Turn 1: Secrets of the MireThe first order of business for Ravana will be to select the strongest Nagoth to serve in my warband and begin whipping them into shape.
In order to best accomplish this, effort and Mana shall also be invested toward the end of improving each of my Fetishes.
You begin to digest your Mana, absorbing it directly into your Fetishes. You can feel your power swelling and your claws and horns growing longer and more imposing, and by the time the process is done you feel stronger and more terrifying than ever. You may now paralyze targets with a gaze and others feel disgraced ignoring your claims on material possessions.
The downside is that your Gullets are now empty, of course. Only consuming a full Gullet can raise it to the next level of power.
[+1]
You gather up around half the Nagoth into your own personal warband, but training them goes poorly. They do not appreciate formation tactics, have little interest in siege, and are only vaguely aware of the concept of a chain of command. The only saving grace is that they are very, very eager to kill and rally quickly under strong things that are liable to lead them in doing so, such as yourself.
Of course, not all the blame can be laid at their feet. They have no structures to operate out of, and without that base to give them purpose and organization you can't expect much. Even then, elite forces require elite conditions, so quality soldiers would require additional accommodations.
Abandon spends a moment contemplating the situation. It finds itself on a fresh world, with fresh mortals to play with, and with full gullets. Still it had to have been summoned for a reason; Abandon considers itself a mercenary first and foremost, and this Nagoth character seems to be quite the generous employer in terms of mana. Perhaps it would be best to see what this strange and powerful mortal wants.
Abandon turns its full attention to The Great Nagoth, and attempts to strike up conversation; What are the desires of this mortal? Its strengths? Its weaknesses? What tasks might Abandon carry out in the short term to earn Nagoth's favor?
[+5, +Boon]
The Great Nagoth proves... interesting, if not terribly nuanced. Fundamentally he seems to desire little beyond power for power's sake, and this ambition seems strong enough that he's starting to become somewhat demonic in nature.
Beyond increasing his personal (and largely sorcerous) power, he fully intends to rebuild his people into a horrifying force capable of laying waste to all in his path. He responds with derision when you inquire what foe would require such strength, but upon more indirect questioning admits there were powers the Nagoth were unable to assail even at their height.
The question of what he seeks to
gain by doing this also produces interesting answers. Despite his obvious intellect and cunning, he seems to not fully grasp the idea that slaughtering his neighbors can or should produce benefit, or indeed that not making war on everything around him is an option. He does propose acquiring and sacrificing captives for power, as he did to summon you, but makes it sound like a recent and experimental idea. He's also amenable to the idea of his new and exotic lieutenants extracting some advantage out of his victims, but views this as no more certain or normal than if you offered to vomit food on command.
His strengths are somewhat more normal and straightforward: He is a sorcerer of no small talent, and as the unquestioned victor from the recent struggle commands the absolute loyalty of his people, until such time as one of them succeeds in dethroning him. Given the unstable nature of his power, you suspect such an event would be catastrophic for everyone involved. Insofar as it's a strength, he is also ruthless and fearless to a degree you'd expect in constructs more than living things.
His weaknesses are also fairly self evident. His body is utterly blasted with dark magics and sacrificial rituals, and he moves more through force of will than biological integrity. He and his people are severely primitive; he expresses only theoretical knowledge of metal as "god blood," sees little use in fire beyond destruction and specialist crafting methods, and hunts or raids for any food and materials he might need. Insofar as it's a weakness, he's belligerent and malicious well in excess of any practical benefit.
Your inquiries also produce a few subtler but perhaps more enticing specifics:
-His power is largely concentrated in the form of apocalyptic rituals and raw destructive energy. He's exceedingly potent in singular displays of power, but not very adept at anything less than full force. In addition to limiting his options, this presents an unfortunate tactical roadblock: If he unleashes his power at one thing (say, an enemy), he has by necessity left himself powerless against any others (say, one of your colleagues).
-He's been toying with the idea of somehow warping or mutating his people into more effective warriors. Mutagens and foul sorceries aren't unheard of among his kind, but his own gradual transformation has left him wondering if his people are worthy in their current state.
-Prior to his ascension, his clan was known as the Spineback, and specialized in assassination and attrition. The war was already on by the time Nagoth's superior was slain in battle (by enemies, to the best of Nagoth's knowledge), so they retained this moniker and reputation up until his final victory. Now that he alone rules, he fully expects to retain direct control over some of his people while others splinter off under worthy lieutenants, be they you and your colleagues or whatever mortal champions arise. While the exact nature of his new clan will depend in part on what talents display themselves, he's considering (but not yet sold on) trying to advance his people's command of sorcery.
-The Great Nagoth actually knows of a place you might earn Mana directly. Your predecessor clan, the Blindeye, were masters (by Nagoth standards) of manipulating foes through torturing or leaving out prisoners as bait. Some of them would claim to be of value to giants inhabiting 'a place of light', and who were supposedly great sorcerors who valued flesh above all else. None alive now have ever seen this place, but if their raiding targets had contact with them he reasons it must not be terribly far.
-Your summoning produced an odd result: A column of light stretching up from the central tower. He apparently wasn't expecting this and is unsure of its cause, but was able to determine that the tower had some affinity for summoning. You wonder if the structure was intended to aid or empower rituals of some manner, but there are too many poorly-recorded variables for you to tell if there was any impact.
Ark Hi muses over the information he has taken from his cursory investigations, and decides that more is needed. He will explore the “raiding lands”, setting off in the easiest direction. First, however, he summons forth a Demonic Hammer, using 1 Rage mana. This hammer is forged of a black steel, and runes etched upon it glow a fiery red. The front of the hammer is blunt, resembling an armored fist, while the back of the head forms a spike, able to pierce stone and armor. For now, the hammer is nameless, though one day it may earn one through great deeds.
After that, Ark Hi assembles a small band of the Nagoth, and sets forth to explore. He hopes he will find settlements to conquer, and a defendible position to build a fort. If they encounter a hostile force, or a weak group, he will attack, sending his band first to see how they fight, and then charge in himself.
First off, I’m really digging the atmosphere of your writing, and thanks for picking my character! Also, a question; how many actions are you looking for in a turn, or what scale should we aim for? And how well does my turn fit in with that?
((Was planning on just one, but I've let a few doubles slide. I might want to let Miracles be free actions to avoid disincentivizing small ones anyway. Unsure of scale, but everyone's actions seem fine so far.))
[+0, +Flaw]
The hammer materializes... a little off. The runes seem to curl inwards on themselves, the fist looks knuckled a little too tightly, the spike tilts every so faintly towards the handle in spite. This is not the hammer of a champion.
[+3]
Your band leads you through the Mire, assuring you that there are no 'settlements' there, only Wretch camps. They claim 'Fruit Camps' were a favored target of the Warhold, the clan sacrificed to summon you, and that they were known to sometimes hold them for some purpose or another.
You indeed stumble across a 'Fruit Camp' on the far side of the Mire, up a steep climb and into ash-riddled grasslands. Well, fernlands, and you note the ground is volcanic and the vegetation of the quick-growing kind. You suspect it's not always pleasant here. The Fruit Camp is, near as you can tell, a small fortified compound of earth and clay; the Nagoth helpfully explain that beneath the tough shell are delicious, juicy treats, as with fruit.
Defensively, the Fruit Camp appears structurally sound but lax; you suspect they aimed to expand prior to establishing proper battlements. On the other hand, you guess there's four Herds within; even if poorly armed and trained, they might or might not fight to the death against as merciless as the Nagoth. It also occurs to you that damaging one of the two Herds remaining might reflect poorly on you.
Aside from a frontal assault, you have a few options. You place good odds at being able to take the compound yourself, and even if you fail they might be too busy resisting your efforts to harm anything but your pride. A protracted siege would take up time but might weaken them more than yourself; you know the Nagoth are ravenous and opportunistic hunters, and a single Herd can live off the land quite easily, but you don't know anything about the enemy's stores, internal production, or nearby allies. Finally, you could potentially attempt diplomacy, though again you know little of your foe.
"Nagoth gives no orders. It may not be pleased by you asking for them, Troubleshooter. It expects our ambitions to carry us somewhere, but Our Mother lacks such ambition. Perhaps a child can provide that."
Spawn a monstrous hero in Nagoth's image. Distorted and covered in blades, of course. This child, being something of a child of Nagoth, will know better than Mother what Nagoth need, and will be able to provide.
Meanwhile, Mother is interested in the promise of this Mire. Seems of a comfortable climate, and perhaps these Wretches offer something unique?
[+3]
The nameless thing you spawn indeed looks vaguely like a Nagoth, even like The Nagoth, but with bladelike shards for a carapace. Its silvery-white color loosely matches The Nagoth's, but is more naturally pale than unnaturally bleached, and its eye glows an ominous purple for no reason you care to discern.
Like all good Nagoth, it is very, very hungry.
Interestingly, the lesser Nagoth seem to treat it much like they treat you- avoiding it where possible, but rallying to it quickly when it attempts to lead them in some endeavor. You find yourself unable to comprehend its mind any better than you can its fellows, but presume it will know what to do. All of your children do, regardless of what nearby mortals insist.
[+2]
The Mire proves pleasant enough, lots of ambush predators and carrion eaters. You catch sight of several Wretch raiding bands, but like their mesa-dwelling brethren they avoid you where possible. Unlike their mesa-dwelling brethren, at the moment they have some crude structures standing, which gives them pause at the thought of fleeing before you. You locate a few such encampments, which bristle at your approach but might be willing to talk.
*GULK GULK GULK* another crushed body of one of the sacrifices is swallowed whole by the churning maw of the Worm. Its coiled mass writhing as it sits upon a pile of bodies, a dozen more limp corpses destined for it's mouth already entangled by loops and coils and being inextricably drawn in towards its ever hungry gullet. As it idly and futilely feeds itself it feels out its new land. The Worm is seemingly unperturbed by it's sudden change in circumstances, hunger and the potential for growth is everywhere, and so one area is as good as another for the Worm.
The consumption of corpses could only keep it's attention for a short time, eventually as it's knowledge of the area grew it was pulled away from it's macabre feast. As the Worm was a creature of hunger and growth it was heavily attracted to such. It slouched away, it's coils rolling over each other and leaving a trail of slime and chunks missing from the ground as it pulled itself to it's next destination, taking bites out of the ground and anything else it passed by close enough too to try to eat in its endless effort to quell its starvation.
The Worm uses a point of Hunger Mana to Enhance it's ability to sense Hunger throughout the mesas and surrounding areas. The stronger a creature hungers the more the Worm will be able to sense it, sentient creatures hungering also pull more powerfully then non sentient creatures. Then it goes off, seeking the hungriest entities it can find.
[+2]
You empower yourself to sense hunger, and then set out looking for it.
[+4, +2x Boons]
You notice a few promising candidates out in the Mire. A Wretch Hero seems to have fused with some sort of parasite, and now lurks as a ravening shadow to anything made of meat. A hardened dinosaur-like predator stalks the fens with only the desire to gorge. Tiny polyplike newborns of some horror or another fervently seek the sustenance they need to grow.
The hungriest creature, however, would probably be the ancient evil imprisoned deep beneath the earth.
It takes you a while to notice it. It's so far away, so deep down, so shrouded by rock and water and other things. But like a distant, powerful hum in the air, you gradually notice and gradually realize what you are noticing, and by the end you can see it as plainly as mortals could a constellation in the night sky. It was mighty once, and ruled a great empire within the water-filled caverns under the surface. But as its hunger grew, its empire buckled, until at last the tattered remnants rose up against it, damaged it as they could, and sealed its immortal heart- that is, its hungering maw- within the remains of the once-proud capital.
You're uncertain how exactly you would go about reaching it, but you know that the caverns are (or at least were) interconnected, to any access point would provide a theoretical first step. You could also probably just burrow straight down, eating flavorless rock until there was none left to block your path, but that would likely take a while.
Harvest Bone
[+4, +2x Boons]
The Nagoth sets about gathering building supplies. If it sees anything unseemly about a mighty leader gathering materials or his people living in the corpses of their slain brethren, it does not show it. By the end, it has a rather large stockpile of cleaned chitin to work with, as well as what seems to be the crystallized eye of a Nagoth champion that fell in battle.
Settlement Materials:
4 Nagoth Chitin
1 Eye of the Horror
The Worm
6/6 HP
-
3/3 Growth Gullet
2/3 Hunger Gullet
-
Endless Coil: +3 Growth Gullet. Your blessings related to growth continue to expand of their own accord.
Eternal Maw: +3 Hunger Gullet. You may consume any source of power to produce Hunger Mana.
Abandon
6/6 HP
-
3/3 Illusion Gullet
3/3 Emotion Gullet
-
Heartcaller: +3 Illusion Gullet. May take a form evoking any desired response in those you deal with, even if you have no way of knowing what that form would be.
Deepest Need: +3 Emotion Gullet. By interacting with others, may generate a task that will automatically deal or heal one Defeat to them.
Ark Hi
6/6 HP
-
1 Nagoth Raiders [Homeless]
-
Hammer of the Spat Curse: On being bested by someone, suffer a Defeat from frustration and bitterness.
-
2/3 Rage Gullet
3/3 Fortification Gullet
-
Blazing Heart: +3 Rage Gullet. Warriors under your command suffer no discontentment for the costs and consequences of battle.
Iron Tide: +3 Fortification Gullet. You count as two identical entities when involved in siege or fortifications.
Mother
6/6 HP
-
3/3 Motherhood Gullet
3/3 Monster Gullet
-
Allwomb: +3 Motherhood Gullet. May spawn Heroes as a mundane action, even without a partner.
Heartless: +3 Monster Gullet. Your blessings and curses warp their recipients both physically and mentally, rendering them alien and wrong to their people and their former selves.
Ravana
8/8 HP
-
1 Nagoth Raiders [Homeless]
-
0/4 Terror Gullet
0/4 Strength Gullet
-
Tyrant's Claw: +4 Terror Gullet. You emanate an aura of unnatural fear to those around you and those under your rule. Those you focus your gaze upon directly are paralyzed with terror.
Fanged Crown: +4 Strength Gullet. You emanate an unnatural sense of authority and legitimacy regarding anything you have claimed by force. Others feel disgrace upon any who refuse a challenge from you.
Bladecrag
1/1 HP
-
Warzone: On suffering a Defeat in battle, deal a wounding Defeat to its inflictor.
Author
Topic: The Five Crowns of Nagoth [Turn 2: Endless War] (Read 4268 times)