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Comrade Koba posted:Doesn't the book mention in passing how Che Guevara managed to replace Robin Hood as the embodiment of the Rebel, and that the latter now spends his days oppressing tribes in Burma? Yeah, an unseated Archetype goes through the House of Renunciation (an Otherspace: an alternate dimension discussed later in the corebook) and has his mindset flipped inside-out so they when they return to Earth, they end up diametrically opposed to the concept they used to represent. (Ex. If the current Mother Archetype were unseated, she would be a major advocate of birth control)
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Jul 3, 2015 18:44
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Forces of Warmachine: Convergence of Cyriss The Corollary is the first vector to benefit from innovations in arcane displacers allowing for greater hovering mass. They're nearly seven feet tall, but only wait one and a quarter tons when inactive. (They are weightless, when active.) They have a unique niche in the Convergence arsenal. Unlike other vectors, they aren't about destruction. They support warcasters by housing arcane accumulators that store the residual energies a warcaster generates in combat. These are captured by a set of recessed irises, then dispensed by mental command to empower other vectors. Additional relays extend a warcaster's area of control, and so a warcaster with a Corollary is exponentially more efficient. In battle, the Corollary automatically orbits the warcaster, reorienting itself to the most efficient position to collect arcane emanations. At warcaster direction, it acts as a conduit for other vectors' focus inductors, boosting them with charges of power and amplifying tactical options.  While outside the Convergence, they would be a marvel, the Diffuser is actually produced in great quantities. It is just under seven and a half feet tall and weighs in at almost 2 tons. Its ripspike launcher is a channel catapult powered by a high-tension spring, with each ripspike having tiny fins to adjust trajectory in flight. This allows the projectile to fire a flight pattern set by the warcaster when the weapon is fired. With a well-calculated course, it will maneuver through the air around battlefield variables before it strikes, a vast advantage over ammo limited to straight lines. Even after the ripspike embeds itself, its job is not done. As a secondary function, its arcane relay sends targeting data to other vectors, clockwork vessels and priests.  The Galvanizer is the oldest vector configuration in current use and the backbone of many forces, nearly seven and a half feet tall and almost 2 tons. Its metal saw isn't so fast as those used for lumber, but is better suited to tear through steel. It has power and precision, able to cut through heavy armor or remove dented plating from allies without harm. This, coupled with a field repair array, makes the vector an ideal vehicle for battlefield repair, even able to mend the plating protecting a clockwork vessel's soul node. In battle, they resemble robotic insects swarming across the landscape, shedding 'jacks like a horde of locusts. Perhaps more disconcerting, however, is their scramble to their own fallen, not to scavenge but to repair.  The Mitigator produces a distinctive hum from its rapid rotational accelerator. It is nearly seven and a half feet and nearly 2 tons, spinning its hurlon chamber to whirl its razor-shap, precision-tooled bolas at enemies with immense speed. The bola round spreads open to envelop targets in a steel web on impact. It may seem to be an unsophisticated and ancient weapon, but it uses tools that transform it into something very modern indeed. It's a precision tool, carefully deployed, to shred both troop formations and single threats flexibly. They are highly effective support weapons, able to thin out even the most heavily armored troops.  The Assimilator floats above the fray on an arcane displacer drive, nearly twelve feet tall and almost 6 tons when inactive. Its rending claw snaps open and closed quickly, while the assimilation auger grinds behind wearing gears, roating its microswarm launcher into place. While vector arms frequently rely on kinematics, few showcase force manipulation quite so well as the dissevering microswarm. It's a three-barreled cannon firing javelin clusters with two distinct modes of attack. If a javelin strikes its target (or the ground), a spring-loaded impact trigger causes it to detonate into bladed gears. However, the explosion can also be triggered in midair to shower an area with cutting projectiles. Those close to an Assimilator must deal with the rending claw, which can make short work of 'jacks and use their scrap to patch itself up.  The Cipher uses the key servitor technology of the Convergence in its servipod motor, a shining example of groundbreaking innovation. The machine itself is just over 11 and a half feet tall and nearly 9 tons. Every shot of its mortar shoots seven miniature servitors that disperse in flight for maximum coverage, with loading chambers providing groups customized to the warcaster's needs. Once the correct ammo is chosen, the servipods are launched. Blasting servipods tear trhough light armor, while lumichem servipods tag enemies with targeting beacon chemicals, and tunneling servipods burrow into the ground before detonating a charge that ruptures the earth around them. The Cipher is favored not only for its versatility, but also its efficiency in melee, wielding two heavy piston spikes to sunder armor plating of anything that gets through the servipod barrage.  The Conservator was one of the first vector chassis to use the arcane displacer drive, nearly twelve feet tall and just over 5 and a half tons when inactive. Freed from gravity, it has immense freedom of movement, used both offensively and defensively. It is popular among priests expecting to contact the enemy, equipped with sturdy shields and low-traction gyros that allow it to easily intercept attacks. Offensively, it uses spin-control field drives in each of its large ablator blades, which supplement their kinetic energy and empower secondary collection fields, which capture the energy released by destroyed clockwork vessels, converting it into a surge of power that improves the strength of the ablator blades temporarily. It is both a bodyguard and a weapon of retaliation.  The Inverter, at just over 11 and a half feet tall and just over 9 tons, is a simple solution to the simple problem of smashing something to bits. They are used to charge directly at the most armroed enemies around, using their gigantic macropummeler to smash through armor or obliterate small targets. While that gets back into position, it continues the assault with its whirling meteor hammer, calculatinge each attack for maximal damage via countless microrotations to find the perfect angle, no matter what. Next time: The (not really) first Colossal
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Jul 3, 2015 18:57
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The one thing I never understood about convergence is that most of their jacks are ranged monsters, but their ranged attack is based off of the warcaster, and most of them have RATs of two or three. I guess it's supposed to be a balancing measure against induction chains but the Corallary already breaks that wide open.
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Jul 3, 2015 19:17
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That's actually so you use servitors properly. They're able to toss targeting boosts all over, which is intentional - the combat doctrine for the Convergence is all about using your forces for specialized tasks.
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Jul 3, 2015 19:19
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Forces of Warmachine: Convergence of Cyriss The Modulator is nearly twelve feet tall and five and a half tons inactive. At first glance, it resembles the Cygnaran storm-based mechanika, but in truth, rather than generating electricity via rune plates and storm chambers, the electro-arcane energies are handled by the voltaic nimbus generator invented by Fluxion Vincent Bailey, capable of storing geomantic energy and converting it into an electrostatic field via gears, pulleys and charging rune plates. The electrostic charge runs along the hull, protecting it from electrical attacks and generating powerful shocks for anyone that touches the vector without insulation. A pair of galvanic arc emmitters allow it to channel the charge into a bolt of energy that will electrocute everything between the Modulator and its target. After testing, they were modified to allow more precise control over the arc, largely to enable warcasters to strike the foe without collateral damage to clockwork vessels or priests.  The Monitor is immensely potent, nearly twelve feet tall and eight and a half tons. It has peerless optical arrays, identify targets despite camouflage or even magical concealment. It can rapidly shuffle through an assembly of lenses, eahc calibrated to pierce sophisticated physical or arcane defense. Once targets are detected, it relays that data to its warcaster, who calculates the best trajectory for its deadly ellipsaw flinger, which hurls spinning saw blades. Each blade can be made to alter its axis of rotation mid-flight by custom internal accelerator wheels, allowing them to strike from angles of vulnerabiltiy for maximum damage. In addition, the Monitor has a powerful spring-spike fist backed by a counter-recoil mechanism that captures excess force to reset itself for repeated fire. Each activation of the spring coils sends the spike forward with immense speed and force to neutralize enemy threats, allowing it to seek new targets.  The Prime Axim is one of the mightiest vectors ever made, a colossal at 33 feet tall and 75 tons when inactive. For more than a century, they have laid under guard, and anyone who saw them died. Only now are they able to be deployed against enemies. Originally built as temple guardians, the Prime Axioms are one of the most important weapons for the Convergence, built not in just one temple workshop but in several installations each making key components for assembly at the Temple of the Prime Harmonic. The early version were ambulatory but slow, due to the immense demands on their power supplies. Improvements on the arcane displacer drive granted greater flexibility and range of action. Later iterations were armed with suitably potent ordnance, as well, using new steel alloys that are much harder but much lighter than those available to other armies. The foremost weapons it has are immense drill vices, huge grasping fists terminating in diamond-hard drills able to pierce any known alloy. A pair of telescoping tow cables on the chassis allow it to harpoon foes with perforating spikes of the same alloy as the drills, so they can be dragged into range. Against infantry, it deploys its accelespiker, which is recessed in the hull, storing a reserve of superdense metal spikes that it can fire at thousands of rotations per second with terrifying accuracy. It can pepper single targets or lay waste to small areas at its warcaster's whim. Further, the machine houses deployable servitors that multiple its potential force unimaginably. It can launch them to suit its needs, tasking them for minor repairs, firepower or target painting using lumichem. With so many weapons, heavy armor and servitors, it is the equal of any weapon on Caen. In action, it is awe-inspiring, the thrum of its energy cycles near defaning as it hovers over the battlefield, tearing apart troops and warjacks alike. (Colossals are the largest kind of warjack, and the other factions got them in a slightly earlier book, which I'll cover once factions are done.) So, what about the soldiers? The Convergence has no standing army, spreading its manpower among its temples. However, every member has a duty to be ready for battle. Their greatest advantage is the clockwork vessel. On death or with fluxion approval, the souls of the awakened are put into essence chambers, which are then installed in clockwork vessels to be an immortal machine afterlife. Adjusting takes some time, and the extensive military training htey undergo helps master the use of the vessels. For most, combat training is routine, as they may be summoned for battle at any moment. A smaller number serve as permanent soldiers, often the most capable combatants of the sect. All of the Convergence can expect many clockwork forms as they seek perfection, but those dedicated just to combat move through them more quickly, as those who perfect one form or have capacity for another may be transferred to new vessels to continue their evolution. Most spend the majority of their time in utility vessels for labor. Clockwork vessels feel no pain, and their destruction is rarely the end of their existence, so they tend to be very brave indeed. Unlike vectors, most draw power from the souls within them, allowing them to function beyond the range of voltaic fields for versatility. There are drawbacks - they typically have reduced individuality and occasionally lose the human spark of ingenuity, making them predictable. There are ways to address this, such as assigning those experiencing loss of self to the Eradicators, whose combat style is aggressively individualistic.  Clockwork soldiers are the most common troops, but they get accompanied by specialists of several kinds, including living priests. Though less hardy, they tend to be more individualistic and react more readily to the unexpected. Plus, they always have useful technical skills for field repairs. Every member of the Convergence understands their place, and their ability to see themselves as part of a greater whole means they don't need a complex chain of command. The priesthood has a hierarchy, but the army has no conventional officers. Instead, they just have soldiers, who obey, and unit prefects, who direct and answer to priest-commanders. Prefects oversee small units of the same discipline and rarely need to monitor the individual members of their unit, who can be expected to follow their trianing. Thus, their main job is ensuring synchronous action with the rest of the army. Prefects are chosen for combat experience and related expertise. Outside of permanent garrisons, it's not a permanent status, and some are made prefect only for specific missions requiring their unique skillset. In permanent garrisons or long missions, the senir-most veteran, or first prefect, of each discipline is responsble for coordinating larger groups and keeping the senior clergy informed.  Clockwork Angels are the newest in Cyrissist technolgoy, having managed true flight via Aurora's compact displacer drive, and now they are fast and deadly striek forces of constant motion. There aren't a lot of them, and they rely on speed and precision to surgically cripple enemy forces for the rest of the Convergence armies. The polynomial beams of individual angels are more than enough to kill most soldiers, but against a more dangerous foe they tend to combine their beams for exponentially more powerful energy blasts. Aurora personally selected the first clockwork angels from her most capable followers, and they have always worked closely to adapt to the new tactics their bodies provided. The form has gotten more volunteers lately, each hoping to serve under Aurora. Only veterans fully attuned to the control of vessels can meet her standards, and few of those have the mental dexterity to master flight.  The Eradicators appear to be terrifying, synchronized machines...until you face them. Most Convergence doctrine emphasizes unity in motion and purpose, but they also want independent thought and ingenuity, which can be easily froggten after dacdes of service. Those who are suffering loss of self are extracted from their vessels and placed in eraadicators, to be reminded of the importance of free thinking. On the battlefield, each has one job: find the enemy, smash them. Unlike most Convergence units, which act as a synchronized whole, eradictors engage the enemy individually, encouraged to aggress wildly. After one enemy falls, they use the momentum of their attack to drive ever deeper behind enemy lines. Their primary weapon is the protean buckler, which uses a spring-loaded mechanism within the shield to release bladed fighting claws, which frees the arms for greater mobility and accuracy even against nimble foes.  Obstructors are frontline troops, using their unity to achieve victory. When non-clergy perish or are otherwise deemed worthy of immortality, their souls go into essence chmabers. The obstructor is the first step in the evolution of forms, one of the most basic but perfected bodies. They are about the size and shape of a human, so they are well-suited to acclimating the soul its new nature. Once interred, they begin to train in the core tenets of the Convergence, becoming part of a larger machine. They must learn to anticipate and emulate the thoughts and actions of their fellow soldiers, using heavy shields that can lock together via ingenious clockwork to form an impenetrable barricade. While the so-called shield walls of human armies allow for missteps, and thus gaps, the barrier of the obstructors is perfect. Next time: More soldiers of the machine.
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Jul 3, 2015 19:37
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Those are some spiffy robots.AmiYumi posted:I just watched the episodes of the anime with her in them tonight while having dinner*, and she talked about living through "The Great Crash". Sooo...2600/5200, probably? I'm guesses she's the 2600, as that one was both Atari's biggest thit and the juggernaut of the pre-Crash days. (At least to my knowledge) quote:I legitimately forgot that even existed. Thank the best Zelda trilogy of all time for that. Doresh fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Jul 3, 2015 |
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Jul 3, 2015 19:50
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I gotta hand it to PP for coming up with an Ad Mech-like army long before GW did theirs. Although at the same time their addition into the setting feels kinda forced in a way.
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Jul 3, 2015 20:31
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Cooked Auto posted:I gotta hand it to PP for coming up with an Ad Mech-like army long before GW did theirs. Although at the same time their addition into the setting feels kinda forced in a way.
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Jul 3, 2015 20:36
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Man, that took some time to actually catch up with this thread. You're a machine Mors Rattus. Good job. The elves just can't catch a break can they? There always seems to be so much about how they're bad and wrong. The Cyriss faction has an interesting aesthetic but they're a bit boring besides that.
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Jul 3, 2015 20:39
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I just lost most of my last post to a crash, so that'll be a bit. There are downsides to clockwork, though. They lose their individuality a lot. They remain people but don't have the heroic drive, except for warcasters. Other groups have way more heroes. Besides that, they don't realize that other groups have soul manipulation powers, too. They have a limited supply of clockworks reliant on having their souls in jars and they're going to lose those if they have to go up against Cryx or the Skorne. Their main weakness is just not knowing about all that many other people. E: Also, they can't easily retrain soldiers if they lose someone permanently, since they don't like putting souls into clockwork until you get old or dead. Plus you slowly lose your human emotions but they don't really see that as a downside most of the time. Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Jul 3, 2015 |
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Jul 3, 2015 21:17
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Forces of Warmachine: Convergence of Cyriss An Optifex Directive is a team of optifex priests who go to battle to repair and field-modify clockwork vessels and vectors. They are low-ranking but very brave and are often recognized for the dangers they face, especially given they're still living. They have superior technical skill and tons of tools to repair vessels and vectors, or to recalibrate them in response to shifting combat needs. On top of optimizing mobility, they can rapidly recalibrate vector weapons with arcane tuning, briefly allowing them to function against incorporeal or otherwise supernaturally shielded foes. In battle, they must keep in constant motion around the warcaster and vectors, so they can always be ready.  Reciprocators are the next step up from obstructors. They tend to have been in service for decades before receiving the reciprocator chassis, because they must be masters of manipulating and controlling clockwork forms. They are exceptionally robust and larger compared to obstructors, so the transfer can be jarring. They act like springs, absorbing the energy of enemy attacks and then counterattcking in perfect unison with a fluid grace despite their weight. They can interlock their shields and easily use their protean polearms in either spear or halberd configuration for attack or defense. Freed of mortal flesh, they can handle even the harshet conditions without weakness, feeling only oneness for the machine.  Reductors are an alternative path, reserved for those who have been in clockwork vessels for long enough to adapt quickly and effeciently to dividing their attention, even mid-battle. They must be quick thinkers able to adjust trajectory settings on their swarms in an instant, advancing behind frontline troops to support them with clockwork swarms that avoid Convergence soldiers and bore into their foes. Their swarm projectors buzz constantly, filling the air with a lethal cloud of clockwork devices, each no more than inch and housing dozens of razorblades on springs. The mechanisms in the swarm follow programmed trajectories around obstacles to attack their targets, disassembling them in minutes. Only when the internal winding is expended do they fall, silent, to the ground.  Perforators utilize ranged weapons more in tune with the Convergence than unpredictble firearms using chaotic explosive powder. Instead, they have designed precise mechanisms for launching protean javelins, relying on gear-wound springs to fire the javelins with intense force. Those chosen as perforators must have the ability to calculate ballist trajectories on the fly with gret efficiency of motion. On the battlefield, they use the protean javelin launchers to overcome armored or resilient foes or to support the front line with precision sniper fire, both roles they're well-suited to.  The Transverse Enumerator is a priest trying to gain experience through battle before joining a clockwork vessel. They are creators and students of engineering, masters of maintaining all the weapons the Convergence uses. They comprehensively understand all Convergence designs and have spent time working in directives to gain leadership and battle experience. (Also, blowtorches.) Their intimate grasp of design specs and limitations lets them quickly adjust a unit's tactics even mid-battle, orechestrating the attacks of clockwork units with amazing precision.  ACcretion Servitors were meant for foundries and workshop assistance, but have proven useful in abttle. They are able to make quick repairs to any clockwork device semi-autonomously. Each servitor is managed by a clockwork computational engine that gives it the ability to perform complex tasks independently. Each directive is extremely simple, but when combined, they form a sophisticated response algorithm that determines the actions of the servitor. Servitors lack true will and any intelligence at all, but do have an array of mechanikal tools for temporary repairs in battle. They hover above the ground by manipulating ambient geomantic forces, resembling honeybees as they flit around repairing things. In a pinch, they can strip down enemy warjacks, but they're not exactly tough machines.  The Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex has a vital job that must be done by a living person: the deployment of algorithmic dispersion arrays, which increase the reach of warcasters in abttle. Their tuning staves and amplifier engines are too delicate to be left to servitors, so the optifex train diligently to keep the connection running. They must always be vigilant of their warcaster, positioning near the vectors to act as an arcane relay for the warcaster's will. By modulating the dispersion array's frequencies, they act as a transmitter to bolster the vectors or cast spells, and to ensure they remain effective they typically serve only under one warcaster for extended periods, working with them even off the field. It's not an easy job, and often confounding. You must maneuver through battle with heavy equipment, right in front of danger, but it is a necessary service. STill, it doesn't ensure advancement, so senior priests often take pity on them and rotate them out to other jobs after a while.  Attunement Servitors utilize one of the greatest alchemical creations of the Convergence: lumichem. It's an adhesive, chemiluminescent liquid that glows incandescently for a few hours after brief exposure to air, and it's easily made in bulk. Attunement servitors seek out high-value targets and use the lumichem to designate them for destruction. They are guided by complex encoded commands, flying between enemies to reach their targets. If they spot a foe that doesn't fit the preprogrammed priorities, they ignore them unless engaged. Once they find a target, they fire their ampule launchers, which hurl small glass globes of lumichem at the foe. Even if they miss, they expldoe with great force, spraying the stuff over a wide area. Enemies coated in lumichem are easy targets, highly visible and often impaired by the adhesive qualities of the stuff. Plus, all Convergence troops are trained to concentrate fire on anything marked with lumichem, so they often become dead very quickly. Next time: More Servitors!
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Jul 3, 2015 21:44
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FMguru posted:The guy who runs and funds The New Inquisition seems to be a failed Avatar. This was caused by Dermott Arkane as the opening salvo in his fight against the Mesenger for the seat: delivering a message that that stops an ascension is perfect for a man who wants to replace an avatar of vital truth and ascend as what is basically the Spin Doctor.
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Jul 3, 2015 21:47
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Nessus posted:Yeah, I can see the market they were aiming for (as well as, of course, the need to keep selling new models) but going from "industrial fantasy" to "brain uploading" does feel kind of weird. Were there any big downsides (other than the risk of eternal damnation because Cyriss don't give a gently caress about your soul) to the Cyrissoids? I was more peeved at the whole "It was Cyriss who was behind everything!" As a narrative tool that just feels really cheap in a sense. And then the whole planetoid thing suddenly popped up and things got a bit too goofy.
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Jul 3, 2015 21:59
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In fairness, you should probably keep in mind that the history of Cyriss was written by her own worshipers and is probably not actually correct about all these folks being influenced by Cyriss, in much the same way the Khadoran one is probably not objectively correct when it claims Khador was the sole reason the Rebellion succeeded and that Cygnar actively tried to undermine and betray them at all times.
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Jul 3, 2015 22:04
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wiegieman posted:This was caused by Dermott Arkane as the opening salvo in his fight against the Mesenger for the seat: delivering a message that that stops an ascension is perfect for a man who wants to replace an avatar of vital truth and ascend as what is basically the Spin Doctor. Which brings up another neat thing about the setting--unless your take on the Archetype puts some kind of new spin on that figure within the cultural zeitgeist, you basically can't replace that Archetype. Like, the book specifically talks about how the current Godwalker of the Savage is some guy Tarzaning it up in the Australian Outback somewhere, wrestling crocodiles with his bare hands and howling at the moon and what have you. He's never going to Ascend, because he's doing the exact same thing every Savage Avatar since the first one Ascended is: rejecting society and living like an animal in the wild places of the earth. In order to oust a sitting Archetype and take its place, you have to not only find a new, semiotically valid interpretation of that Archetype, you have to make your vision the thing most people immediately think of when they think of that Archetype.
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Jul 3, 2015 22:06
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Cooked Auto posted:I was more peeved at the whole "It was Cyriss who was behind everything!" As a narrative tool that just feels really cheap in a sense. And then the whole planetoid thing suddenly popped up and things got a bit too goofy. Well yeah, you're peeved. You learned all the Cyriss secrets without the proper training. It's like learning about Xenu before achieving OTS VI, you just shouldn't do it because your brain isn't ready.
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Jul 3, 2015 22:23
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Isn't Xenu from OT 3?
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Jul 3, 2015 22:28
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hectorgrey posted:Isn't Xenu from OT 3? The first Xenu, yeah. The decoy one.
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Jul 3, 2015 22:29
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Mors Rattus posted:In fairness, you should probably keep in mind that the history of Cyriss was written by her own worshipers and is probably not actually correct about all these folks being influenced by Cyriss, in much the same way the Khadoran one is probably not objectively correct when it claims Khador was the sole reason the Rebellion succeeded and that Cygnar actively tried to undermine and betray them at all times. True but it's still a really boring way of doing it. I mean the Khadoran one seems rather specific to the Rebellion while the Convergence one is just related to pretty much everything.
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Jul 3, 2015 23:32
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Granted so. They get really interesting tactics, though, given the specialized nature of all their units. Forces of Warmachine: Convergence of Cyriss  The Elimination Servitor operates on a single main directive: hunt down and kill everyone not on its allies list. They were initially designed as guards, but the recent change in priorities has led to them being used offensively. They're cheap and easy to make, but are a serious threat. They use sophisticated visual sensors and response algorithms to scan battlefields and pick targets out, using more conditional subroutines than any other servitor type. They must know when to engage in self-preservation and when not to, after all, and their programming evaluates targets based on exacting criteria, as they often have limited guidance. Once a target is acquired, the servitor advances in a series of precise, measured movements and brings its spike projector to bear. It, like all Convergence guns, doesn't use gunpowder, but a gear-wound spring that shoots a heavy iron spike. It deals modest but reiiable damage to machines, and is more effective on living beings. Several elimination servitors together can quickly kill quite a lot of people.  The Enigma Foundry is a vessel designed to protect the souls of the faithful. In more peaceful times, the danger to an essence chambter was rare, but now, the chance of true death has greatly increased. While the Convergence exists across Immoren, its numbers are low compared to a nation, and members carry decades or centuries of valuable knowledge which can't easily be replaced. Damaged clockwork can be rebuilt, but a suil cannot. The enigma foundry was developed to help ensure eternal life. It's a specialized clockwork body animated by a senior priest with proven skill in making clockwork vessels. They are entrusted with the job of reclaiming and safeguarding the souls of those fallin in battle. They are covered in tools that allow the foundry to reconstruct fallen vessels quickly using salvaged parts, installing essence chambers collected from the fallen. The ability to protect these warriors and return them to the fight is an immense advantage, as the Convergence is routinely outnumbered. The importance of enigma foundries makes them essential to most Convergence tactics. In rare instances where they must retreat, the foundries are first to evacuate, to safeguard the souls they collect.  Reflex Servitors are precise and deadly in their function, the perfect representation of efficiency. They were originally a defense of last resort, and use the same computational engine and geomantic drive of other servitors, but to a very different imperative. They are programmed to kill enemies by self-destruction. They do not sacrifice themselves randomly, and maintain self-preservation directives until other measures have failed or their success is virtually assured. They are more like a predator than a mine. The behavior took a lot of modifications to standard response algorithms, including adding in restraint to avoid striking until the enemy is most exposed. The drive was calibrated to store residual kinetic energy, allowing sudden bursts of speed that make the servitor very good at getting where it has to go for its job. The probability mine in its core does not function with any crude expplosive, instead relying on stored potential energy. At the right command from the computational engine, it will suddenly burst into countless pieces of shrapnel, designed to maximize transference of kinetic energy in a large, lethal blast zone.  The Steelsoul Protector is a clockwork frame designed as a bodyguard, ready to place itself in danger to protect its charge. They endlessly refine their protective instincts and reflexes to most effectively intercept blows. Their reactions must be instant ,driven by training and superior perception. Their entire body is designed to shield the priests of Cyriss, light enough to move very quickly but shockingly durable. They are made of resilient steel alloys backed with flexible composites, and have enough strength use the giant iron glaive they are given to deflect blows and launch counterattacks. They are among the most respected and vigilant Convergence warriors, drawn only from the most perceptive of the living, seasoned veterans who understand the Convergence battle doctrines and tactics. Only the most worthy ever get to become steelsoul protectors.  The Transfinite Emergence Projector is a weapon of immense sophistication, towering over even the vectors. It moves across the battlefield with the assistance of its Permutation Servitors, which flit about in patterns meant to optimize its firing sequence. They move into configuration and hover in place as focal lenses for the weapon's potent energy beam. While now used as a battle engine (a new type of unit introduced in another book for the other factions, basically a giant siege engine), it was originally made for another purpose: demolition of unneeded structures around an area where a nexus had to be built. The aperture pulse of the machine can quickly clear a site of buildings...and of soldiers. The machines do not operate using interface nodes or souls. Instead, they are semi-autonomous, rather like the servitors, relying on a very sophisticated calculation engine to coordinate smoothly with the permutation servitors and use its energies. The permutation servitors use computational algorithms to determine focal positioning, modulating the aperture pulse with pinpoint accuracy, terrifying intensity or wide-area saturation as required. They also serve as dispensable shields, propelling themselves around similar to reflex servitors in order to intercept threats. Each emergence projector has an assembly plant within its immense form to produce new servitors as needed, ejecting them from two lateral bays to fly into formation for the next salvo. The End. So, what's next? Cygnar, Khador, Cryx, Protectorate of Menoth, Trollbloods, Skorne, Circle Orboros, Legion of Everblight, Mercenaries or Minions?
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Jul 3, 2015 23:45
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Minions, let's give the people their pigs and voodoo gators.
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Jul 4, 2015 00:33
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That elimination servitor is the evilest-looking thing, goddamn. Also it must cost a fortune to supply ammunition for all of these gear-and-spring guns, especially considering the clockwork smart missile technology at play here.
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Jul 4, 2015 01:28
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Don't forget the Reflex servitor which is a bomb with a spring powered IFF system, and also uses the potential energy of springs to explode, in a way that isn't just hurling springs everywhere.
Kurieg fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Jul 4, 2015 |
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Jul 4, 2015 01:39
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Coily the Spring Sprite is the true master of Cyriss.
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Jul 4, 2015 01:48
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Hey now! Springs and also gears and levers.
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Jul 4, 2015 02:07
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Kurieg posted:Don't forget the Reflex servitor which is a bomb with a spring powered IFF system, and also uses the potential energy of springs to explode, in a way that isn't just hurling springs everywhere. Reminds me of that Yahtzee line about Bioshock: “How exactly does a steam-powered gun turret differentiate between friend and foe? I wasn't aware that boiled water could form allegiances.”
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Jul 4, 2015 02:44
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The answer is
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Jul 4, 2015 06:03
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I vote Cygnar because I am a very boring person.
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Jul 4, 2015 07:47
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Green Intern posted:That elimination servitor is the evilest-looking thing, goddamn. It's free. They have scrap collecting servitors and vectors, and the process of constructing ammunition is a religious thing, so tons of their acolytes and lesser engineers spend all day doing it as an act of prayer.
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Jul 4, 2015 08:20
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Minions now, then Cygnar. Forces of Hordes: Minions  The Minions are those that seek profit from war, or which seek allies in trade for supplies or protection, or who just get enslaved. Whatever their motivation, they're an unknown to most armies, able to catch enemies offguard. They are very diverse, and they have started to gather their own banners. The farrow of the Thornfall Alliance have gotten ahold of gns and, under the leadership of Lord Carver, they are a terrifying army of brute force and patchwork monsters. The gatormen of the Blindwater Congregation mix strength and subtlety, taking advantage of the swamps and waterways to launch deadly ambushes at the direction of Bloody Barnabas.  This is presented as omniscient narration, so in theory it's not slanted. There are countless small, unaffiliated groups out in the forests and deserts. They lack the numbers or agendas of their neighbors, but have their own needs. Many are swept up in conflicts, either by choice or force, and a few can even bargain with the great powers on their own terms. Survival often requires alliance, often by shared interest. Some farrow tribes have cultural ties to trollkin kriels. More commonly, these alliances last only as long as a threat is in place, such as when the gobbers and farrow join the Wolves of Orboros to get railway workers from Khador out of the Blackwood Forest. More frequently, they may find their neighbors need their specialized knowledge or skills, bratering service for future promises. Few of these groups use coin, so these trades are most often for food, shelter or territory. Still, coercion is the most frequent way these 'alliances' are made. Outright enslavement just isn't rare - the farrow love to do it to each other. Dealing with these groups is risky at best, but sometimes, an exceptional individual can manage it, building up a solid reputation. These adventurers may be motivated by sport or exploration. It's safer to cross the wilderness with an army, and allies may allow access to normally impossible areas, gathering vital intelligence on other foes. In some cases, they may just want to form relationships with the wild factions. There are no codes or standard contracts in the wilds, unlike the Iron Kingdoms' mercenaries. Free agents can offer their expertise to form relationships and contacts, if they're familiar with the faction's methods and expectations. It all comes down to being useful to each other and respect. Few free agents have that respect from the factions, and they must be cautions to ensure their allies have reason to leave them free and healthy. The trollkin kriels are often willing to deal with their neighbors equitably. They are the most honorable and forthright of the fringe factions, but in many regions the kriels are isolated and have no higher authority, so deals with one kriel often fail to carry over to the others. This has started to change under leaders like Madrak Ironhide, Hoarluk Doomshaper and Grissel Bloodsong, but not even these arrangements are always recognized. Some longstanding friends and alleys, like Professor Pendrake or Alten Ashley, have earned reputations giving them ready access to kriels across an area. Due to their occasional contact with more 'civilized' nations, the trollkin are also one of the few groups able to pay with coin. It's not common, but some bounty hunters or other adventurers have found employment with the kriels using standard mercenary contracts. More commonly, though, they make alliance via mutual protection or access to food and supplies. Arrangements for grain or shelter over winter are common between the kriels and some farrow tribes, particularly in areas threatened by human armies or skorne slavers. Not all trollkin are above bullying others into their cause, however. Even the most peaceful value their kin over outsiders, and when threeatened, they may intimidate groups like the bog trogs into service, especially if they're near marshy terrain or other areas the trogs would have an advantage. This can cause longterm problems, though, as those pressed into service may hold resentments. Both bog trogs and farrow have been known to raid villages they think dealt unfairly with them, and even a large and well-defended village will have problems if raided constantly. Wise elders prefer negotiation. The Circle Orboros count many tribes as vassals and temporary allies, and they've sought relationships with practically every group in the wilds. Over the centuries, they have befriended those they want service from, usually in a one-sided manner - the allies are required to fight as payment for services generations before. The druids have a longstanding tradition of taking advantage of tribal religious beliefs, particularly those involving the Devourer Wurm. Some of these groups believe the blackclads are emissaries of their god and willingly serve. Others are offered nebulous rewards, strung along for centuries by vague promises. The nature of these agreements varies a lot by regional overseer and potent, and some honor their promises while others are more manipulative. Some of the more abused groups do break free, but most don't, as the blackclads have a fearsome reputation. Tribal leaders just learn to be more careful in the future. Even their oldest allies are disposable weapons, to them. They are not shy about intimidating or forcing people to obey, and those that work with them short-term typically understand that they're seen as expendable. Still, they can offer a lot - they have deep knowledge of the world and its secrets, and may share some of the less guarded knowledge in return for service. They are sometimes reluctant to pay their debts, but are willing to lend strength to allies that serve well, protecting isolated villages or tribes from their neighbors. Druids occasionally even give supernatural assistance in growing crops or driving off predators, or even encouraging game to repopulate an area or divert streams to provide water in drought. The skorne largely do not bargain or ally - they enslave and kill. Since their arrival, they have subjugated various tribes of farrow, gatormen and other species. Those they defeat join the Skorne Empire by force and are used as labor and fodder in their conquest. Almost every race, tribe and species on the continent have served under their whips. As their armies are stretched thin, they increasingly rely on slaves to fill gaps in their tactics. Some individuals of extraordinary qualities can make deals with the skorne. It's more likely among skorne cohorts at the edge of their influence, who need the aid of locals with specialized knowledge. The leading officers of the Army of the Western Reaches have learned to rely on some people, like ex-Cygnaran ranger Saxon Orrik, who has proved his skill and ability by guiding them across the Blodostone Desert and remains a local contact and scout. He's human, so he's never fully trusted, but his insight into human armies and th region have earned him contacts among many ranking skorne. Orrik survived the overthrow of Vinter Raelthrone with his contacts intact, and it's not uncommon for other individuals who want to work with the skorne to seek him out as an intermediary, which he rather enjoys. The Legion of Everblight do not make alliances. What they need, they take. Even those that live long enough to be forced to fight for them will almost invariably be sacrificed, their blood used to fill the spawning vessels. Those who prove useful may be spared, but given the harsh pace of the Legion and the poor treatment they give to slaves, few of them survive long campaigns. Exceptions are rare, and could be abandoned or murdered the moment Everblight changes his mind. Most who do endure their slavery are at the bottom of the Legion hierarchy. Prolonged exposure to the blight may begin to warp them in body and mind. This secondhand blight does not give the benefits of Everblight's direct manipulation, but often twists their flesh, and it's not uncommon for slaves to grow the same scales, spikes and talons as the Nyss and ogrun. The Legion is more accepted of those with these blight marks, and those who bear them often realize that with them, there is no one else who would take them in if they escaped. Their bodies are marked by Everblight, and their souls will soon follow.  A Feralgeist is a creature that lurks in the shadows, their ghostly green forms drifting through trees and stones towards the scent of death. They can be found serving the Circle Orboros, the Legion of Everblight, the Skorne and the Trollbloods alike. They are insubstantial beings, hungry to inhabit flesh and walk as the living. They can't control living bodies, so they instea animate the carcasses of recently dead beasts in a mockery of life. In this guise, they are a threat to anyone nearby, lashing out with the claws and fangs of the creatures they inhabit, but it is no true life. These borrowed bodies are flimsy, crumbling from decay, and the feralgeists must soon seek new hosts. Most who have seen them believe they are ghosts, but the Circle druids claim they are naturally occurring spirits drawn to death, never alive in the first place. They are vengeful manifestations of nature that attack intruders in the wild places. They haunt the firnges of battle and follow warbeasts to war, as though they can sense the violence to come and the vessels they'll soon inhabit. The aspect that compels them towards dead beasts and gives them control of vorpses also makes the mvulnerable to warlocks, who can bind them into service by an act of will.  A Thrullg can sometimes be found among the Circle, Legion, Skorne or Trollbloods. The thrullg have long been known to scholars are rare creatures that feed on mechanika and sorcery. They prefer urban sewers, but have been seen in rising numbers on the battlefields, lured out and potentially useful as living weapons. They are vicious and unpredictable, unable to be tamed or even really controlled. They must be baited to the field with trinkets or the scent of sorcery, then pointed at the warlocks, arcanists and warjacks of the foe, who are irresistable prey. Even a single thrullg is valuable, if you're willing to risk it, as they invariably seek the foe's most powerful spellcasters with an unrelenting hunger. When they find prey, they wrap their tentacles around the victim and suck the essence of their occult power out of them while clawing at their flesh. Their very presence weakens the magic of those nearby and causes terrible agony.  Brun Cragback is a fearless Rhul loner, always accompanied by his ally, Lug. They will work for the Searforge Commission, the Circle Orboros or the Trollbloods. He'd rather kill than talk to most, and he always carries a gun and axe, fearing nothing as long as his bear is with him. Before he became a recluse, he served a small dwarf clan in the peaks near Khador, feuding with Skirov settlers who trespassed in their territory. It's hard to say where Khador ends and Rhul begins, which has led to border conflicts for decades, usually small and inconsequential - an almost respectable tradition, really. Brun decided to settle things once and for all, without consulting his kin. He set out for the human camp, noting that they hadn't even bothered with sentries. He killed them all, and was surprised when his kinfolk were horrified at how far he had gone. Fearful that they'd be blamed if the Moot became involved, they planned to exile Brun and strip him of his clan name. He decided not to wait, and he just left. The only thing he likes more than brawls is exploring. He has never felt the urge to settle, and as soon as he thinks he understands a place, he moves on. He has vowed never to own more than he and his pack mule can carry, and he remembers every location he's ever visited perfectly. His travels have taken him from Khador and Llael even to the Wyrmwalls of Cygnar, working as a guide or escort as needed. He prefers not to work as a mercenary but will periodically take jobs from the Searforge Commission when his supplies or funds run low. He prefers to avoid large communities, so sometimes they have to track him down, but they tend to appreciate his avoidance of towns given his inseperable bond with a giant bear and his disdain for bathing. Brun has spent a good deal of time among the trollkin kriels and has contacts among the blackclads, and is willing to fight alongside them. His sour disposition is a small price to pay for his ferocity. Brun earned a name for himself by skill at arms, but his reputation is greatly enhanced by the giant armored bear that always tag along with him. Its earth-shattering roars and terrifying claws are as infamous as Brun himself. Still, Lug is not actually murderous, for the most part - he's a simple-minded beast who likes to play rough. Brun Cragback never coerced or trained Lug. Rather, the bear just likes to run around surrounded by humans, swatting at everything he can reach. He has no real sense of morality, oblivious to the damage he causes in battle as long as he can play. The only hint of sorrow he demonstrates is after battle, when Lug will paw at bodies, as though urging them to stand up and play more. Brun claims not to know how long he's been with Lug, but probably less than a decade. He doesn't often tell stories, but he loves the tale of how he and the bear came to travel together. Brun found a white bear while hunting in Nyss territory, and shot at it in the hopes of getting a nice thick pelt for the winter. He was in the middle of skinning the bear when he heard something roar and run up. In a moment of inspiration, Brun wrapped himself in the hide and stood to face the newcomer. It was a half-grown but already dangerous bear cub, which slid to a confused stop in front of Brun and his mother's hide. At last, it sat back, took some food from Brun and ate. Lug has followed Brun ever since. Burn is convinced that Lug thinks he's his mother, so he keeps wearing the improvised cloak. Whether Lug would actually stop recognizing him if he took it off seems unlikely, but Brun prefers to err on the side of caution. While Brun regularly curses out Lug, the bond between them is obvious. Brun claims Lug is the stupidest bear ever, but he's definitely got cunning. Brun has spent a lot of his money on outfitting Lug for war, with special and expensive barding from a master smith from Skirov, and the bear seems to be proud of the armor. Brun usually only puts it on him when he thinks battle is coming, and Lug gets very excited about it. Those who've seen them after battle confirm that Brun always feeds Lug first, even if it means going hungry. The dwarf claims it's just self-preservation, denying any affection. Together, they walk right into danger with casual disregard. Brun ignores questions about Lug, claiming he has no idea why the 'confounded animal' follows him, but their power is undeniable. They've faced Khadorans, Nyss (both blighted and normal) and bandits, and recently headed south into the Cygnaran mountains after getting hired by the Searforge as an escort to supply shipments. This was an ordeal requiring them to fight through both Llael and the Thornwood to reach dwarven conclaves at Orven and Ironhead. In the process, they renewed contact with the trollkin in the Wyrmwalls and the druids of the Circle, who both now know they can hire Brun and Lug. Nothing fazes them, and they will fight anything. Brun knows a single spell, which enhances his defense, while Lug provides an offensive animus to shove enemies around with his bear hands. Next time: Yeah, the minor caster/beast pairs get a LOT of text.
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Jul 4, 2015 17:18
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Forces of Hordes: Minions Gudrun the Wanderer knows that an oath taken too lightly is a curse. Now, he'll work for Cryx, Cygnar, Khador, the Circle Orboros, the Legion of Everblight, Skorne or the Trollbloods. He can trace all of his dark destiny to one oath given when he was too young to know better. The years have destroyed his pride and self-worth, leaving only blood. The screams echo even when he is awake now, and to escape them, he drinks, heading into battle blind stinking drunk. Some believe he's too drunk to fight as he once did, but those doubts vanish when he wields his immense battle glaive with the force to cut men in half. His face shows only emptiness in victory, not triumph, save for those few times when he is consumed by berserker fury. Those who have fought beside him say he fights as if inviting death. He learned to fight among the Ogrun of the Glass Peaks in Rhul. He chose not to spend years traveling and learning as a bokur before choosing a korune, a lord to serve. He was impatient, and sought out the dwarf Clan Lord Galos Hergord, whom the ogrun of his village spoke of in hused tones. Hugord ruled several clans and was very rich, and Gudrun swore himself to serve Hegord, his korune. Had he asked more questions, he might have learned of the dwarf's penchant for feuding. Hegord had long wanted to exterminate the Sigvar clan, and ignoring all laws of the Moot of the Hundred Houses and the sacred Edicts of the Codex, he led a night raid that became a slaughter. Gudrun could only obey, murdering innocent and child alike alongside the Sigvar warriors. Clan Hegord was outlawed, crushed by the Mootguard. Galos Hegord and most of his followers were slain, and Gudrun was only spared because the Moot Judges knew the ogrun was bound to obey his korune. They branded Gudrun's head and exiled him from Rhul forever. Some say the deaths on his hands have cursed him, keeping him for ever escaping his guilt save through death. Now, he wanders without a home, drinking and selling his services to anyone who will pay him to kill. He seeks his own death in battle, but he has endured blows that should kill him twice over without falling. He hates himself, but he is a skilled and valued killer.  Dahlia Hallyr and her companion Skarath are an enigma, even for an elf. They will work for the Retribution of Scyrah, the Circle Orboros or the Trollbloods. Dahlia is Iosan, but has long been an outsider to her people, refusing to settle anywhere in Immoren. She wields sorcerous magic through her music, entrancing those who listen to her flute. Her family, the Hallyr line, traces back to Lyoss, before the split between Nyss and Iosan, and even today, both peoples have the Hallyr name. She was raised by aflluent parents in Iryss, and was exceptional from a young age both for talent and refusal to obey her elders. Her fascination with music was not strange in her family, but she confounded all of her tutors, ignoring them entirely and walking off mid-lesson to talk to invisible friends. Some thought she might have inherited the less helpful Hallyr insanity. Still, there was a market for talented artists in Iryss and Shyrr, decadent nobles seeking idle diversions. Dahlia could have become rich by her melodies, but chose instead to leave Ios entirely, and her current goals are unknown. She has no real friends, and her only constant has been a desire to travel and perfect her music. Little has suggested she should be able to endure the wilds of Immoren, but she has proven an able survivor, using her musical magic to stay safe. Some say her madness protects her. She has no aversion to violence or war, and even seems to seek it out to watch, using it to texture her music. For years, Dahlia has used her music to gather guardians to help protect herself, and she is particularly fond of giant tatzylwurms. They are graceful and deadly serpentine beasts that respond to her music as if born to do so. She thinks of battle as a dance, and enjoys the interplay of blade and snake, as if it were a performance. Many have believed this proof of her insanity, but she just says they don't understand her vision. The tatzylwurm Skarath has served her for seven years, developing a refined and harmonious connection. She holds it in special esteem, speaking to it lovingly and playing songs just to see it dance. She can be indulgent, not always inclined to keep it from striking prey, even if that prey is an innocent traveler. She sometimes does restrain her serpent from consuming its meal so they can serve as a paralyzed, captive audience to her music, though. To its victims, Skarath is a horror, a giant pale tatyzlwurm that embodies its species' cunning and savagery. Tatzylwurms are some of the most monstrous predators in Immoren, and Skarath is no exception. The pale variety of wurm is most aggerssive and prone to pounce on anything threatening, even if not hungry. Even trolls avoid the pale tatyzlwurms. Their poison paralyzes prey and their acid can melt flesh. They prefer to digest foes alive over hours. Dahlia has sold her services to several groups over time, including the Circle Orboros and several trollkin kriels. She has visited Circle leaders and trollkin elders, claiming no love for human cities and a hatred for the sound of human magic, which jars her senses like breaking glass. She has shown no problems fighting for causes not her own, but prefers to let Skarath do the killing. Whether she has a plan or just whims is something only she knows. Some arcanists serving the Retribution believe her latent power is not yet fully awakened, and they hope to make use of her in the coming wars. Skarath's animus grants serpentine speed in striking to its allies.  Saxon Orrik will hire out to Cryx, Khador, the Protectorate of Menoth, the Circle Orboros, Skorne or the Trollbloods. His cruelty is as legendary as his mastery of the wilderness, and he sees humans as no more than animals. Long years in the desert surrounded by skorne have only reinforced these beliefs. He began as a Cygnaran scout under Vinter Raelthorne III, befriending Prince Vinter IV with a shared pragmatic bloodthirst while serving as a ranger under the prince. His career ended abruptly after he and some mercenaries under his command slaughtered hundreds of Khadoran villagers settled too close to Cygnar. A ranger, Viktor Pendrake, felt morally obligated to report his mentor, and the incident soon became a political embarrassment. Vinter III was harsh but law-abidiing, and he was obligated to act, as the law forbade murder of civilians. Orrik was dishonorably discharged and sentenced to twenty years in prison. He endured several years before escaping, surviving on the run for months before being betrayed to the authorities. Then, he was sentenced to life, and there was even talk of sending him to Bloodshore Island. However, when Vinter IV was crowned, Orrik was shocked to find he was remembered and released, made into a scout of the Inquisition. His gratitude made him loyal even beyond the Lion's Coup, for without Vinter IV he'd have died in prison. He was among the inquisitors who tried to free Vinter IV after the coup, and he survived on the fringes after Vinter's escape, hiding his identity until he got a coded message from Vinter saying that he'd conquered an unknown species, and that Orrik should pass on instructions to Head Inquisitor Sirac and then rejoin Vinter in the east. Saxon survived the grueling trek across the badlands without even a balloon, learning to hunt whatever survived there for food and water. By the time he reached the skorne, he was a master of the Blodstone Desert, the perfect guide. He has long since forgotten any life but the desert, which is now his home. He trained the skorne to cross it, and has led the way many times. He's got contacts among many groups who will hire him for his mastery of the terrain, and his reputation is now rather separate from that of Vinter's. Most neither know nor care about any loyalties he might have.  Viktor Pendrake, Professor of the Department of Extraordinary Zoology at Corvis University, works for Cygnar and can be fielded by them. However, he will also hire out to the Circle Orboros or Trollbloods...but will never work in the same force as Saxon Orrik. He is a legend, a chair of his department for his understanding of wild species. He was a Cygnaran army scout, trained by Saxon Orrik, but he was rewarded for reporting his mentor's atrocities, rising through the ranks. He found that he didn't like border patrol, but served quite well anyway, leading a company rangers by age 20. He ran recon past the Khadoran border, but his company was ambushed and slaughtered. Only Pendrake survived, seeking refuge among the pygmy trolls and going so far as to disguise himself as one of them - a ruse which worked and sparked his love of the wilderness creatures. He made it back to civilization with his vital intelligence, then retired to Corvis University, whereh e became an adventuring scholar, which is what he's truly famous for. He has been close to death many times, recording his encounters in his multivolume Monsternomicon. After 603 AR and his witnessing of the skorne invasion and attack on Corvis, he became one of the few scholars to study them, seeing the threat they represented and offering his services to Cygnar as an expert on them and the Bloodstone Marches. While investigating skorne attacks on local trollkin, he was ambushed, and his friend Quimut nearly died, while Pendrake was taken captive to the Abyssal Fortress. There, he found that Vinter Raelthorne and Saxon Orrik were leading an army west, and Vinter shipped him east to document the Skorne Empire as porpaganda. After a long ordeal, Pendrake escaped to the west with new insight on the skorne. He has put aside scholarly pursuits, using his lore and alliances to help Cygnar. He can go where the military cannot, and he is glad to help fight the skorne any way he can.  Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress will work with Cygnar, the Retribution of Scyrah, the Circle Orboros or the Trollbloods, but will not work alongside any ally of the Legion of Everblight or any soldier bearing dragonblight. She has seen her perople destroyed, seen the despair of the survivors and the horror of the Legion of Everblight, and she has vowed to use all her power to fight them. She was not always like that. Her fame was earned as one of the few Nyss to head south in search of adventure, often the first Nyss many humans ever saw. Her beauty and intellect scared many, as did her massive claymore. She eventually found friends, and by her own species' standards she's just entering the prime of her life, but has experience few Nyss ever get. She is not fully formally trained, but is a sorceress of great skill. She might have been content traveling, had she not heard that her homeland was utterly destroyed by Everblight. Now, she feels guilty over her absence, though in calmer moments she recognizes that she'd not have the fighting skills she does if not for her travels. She came home too late to help the Nyss, finding only the dead and burned outposts. This has sparked her wrath, and she went to hunt down the nearest Legion forces. Her friends fought beside her in the Nyschatha Mountains, but they all died. She has headed south to find new allies, becoming acquainted with the refugee Nyss in Khador, like Cylena Raefyll, and the Iosan mage hunter Eiryss. She was among the first to learn the fate of Nyssor, and now she faces both the Legion of Everblight and the Khadoran Greylords in the name of rescuing her god.  The swamps and bayous of Immoren are full of dangers, and they are the domain of the reptilian species known as gatormen. They are tough, powerful and skilled hunters that have learned to thrive in these swamps. They appear to be savage beasts, but in truth they have a craftiness and intellect to match any civilized species, and they are very patient and cunning. Gatormen can be violent and bloodthirsty, but are often willing to trade if approached with respect and deference. In fact, some gatormen have peaceful relations with neighboring trollkin and humans. However, riled gatorment are implacable foes, especially in their native habitat, and those that anger a tribe must live in fear of every log and tree. Most gatormen live in small tribes, no more than a few dozen adults at most. All adults are capable foes, and there is very little difference between male and female in size or power. Each tribe is led by a bokor, part priest and part mystic, who calls on the power of Kossk, the alligator god of the gatormen, along with the dark spirits of the marshes. As often as not, the spirits they call on are those enslaved at the time of death or caught in the aftermath of battle before they could pass to Urcaen. The bokors rely on their own rites and skull totems to facilitate this, using bone tools. Other long-dead allies under their control are ancient natural spirits that have existed in the swamps for millenia. They revere these spirits as ancestors, and sometimes those ancestral spirits refuse to depart their lands, remaining violently territorial. The stagnant swamp preserves them, as well as certain reptilian beasts that grow massively over the centuries by eating the spiritual essence of the dead. Bokors can call on those spirits by blood sacrifice, using them to curse foes or empower allies.  Despite their immense power as warriors, the gatormen are largely uninvolved in the wars of Immoren, focusing on fighting other swamp creatures, mostly the bog trogs. Bog trogs are fishlike humanoids skilled in ambush and assassination, and the two races have fought over swarmp resources for longer than either can recall. However, the gatormen have an advantage over the bog trogs most of the time, as the bog trogs are weaker individually and lack potent leaders. Plus, some gatormen are warlocks, able to command terrible warbeasts, which has further cemented their swamp dominance, and usually the bog trogs are subjugated or driven out. Gatormen tribes are traditionally highly independent and uncooperative with each other, instead fighting over food when supplies get scarce. Generally, each village is led by the most fearsome bokor, but certain powerful bokors can unite multiple tribes into small fiefs. Gatorman warriors are some of the most terrifying combatants in Immoren. The average gatorman is over seven feet tall and covered in scaly armor. Besides their powerful jaws, claws and tails, they often wield immense cutting or smashing weapons, able to reduce warjacks to scrap in minutes or take out entire platoons. They are highly protective of their kills, and it is seen as immensely disrespectful to eat the kill of another, inating lethal retaliation or a blood feud. The gatormen are the heart of any bokor's warriors, but bog trogs are also often pressed into service, on pain of being eaten. Bog trogs and gatormen actually complement each other's skills ell, as the bog trogs bring numbers and subtlety that the gators often lack, while the gatormen have strength and toughness that the bog trogs do not. Swamp gobbers are also often found alongside the gatormen. They aren't seen as threats and are rarely foes to either gatorman or bog trog, willingly working for the bokors and warlocks for food and protection. Occasionally, the bokors will capture and enslave other creatures, such as thrullgs or feralgeists, and a number of the exotic, froglike croaks of the swamps and jungles to the distant east have recently sought protection, offering their services to bokors. They originate from southern islands owned by the skorne, who captured them and brought them west. The escapees are far from home and seem to revere the gatormen. What truly makes gatormen potent, however, is their command of the beasts of the swamp. Gatorman warlocks can call on reptilian warbeasts as powerful as any found in the armies of Immoren. The gatormen have an affinity for these creatures, calling on them with bestial instincts. Thge bokors claim this is a gift of Kossk itself, offering its children command of the creatures that resemble it. The gatormen are reclusive, but will help outsiders if compensated. Many bokors are shrewd negotiators, and htey prefer payment in food or metal weapons, as they have few of their own, or the right to take the dead and their belongings. Gatormen value personal possessions, either as gifts or trophies, often believing that they impart their owners' vitality and cunning. Despite the contact with outsiders it brings, their mercenary work has caused little change to gatorman culture. Those who leave to fight often return home with reasures and curiosities, but they rarely try to adopt the engineering and advances of other cultures, remaining as they have been for millenia. Next time: The Blindwater Congregation
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Jul 4, 2015 19:05
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Forces of Hordes: Minions The swamp does not change quickly, and for millenia the gatormen have resisted any changes in their way of life. Now, though, an ambitious few threaten to alter their history forever. The gatorman warlock and bokor Bloody Barnabas has united several tribes around Blindwater Lake and Bloodsmeath Marsh. He has been around for centuries, and over time, has conquered many tribes in Blindwater and beyond. He aspires to one simple thing: godhood, to become a mightier immortal horror than even Kossk. To do this, he wants an army of gatormen, bog trogs and other swamp creatures to demonstrate his greatness such that they will worship him. He intends to lead his army in conquest until, soaked in the blood of thousands, he can push his followers to one final battle. He hopes that when he finally dies in battle, the energy of the deaths caused in his name and the adoration of his servants will propel him to apotheosis. Barnabas is a feared and respected leader, but he has little patience for details. This has given opportunity to the warlock known as Calaban the Grave Walker to take care of those things which Barnabas has no interest in. CAlaban is a potent gatorman bokor, a calculating and pragmatic one rather than ambitious. He knows more of gatorman magic and ritual than anyone, able to call forth ancient and potent spirits, but he is no fool. He has no plan to die for Barnabas, and is using the war host for his own goals. Those goals are pragmatic, not mystical. Calaban is an intelligent and progressive gatorman, and what he wants is to unite his people beyond a collection of tribes. He sees the work of Barnabas in Blindwater as the first step towards a real civilization, one that rules the swamps, making all who enter pay tribute or be eaten. Calaban plans to use Barnabas as long as he can to bring the gatormen together, and when he finally does die in a blaze of carnage, Calaban will find another leader to take his place. The Bloodsmeath has many bog trog tribes, but Barnabas utterly eradicated the dominant tribe. However, Calaban stopped it from becoming utter genocide, offering the bog trogs a deal: serve, and don't die. They had no real choice. Calaban makes heavy use of their stealth and ambush tactics in Bloodsmeath and beyond. Barnabas has been, at Calaban's direction, gatehring warriors fro mthe Marchfells and Fenn Marsh, which he plans to use to spread word of his deeds across Immoren. Having the two most potent warlocks of the gatormen working together has empowered the Blindwater Congregation massively, allowing them to call forth massive warbeasts from the swamps and bogs, many never before seen by humans outside of myth. The gatormen of Blindwater have finally awoken to conquest and ambition, and if Barnabas and Calaban have their way, the swamps of Immoren will soon send forth a tide of blood, and those that once employed the gatormen in battle will fall beneath their jaws.  Bloody Barnabas will work for the Circle Orboros, the Legion of Everblight, Skorne or the Trollbloods. Or himself. Gatormen do not die of old age and rarely get sick. Their lives end in violence, when their rivals or nearby monsters eat them. Bloody Barnabas is the oldest of all gatormen in Immoren, and his name is not just death, but utter annihilation. The gatormen do not respect age, just power, and he controls his tribe by ruthlessness and apparent invincibility. They revere and fear him as much for as his mad resolve as his victories, and he speaks with a calm and serene confidence born of fearlessness and a knowledge that he is superior to literally all other life. Those who mistake his serenity for weakness or senility learn their mistake when he lashes out to destroy any he deems traitor. He may be alloof, but he notices everything. At the height of his power, Barnabas was never defeated, but his age has finally started to haunt him. He fears that his body will fail, and this has pushed him to larger ambitions. He intends to become a god, and nothing else matters to him now. He believes his ascension means more than being a legend - he must be worshipped. He will assemble all the gatormen under his banner, then lead them to a great battle, and at the peak of the slaughter, he will feast on the energy of death. This, combined with the reverence of his people, will fuel his apotheosis. It will take time, effort and lots of blood, as there are many gatormen to gather. Were his people less afraid of him, they might question the wisdom of provoking such terrible and deadly battles, but with each passing year more tribes and even outsiders learn of the Terror of the Blindwater. His cult grows steadily, and with each cultist, he gets closer to his goal. His gimmick is buffs and use of swamps and water. His feat lets him knock down any enemies who can't swim near him.  Calaban, the Grave Walker will, likewise, work for the Circle Orboros, the Legion, Skorne or the Trollbloods. The bokor of Fenn Marsh fear and respect Calaban like no other, for he has mastered the rites of the dead spirits above all others. He has eaten dozens of challengers and is an uncontested leader. He does not, however, see himself as chief or king. He prefers to advise chieftains, and he has tied his destiny to that of Bloody Barnabas of the Blindwater. He knows Barnabas' plans, but doesn't really care. The unification of the tribes is good, and either Barnabas will succeed or die. In either case, Calaban will choose the next leader, who will truly control the united gatormen. In the meantime, the violence offers many chances for someone who commands death and the spirits of the dead. Calaban revels in the chance to slaughter and steal vitality for his own use, becoming the incarnation of gatorman appetites as he kills and weaves terrible curses, harvesting death on the battlefield. His gimmick is curses, and his feat lets him gain power when enemies die around him, fueling his spells.  The Bull Snapper is not, perhaps, so large as the blackhide wrastlers of the marshes, but they have a fearsome reputation. Most see them only as they rest, lying in the shallows or along riverbanks. Left undisturbed, they are still as death, but watchful. Once roused by threats or hunger, they are swift and deadly, lunging without warning. The male snappers, called bulls, are aggressive and very hungry, and they don't care what they eat. Once their jaws close, they tear the prey apart in great gulps. Though they are easily fged, they get hungry soon enough, and anything disturbing them will feel the fury of that hunger. Their animus lets them grant spiny armor to their allies.  Blackhide Wrastlers are immense creatures of the Bloodsmeath Marsh, which hide below the surface until prey comes along, at which point they rise up, grab it and drag it below to its death. They are crucial to the gatorman ambition, immense alligators with a terrible hunger even by gatorman standards. Motivated by food and blood, they hurl themselves on their foes and bite even the largest in half. Those that they cannot eviscerate easily are dragged into the water for a feeding frenzy. Even as they eat their prey, their own wounds close and their hunger continues. Also they are wrestlers. They are very good at wrestling. Their animus allows them to make allies stand up faster from being knocked over. (This is useful because they do their best work by knocking themselves over.)  The Ironback Spitter is one of the deadliest creatures of the swamp. Despite its bulk, it can be hard to spot in its favored hiding places full of muck and vegetation, and it isn't uncommon for travelers to step on them by mistake. By then, it's too late - they are notoriously bad tempered and will rise to their full height to tear you apart. They are even more dangerous when hunting. They have a terrible appetite and will eat anything, but most prefer msall, bipedal creatures like bog trogs or humans. Once they spot a meal, they spit huge amounts of gastric acids that are gathered in special bladders attached to their stomach. Anything caught in the stuff is soon dissolved into nutritious sludge. They'll even eat gatormen, but the most potent bokors and warlocks can tame these turtles. A single spitter can be a decisive weapon on the battlefield, and its bad temper is useful there, too. Its animus allows others to partake of its violent bad temper to counterattack nearby foes.  The Bog Trog Ambushers are the best warriors of the primitive and territorial bog trogs. They can be found among the Circle, Legion, Skorne or Trollbloods. They often fight the gatormen, and in recent years several tribes have been forced to help outsiders in battle. They are masters of ambush, hiding underwater until the time is right. In or out of water, they can change their skin color to blend in. Whather manipulated, goaded, lured or enslaved, many bog trogs have come forth recently to fight, launching attacks from many waterways. Because so few know their language, Quor-og, they really only communicate easily with the gatormen, who share a root tongue. They don't take much to be convinced to ambush folks, though - they seem to enjoy killing and stealing from the dead.  Gatorman Posses are bands of formidable and savage gatormen, willing to work for the Circle, Legion, Skorne or Trollbloods. Few other intelligent species can rival their raw power, and they're as skilled with heavy polearms as their natural weapons. A single gatorman can kill several men in just a few seconds, and the sight of blood drives them frenzy. Their crude villages often have shrines in the shape of immense alligators, icons to the god Kossk. Gatorman shamans, called bokors, use savage magic to push their posses to even more bloodthirst. Though they are fierce, they are usually content to guard their own lands. Few can speak their obscure Quor-gar dialect, but they respond to gestures and simple commands well. They are even-tempered out of battle and are approachable for barter, with trollkin and Circle druids having made alliances over the years, though the gatormen will fight for anyone that offer them food in quantity. Despite their reputation, however, several recent bokors have been stirring them to grater activity, drawing them together. This rise in violence is ominous for those who live on the fringes of the swamps and waterways. Next time: Wrong Eye, Snapjaw and BIG PIGS
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Jul 4, 2015 20:10
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Forces of Hordes: Minions The Croak Hunter, more properly one of the Anura, is a relatively rare sight. They can be found among the Circle, Legion, Skorne and Trollbloods alike. The croaks, as must call them, are newcomers, from the Shattered Spine islands south of the Skorne Empire. Their hunters are primitive but skilled, and they have a tribal culture well suited to survive in jungles. Several tribes were enslaved by the skorne and brought west, and some managed to escape, adapting well to the new lands. They are anxious to survive and ignorant of the natural order in western Immoren, and tend to hold some of the locals in awe. The gatormen of the Blindwater Congregation have been quick to take advantage of their creduility, and many croak hunters have allied with them. Some trollkin have also gained their allegiance, as they seem to think the swamp trolls are a sort of long-lost kin. Their services are much valued as hunters and trackers. The croak coat their weapons in poisons made from their own skin, which lets them take down prey they normally wouldn't be able to hurt. They prefer ambush, using poisoned spears before vanishing into the brush. Once confident in victory, their warbling battle cries fill the air as they close in for melee.  Wrong Eye and Snapjaw are some of the most dangerous swamp denizens, happily working for Cryx, the Circle, the Legion, Skorne or the Trollbloods. Wrong Eye is one of the bokors of the gatormen who understands the firm law of the swamp: for someone to feed, someone else has to die. He is an oracle of the marshes, and those who look into his eyes can tell that he thinks in a way no human does. Any negotiation with him brings the chance of bloodshed and fenzy, and even hardened blackclads and trollkin warriros sometimes lost their nerve and give him better deals than they intended. He is unpredictable and dangerous, and it's hard to tell when he's willing to strike. He presents himself as amiable, polite and sophisticated, but tales persist of him erupting into rage at small insults. Those who deal with him insist the easiest way to keep him friendly is to give him many small baubles. He adorsn himself with these trinkets, and while his appearance is comical, that impression fades quickly. He turns those he kills into his spiritual weapons, and it is said that he loves the taste of intelligent beings. He finds the creative impulses of humanity very fascinating, and dresses to imitate humans for some reason, cobbling together stolen and mimicked outfits. Those who can see ghosts know that many linger around Wrong Eye, hating him but unable to leave. Whether he notices them or not is unclear. Wrong Eye makes dolls to influence others, using needles to strike at their limbs and make his victims suffer by proxy. He wears a vest of bones as a sort of spiritual armor against danger, and it'd be easy to dismiss if not for his actual power. His oversized eye can compel weaker-willed creatures to obey or spasm at his word. When potential employers talk to him respectfully, he returns the corutesy. He sees himself as superior to and manipulating those around him, which is certainly part of his insanity, but he is useful and amusing. Anyone who threatens him must deal with the immense alligator Snapjaw, who prefers to linger in the water near its master. It can stay in one place for hours without blinking, but leap forth with blinding speed if Wrong EYe desires it. Other bokors refer to the creature in terms usually meant for spirits, not living things, and they believe it is a physical embodiment of Wrong Eye's power and nature. Thought fierce when provoked, Snapjaw is usually lazy, content with easy meals such as wayward children or livestock. Sometimes, Wrong Eye allowsh is pet to wander into settled regions, watching frim a distance with amusement as humans try to drive it off. They've never done more than scratch its hide. Snapjaw never wavers, and it ignores injury and pain, following an ancient and primordial hunger that drives it to drown its belly in meat and blood. Wrong Eye likes to think he's the brains of the pair, but given his dubious sanity, that's not much comfort. Wrong Eye's magic is all about control, while Snapjaw's animus lets his allies submerge in spiritual water to avoid ranged attacks.  The farrow tribes have lived on the fringes of western Immoren for centuries. They are often overlooked by humans except when they raid towns or caravans. They're rugged, tribal people who will do whatever it takes to survive. Their technology is crude, but they are ingenious when it comes to adapting. In recent years, they've been offering themselves up for hire in wars, earning a lot of experience and scavenged treasure from the field. They have a reputation as bandits, opportunists and scavengers, which they embrace. They consider survival the greatest imperative and have no stigma against theft. The next highest priority is social standing, preferably by dominating other farrow. Farrow social interaction is usuall about bullying inferiors while currying favor with superiors. The mighty and clever prosper while the weak and foolish are abused in a never-ending cycle of retaliation as farrow rise and fall in the hierarchy. It's not uncommon for a farrow to go from beggar to chief and then be murdered by the next chief. Farrow are most numerous in the badlands of Cygnar and the Bloodstone Marches. Several mountains and hills hold farrow villages, cinlcuding the Dragonspines, the Wyrmwall and Caerly's Crag. The Thornwood's been home to many villages but the present climate makes life difficult for them there, and they've beenb pushed north out into the wastes of Ord and Khador, settling even as far as southern Rhul, though the dwarves tend to drive them off. They've even enduring during the skorne invasion of the Marches. Despite all these threats, they're more at risk from each other than anything else, especially if they own things worth envying. Farrow are very possessive of stolen or won booty, and murder over items is common, especially in tribes with weak chiefs. For the farrow to survive, some must perform undesirable jobs, including menial labor. This is delegated to the weakest, who comply out of fear, while the most aggressive and skilled seize positions at the top, with a single warlike chief dominating others. Any farrow able to regularly gain food or resources is respected, while those that must be supported are scorned and shamed.  Builders and crafters are respected, though to a lesser degree, and may be able to sell their services for food or goods. Those who can make good weapons are most valued. Farrow prefer to gather rather than farm, as they have little patience for crops, though there are exceptions when a tribe learns to make alcohol. Many farrow tribes are semi-nomadic, following game and food reserves. Farrow warriors are not equally disciplined or trained, and in many cases are more thief than warrior. They do not have a linguistic distinction between the words for 'warrior' and 'brigand,' and both are respectable jobs. Warriors are equipped to defend what they have claimed and tend to rise to leadership. The farrow are pragmatic, using or eating just about everything they have. The warriors and crafters often make deals, with the warriors gathering materials to make weapons. Farrow have been able to make good approximations of the wepaons and tools of other races, making reliable pig iron rifles from scavenged metal and even learning how to reapir or rebuild cannons and steam engines. Farrow villages are generally impermanent wooden, clay and mud-covered straw buildings guarded by scavenged sheet metal hammered together. When they are destroyed, they just get rebuilt. Despite this, the honor of a farrow chief is dependent on keeping the borders secure. Kepeing intruders away is their main duty, as few things get farrow mad like violated territory. When confronted by foes, the farrow chief must decided whether to flee or dig in and fight. The farrow who choose to fight are extremely tenacious, armed with improvised or raided weapons in entrenched positions they defend to the death. They fortify their lands with spikes, pits and traps, and both trollkin and human outposts have discovered that the farrow are very stubborn in defense of their land, with only the young and the pregnant females kept out of battle. Faced with overwhelming odds, they may choose to flee, but any chief that gives that order will be shamed and lose power among their tribe. That's often enough to force a change of leadership, even if fleeing was needed to survive. When a chief is threatened, it means a fight to the death, and those who falter die or flee the tribe. The strongest are the ones most likely to sell their fighting skills to outsiders, allowing their tribes to gain riches far beyond what they might get by localized plunder. They will take all kinds of payment, preferring weapons, food, materials or land. Farrow don't generally live long, except for tribal shamans and bone grinders. The farrow tend to ignore religion until reminded of their mortality, and most practice a variant of the Dhunian faith, gathering for funerals, births and a few other occasions. Shamans provide battle blessings, and the most skilled battle shamans may become chiefs or leaders. Bone grinders are a mystical tradition that is more pragmatic, drawing on the power of dead beasts as part of their belief that no part of an animal should be wasted. They draw the power from the bones of the dead, bolstering the warriors with a strange alchemy and powerful totems. Off the battlefield, they make healing lotions and disease cures. Most chiefs value their mystics for advice and wisdom, and protect them from the other farrow so they can pass on their knowledge. Some chiefs think them cowardly and meddling, but they are valued by most farrow. For most of their existence, the farrow tribes have been infighting. This has changed only with the rise of an immense and ambitious farrow, who has taken the name Lord Carver, Bringer of Most Massive Destruction. He emerged fro mthe Black River hills near the Marchfells, crushing every rival against him, chief after chief. He wields an immense cleaver and commands porcine beasts. His rise was not overnight, though. After subjugating nearby tribes, he spent time selling his strength to local humans, which left him rich but disdainful of the human race, for they treated him very disrespectfully, as though he were just any farrow warlord, despite his obvious supremacy. He decided he would unite and conquer his people to prove his superiority. Where he marched, farrow obeyed, but they returned to chaos once he left. None dared defy him openly, but he lacked the structure to maintain his momentum. In battle, he was hindered by his lazy, limited subordinates. Much as Carver hates to admit it, the arrival of Dr. Akradius enabled his dreams of conquest. Ordinarily, Lord Carver might have dismissed the eccentric mage, but Arkadius had planned a demonstration for his meeting, revealing the war hogs - a hybrid of boarflesh and steam-powered weapons taken from various battlefields. Lord Carver saw the potential there, and soon the doctor was his chief advisor. Relations between the two are tense, but they have formed the core of a farrow alliance. Lord Carver summoned the scattered farrow chiefs to meet him at the battleground of Thornfall in the Thornwood. The Thornwood farrow had suffered much at human hands due to the Thornwood War, and Lord Carver took control of them by force and intimidation. A few had to be killed by their ambitious subordinates, who bent knee to Carver, and the Thornfall Alliance was formed, which Carver plans to use in order to stand as equal to human kingdoms, and then to conquer them. Lord Carver has many feast halls, where he assembles the farrow after victories, and he thinks of every farrow village as his home. His greatest hall, however, is in the Bloodstone Marches, just outside skorne territory. He doesn't rest long there, but ravels often to ensure the loyalty of his alliance and to replenish his armies. Lord Carver leads the horde, but is supported by dozens of tribal chiefs, each of whom rules a petty fief. They defer to Dr. Arkadius, who has special statue despite his odd mannerisms and arcane science. Even the war chiefs are terrified of him, for they know he's much smarter than they are. He's shown the ability to shape farrow flesh to his whim, and many who enter his labs come out entirely different, if they ever do come out. The chiefs obey Carver to survive, but they obey Arkadius out of more insidious fears. There is an ever-shifting hierarchy among chiefs, with the most valued by Carver giving orders to the rest. By and large, the warriors fight effectively while looking out for their own interests. Carver is always looking for ways to bring new organization and tactical skill to his army, including the recent adopting of tribal banners. He's experimented with whistle and flag signals to coordinate actions, but that's been less successful. Next time: SOOOOO-EEEEEE
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Jul 4, 2015 21:04
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I had to go put on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWXCXqW_WYc on loop for the purposes of reading the farrow text. I do not regret this decision.
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Jul 4, 2015 21:31
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Forces of Hordes: Minions Dr. Arkadius (no first name) will happily work for the Circle Orboros, Legion of Everblight or the Skorne. He is at the forefront of those who seek the mysteries of life, the finest genius of the field. He is a master of both alchemy and magic, and he has a brilliance none can match. Others shunned him for it, in their ignorance, and he chose to abandon civilization for a remote laboratory, where he has been able to indulge in his theories. He has found the farrow to be an ideal species for his work. Unconfirmed rumors suggest they arose from earlier mystical manipulation of wild boar, which supports the ease with which farrow flesh responds ot surgery. Arkadius delights in how readily they express his artistry. With the proiper mix of alchemy and electricity, he has encouraged farrow muscle to bulk up and bone to lengthen and harden. Their bodies accept bone nad organ grafts easily from other pig species, and he's found their minds to be no less malleable. He can see great potential, given time to unlock it, and he dreams of shaping the farrow into a sublime legacy, not only in body but in mind and culture as well. He watches them with the eye of an artisan even in battle, taking every chance to spur on his beasts. He carries many alchemical serums to improve their performance, and is always mindful of new chances to gather specimens and materials, looking to the day when those who once mocked his science will be at the mercy of his perfect porcine creations. His gimmick is buffing and controlling beasts, and his feat lets him drive them to berserk frenzy.  Lord Carver, BMMD, Esq. III (that's Bringer of Most Massive Destruction, Esquire) is the self-styled ruler of the farrow, who will work for the Circle Orboros, Legion, Skorne or Trollbloods. He is a grim figure with open disdain for other species, who is bitterly jealous of human nations and loves to kill humans. Some day, he has sworn, he will get the awe and adoration that is his due, and those too slow to kneel will be punished. His drive for conquest was born from his time watching humanity, envying and hating their achievements and cities. From his first days as a mercenary, he was viewed as a lesser creature, and he has set out to subjugate his people to demonstrate to humanity that he must be respected and feared as a leader. His conquest of the farrow has given him a taste for it, and he looks forward to bringing humans, too, under his hoof. His campaign has caused the lesser warlords to submit to being his generals, and he has chosen to demonstrateh is worth by borrowing human honorifics, which he adores hearing people use. This is only the first step in his plan, and he will not be happy until humans, too, bow to him. He sometimes wishes he'd killed the arrogant human who came to him and spoke of physically and culturally improving the farrow. Arkadius seized on Carver's desire to use his people as a weapon, and while Carver does not really understand Arkadius' goals, the scientist has proved useful in making stronger beasts for battle. His counsel is valuable, but Carver does not trust the man's motives or his obvious intellect. He feels help from a human tarnishes his accomplishments, but cannot turn away the weapons that serve him so well. The farrow have made great advances as a people thanks to Arkadius...but one day, Carver will enjoy torturing the man to death, once he stops being useful. Lord Carver leads by example, pushing his soldiers to rise above their origins and become something greater, yelling at any he deems lazy or lacking enthusiasm for the cause. He dreams of fortresses, roads and cities in which the farrow rule and humans are pushed out into the wastes. When he is done, all of Immoren will bow to him or die. His gimmick is being one of the single most dangerous warlocks in the game for personal combat short of maybe Thagrosh, and also general warlock-y stuff like buffs. His feat improves his farrow allies' speed and damage.  For generations, the farrow bloodlines have sometimes yielded massive specimens with no real higher mental faculties, such as the Gun Boar. Instead of intellect, they are angry, incredibly tough and utterly fearless. They have long been used by farrow warlords, and even the smallest throwback is useful on the battlefield. They are powerful and just smart enough to be taught to use weapons. Once their trainers are satisfied that they can tell friend from foe and know how to operate the gun strapped to them, they are fitted with a harness to carry an immense cannon. Despite the low-quality metals used to make them, these cannons are very durable and resistant to the combustion of the unpredictable low-grade explosives the farrow use, thanks to their ingenious design. On the field, the gun boars support the advance of the farrow and war hogs, much like mobile artillery. They fire immense shells stuff with crude explosives, which detonate on impact to shower the area with vicious shrapnel. In close range, the gun boars are far from helpless, given their innate strength and hunger. Their animus allows them to attack those who come near them.  The War Hog is the greatest and most lethal of Dr. Arkadius' creations. Each is an expression of his genius, carefully primed with alchemy for surgical experimentation. They are immense and violent creatures, kept alive while steam engines and mechanika are integrated directly into their flesh. This sometimes requires substituting limbs and organs from other pigs. Each war hog is unique, but they all have a common purpose: destroying the foes of the Thornfall Alliance. War hogs can be pushed beyond the limits of their flesh, thanks to alchemically induced rage, but it's dangerous to their bodies. Even without overdrives, they are brutal, their muscles enhanced by clockwork and steam-driven pistons. They are armed with axes and warjack blades scavenged from battlefields, and their frenzy grows with each kill. Their animus spreads that frenzy to the beasts around them.  Farrow Bone Grinders tap into the power of dead flesh and bone, working alongside the Circle, Legion, Skorne or Trollbloods. They skin and debone many creatures, gathering their parts for a power that is part alchemy, part magic. Fresher corpses are better, and they use knives, cleavers and saws to gather what they need. Many mistake it for butchery, but they are craftsmen who carefully select organs, cuts and bones for power. They make talismans and powders that have immense potency. The lore of these shamans is part of farrow culture and tradition, and they've begun to show their worth using their magical powers, both to allies and those that enslave them. They are very adaptable and much more intelligent than most assume, thriving on the opportunities of battle.  The Farrow Razorback Crews use powerful if crude weapons in the service, sometimes, of the Circle, Legion, Skorne or Trollbloods. The farrow are not inventive so much as masters at salvage and replicating stolen munitions. The razorback was derived from similar ordinance, particularly Khadoran rockets stolen from Llael. Trained teams of farrow assemble the launchers and their self-propelled rockets. They have no moving parts, so it's prefect for the farrow - an extended metal tube that aims the rather unpredictable rocket. Each one takes a lot of powder, and the farrow have bgun raiding military convoys to make as many as they can. They operate in pairs to work the razorback, and its rockets must be handled with care and guarded from fellow farrow. The recent use of the razorback has shocked the farrows' enemies, who assumed they employed only crude tools. Despite their short range, these rockets are more than able to take apart caravans and fort walls, and the crews are always important parts of these supply raids, though their leaders often dislike the amount of powder they use exceeding anything that might be gained by looting.  Rorsh and his immense companion Brine will work for Cygnar, Khador, the Protectorate of Menoth, Cryx, the Circle Orboros, the Legion of Everblight, Skorne or the Trollbloods. They wander Immoren in search of sport and profit, swaggering into war camps to offer their services for a price, no questions asked. Rorsh is a professional, unfazed by war, who prefers to fight by calmly lighting sticks of dynamite with his cigar. He claims to be a mercenary, but he's mostly an outlaw, and only the desperate will pay his bill. He's guilty of just about form of brigandage humans and farrow have managed to invent. He tends to shrug when asked about his crimes, as if to imply it was just for survival. He's robbed trains in Cygnar, plundered military stores and even held up banks. Where he inclined to speak about it, he'd admit that it doesn't always go well - he avoids capture, but never really gets rich, either. He prefers not to advertise how many victims he's left in his wake, adopting the image of a cheerful farrow with a knack for getting in trouble, but he's no innocent. It's no accident that the huge board Brine has developed a taste for human flesh. Rorsh figures, if the body's gone, he can't rightly be convicted of murder, and his preference for more lawless regions has supported that rationalization so far. Rorsh understands many languages, but rarely speaks human unless he has to. Even farrow words are rarely spoken, as he prefers to communicate by glare, posture and intimidation. Rorsh and Brine are most often found at the edges of the Bloodstone Marshes, in Ternon Crag, or around the Dragon's Tongue and Hawksmire rivers. He's known there as a morally flexible freelance merc who will work for just about anyone if they don't try to impose law on him. Occasionally, younger farrow try to follow and learn from him, but he doesn't like hangers-on, and those that poke into his business too persistently tend to disappear. Despite that, he'd found it profitable to sell his services to Lord Carver and the Thornfall Alliance, though he refuses to stay long and won't give up other contracts out of any sense of farrow solidarity. Carver is still fond of Rorsh, seeing his silence as a ready ear for his plans, mistaking disinterest for polite attention. Brine, meanwhile, is either a freakishly immense farrow or some kind of large and less intelligent offshoot of the species. It is never far from Rorsh, amplifying his threat. Its presence has made many want to hire him, because while Rorsh may be good with a gun or dynamite or a cleaver, Brine can take on warjacks, and has been largely responsble for Rorsh's ability to evade the law, as no soldier can stand up to it. It has the temperament oif a wild boar, nearly impossible to kill and only deadlier once injured. Those who have fought it can attest to its ability to take damage that'd kill anything else, and that the more it's hurt, the angrier it gets. The two have been inseperable for as long as anyone can remember, and some insist they're utterly reliant on each other to live. Feeding Brine without battlefield corpses would be practically impossible, which may be why Rorsh so diligently seeks work and the occasional crime spree. Rorsh is good at terrain manipulation, while Brine's animus grants a bonus to fighting living and edible foes. The End Next up, Cygnar!
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Jul 4, 2015 22:10
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Princess: the Hopeful So while a I refresh and take a break from the more mechanically heavy portions, here's some more flavor that provide context to some of the Charms that sometimes are decidedly more interesting than the PC's five choices for a Queen. They are known as the Twilight Queens and are composed of: the Queen of Tears, the last ruler of the last surviving Kingdom of Light, the Queen of Storms, a being of rage incarnate that seeks to destroy the Darkness and those who might embrace it, and the Queen of Mirrors, a child queen whose ego compensates for her loss. The Queen of Tears AKA: The Ever-Flowing One, Lady of Alhambra, The Last Empress Followers’ Epithets: Handmaidens, Esquires, Ravens, Witches (derogatory), Crybabies (derogatory) Kingdom: Alhambra quote:Have you ever really looked at the world? Not casually, I mean, really looked at it? It’s broken. It’s flawed. People fight each other in stupid, pointless wars. Everyone just want to hurt each other, and there’s no rhyme or reason to it. But you know it too, don’t you? Everything was better in the Kingdom. And I follow its Queen. I really dislike that last Epithet since it sounds so utterly childish for a group that's supposed to be mostly composed of young adults and older teens. Still, the Queen of Tears is a pretty apt name for her as she stands in perpetual vigil over the defenses of her Kingdom as she ceaselessly mourns. The endless siege has also affected her physically. Once, she was a bronzed beauty hailed in song and poetry but the dim light of Alhambra has rendered her pale. And though she's a Queen, she wears no fancy adornments or regalia. Only a suit of armor with a set of mourning clothes over it. Always by her side is her naginata (a Japanese glaive because  ). Her sorrow is so strong, that she's been known to convert Princesses to her side when she sees them in private and unleashes the full scope of her sadness.Alhambra is the last bastion of the Light in the eyes of the Queen and her followers and to let it fall would be to let Darkness have the ultimate victory. Consequentially, there is no cost too high in order to defend Alhambra. Even if that means draining the Light from Earth to keep it alive. One other philosophy that was once a more primary philosophy, but has declined in importance due to more pressing matters is the subjugation of the "Rebellious Provinces." This includes the conquest of not only the other seven Kingdoms that once existed, but also of the Earth. IMO, it sorta feels like they ran out of ideas for Philosophies for them, but at the same time, it does round them out a little, but not by much and vaguely in the complete opposite direction. The Duties section for the Queen of Tears (among other places) also mentions Enclaves which are implied to be area outside of Alhambra under their rule. However, there's never a formal explanation of any sort. Just mentions and implications that may have been left in after the main mention was cut out. Speaking of, all of the X-splat groups have some sort of job in the functioning of Alhambra except for the Troubadors. Champions defend the land, Graces keep the kingdom running, Menders make sure everything works and Seekers make sure to keep an eye out for any enemies of the state as well as looking for new assets to acquire. Since Alhambra is pretty much stuck in the past, the artists don't exactly have much to draw on after a while and trying to go Modern or post-Modern or in any sort of experimental direction is seriously frowned upon so they're used as auxiliary troops. At the very least, all recruits get the sort of training no other Princess can receive as the Alhambrans have the most experience with the powers of Princesses and their capabilities. The walls of Alhambra also possess the greatest amount of protection against enemies of Princesses so loved ones can be provided for and protected. There are those who are aware of the faults in Alhambran society. Some regress into denial over the whole thing. A Charm called It Was Necessary helps. Others acknowledge the wrongs committed, but remain due to the assets of protection and support Alhambra provides. Practical Magic I mentioned, in a previous post, the Practical Magic of the Twilight Queens and their Princesses. Just to repeat since it's been a while, the Queen of Tears's Practical Magic is cursing opponents and downgrading their ability to reroll. From base, the cursed target loses 10-again and 1s eat successes. If 1s outnumber successes, the target suffers a Dramatic Failure and the user gets a Wisp refund. Cursing targets with better rolling abilities follow this progression: Rote->8-again->9-again->Base (10-again)->see above. Multiple Wisps can be spent per turn to wreck a single opponent's roll or to downgrade multiple opponents' rolls. Way more interesting than the Radiant Practical Magic which just boosts Attribute rolls. Invocation: Lacrima Charms connected to Lacrima are more powerful, but at the cost of triggering Compromise rolls for those above a certain level. They're automatic and mandatory. Lacrima invocations come at not cost when used within Alhambra and the Underworld and also when the target is a ghost or their anchor. It also applies when "failure means death or ruin, and when a Princess intends to protect those she cares about, act on behalf of the Queen of Tears or her subjects, or in the interests of her own Nation and its members." It fails if the Princess would take another course of action while their nation is in danger and can be safeguarded. quote:Quote Inspirations: Homura Akemi Ghost Princesses quote:She sits in an empty palace, the tapestries are moth eaten and threadbare. The floor is covered in dust, no one has been this way in years. In a ghostly whisper she answers petitions from courtiers and subjects long departed from their mortal coil. And yet she carries a presence about her, she still radiates with the power of her magic. The Princess is dead but her subjects still need her. Long live the Princess. Since they still have their Inner Light, they are also susceptible to Shadows and once their Shadows reach an equivalent level to their Belief, the ghost will undergo a process similar to when a Princess hits Belief 0. Removing Shadows from Ghost Princesses work the same way however. Things like their Belief, Inner Light and Shadows are set to whatever they were at when they died. Belief compromises can still be triggered, but it will eventually reset itself after time as the memories fog over and they forget. Just like other ghosts, they exist in Twilight and need to Manifest to interact with material beings. have a Bane: Any Mortal who has willingly abandoned someone they care about for any reason. It's not the act itself, but the emotions behind it so recreating those emotions may be enough to trigger it. They also have a ban which is the same as Lacrima's and to go against it would cause a total unraveling and the death of the ghost where it eventually returns to the cycle of reincarnation. I kinda think the Queen should've also been a Ghost to make the ties to Ghost Princesses stronger and more apparent (also so they can say: "The Queen is dead. Long Live the Queen") Next: Get hard with the Storms. 
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Jul 4, 2015 22:59
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I keep waiting for the storm to abate, but the Warmachine keeps on going! Mors Rattus, you're drat impressive.
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Jul 4, 2015 23:02
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Goddamn I’m sick of that lovely Warhammer ripoff art you keep posting. It’s time for some real RPG art! Legacy Part 4: The Rules Legacy’s mechanics are straightforward and not particularly novel, not that there’s anything wrong with that. In the early 90s, TSR was still releasing multiple versions of D&D, and I believe that’s the reason that a lot of 90s games that touted “story” and an edgy, punk ethos were weirdly fixated on realism and fiddly combat rules. (For example, SLA Industries.) Legacy only has this problem in a few select areas, like a long weapons list, that were typical of that era. The basic task resolution method is very simple: Attribute+Ability+modifier, which you need to roll under on a d10. Modifiers can come from equipment, combat maneuvers, or from situational advantages.  Whoops! One of the things that Vampire: the Masquerade did very well was its Drama chapter, which gave rules for resolving situations besides combat that were difficult to adjudicate with just a single roll--car chases, trailing someone, interrogations, etc. Legacy doesn’t do this except for a few scenarios where the authors apparently believed that precise physical measurements were required. These rules are more focused on math than playability. They’re sparse, and weird about what they do want to focus on.  Nothing says Immortal Badass Swordsman like having to superimpose two guys fighting, because you couldn’t actually photograph them there, because the bellboys would run you off. It devotes a whole page to calculating exact movement rates for characters who are running, climbing, swimming, or jumping, and has rules for falling damage that precisely measure distance and note terminal velocity. It even has a “velocity chart” that provides modifiers for when two characters are interacting but one of them is falling or speeding by in a vehicle. You just know that the one time in the campaign that two Immortals have a swordfight on top of two speeding cars, you’d just forget to look this up anyway. A car chase is one of the only specific scenarios besides combat that Legacy provides with specific rules, and they really just measure a car’s movement rate, how fast it accelerates and decelerates, and how much damage you take from car accidents.  Combat The combat rules use the same basic resolution as everything else. To attack, you make an Attribute+Skill+modifier roll. The important thing to remember is that your victim’s Dodge score is always a negative modifier to your attack, and your damage is reduced by their Strength. Actively rolling Dodge and Strength to reduce damage is not required. Psychic attacks are hampered by Psychic Shield and Psyche instead of Dodge and Strength. On the one hand, if your enemy hasn’t invested in being a strong Psychic, his defenses will be mediocre. On the other hand, actually doing significant damage to anyone with Psychic attacks already incurs hefty penalties, which I covered in the last chapter. In truth, the most striking thing about Legacy combat rules is what’s not there. A duel between Immortals is just handled as a standard fight. That may seem elegant, but it’s anticlimactic--although the base die mechanic is different, Legacy is fairly similar to the Storyteller system insofar as lethal combat is not likely to take more than a few rolls before someone dies. Even a “duel” in AD&D that consists of two fighters hacking away at each other until someone drops is likely to have more tension than an Immortal duel in Legacy, if only because it is likely to take more rolls with a more swingy die mechanic. For comparison, I believe that even Legend of the Five Rings, which is not a game all about swordsmen dueling, had special dueling rules because they recognized that such a thing has more tension and gravity than every attack in a melee. The second most striking thing about the combat rules is that they seem to care more about guns than swords.  I am vengeance. I am the night. I...am...Photoshop 2.5! Initiative is determined by Agility. However, you can “force” your action if it’s purely defensive, like parrying. Actions don’t happen simultaneously, and if you’re moving and attacking, you have to move first. Melee combat gets a chart of tactical maneuvers. You can combine maneuvers into one action (such as a riposte that is also a tripping attack) but you only deal damage once, and all modifiers apply cumulatively. The melee maneuvers can be done with Fisticuffs or Melee Weapons; they work equally well for any kind of weapon.  Parry lets you negate an attack with an Agility+Melee roll. Once you start parrying, you can keep parrying all attacks against you for the rest of the turn, with a cumulative -1 modifier each time. (Missile Parry works the same way, but more difficult. It can parry slings and arrows, but not bullets, lasers, and explosions.) Defensive Thrust, Thrust, and Lunge require no explanation; they’re just modifiers to the stats of a basic attack. Running Lunge allows you to move and attack, with a penalty to hit and a bonus to damage. Riposte combines a Thrust and a Parry. It’s the most complicated maneuver, but only because it uses 1 roll to act as both the attack and defense. You can keep parrying after your initial parry and attack, but the modifiers stack up at -2 instead of -1. Disarm does what it says on the side of the box. When you disarm someone, it’s your choice if their weapon ends up in your hand or flung a few meters away. Grapple pins an enemy’s arms so that they take your Strength as a penalty to their actions. They can break out with a Strength+Melee/Fisticuffs roll, modified by your Melee/Fisticuffs skill. Trip knocks the enemy down. You get a bonus to attack a downed opponent. You’re probably wondering if one sword is objectively the best--it must be the katana, right? Well, some swords are just better than others. There are no Strength requirements for weapons, and no rules for having a hand disabled unless it’s cut clean off, so there’s no reason not to use a big two-handed sword, which gives the best bonuses to attack and damage. Legacy blatantly rips off Storyteller's “pocket, jacket, trenchcoat, no way” rules for concealability.   It’s not a 90s gothic game without pointless pictures of graveyard statues. On the surface, ranged combat seems simpler than melee combat. It doesn’t have any special maneuvers, but there are autofire rules, “smart” weapon rules, and a huge chart of weapons and ammunition. The autofire rules are really bad. With an automatic weapon, you can attack one target repeatedly, or fire an arc that hits multiple targets, with only a -1 cumulative penalty to each attack. What’s more, you only have to spend one bullet/shot on each attack! You only “lose” ammo if there’s empty space between multiple targets. It strikes me as very overpowered. You can even buy “recoil compensators” that negate the penalty on the first couple attacks! Legacy doesn’t have much in the way of CP202/Shadowrun style cyberware, but one thing it does have is “smartlinks.” They can they can control the cycle of fire on your weapons to prevent friendly fire while shooting multiple targets, and give you a +1 bonus. Fortunately, smartlinks require cybernetic implants that are almost impossible for Immortals, so at least when another Immortal decides to forgo the rules of honor and blast you repeatedly with a laser rifle, he won’t have a nifty targeting computer to make it even worse for you. Explosive attacks, like grenades and rockets, work differently. Instead of aiming at a person, you aim at a hex, and everything in the blast radius takes damage. The Dodge skill is no help here, but if you fail, the explosive lands a random distance away, and explosives do less damage as you get further out from ground zero. Oh, did I say “hex?” Yes, when it comes to ranged weapons, the rules start talking about “hexes” that haven’t been mentioned before. There is no apparent expectation that you use a hexmap; distances are given in meters when they matter at all. It’s a strange oversight.  Highlander: 40,000 Legacy indulges in a 90s stereotype: the huge loving chart full of guns. What’s more, some of them are laser and plasma weapons that do obscene damage. This really bothers me, because the game already provides only flimsy justifications for Immortals dueling with swords instead of guns. Why, if you use a plasma cannon to blow away an Immortal and steal his power, even more powerful Immortals will come after you! And they’ll be...challenging you openly, and...fighting honorably, and...armed only with swords and crappy psychic powers. poo poo.    Oh well. On to damage and healing. Damage accumulates on a 10-point track, and there are two types of damage: Casual and Severe. Casual damage is done by fists and falls. Taking 10 Casual damage knocks you unconscious, and any damage after that becomes Severe. Falling out of an airplane does more than enough Casual damage to overflow both damage tracks and kill you. Severe damage is inflicted by weapons and fire and lightning bolts and poo poo, and taking 10 points will kill a mortal and knock an Immortal unconscious. Being wounded racks up action penalties quickly; there is a definite death spiral. Your Strength Attribute always reduces damage from each attack; your Strength is your base Casual Defense and Severe Defense, which can be improved by armor.  There is a hit location system which, at the GM’s option, can be rolled randomly or only invoked when someone takes a penalty to attack a specific body part. Dealing 5 severe damage to a limb is enough to cripple or sever it. The most important part of the hit location system is, of course, decapitation. This can only ever be done deliberately--even a lucky shot to the head that does massive damage will just dash your enemy’s brains out, not cleave their head from their shoulders. To decapitate someone, you take a -5 penalty to attack, and you need to deal 5 points of damage with a bladed weapon or 10 points of damage with a ranged weapon. (As I said before, the game is careful about specifying “severing the spine between the brain and the heart” instead of decapitation, but in practice it appears that they only understand that to mean hacking at your enemy’s neck.) This is one thing they get right, in terms of the Highlander show--you can pull this off with a lucky shot, but it’s best to do it after you’ve run your enemy through. (Or, you know, burnt him to a crisp with a plasma rifle.)  Who wants to play a game called “Bad Legacy Art or Smiths Album Cover?” Healing is slow and fairly realistic. Mortals heal Casual Damage in hours and Strength damage in months; Immortals heal Casual damage in minutes and Severe damage in hours. There’s no Immortal mojo that will let you recover from crippling injuries in the middle of a fight. Nanotherapy can help people heal even faster, but it’s very expensive. It can even allow Immortals to accept cybernetic implants, but the therapy required is so expensive and so frequent that only the filthy rich could ever afford it. That brings to mind another problem with the combat rules: Prices are equipment are given in credits, but there are no rules to adjudicate how you use your wealth or contacts to get ahold of expensive weapons and armor. It’s just assumed that all Immortals can live an affluent upper-middle-class lifestyle if they choose, and only a particular Accent allows you to essentially spend your points for cold hard cash. Next time, on Legacy: Experience rules, and we wrap up the game with stats and advice on introducing enemies into the campaign.  Good, bad, I’m the guy with the gun, milady.
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Jul 5, 2015 04:49
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Why isn't this a thing in more games? The only other gatormen I can think of are from the German RPG The Dark Eye, but those lose badass points for having tiny, weak arms. Xelkelvos posted:Inspirations: Homura Akemi I dunno, these Tear gals don't strike me as "obsessed, selfish nutjobs willing to FUBAR the space-time continuum to the point they effectively become Satan just so they can get what they want". And why is the "Did you know you become a ghost when you die?"-part listed under this splat and not sooner o_O ? Halloween Jack posted:In truth, the most striking thing about Legacy combat rules is what’s not there. A duel between Immortals is just handled as a standard fight. That may seem elegant, but it’s anticlimactic--although the base die mechanic is different, Legacy is fairly similar to the Storyteller system insofar as lethal combat is not likely to take more than a few rolls before someone dies. Even a “duel” in AD&D that consists of two fighters hacking away at each other until someone drops is likely to have more tension than an Immortal duel in Legacy, if only because it is likely to take more rolls with a more swingy die mechanic. For comparison, I believe that even Legend of the Five Rings, which is not a game all about swordsmen dueling, had special dueling rules because they recognized that such a thing has more tension and gravity than every attack in a melee. This isn't really surprising for LotFR to have. Dueling is a somewhat big thing in Rokugan culture, and there's an entire clan dedicated to dueling overspecialization. For a Highlander-ripoff, I'd rather pick the Riddle of Steel or Blade of the Iron Throne. Those actually focus on melee duels. I may have mentioned this before. And is there anything preventing a rich Immortal who doesn't play by the rules from just owning a plamsa death squad to gun down any of these "more powerful immortals" that are out to get him? Super Console  (There's a picture of each class in the book, but those are just stick figures wielding class-appropriate equipment, so I'll skip it. This page's pretty busy with all this WarmaHorde goodness, anyways. ) Classes Making a classed character is pretty fast, as they already come with their starting attributes (ranging from 3 to 12, with a sum of 47). Each class also has 2 Favored Stats aka attributes and on Unfavored Stat. Each time you level up, you can increase two stats by 1 point. If you want to increase your Unfavored Stat, the other one has to be a Favored Stat (so you don't mess up your character too badly). If you increase both of your Favored Stat, you get an extra point you can use to increase another stat, provided it is not your Unfavored one (or one of the two Favored you already increased). Class abilities are pretty rigid in an OSR / Returners kind of way, as there aren't any choices or variations to take. Every member of the same class gets the same 12 abilities, gained at levels 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 65, 80, 95 and 99. Spellcasters alternate between getting access to a level of their spell list (like in D&D, but it only goes up to level 5) and a proper class ability, a lot of which are shared abilities that grant spells an area effect with varying drawbacks. The weakest of these abilities is Wide Beam (hit all enemies or allies with a spell that has a numeric effect - like damage or healing - with reduced effect and increased cost), and the strongest is MIRV (hit anyone you want with any spell at full effect, but still with increased cost). Most Warrior classes tend to get a lot of passive abilities boosting their damage output and general survivability, though they have at least one active attack ability that costs Mana to use (usually a double-hit ability they gain around level 30). Abilities that do the same thing (like hitting multiple targets) can't be combined, but different abilities (like hitting multiple targets and boosting the attack) can as long as it makes sense. Adventurer One of the 2 new classes of this super edition, the Adventurer is a non-magical support class. Most of his abilities are centered around party buffs that aren't particularly powerful, but last for the entire fight and cost no Mana to use. In fact none of his abilities cost Mana, leaving more Ether potions for the rest of the party. They can also help the party to instantly escape from battle and find more cash when looting. Offensively, they learn two debuffs (one of which reduces enemy odds on Resisted Actions, while the other deals a bit of damage and can paralyze the target). They also shine when it comes to equipment, as they can use anything that is not exclusive to a single class, and even that restriction drops at level 95. This flexibility is further helped by their balanced starting attributes, with no attribute being below 6. Their Level 99 capstone ability is the classic Mimic, allowing the Adventurer to repeat the last action perfromed in combat at no mana cost. Archer Your go-to warrior for ranged attacks, their actual class name tends to change a lot depending on the genre, with primitive eras having Rock Throwers and futuristic ones Riflemen. They have quite a lot of Mana-using abilities for a warrior, mostly revolving around hitting multiple enemies or boosting their arrows with elemental effects (or both at the same time). They - of course - gain a damage bonus when using ranged attacks, and learn some useful passives that reduce an enemy's dodge chance (up to auto-hits at level 80) and allow them to act before anyone else in combat. Their capstone ability is Arrow of Slaying which works just like the Arrow of Death of the Arcane Archer (a ranged attack that can cause the Doom status aka instant death). Bard The magical version of the Adventurer, able to hurt enemies with music and cast a range of magical songs. They are also nice to have round for shopping sprees because they grant the party a 10% discount on everything at level 15. The level 30 ability Battle Song (allowing them to always use a song and perform another action) makes them very gishy, and level 50's Underestimation (they're always the last MC to be hit in battle) puts some aggro away from them. Their capstone ability is Double-voice, allowing them to sing two songs at the same time (which combined with Battle Song gives them 3 actions per turn). Also of interest is Backwards Singing gained at level 80, which allows them to sing songs with reversed effect (like dealing damage instead of healing), doubling their effective spell list. Berserker A class rarely seen after medieval times, these guys are all about taking and dealing lots of damage. They have a rather extreme attribute spread (Strength and Vitality at 12, Luck at 7 and everything else at 3 and 5), making them somewhat slow and vulnerable against magic and status effects (though they gain passives to mitigate these drawbacks). Their most defining ability is level 1's Berserk, granting them 2 attacks per turn - at the cost of only being able to attack, and only being able to attack the closest enemy. Once combat starts, they're essentially on auto-pilot, though that somewhat improves as they gain levels. They can opt to attack the most dangerous foe at level 15, attack any target at level 40, and can pull off a triple-hit attack at level 50. The capstone ability is Go Nuts, a quadruple-hit attack. Overall, they're really good at dishing out the hurt, but the lack of control makes them only really useful for secondary characters or people who are more into roleplaying instead of actually playing the game. Black Mage The classic blaster class, these guys are very squishy (like pretty much all pure casters), but have a big pool of magical power. They gain the standard spellcaster ability loadout (aka more spells and AoE abilities), with their unique powers being Devastation (boost spell damage at the cost of more Mana) at level 30, Early Hit (always goes first in combat) at level 95 and finally Master of Magic (the Mana Bar now goes to 200%) at level 99. Calculator These guys have access to White and Black Magic like a Red Mage and learn a bunch of weird, esoteric abilities instead of the more standardized AoE abilties of other casters. They can give any spell an area effect at full effect and at reduced cost no less - but they have no real control over who gets hit. The spell will hit anyone - friend or foes - who falls into the spells targeting criteria. This starts at 5th level with being able to hit anyone whose current Health is divisible by 3, and the Calculator later gains similar abilities for Mana (level 15) and Level (level 30), and an ability that allows him to hit targets whose Bar is divisble by 2 instead of 3 (level 50). To make full use of this, the Calculator can also sense/scan targets to see their current Bar totals. Level 65 grants Altitude Target, which is probably the safest - if most situational - ability as it hits either every flying (high or low) or non-flying target. Level 80 gives them Extra Capacity, a weaker version of the Black Mage's capstone ability (Mana Bar goes to 150%). Level 95 grants the risky Esoteric Magic (spells target the whole area, with enemies having a 75% chance of being hit and allies a 25% chance), but level 99 finally makes this and previous abilities superfluous with Math Genius, which allows him to target anyone he wants and still pay reduced cost. Chemist These guys are all about one-use items. They already start out with the ability to purchase these items at half price (simulating them being mixed from their cheaper ingredients), and level 10 doubles the effect of restorative items they use. They eventually learn to alter and enhance the effects of other kinds of items, use two drinks at the same time, and mimic the effects of certain spells (level 80 lets them produce gunpowder that works like the Meteor spell, and level 95 makes gives their blood healing properties that lets them use the Restore spell at the cost of 1% of their Health). Their capstone ability Duplicator finally breaks the world's economy by allowing them to duplicate items as much as they want. Dark Knight The other new class. These are former bad guys now fighting for the side of good, making them unavaiable before the Medieval Era as the few Dark Knights that existed before were 100% evil. They're pretty slow warriors (their Speed starts at only 3) with a lot of attacks that can cause Status Effects. They don't get the Dark Wave ability (an early AoE attack that is paid in HP) of their FF-counterpart, but rather the Dark Strike ability which allows them to use the Black Mage's Dark spell at reduced cost, and which is always upgraded to the next powerful version as he levels up. This has limited use against Undead (who are healed by Dark elemental attacks) until level 80, when Dark Strike sucks the dark energy out of them, being treated like dealing Holy damamage against Undead. The rest of the Dark Knight's abilities are very flavorful and funny. I'm More Powerful Offscreen (level 20) does just that, giving him a nice buff on everything if the rest of the party is either knocked out or not around. One Scary Dude (level 65) can cause the Slow status on a single target by just laughing maniacally. It's the Main Villain! (level 95) makes monsters confuse the Dark Knight for their boss, making them unable to hit him with single target effects. The capstone ability True Form finally allows the Dark Knight to open a can of One Winged Angel whoopass whenever his Health falls to 20% or less, instantly healing him up to 75%, giving him the same Status Effect immunities as a Boss monster, and an even better all-round buff that stacks with I'm More Powerful Offscreen. Dragoon The polearm-wielding, jump-crazy FF class. Their signature ability is of course Jump, which removes them from the combat area for 1 turn before crashing down for double damage (or quadruple damage on a crit). Their passives revolve around higher crit chances and bonuses to damage, evasion and attack aka accuracy. They are perfect for weapon abilities that trigger on a crit, since level 30's Critical Strike always activates them on a Jump attack. Their only Mana-using ability is It Doesn't Fit There!, which adds the Silence status effect to a Jump attack (apparently silencing enemy casters by putting their polearm through their throat). Leech Strike (level 50) makes them regain 5% of their Health and Mana on every succesful attack. Things get really crazy with Speedy Jump (level 80, skips the 1 turn delay for Jump attacks, effectively doubling damage all the time), What Goes Up...? (level 95, jump and spend as many turns in the air as you want, with each turn doubling your damage multiplier) and Pole-Vault (level 99, Jump attack on two targets in one turn). Fighter Your archetypical warrior who may or may not have spiky hair and an oversized sword that has apprently no weight behind it. Their first two abilities are stuff you'd normally see in FF's Samurai and Paladin class (both of which aren't in this game): Two-Handed Strike gives a bonus to damage when wielding a weapon with both hands (even if the weapon in question requires this anyways), and Cover lets the Figher sacrifice his action to take a hit meant for a comrade. After that, it's mostly passive abilities to improve offense and defense, with the only active abilities being Crosscut (level 30, your double-hit ability) and Unavoidable Strike (level 99, an undodgeable attack with a hefty damage bonus). Level 65 also allows the to use any weapon ever, including stuff created by the Mechanist (more on him later). Geomancer This one's a rather strange caster, as his Earth Magic only has odd levels, with the gaps being filled with utility abilities (like being immune to traps and negating enepy surprise attacks), Terrain Attack (level 15, essentially an attack skill that scales with level and uses Vitality for damage), and an ever-increasing list of elements the Geomancer becomes immune to, with his capstone ability Elemental Wholeness making him immune against any element except for Dark and Poison. Mechanist This one's basically a nerdy version of Edgar from FF6, able to produce various devices like chainsaws and drills (and airships at level 95) and being able to put enemies to sleep with Technobabble (level 15). Most of their abilities revolve around modifying devices (with Two-Gun Mojo at level 50 allowing the use of 2 devices at the same time) or making it easier to produce them, with their capstone ability Scotty allowing them to instantly create any device at a hefty Mana cost. Monk Having no use for weapons, these guys have unarmed damage that scales with their level. They have a weaker version of Jump with Focused Blow (level 5) that makes them skip a turn to focus before attacking with a damage bonus that roughly translates to double damage. On the upside, Furious Breakdown gained at level 20 is not only one of the earliest double-hit abilities (aside from the Berserker) but also completely free to use. They also gain some restorative abilities, your typical FF Counterattack (level 30) and bunch of passives. Focused Mind (level 80) lets them use Focused Blow instantly, essentially giving them a murderous damage bonus, and their capstone ability Turbo makes them perma-Hasted, allowing them to act 1.5 times as fast as normal, with the Slow status only bumping them down to normal speed for its duration. Mystic Knight These warriors combine magic and martial prowess, starting off with a Barrier that buffs the defenses of the whole party if the Mystic Knight's Health reaches 20% or below, and learning several versions of Magic Sword starting with level 5. Magic Sword allows them to imbue a sword or knive (be it their one or an ally's) with a Black Mage spell whose level must be equal or below their highest Magic Sword level. For the next 100 ticks, that blade weapon will trigger the spell instead of performing a normal attack. This let's the wielder reuse the same spell multiple times wiht a single casting, at the cost of having the Mystic Knight waste an action imbuing the weapon, and with the drawback that the enemy has a chance to dodge the spell attack like any other normal attack. Also, no area effect for you. Level 80 also gives them a typical Samurai ability with Gold Attack, dealing damage depending on how much money they are willing to sacrifice. Their capstone ability Sword-beam brings them much closer to full caster status, as it skips having to physically hit enemies for Sword Magic to trigger. The descritpion sadly doesn't make it 100% clear whether or not they still have to use an action to imbue their weapon, though "you can just cast them as a Black Mage would" seems to suggest this. They also still have the 100 ticks of free spell use, though, encouraging them to spam the same spell over and over. Ninja These sneaky guys are all about dealing status effects and improving their dodge chances, reaching their pinnacle at level 95 with Invisiblity (auto-evade at a hefty Mana cost). Two-Weapon Strike at level 15 is the earliest double-hit ability (except for the Berserker, again), though it costs Mana unlike their FF counterpart's dual-wielding. But like their counterpart, they gain the Throw ability (level 30) that lets them sacrifice a weapon in their hand or inventory to deal massive damage. Their capstone ability is Mad Ninja Skills, which makes every successful hit a critical. Red Mage The most iconic FF gish class. These guys are far less squishy than your typical caster and learn both White and Black magic. On the downside, they only learn 5th-level spells as their capstone ability where other casters already get them at level 65 (though their level 80 ability Double Cast somewhat mitigates this by being able to cast two spells at the same time), and their first AoE ability Area Effect (level 5) hits both friends and foes. Their actual broken capstone ability is gained at level 95 and is called Magical Hack, allowing them to turn any offensive spell they're targeted with into any other White and Black magic spell by paying double its cost (so they can just turn the enemy's attack spell into a healing spell). Summoner These are oldschool FF Summoners, using very powerful summon spells that are area effect by default (unlike every other kind of spell), but are very expensive to cast and hit everyone by default (except the Summoner itself on damaging summons). Thankfully, the Summoner already starts with the ability to exclude himself or friends at level 1. Later levels let him "aim" more precisely. A bit weird, but probably necessary when you have something like level 30s ANYTHING!, which summons a random summon from your pool for free (and it wouldn't really make sense to say target all the enemies if you don't know if you'll end up with a heal summon). The Summoner also has its Mana Bar raised to 150% at level 95, and level 99 gives him Godlike Power, allowing him to summon all but the most powerful summons for free. Thief This class of course is able to use Steal to "borrow" items from a target. This ability probably has the biggest change with the two styles (Console campaigns only make this usable in battle, while Mixed only makes this usable outside of battle). Also among the abilities is utility stuff (like finding secret passages and screwing around with surprise chances, more loot) and further interactions with monsters (bribing them, trading items with them, attacking and stealing at the same time). Level 95 has the useful Baf Full of Stuff, giving them a daily pool of cash from whcih to procure stolen goods. Level 80's Don't Get Squashed is the same Mana-intensive auto-dodge as the Ninja's Invisiblity, except it only works on magic. Their capstone ability is Stab Vitals, the same kind of auto-crit as the Ninja's capstone. Time Mage Your go-to caster class for speed- and time-related buffs and debuffs an non-elemental damage. Their other class abilities are pretty standard. They do get the somewhat inferior "hits everyone" AoE modifier at level 15, but their level 30 ability is the Enhanced Wide Spread, which is a pretty early "hit allies or foes at full strength" ability. Things get pretty interesting in "postgame", with Slipstream at level 95 forcing die rerolls and the capstone ability Duplicate forcing a single event or action to happen again (though you can't use that twice in a row). Trainer A cross between a Blue Mage and a Pokemon trainer, these guys start with Capture Monster, giving them a chance to stuff any non-Boss monster into a bag to release at a later point, giving them a one-time use of that monster's most powerful attack. Further abilities revolve around scanning and debuffing monsters. Level 65 finally grants Polymorph, allowing the Trainer to turn into the captured monster, with a separate Health Bar and everything. Counterstrike at level 80 gives a pretty high chance at countering any monster's ability with itself, and the capstone ability Monster Expert gives the Trainer full knowledge of every monster in existence, including the main villain. White Mage The main healer guy. Pretty standard caster abilities, with Everybody Loves You at level 50 being an anti-aggro ability that trumps even the Bard's, and the capstone ability of Double Heal allowing the use of two healing spells in a row (which is more specific than the Red Mage's Double Cast, but it has the advantage of making one of the spells be cast for free if it is a lower level than the other one). A particular case of confusion arises from the level 15 ability Chain Healing. It has the exact same effect as the more generally-named Line Attack (hit everyone in a straight line with a spell's full effect), just a different name. This will become a bit strange shortly. Tasked Characters A "Task" in Super Console is nothing more than another name for ability, though the CPU can come up with funky stuff that has nothing to do with the abilities from the class list. The main difference is that magic Tasks are much more narrowly defined, as they only unlock a single spell. Tasked characters and Classed characters generally don't exist in the same campaign. Tasked Characters are not bound by a class, and their starting attributes (with a total of 48 instead of 47, though the minimum is 4 instead of 3) as well as their Favored and Unfavored stats are set by the player. Any equipment restrictions are obviously a bit loose with this option, though it is recommended for everyone to limit himself to one signature weapon type they can use. Unlike Classed characters, a Tasked character starts off with no task/ability whatsoever, and he has to gain them through means that differ from the kind of Task system used for the campaign. Skill Trees The most straightforward Task system groups the class abilities and spells into skill trees (or rather a list of similar abilities). Spell families like Fire or Life get their own skill tree, as are the AoE spell modifier abilities (listing both Healing Chain and Line Attack separately; guess it's a skill tax?). Classes are usually split into 2 Skill Trees each, focusing on different aspects/roles (like how the Figher is split into his attack and defense abilities). Pure casters generally have only one Skill Tree giving access to new spell levels (which is slightly odd seeing how you have to learn the spells individually, but the book thankfully notes this just boils down to "Pick a spell form this spell list with the listed level", allowing characters to get a broad selection of spells without having to dip into half a dozen skill trees). Some rare abilities also seem to be missing from these trees, like the Black Mage's Devastation. The "Berserker Angry Tree" is also weird, as it instantly blesses your character with the Berserker's autopilot (though I guess you can just houserule that it's optional to activate). The default way Skill Trees work is that characters learn a new task/ability/skill (those are a lot of different terms for the same thing) every even level. The only restrictions are that skills from the same tree have to be taken in order, and every skill has a minimum level. This gives characters a lot more stuff to get and in shorter intervalls no less. Especially non-casters gain much more utility, at the possible cost of redundancy (you might end up with different flavors of double-attack skills). A more streamlined alternative are batch Skills, allowing characters to learn entire skill trees (still limited by the minimum level requirements) at level 1, 5, 10 and every 10 levels after that. Another option uses Iconic Characters, characters that are limited to 2 or 3 skill trees. This generally requires a bit of tweaking and adding, and campaigns with Iconic Characters tend to be shorter. If you don't want the characters to learn skills instantly, there's the Training Center option, which forces characters to visit training centers, teachers etc to fill their unlocked "slots". Empowerment With the Empowerment option, Tasked characters don't learn anything on their own, but have to be granted access to abilities through outside means, like items (be they actual equipment or just accessories) or spirits or whathaveyou. These generally allow MCs to trade abilities by just switching items, but the items can also be stolen or broken. Baubles And Doodads The blandest version of Empowerment has every ability tied to specific item (like a wand that uses Fire). Some of them can have limited charges or might be one-shot items. Items That Gain Experience Your not-Materia. They gain experience like characters, unlocking more and more of their abilities (like Fire spells, increased Health Bar or an entire class' abilities). Their max level is usually far below 99, and they tend to split in two once that happens. This is also the most fleshed-out, as the section after the Skill Trees includes various example "Living Items", with an interesting twist in that offsprings have a chance to mutate, changing their abilities or turning into an entirely different Living Item. Joining Forces Your Almost-Persona option. Each character is bound to a summon-like being (which can't be switched around) that gains all sorts of powerful options as it levels up, with the characters able to transform into these monsters for a limited amount of time. This option is unfortunately a bit vague, as it doesn't tell if the character gets to use a different task option for is untransformed state. Oh well, just tweak it. Spirits Of Heroic Memory A FF5ish option. It's similar to the above, but this time the characters have bonded with the spirits of ancient heroes, each representing one of the classes. Each time a character levels up, his bonded spirits gain two or more levels that are only used to check if they gain any new abilities. Class changing is a matter of minutes, and the CPU may even allow certain abilities to work regardless of the current class. An alternative to this option has the characters possessed by demons, which are powerful, but hard to control. Like Joining Forces, the spirits bonded to a character can't be transferred to another one. Example Characters Let's make a Classed and a Tasked character, both at level 30 for some customization, and with a personal Rage attack. Equipment and their secondary attributes have to wait a little bit. Nimbus Zippioso Kupoire A dark, brooding figure, eternally mourning over his dead boyfriend or something. He has spiky hair and wears asymmetrical lederhosen and a coat, all made out of belts connected to each other via zippers. Is weapon of choice is a greatsword the size of a surfboard. Nimbus will of course be a Fighter. His starting attributes at 1st level are: Strength: 10 Speed 8 Vitality 10 Intelligence 3 Spirit 5 Magic 3 Luck 8 His Favored Stats are Strength and Speed, and his Unfavored is Intelligence (hampering his Magic Defense). Level 30 gives me a total of 29 level ups to play around with. For 20 of those, I'll just pick the "raise your 2 Favored Stats and any other that is not the Unfavored one". 5 level ups go into "Raise a Favored and the Unfavored one", and the remaining 4 go into "Raise 2 normal ones". Attributes I will ignore completely are Spirit (since that's also the social attribute) and Luck (because his doomed life is anything but lucky). This means he'll be a bit weak to status effects and is dodge chance sucks, but thus is the fate of his cursed existence. With that out of the way, he's what he looks like now: Strength 35 Speed 28 Vitality 29 Intelligence 8 Spirit 5 Magic 12 Luck 8 At level 30, he knows Two-Handed Strike, Cover, Guard (improves his Defend action to a +15 bonus instead of +10), Severe Beating (+10 Damage), Cutting Skill (Crit Chance of 10%) and Crosscut (double-hit). His Rage attack will be Vital Rage, instantly gaining 50% Health and Mana bar (which can get them over 100% for the rest of combat). The power of angst is hard to take down. Sheady (aka CD-i-tan) Sheady is the CPU/goddess of the land of Filippia, a small and unimportant land in Gamindustri. She tries to become popular, but kinda fails at everything (except for making Youtube poop). She also has a weird obsession with Blanc (aka Wii-tan), always trying to impress her by poorly copying her work. Her weapon of choice is a staff (in honor of Blanc's hammer), and just like every goddess, she has access to a HDD form (aka "multi-part plugsuit with floaty mecha bits"). Her floaty mecha bits are however taped to her body because they tend to just malfunction and fall off. For Sheady, I go with the Skill Tree option, with her HDD form being represented with the Joining Forces option (which will probably just add some monster-related buffs to her or something, which we'll get to later). Her main sthick will be status effects, because those Zelda CD-i cutscenes are that terrible. Her most important Attributes will be Magic (good for spells and status effects) and Intelligence (to resist status effects). Her Unfavored stat will be Strength, because she lacks Blast Processing. Strength 4 Speed 4 Vitality 6 Intelligence 12 Spirit 4 Magic 12 Luck 6 Her 29 level ups will all go into "2 Favored, 1 whatever", since she needs all the help she can get. The other stats will be leveled more or less evenly, with a slight focus on survivability. Strength 4 Speed 10 Vitality 14 Intelligence 41 Spirit 12 Magic 41 Luck 13 At level 30, she gets 15 skills to pick from. An good choice is Sword Enchantment from the Mysti Knight tree, as it allows her to conserve MP and be effective in melee. Sword Enchantment doesn't give her any spells in and of itself, though. 6 of her skills will therefore be used on a couple Elemental trees (Fire, Ice and Lightning), giving her access to the first two tiers of each. 6 further skills go into the Status Tree, giving her 6 status effects to play with. Another skill goes into the Basic Metamagic Tree for the Wide Beam ability. Her Rage Attack will be Magical Rage, allowing her to spam two spells in one action. All in all, she's somewhat between a Mystic Knight and a Black Mage. Next Time: Magic (and maybe Equipment as well) Doresh fucked around with this message at 12:31 on Jul 5, 2015 |
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Jul 5, 2015 12:21
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Doresh posted:And is there anything preventing a rich Immortal who doesn't play by the rules from just owning a plamsa death squad to gun down any of these "more powerful immortals" that are out to get him? Governments typically don't like people having private armies, and they have bigger plasma death squads. Somebody getting lacerated will maybe make the evening news, large gunbattles with military weapons will get cracked down on hard. (Unless you move to Somalia or something and having your own plasma death squad means you are the government)
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Jul 5, 2015 12:29
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