Turn -2 Design PhaseThe city is filled with quiet tension, even with the lack of peasants contact. Peasants can feel the near electric tension that has filled the city recently. On the other hand, you would barely notice the difference in the cities masters, the elder necromancers.
Research continues apace as always, but the observant would take notice of the focus on mass production over Niche boundary-pushing research as it had been for years.
Design: Basic Intelligent DesignBasic Intelligent Design
Zombies are dumb. This is really quite unfortunate, given the time and effort we have put into understanding what grants an undead intelligence. By applying our research to our army, we should be able to develop smarter undead servants. We will focus our research at this time at trying to maintain the natural intelligence of the soul through the binding process, such that our binding process doesn't sap the will of the soul driving the servitor. This may result in changes to the basic binding procedure - not necessarily a bad thing.
Time=> 5 Progress=> 3 Cost=> 6
Every Spell weave is different, depending on the kind of undead that is being created. What the Master necromancers of the Academy are trying to do is find a spell that can be inserted into most if not all Spell weaves to increase the base intelligence of some of the more basic designs. While this won’t have much effect on most higher undead, the hope is this generic component can increase the abilities of most lesser undead.
Right now, the project seems to be continuing at a good pace, and with almost all the work being done in the creation of a spell formula, the actuall material cost is rather light.
Design “Basic intelligent design” 0/10 [2]/10 necrotic fluid/ Rushed 0 times / Nothing invested
PrototypeEfficacy: 2d4 => [4]
Using the new spell, woven into the typical matrix normal undead become a bit more intelligent, capable of conquering stairs and figuring out how to walk a little less drunken and how to hit stuff with a weapon. They are still stupid, but less stupid most certainly.
Unfortunately, we are having trouble making the Spell fit into the weave of any undead without the use of necrotic fluid to help bind the spell into the weave meaning that any construct we attempt to apply this to will cost more necrotic fluid.
For now the necromancers have waited on adding the basic intelligence spell across all spell matrixes due to the increased production costs. Instead it is optional to use when creating new units.
Basic intelligence design.Unit modifier upon creation.
A spell inserted into the spell weave to improve a lower undead’s ability to think and reason, Under this modifier the undead are following basic orders without direct supervision and using simple weaponry such as swords, clubs and axes.
Unfortunately, due to instability in the inserted spell matrix, application requires necrotic fluid.May be applied to a unit upon creation. Adds a cost of necrotic fluid = to 25% of the corpse cost.
(Due to adding cost, It is optional when creating unians instead of a army wide default.)
Design: BonestitcherBonestitcher
The ranks of the Bonestitchers consists of those who are either hopeful of gaining an apprenticeship in necromancy, or are themselves those whom failed out of one. The Bonestitchers are given a bare minimum of animation training, enough so that they can, with some manual labor included, 'heal' our undead armies by recycling usable bits and pieces of those who have fallen and stitching them either together to make a 'workable' soldier, or replacing damaged limbs of an already animated soldier.
Time=>3 Progress=>2 Cost=>4
Those with those with magical talent are rare, those without enough talent to actually learn necromancy are rather hard to find do to a lack of obvious signs. The peasants inside the wards are being screened to find those with enough magical talent to be a bonestitcher and are young enough to actually teach the art. Most necromancers that fail their apprenticeship are dead, due to the most common form of failure is creating something that they cannot command, such as a spectral knight or a rabid Ghoul.
Such a process is taking time, on top of the amount of learning the bonestitcher need to do to accurately Stabilize a necromantic spell weave and repair the flesh that surrounds it.
Design: “Bonestitcher” 0/12 [2] / 30 corpses, 30 metal, 60 non metal/rushed 0 times / Nothing invested
Prototype:Efficacy:2d4 => [6]
Bonestitcher are those that are not talented enough to become even apprentice necromancers. They are unable to command undead, they cannot create any form of spell weave and they lack they lack the inherint advantages that those with magic even have, so small is their talent.
Even so there are many things that they can do to to make work easier for the apprentices that command undead units and typically act as the repair crews.
With the ability to work in concert to stabilize a necromantic weave and then to mend some of the damage that combat causes to the flesh. This ensures that less undead servants are lost during combat due to a lack of attention that can be given to them by the necromancers.
While unlikely to be useful on more powerful undead servants due to the fact that many of those can have whole teams working on them at a time, this ensure that the more numerous undead will not re-perish from something as simple as a lack of attention.
Design “Bonestitcher”Attachment (Equipment)
A group of those with almost no magical power, trained to act as medical staff for undead during the heat of battle as well as afterwards, the bonestitcher decrease the casualties that units take during combat.150 corpses, 150 metals, 300 non-metals.
Design “Necromantic Crossbow”Necromantic crossbow
The first rule of warfare is "the best defense is not getting hit", which is a problem with zombies, which can't attack enemies from range or use any common ranged weapon, this will solve it, the desing is similer to a crossbow, but instad of any mechanical processes to pull and reload it we connect an arm to the stock and put the quiver near the prod, after a projectile is shot the arm take a new one from the quiver and pull the string while holding it, when the string get to place it put the projectile in place and realse, this allow us to need to only train the zombie at aiming and pulling the trriger, strengthening the arm for good force could be done by attaching extra muscle
(Spellcheck, please.)
Time=>4 Progress=>4 Cost=>1
The creation of a crossbow loaded via a necromantic construct isn’t that complicated, and the process of mass producing it isn’t much more. The problem comes in with the cost of replacing crossbows when the Necromantic construct continually broke them.
Necromantic crossbow 0/10 [3]/ 10 corpses, 50 non-metal, 20 metal/ Rushed 0 times/ Nothing invested
Prototype:Efficiency: 2d4=> 7
Early on in the Design process, it was found that a human arm attached to the stock had multiple issue with articulation, loading and cocking the crossbow due to a lack of Strength, weight and leverage, all of which a regular human uses to cock the crossbow.
So the use of a human arm was discarded early on in the project, and multiple different limbs were tested, possibly part of the reason they went over budget.
Now, instead of a human arm, the necromantic Crossbow uses a tentacle taken form a ripper squid. This tentacle is typically covered in Flesh rending spikes and is tipped with three claw “Fingers” that it will use to grab and rip out eyes. With the necromantic crossbow, all but one of the spikes are removed, and the one remaining spike’s cutting edges are blunted.
When used the Tentacle will wrap around the user arm, to keep out of the way and make it harder to remove the weapon from the user. It unfurls from the arm after firing before placing a new bolt into the crossbow and cocking it, using its muscly and un-jointed nature along with leverage gained from the users arm to fully cock the crossbow, in 30 seconds.
Ammunition is limited due to the Space limitations imposed with building the quiver onto the crossbow.
As it is now, we can give one of these crossbows to a zombie and the zombie will be able to point it in the direction the necromancer directs it to and firing when it is told to.
With the current zombies, this will work best as a volley of fire due to Zombie lacking initiative.
Design Necromantic crossbowEquipment
A self-loading and firing crossbow that is of quality make. Can fire at a rate of 30 seconds. Has a limited ammunition due to the quiver being attached to the crossbow and the measure taken to ensure the Ripper arm can reach the bolts, but that they don’t fall out when aiming.
50 Corpses, 200 non-metal, 100 Metal
Basic intelligent design 0/10 [2]/10 necrotic fluid/ Rushed 0 times / Nothing invested
Bonestitcher 0/12 [2] / 30 corpses, 30 metal, 60 non metal/rushed 0 times / Nothing invested
Necromantic crossbow 0/10 [3]/ 10 corpses, 50 non-metal, 20 metal/ Rushed 0 times/ Nothing invested
Zombies:
Unit
The most basic creatures to ever be created by a necromancer. Typically seen as baby’s first creature, the zombie is simple enough to be mass-produced with ease.
However, Zombies are slow, weak and incapable of doing more than simply bashing and biting their target. While dangerous to a peasant, zombies are relatively none threatening.
Cost: 100 Corpses
Equipment:
Unit modifier
Infrastructure:
Necromantic brewer.
A relatively simple set up designed to brew necromantic fluid.
Necrotic Fluid is created from a few choice herbs and the flesh of the recently passed.
+100 Necrotic fluid
100 metal, 200 non-metal, 100 Corpses
Moratorium:
A basic building where corpses are prepared to be used for the art of necromancy after being brought out of long-term storage.
+200 Corpses
100 Metal, 300 Non-Metals, 100 Necrotic Fluid
Mine Shaft:
A relatively small mine shaft dug out by the undead and manned by basic zombies that is used to access veins of metals from under the city. Kind of small and has a relatively high rate of zombies dying off.
+100 metal
200 metal 200 non-metals, 100 Corpses
Quarry
A large open pit created for the purpose of hauling up good stone for construction. Due to the relatively open nature and large size, its tends to double as a meeting point.
+200 Non-Metals
200 Metals, 200 Non-metals, 100 corpses
The revision phase of
Turn -2 has begun. You have
1 Dice.
Author
Topic: Necro arms race- Black Rose faction thread (Read 4363 times)