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[Twinwolf]

Angel Identity:
Heliel (4): m1895, Failbird, Strider (w/ tentacles), Twinwolf
Syrinia (1): Taricus
Teramuel (1): C2M
Revision 1
Improved Singing Courses (0):
Mass IANH’s Love (0):
Officer Training (5): Taricus, Failbird, m1895, Strider, Twinwolf
[Angel]'s Soothing Embrace (0):
Shieldwall Training (1): C2M
Revision 2
Improved Singing Courses (0):
Mass IANH’s Love (4): Failbird, C2M,Strider, Twinwolf
Officer Training (0):
[Angel]'s Soothing Embrace (1): m1895
Shieldwall Training (0):

[NUKE9.13]

Angel Team: Revision Phase T0
TURNTURNTURN

Training Camp Revision: Officer Training
By implementing a basic command and leadership training scheme for the more intelligent and charismatic cultists that are not acolytes, we can start to produce capable officers for our ranks and further improve the capabilities of our forces. Our forces should be much more 'agile' and responsive with the introduction of proper leadership.

Training Camp Revision: Officer Training: Normal: (1+3)=4: Below Average
Unfortunately, none of the veterans amongst your cultists held officer positions, requiring them to try and piece together a command structure from vague memories of being yelled at. Nevertheless, the result seems passable. Those cultists showing an aptitude for combat and a hint of leadership abilities are appointed [squad leaders], while those who display clear signs of tactical intelligence and charisma are appointed [company leaders]. The overall commander of forces in a region is either yourself, or a [company leader] elected to the position.
The newly-appointed officers are given time to discuss strategy and tactics, and though they seem to be stumbling at times, it's certainly better than organising something at the last minute. You expect a minor but noticeable improvement in the planning and execution of military manoeuvres by cultist forces (which is, at present, all forces).

Mass IANH’s Love:Revision to IANH’s Love
Instead of healing just one person at a time, spread the love, heal multiple! Lower the intensity and spread the bandwidth! Each use is generally 4X as powerful as the standard spell, able to be used about half a dozen times. It can be used well over a general squad of cultists, still healing minor wounds rather quickly, and can stabilize major injuries to be later cured by the regular spell. It can also be cast preemptively before a charge to grant increased resiliency and help them survive in the fray just a bit longer.

Mass IANH’s Love:Revision to IANH’s Love: Normal: (1+3 (yes, really))=4: Below Average
If you- an incomprehensible being who transcends reality and defines what it is to be Good- can cast your healing Love over a wide area, why not your acolytes? Put it like that, and their struggles seem understandable. While the principle is sound, in practice it proves very difficult for your acolytes to divide their attention over a large area, and still channel the requisite magical forces. They are forced to further tone down the complexity of the spell in order to maintain a quick casting time. The healing effect is reduced to the point where even healing cuts and fractures (of the sort the original cures in seconds) often takes a second casting, and while it may sometimes remove the immediate danger of deeper wounds, other times the intensity is simply too low to mitigate the damage, leading to a superficial appearance of recovery while below the surface the injury is all-but untouched.
The spell "Mass Heliel's Love" should still prove useful, allowing acolytes to heal large groups more quickly than they could by healing one at a time, but is not as useful as it could've been. It is still Common, although it is nearing the boundary of what acolytes are capable of.


By the end of the month, our preparations are nearing completion.
Scouts have plotted a route through the Dry Plains and River Delta, identifying abandoned forts that we could use should the war come to those theatres. The militaries of Darrin and Xa-Nam are as weak as the stories say, and will be unlikely to interfere with our operations. However, moving military forces into the Fortified Frontier would be an extraordinarily bad idea, while Dolgoth's navy and sizeable garrisons make miltary action in the Trade City a no-go as well.
Meanwhile, missionaries have been sent forth. The peasantry of the Fortified Frontier made eager converts, tired of taxes and conscription, while the generals seemed oblivious to our growing influence. In the Trade City, we found native islanders receptive to our words, as they chafe under foreign rule, while the merchants are too absorbed in their own struggles to care about a few eccentric missionaries and medics. The pious citizens of the Dry Plains, however, are confident in the leadership of the priesthood, and have no time for our preachers, while the denizens of the River Delta are happy and healthy, likewise limiting the appeal of our message of hope.

Rumours from the west indicate that the Demon's forces are preparing an offensive of their own, and are doubtlessly seeking converts to bolster their dark legions. The war is all-but inevitable at this point, so we'd best ensure we're ready for it.

It is now the Design Phase. You have two designs.

Spoiler: Equipment (click to show/hide)

Heliel: The benevolent leader of your faction, a being of immense power. There is very little they cannot do. Needless to say, they are Unique. Their Power is currently 20.


Mundane Units:
Armed Cultists: Being equipped with only a rusty dagger, a spear, and a wooden shield, combined with rudimentary training, mean these are not elite warriors- they'd lose a one-on-one fight with a real soldier-, but they're cheap and plentiful. Like regular cultists, their dedication (and communal singing) makes them more resilient mentally than civilians.  Common

Cultist Archers: Cultists who have some experience with a bow are valuable assets in combat, harassing the enemy from a distance. They aren't sharpshooters, and their bows are designed for hunting, not piercing armour, but they're better than nothing. Like regular cultists, their dedication (and communal singing) makes them more resilient mentally than civilians. Uncommon

Acolytes: Cultists who have begun their exploration of the magical arts, studying under the Angel. They can cast any Common spells (unless noted otherwise). Their physical strength leaves something to be desired, but their mental fortitude is even greater than regular cultists. There are not many Acolytes in a unit. Uncommon

Cultist Officers: Featuring a whole two tiers of military hierarchy, the [squad leaders] and [company leaders] impart a modicum of organisation upon their fellow cultists. While not massively better than self-organised troops, it's still noticeable. They are distributed amongst all cultist units (eg Armed Cultists, Cultist Archers, Acolytes).


Summoned/Mutated Units:
You don't start with anything in this category. Feel free to ask whether a proposal is viable, at least until you have a grasp of difficulty.


Spells/Rituals:
Magic Missile: Known by many names, the simple technique of blasting your opponent with raw Magic/Good/Evil is a tried and true method of making things go away. Efficacy increases with caster's mental might, and decreases with the target's. Common

Heliel's Love: A very efficient basic healing spell. A slight touch and channelling of angelic love initiates a self-sustaining healing process that can heal up to moderately serious injuries and diseases fairly rapidly. The magic has lingering effects even after healing is complete, leaving the subject healthier and more resilient for a few hours afterwards. Heliel casts this magic automatically on all in her vicinity (unless specifically choosing not to). Common
    Mass Heliel's Love: A markedly less efficient variant of Heliel's Love, that affects all targets in a small area (~15 at a time). The healing effect is reduced, to the point where even stabilising moderately serious injuries is a gamble- sometimes doing enough for the patient to survive until more personalised healing can be applied, other times only giving the appearance thereof. It cannot be cast as often as Heliel's Love, but is still Common


Infiltration Techniques:
Proselytise: Cultists go forth and spread the Good word, finding those sympathetic to their cause and slowly winning them over. Not the fastest way of gaining converts, as baseline cultists are not expert missionaries, but it keeps the cult growing. Common
    Travelling Medics: Acolytes accompany proselytising missions, curing the sick and injured in order to win over the local population. Uncommon


Infrastructure:
Basic Training Camps: Rudimentary facilities, where cultists learn the basics of combat and warfare. Singing is integrated into the training programme, serving to boost morale.
    Basic Officer Training: A stumbling, amateurish step towards proper military organisation, the officers trained thus are still better than leaders chosen in the moment.

Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)

DARRIN (Combat)
Dry Plains: 4/4 | 0/4
Mountain Passes: 2/4 | 2/4
Rice Terraces: 0/4 | 4/4

LESIMOR (Influence)
Fortified Frontier: 1/5 | ?/5
Lawless Capital: 0/5 | ?/5
Scholarly Towers: 0/5 | ?/5

XA-NAM (Combat)
River Delta: 4/4 | 0/4
River Crossings: 2/4 | 2/4
Light Jungle: 0/4 | 4/4

DOLGOTH (Influence)
Trade City: 1/5 | ?/5
Ostentatious Capital: 0/5 | ?/5
Wartorn Wastes: 0/5 | ?/5

[chubby2man]

Beam Cherub:
Created from pure Good Energy, these cherubs float in the air, often a few meters off the ground, for the purpose of detecting and shooting Evil beings with a beam of good energy. They look like a rose colored, ball-shaped petal. They are often attached by rope or string to either a volunteer or to the ground, allowing mobility with only requiring the barest amount cherub’s own energy for movement, often only swiveling to its target. The cherub often targets the nearest evil creature or being it detects, rotates a bit then shoots a concentrated beam of energy at the target. They often form bonds with their handler, refusing to leave their side even at night, standing guard while their friend sleeps. Even though it’s not in their “programming”, observers swear that the Bean Cherubs will prioritize targets that have harmed or killed their handler, even if other targets are closer. Sadly they are often prone to killing themselves with an unsustainable rate of fire if their handler is slain. Handlers report that the cherubs often independently nuzzle them, and even coo occasionally, despite lack of vocal capabilities. 

Ghost Spies

Invisible to the naked eye, these ghosts watch and listen for valuable information to pass on to cultists. That can be an individual crying out to the heavens, looking for purpose, or knowledge of a shameful deed that the perpetrators would prefer left secret. They listen to it all, and pass the useful bits on.

These are made from the souls of honored cultists, some who spent years in the desert and some who gossiped in bazaars their entire life. They volunteered their very souls for the angels use, and generally are glad to be of purpose.
They usually move at the speed of a walk, and are invisible to the visible light spectrum. They are entirely incorporeal, unable to interact physically with objects. They can hear very well, and can communicate with others (usually only to cultists, but if a great tragedy is about to occur such as a child getting in danger, they will intervene and try to indiscreetly direct help. ) It can get a bit dull, but in between spying in the city and scouting in the wilds (they aren’t the best scouts due to their slow speed). Nonetheless, they serve a valuable purpose as the intelligence arm of our cult.

Edited the healing springs, defined the company a bit more, removed deceptive demonstrations, and added bit where we direct the needy poor to acolytes that can heal them, and hopefully convert them as well.

Healing Springs Bottle Company

“Bottled straight from the favorite springs of Heliel herself, these waters have been blessed by the Angel of Light herself! They will allieve any aliment, refresh and renew your souls! They will extend your lifespan, and make you feel like a man half your age!”

Heliel does in fact bless a spring to produce healing water, though it involves a infusion of pure power in a ritual vs an actual bath. This water when consumed acts a healing accelerator, improving healing incredibly fast. While it won’t work fast enough to heal wounds on the battlefield, it can stabilize the wounded and enchanted their recovery off the battlefield, leaving healing spells to the more critically wounded.

Half of this water goes to the battlefield, the other half goes to the rich cities, where it is heavily diluted with normal water and sold. It is sold under the guise of Healing Springs Bottle Company, where they say they found a spring blessed by an Angel, and everyone who drank from it was healthier and younger looking.

The water still has a minor effect, but of course there are Premium bottles (of the pure water) that will be sold to subscribers and patrons for a very high fee, and of course more direct attention from our healers. Of course, those wealthy enough to purchase membership will receive more information on Heliel and the work she does to save the world. One can still purchase membership without becoming a cultist, for now.

The end goal, of course, is to subvert the ruling class through our coveted membership to receive exclusive Spring water, and gain a healthy amount of gold to support the war effort.

Those in dire need, and can not afford to buy the water, will be directed to our cultists that can administer direct healing, and introduction into the cult.

[NUKE9.13]

Design: Monks of Minos

So, this is a neat design, which has been discussed in Discord several times. But I must mention that the difficulty of calling upon wild monsters is more or less the same as creating them from scratch, and creating these minotaurs from scratch would be a difficult proposition- greatly enhanced physical attributes and extensive training in martial arts, on top of this being your first foray into the field, would likely see this design pushing the upper limits of Very Hard.
Gaining some experience with a simpler project or two would make them easier, or you could use a High Effort Project, or you could risk it and hope for a high roll. I ain't telling you what to do, just making sure your decision is an informed one.

Note that I will not be providing difficulty analysis like this for every design forever- once you have, or ought to have, a decent notion of where the difficulty spectrum lies, I won't directly answer questions about difficulty anymore.

E:

Beam Cherub:

A simple, single-purpose entity like this would not be a major challenge to summon. This would be a Normal design. They'd be Uncommon, but have a decent unit size (due to the cost of summoning).

Ghost Spies

Though somewhat more complicated than the cherub in terms of intelligence, using a human soul as a base makes things easier, and a total lack of physical ability keeps things simple. An Easy design. Uncommon, due to the need for a suitable soul (most souls don't hang around).

Healing Springs Ltd.

Bordering on inappropriate behaviour, but not extremely difficult in principle. E: Much better now. With healing magic already known, making the water as described would be Easy. However, marketing the product would require some effort as well, raising the overall difficulty to Normal.

[Taricus]

The Portly Madam
As the Angel's influence spreads further out, more and more people fall under it's sway. One, however, has caught the angel's attention in particular. Hailing from the trade city, this large, middle-aged lady nonetheless has what could be the closest a mortal can get to having an angelic voice. And the crowds her singing has garnered has Heliel contemplating on how to best use this gift.

The answer, of course, lies within empowering her with good. By weaving in magic to her singing, a vast potential is unlocked; Though her voice, magic dances, allowing her to cast spells with but a simple song being sung. However, the efficacy and area of effect grows with a chorus backing her, turning a strong magic user into a potent force onto the battlefield, capable of using far greater amounts of magic more safely via the chorus, and being able to channel the overcharge into it, allowing for spells to be cast through it based on the song she sings.

The Demons may say that it is not over until the fat lady sings. Those same demons are about to be in for a rude shock.

[NUKE9.13]

The Portly Madam

Being confined to a single champion makes developing new skills easier, though this is somewhat balanced out by the difficulty of creating the champion themselves. Creating a new branch of magic would be challenging, but not excessively so. Not trying to add any other functionality means no extra difficulty. Overall, a Hard design.

(With this, I think I've given enough advice on difficulty levels. I will still mention if a design is completely infeasible or has aspects that don't make sense/cannot work, but you should be able to make educated guesses as to the difficulty of a project now)

[m1895]

Artificers
Some of our acolytes have shown promise at Artificing, and it wouldn't good of us to ignore our children's gifts, so we've taken the time to properly teach them how to artifice objects without making them explode this time. Currently, they can only enchant single use spells into objects, such as a spear with a magic missile spell, or clothing with Heliel's Love sewn into it, but even this will be useful both directly for our cultists in the field, and to bring in new cultists through magic trinkets.

[Twinwolf]

Military Workshops

The bulk of our army is underequipped and undertrained. But while they lack proper drilling in military matters, that does not mean they are without skills; many cultists had lives before they joined the cause of Good, and we can put that to good work. The Military Workshops are a collection of smelters, smithies, leatherworkers, and other craftsmen drawn from the ranks of the faithful. They are supplied by ores mined or purchased from nearby areas and they work hard to provide a source of better equipment for the army, increasing the quality of our basic troops and the quantity of better armed and armored troops that we can deploy. In the immediate future this takes the form of giving our basic troops some basic armor in the form of gambesons and iron caps, but it should assist in the future as well.

[Failbird105]

Design: Bright Shadows
Darkness rests in all corners of the world. Darkness, Evil, suffering. We could never hope to end these things if we remain unaware of their presence. The Bright Shadows are our answer to this, rooting out things hidden to our eyes so they may be brought to light and combated against. Invisible to the naked eye, these blessed ghosts watch and listen for valuable information to pass on to our cultists. That can be an individual crying out to the heavens, looking for purpose, or knowledge of a shameful deed that the perpetrators would prefer left secret. They listen to it all, and pass the useful bits on.

Bright Shadows are made from the souls of exceptional worshipers, who have volunteered their souls to serve under Heliels guidance even past their death. The Bright Shadows do not move quickly, only walking pace, but they cannot be seen through the visible light spectrum. Their bodies are wholly incorporeal, they cannot physically interact with the world even if they wanted to, only able to do as much as speak, and generally limiting their interaction to loyal members of the cult. However, they are exceptional at finding things, with great hearing, and a sort of sixth sense, that lets them detect notable concentrations of evil, either where malicious deeds are being done, or where the Demons servants and creations hide.

This allows them to easily find things such as criminals in hiding, corrupt officials, Demonic cult activity, and people in need of aid. Similarly, it could potentially be used in the war effort, preemptively locating ambushes, and detecting movements of demonic forces. Though, they are not exceptionally effective due to their slow speed. Still, unexciting their job may be, they will likely prove a critical role in our operations going forward.

[chubby2man]

Minotaur Monks():
Beam Cherubs(1): C2M
Ghost Spies-Simple():
Healing Springs Bottle Comp(1):C2M
The Portly Madam ():
Artificers():
Military Workshops():
Bright Shadows():

So it was really close between the Beam Cherubs and Portly Madam for me, but I’m voting beam cherubs as they are more numerous, add a different method of attack (lasers) and are easier. But Portly Madam is so flavorful, and has the potential to be a really strong champ in the future I think.

Healing Springs is my vote for our intrigue lane, as it provides a scheme for our agents to work on, rather than just a general spreading of the cult (which is fine). Also has potential for large income? Bright Shadows is also a tempting choice, but I’d rather take them the next round so they can further aid in our scheme, and if we are lucky, blow up a developing scheme of our enemies.

[Taricus]

Minotaur Monks ():
Beam Cherubs (1): C2M
Ghost Spies-Simple ():
Healing Springs Bottle Comp (1):C2M
The Portly Madam (1): Taricus
Artificers():
Military Workshops (1): Taricus
Bright Shadows ():

[Powder Miner]

Minotaur Monks ():
Beam Cherubs (1): C2M
Ghost Spies-Simple (0):
Healing Springs Bottle Comp (2): C2M, Powder Miner
The Portly Madam (1): Taricus
Artificers():
Military Workshops (2): Taricus, Powder Miner
Bright Shadows ():

[Jilladilla]

Personally speaking, I wish to get a summon in so that we can get experience with which to make the Minomonks a reality. Otherwise I'm fairly ambivalent, other than a desire to not do the bottled healing water... I just find it very distasteful, you know?.... (Of note is that my vote very much isn't set in stone, chances are good I'll change things to continue fulfilling this goal as the votes develop further.)

Minotaur Monks ():
Beam Cherubs (2): C2M, Jilladilla
Ghost Spies-Simple (0):
Healing Springs Bottle Comp (2): C2M, Powder Miner
The Portly Madam (1): Taricus
Artificers():
Military Workshops (2): Taricus, Powder Miner
Bright Shadows (1): Jilladilla

[Powder Miner]

I definitely wavered a bit on the healing water, since it is descended from something that is just deadass snake oil, but considering that I find myself liking the goal of being the one angel to actually have a plan for how to prevent the world from getting smacked down to the stone age, through internal composition and structure of our own cult, then I think perhaps we can use this as a base for that.

[Twinwolf]

Minotaur Monks ():
Beam Cherubs (2): C2M, Jilladilla
Ghost Spies-Simple (0):
Healing Springs Bottle Comp (3): C2M, Powder Miner, Twinwolf
The Portly Madam (1): Taricus
Artificers():
Military Workshops (3): Taricus, Powder Miner, Twinwolf
Bright Shadows (1): Jilladilla