Spears of the Sun
[Uncommon Deployment]
[6 Minerals, Auspicious Hours 4]
The Spears of the Sun are a curious recreation of an ancient relic. Requiring both the proper time and precious gold, they are (initially) issued to roughly one soldier in sixty. Capable of charging off raw sunlight, the Spears of the Sun have two primary functions. The first is a ranged blast of concentrated sunlight, the effects of which baffle our sciences. While we had envisioned a burning beam of light, it would seem the more powerful a light is, the less it desire to stay in a beam. Likewise, it has been discovered that, when air is brought to the burning point, it’s capable of bending light. These effects together mean that the blasting function of the Spear is sharply limited in range, to approximately 30 feet in which the spear discharges in a narrow cone. Targets hit by this discharge are rarely incinerated, but instead a thin layer of their surface is ablated and the targets are thrown back with great force. Again, curious, as light has no weight or momentum with which to throw someone. Once this discharge has been used, it can take a day of steady charging in order for it to be used again. The second function of the spear is to create a burning nimbus of energy around its blade. This as the effect of creating a super-heated edge, melting through all known forms of armor- but again with a few exceptions. If a burning Miad crystal forms, that crystal will interrupt the flow of energy and prevent the spear from penetrating or heating the target. Second, the spear is still made of gold. While capable of melting through targets, the molten residue from the target is often considerably hotter than the melting point of gold, which means that soldiers using this ability to strike through thick plating or hardened defenses must do so with speed and deliberation.
[Standard Difficulty, 1d8: 3]
[Lucky Break!]
--[Minor Bug, Simple]
One minor issue with the spears of the Sun is that there simply isn’t a good amount of materials set aside to maintain gold weapons. While a simple issue, the lack of tools only exacerbates gold’s lackluster combat abilities on occasions where the user is forced to use it as a direct weapon.
Hog Knights
[Mortals 3, Beasts 5, Minerals 3]
[Uncommon Deployment]
The Hog Knights of Zehlin are terrifying adversaries. The Hogs themselves were born in the mire of Zehlin, and have short, water resistant coats, unusually long and strong legs for swine, long and durable tusks for rooting through muck, and the disposition of a creature whose first and last option for dealing with a problem involves getting really, really, really pissed off. While these creatures are difficult in the extreme to capture, they’re the perfect pair for the Hog Knights themselves. Unusual men and women, their mentality part training and part natural insanity, Hog Knights are heavily armored in a heavy iron plate of coats and share a certain bellicosity with their mounts. They’re used to charging down sheer faced cliffs, shattering enemy lines, and breaking enemy morale by crafting grisly trophies from the slain and adding them to their mounts. The weight of their armor and armaments, usually a heavy spear and solid metal shield, makes Hog Knights exceptionally ungainly when deprived of their mounts, and their mounts are but trained beasts, but united the two are a heavy cavalry force to be feared.
[Standard Difficulty, 1d8: 8]
--[Crippling Bug, Intractable]
While they have been the mounts of a few legendary individuals, all attempts to integrate them as a standard cavalry unit have failed. The hogs are, quite simply, nearly untrainable. Massive, shockingly intelligent, very used to having their own way, and downright mean, the boar of the Zehlin Bog resist all efforts at general domestication. To date, only the heroically insane have ever been able to ‘tame’ such animals, and even then their relationship should be considered more of a partnership than a master/animal bond. [This, effectively, adds 10 to your resource deficit for this tech, making it deployed at about a thousandth of its apparent resource capacity]
[Hidden Fault!]
--[Minor Bug, Simple]
A second, considerably smaller, issue with the boars is that their rage appears to be contagious. While the personality… eccentricities of the boar riders are well known, it appears that the musk from the great boar induces similar effects in the infantry. While this has little practical effect, it does make fights break out in camps more often where Hog Knights are deployed and not adequately groomed.
--[Moderate Bug, Intractable]
The diet of the Zehlin boar is also a further consideration. Opportunistic omnivores, the material needs of the giant boar can be readily satisfied with anything to hand. Their fluid intake, however, is prodigious. The cold bogs of Zehlin make gigantothermi a benefit, and rarely do they need to cool off in such climes. However, in warmer climates, or when pressed to battle, the animals overheat easily, and require vast amounts of water in order to recuperate. This limits how frequently they can be deployed in charges, and limits their overall efficacy in hotter climates.
--[Minor Bug, Fascinating]
A final, bizarre twist, is that physicians have difficulty addressing the injuries of the great boar. The creatures can bear tremendous wounds with little surprisingly little bleeding or chance of infection, hinting toward some biological property yet unknown, but at the same time traditional herbal treatments have been ineffective- and crippling injuries such as broken bones are often left unset as no known treatment can sedate the animal for long enough to handle. This often leaves such animals crippled and at reduced capacity, as they are forced to rely wholly on their natural healing.
Devil Eggs
[Common Deployment]
[3 Mortal Dregs]
A simple conjuration and binding ritual, an inexpensive clay pot, and a steady hand can do much work. Each Devil Egg contains a sub-sapient being from the deep, quite capable of being angry about being captured, but not nearly powerful enough to plot something as complex as revenge. The clay pots used are simple in construction, and this very simplicity enables them to whether the increased entropy of their captive quite easily. On shattering, the captive deep one is released, and its pent up fury is expelled. The spirit is relatively weak, and without anything to possess its energies disperse rapidly- much to the detriment of anything living. The unrefined energy of the deep doesn’t cause wounds per se, but it does cause panic attacks, seizures, partial paralysis, and uncontrolled bleeding from mucous membranes - along with the occasional rare effect brought on by conscious effort of the deep entity. Without a direct hit from an urn, these effects are unlikely to kill by themselves, but they are enormously disruptive to enemy ranks and very likely to temporarily disable several individuals and steeply reduce morale.
[Minor Difficulty, d6: 4]
--[Minor Bug, Intractable]
The urns provide good containment of the spirits, but those who have to handle still feel bleedover effects. A general dread, a feeling of being watched, night terrors, nausea, heart palpitations, etc. While these put soldiers in no great danger, Devil eggs are typically concentrated in a smaller number of slingers with special cases, rather than disseminated broadly to the infantry due to morale issues.
--[Moderate Bug, Cluster]
A somewhat more significant issue is the fact that, if one urn cracks, the bleedover energy from the deep will likely overwhelm the seals that any other eggs are using. This means that, if one egg blows, every other egg within range will detonate. This, as one can imagine, will be attended with dire consequences for anyone remotely in range.
It is the 2nd Design, Revision, and Research Phase
Author
Topic: Zehlin Team Thread - FR20 [~4 Players] (Read 9331 times)