
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 | 2/4
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 0/20 | W 2/20
--->
Marines---> Squad D (Pincushion, Fireteam | Cutlass, All)
---> Squad E (Pincushion, Fireteam | Cutlass, All) [Squad at 50%]
Territory: 0/4 | 1/4
Resources: 1C, 6O, 2W, 6S
Conditions: Kinetoluminescent Ores, Heavily Infested
Wrackspire Marine Presence: K 0/12 | W 0/12
Territory: 0/4 | 0/4
Resources: 3C, 4O, 4W, 2S
Conditions: Unstable Aetheric Phenomena, Broken Spire
Burned MountainMarine Presence: K 0/24 | W 0/24
Territory: 0/4 | 0/4
Resources: 1C, 10O, 1W, 0S
Conditions: Inexplicably Molten Core, Hundreds of narrow tunnels and small galleries.
The UnfinishedMarine Presence: K 0/45 | W 1/45
--->
Marines---> Squad A (Pincushion, Fireteam | Cutlass, All)
Territory: 0/4 | 1/4
Resources: 8C, 0O, 6W, 2S
Conditions: Unfinished infrastructure, Massive open rooms and halls.
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: Three Captains
Status: All papers are in order.
WOSV Implacable - Transport Barge
Loadout
1 Small Basic Core Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
1 Small Basic Lift Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement) [Cracked!]
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 (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: The Unfinished
Status: All papers are in order.
WOSV Herbie - Transport Barge
Loadout
1 Very Small Itshana Select Core Crystal
1 Small Basic Lift Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
2 Trim Crystals+ (Itshana Refinement)
1 reams of webbing
Carrying: 0/6
Location: Haze Maze
Status: All papers are in order.
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: Spire Wreth
Status: All papers are in order.
It is the beginning of 355 AR.
11/y Crystal, 22/55 Banked
8/y Ore, 14/40 banked
18/y Wood, 39/90 banked
7/y Silk, 30/35 banked
It is now the Design and Project Maintenance Phase. You have 5 Dice to spend.
Cloudrunner Corvette: 9/28 | 4 wood + 1 Ore, + 2 of either ore OR wood | Rushed 0 Times | 6 Wood, 1 ore invested
PLACE: 3/15 | 1 Ore, + 2 from Silk OR Ore OR Crystal | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
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.
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.
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 159836 times)