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Kai Tave posted:I think that IS sort of the point. The Freak is what you could be someday if you really apply yourself...or aren't careful. Yeah, what I'm saying is more that it would be nice if the character had more to it than just being a warning sign like that, you know?
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Jul 30, 2015 21:59
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Night10194 posted:Yeah, what I'm saying is more that it would be nice if the character had more to it than just being a warning sign like that, you know? Yeah, but it kind of sounds like that's part of the point? I'll admit I haven't followed the Unknown Armies stuff much, but it sounds like the Freak not really being able to have a significant agenda aside from "keep being me" is exactly part of that cautionary tale.
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Jul 30, 2015 22:10
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Traveller posted:He is only protecting you from the horror of the Truth, you DarkNight storygamer.
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Jul 30, 2015 22:13
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I still like the interview with the Contract Killer about his job and killing people for reality TV.Glenn "Carnage" Berry posted:It's like sex. The first few times are the biggest thrill in the world, then you stop for some reason and you miss it a hundred times worse than when you never did it. Then you start doing it regularly, and it becomes and part of your everyday life... I mean, you look forward to it, and it's good, but it's not the same as when you first started. Then you find you are doing it less and less until one day it's really good because you did something different. Then for a few years you look for the different thing. Then you look at yourself one day and you're wearing a strange costume and a weird mask and chains and things...
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Jul 30, 2015 23:15
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Halloween Jack posted:Wizards! No sense of right and wrong. UnknownArmies.txt right here.
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Jul 30, 2015 23:45
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Halloween Jack posted:The other thing about the Freak is that it is not enviable. It's not something for your PCs to aspire to, or to aspire to beat.* It's a sad, lonely, pitiful person, and I wonder if Stolze didn't conceive it as a deliberate sendup of Stone, Intruder, Sascha Vykos, and similar Badass NPCs from 90s games. I thought the Freak was impossible to visualize, until I saw Martin Short in Kimmy Scmidt: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cFOux4pNLi8 No fixed gender, disturbing appearance, unable to feel pain because it can mold its flesh, and based on a real person who killed himself soon after the episode aired! And it's stuck in a whimsical comedy! I've been getting back into Greil Marcus, and his writing and especially his quotes from the Situationalists are Unknown Armies as hell. Magic in everyday life and musicians as godlike avatars. And Dirk Allen is kinda an example of the Dipsomancer 'loophole' - just play a stereotypical drunk writer, rock star or rich kid and you have all the money you need, and freedom to be a PC. Real life examples are too numerous to mention. quote:quote: If this isn't a reference to something (maybe Grant Morrison's Flex Mentallo?), Stolze and Tynes just casually dropped a million dollar idea in the middle of UA. Count Chocula fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Jul 31, 2015 |
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Jul 31, 2015 00:44
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Count Chocula posted:I thought the Freak was impossible to visualize, until I saw Martin Short in Kimmy Scmidt: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cFOux4pNLi8 I think the short-lived series "Carnivale" had a similar idea. The last two sorcerers in the world battle it out in the Dust Bowl of 1930's America before the A-bomb wipes magic from the Earth.
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Jul 31, 2015 01:05
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Simian_Prime posted:I think the short-lived series "Carnivale" had a similar idea. The last two sorcerers in the world battle it out in the Dust Bowl of 1930's America before the A-bomb wipes magic from the Earth. I am still mad that didn't get a third season. Also it wouldn't be a terrible basis for a UA campaign set in that era--superstition, the unexplainable, past crimes, and rumors all in a frothing stew of weirdness hidden around the edges of desperate circumstances.
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Jul 31, 2015 01:23
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I'd want to know why Nagasaki, exactly, not Hiroshima or the test bomb.
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Jul 31, 2015 01:53
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Nessus posted:I'd want to know why Nagasaki, exactly, not Hiroshima or the test bomb. There's magic in threes.
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Jul 31, 2015 02:41
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Nessus posted:I'd want to know why Nagasaki, exactly, not Hiroshima or the test bomb. Either way, we did it.
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Jul 31, 2015 02:48
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It was the japanese surrender, which lead to the creation of anime.
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Jul 31, 2015 04:35
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Halloween Jack posted:Oh my God, I was just flipping through the book again and...there's a whole page devoted to a "news story" where Intruder kills dozens of people and then cries over the pile of bodies, and another where he talks to a reporter about his loving haircut. The haircut thing makes me think of that Thomas Jefferson video linked earlier. Just the reporter carefully trying to ask about, you know, all the murders, and he's just saying how great his barber is, and how this guy, he's an artist, you know? He cares about his work, and that's something you just don't see every day.
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Jul 31, 2015 05:04
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pkfan2004 posted:I feel like because Nagasaki was a firm statement, a hammerblow that put a nail completely down. The tests were just getting the tools together. Hiroshima was one bomb, one incident, one bolt of lightning. Once is a display of power or a coincidence. Twice is a display of fact, cold repeatable fact. And maybe that new fact slammed up against the walls of reality. Maybe it knocked something out of place when it wedged its way in or left other facts and laws broken, fragmented or cracked. I remember a GURPS book that took the exact opposite tack to this though.
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Jul 31, 2015 05:51
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pkfan2004 posted:I feel like because Nagasaki was a firm statement, a hammerblow that put a nail completely down. The tests were just getting the tools together. Hiroshima was one bomb, one incident, one bolt of lightning. Once is a display of power or a coincidence. Twice is a display of fact, cold repeatable fact. I think maybe this is a shade of what actually went through the targeting committee's mind during the actual planning for the atomic bombings.
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Jul 31, 2015 05:58
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gradenko_2000 posted:I think maybe this is a shade of what actually went through the targeting committee's mind during the actual planning for the atomic bombings.
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Jul 31, 2015 06:01
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Nessus posted:They did specifically want to do a second demonstration so it would be clear that this was not some one-off superweapon they'd take years to build again. (Of course it actually would have taken months to make more than maybe a third atomic bomb.) One commentator put it this way: Bomb 1 was for the Japanese. Bomb 2 was for the USSR. It's not a proven theory, but it's one I find plausible.
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Jul 31, 2015 06:04
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Nessus posted:Now we are all sons of bitches... and that's why we're moving to Dogs in the Vineyard, folks! Technomancer is weird enough to deserve a write-up. The idea is that nukes caused some extradimensional radiation (MAGIC PARTICLES) to come into the world in the 1940s, and then poo poo got weird. The one thing I firmly recall about it is that the Antarctic penguins have a hive mind.
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Jul 31, 2015 06:12
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Does this theory of "the 2nd atomic bomb and Japan's surrender cut the old magic from the world" turn the Kyujo Incident ringleaders into the last defenders of magic or something? That's...dark.
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Jul 31, 2015 06:19
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"Magic is real" by itself leads to a ton of that. Suddenly witch hunts are justified, and demonic possession scares are real and favor the Fundies.
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Jul 31, 2015 06:42
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Night10194 posted:One commentator put it this way: Bomb 1 was for the Japanese. Bomb 2 was for the USSR. It's not a proven theory, but it's one I find plausible. You should mean "Bomb 2 was a demonstration for the USSR". It wasn't to be actually used on the Russians, but to give Stalin pause to keep him from pushing further into Germany, Manchuria, and Japan when he knows the rest of the Allies could just as easily drop one on Moscow.
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Jul 31, 2015 06:46
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Young Freud posted:You should mean "Bomb 2 was a demonstration for the USSR". It wasn't to be actually used on the Russians, but to give Stalin pause to keep him from pushing further into Germany, Manchuria, and Japan when he knows the rest of the Allies could just as easily drop one on Moscow. Yeah, that was what I meant. Similarly, a lot of the rush to end the war faster was out of worry that the USSR was going to get half of Japan and portions of China, etc, much like it got East Germany. The Cold War started up just a little bit before the World War ended. Speaking of, are there many Cold War RPGs? You'd think a time full of proxy wars, international intrigue, and apocalyptic tension would make a good backdrop. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 06:56 on Jul 31, 2015 |
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Jul 31, 2015 06:54
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Night10194 posted:Speaking of, are there many Cold War RPGs? You'd think a time full of proxy wars, international intrigue, and apocalyptic tension would make a good backdrop. The one that immediately springs to mind is Cold City which takes place in Berlin in 1950. Players are American, British, French, or Russian members of the Reserve Police Agency who are tasked with investigating and tracking down leftover supernatural menaces born from desperate experiments carried out by the Nazis during WWII. It's not really Wolfenstein, one review referred to it as early John le Carre by way of Clive Barker which fits. A big part of the game is every character having secret orders from their home country, usually having to do with acquiring left over crazy Nazi experiments for themselves as the Cold War gets underway and everyone is looking to get a leg up on the next atomic bomb, and trust between characters takes the form of a stat which can be used to help assist others the more trust you have in them, and used for your own benefit when you betray them the more trust they have (or had) in you. It's worth a look for ideas if nothing else.
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Jul 31, 2015 07:19
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Kai Tave posted:The one that immediately springs to mind is Cold City which takes place in Berlin in 1950. Players are American, British, French, or Russian members of the Reserve Police Agency who are tasked with investigating and tracking down leftover supernatural menaces born from desperate experiments carried out by the Nazis during WWII. It's not really Wolfenstein, one review referred to it as early John le Carre by way of Clive Barker which fits. A big part of the game is every character having secret orders from their home country, usually having to do with acquiring left over crazy Nazi experiments for themselves as the Cold War gets underway and everyone is looking to get a leg up on the next atomic bomb, and trust between characters takes the form of a stat which can be used to help assist others the more trust you have in them, and used for your own benefit when you betray them the more trust they have (or had) in you. It's worth a look for ideas if nothing else. That sounds pretty loving cool, actually. I'll look it up.
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Jul 31, 2015 07:32
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Anticheese posted:Technomancer is weird enough to deserve a write-up. The idea is that nukes caused some extradimensional radiation (MAGIC PARTICLES) to come into the world in the 1940s, and then poo poo got weird. The one thing I firmly recall about it is that the Antarctic penguins have a hive mind. It also had Nuclear Liches and Demon Summoning being treated as violations of Immigration Laws.
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Jul 31, 2015 09:06
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A Technomancer write-up might benefit from a look at Time Travel Adventures, which is where it first officially saw light. 'Someone from an interdicted reality tries to summon an angel, pulls an interdimensional shuttlecraft off-course instead' made for a heck of a plot hook.
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Jul 31, 2015 09:18
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Night10194 posted:That sounds pretty loving cool, actually. I'll look it up. Huh, is there really no F&F review of Cold City? Well maybe I'll do one once I'm finished with Blue Rose. And hey, speaking of convenient segues:  Fantasy Geography 101 Now we're in the home stretch with the last part of chapter 1, which may also wind up being the part I summarize and condense the most because it's time for the part of the book where the writers talk geography. Now fantasy geography can be interesting, but for the most part, even in good games, it frequently comes across like an extremely boring textbook with occasional references to magic peppered throughout. This is how the section leads us off: quote:Aldis consists of a large peninsula and a small archipelago extending to the west. Aldis has a temperate climate, with dry summers and wet, mild winters. It contains many rivers, and the land is exceptionally rich and fertile. Most of Aldis consists of rolling hills and a mixture of meadows and forests. Thrilling! First up is the north and we finally get some more information on the Pavin Weald which we've seen mentioned several times before sans context. It's a dense forest of oak and maple and also the wildest and least settled portion of Aldis because north of the woods are the infamous Ice-Binder Mountains which makes the Pavin Weald the buffer between Aldis and Kern. Only griffons, bandits, and shadowspawn call the mountains home but rich merchants maintain seasonal mining camps there due to rich deposits of silver, shas crystals, and tin, and the Sovereign's Finest frequently patrol these camps on the lookout for dangers. The mountains are also lousy with natural magic, and consequently are lousy with wizard towers left over from the Shadow Wars as well as magical artifacts. Also darkfiends, because there's at least one active shadowgate somewhere in the area, but fortunately it only opens once every few years. But anyway, the woods themselves are dense and and deep, limiting visibility and travel time. The deepest portions are largely uninhabited and kept sacrosanct by the unicorns who dwell there, but there are settlements on the outskirts and even a little ways into the woods. The unicorns are cool with people gathering fallen wood, edible nuts and fruits, and reasonable amounts of hunting and fishing, and traders frequently visit these villages to trade worked goods for rare herbs, furs, and wild mushrooms. Deeper in the forest the villages there live in harmony with rhy-wolves and are distrusting of outsiders, even members of the Sovereign's Finest, so envoys there need to be on their best behavior. Many of the inhabitants of the Pavin Weald are descendants of refugees from Kern. They dig vata but are suspicious of night people, and even night people who are members of the Sovereign's Finest have to sleep on the outskirts of the villages if they're staying there. Fantasy racism is apparently alive and well. It talks about the size and general makeup of their villages, arrangements of buildings and how they choose their leaders, blah blah blah, it's all just sort of dull and you're not missing much. They live in harmony with nature and if they had pointy ears and a sense of smug superiority you could pass them off as elves. I'm still not going to summarize clothing descriptions but there are more of them and they're just as boring. If you guessed some variation on furs, leathers, buckskin (the Golden Hart looks on disapprovingly), and mountain-sheep wool then award yourself a prize.  Yep, that's a fantasy map all right. Then we have the central valleys, the densely populated and fertile heartland of the kingdom. It's very pastoral and scenic, with the first but certainly not the last mention of Aldis' profusion of olive and almond trees. Also white marble and murals. It's all fantastically uninteresting, though something of note is the fact that most of the natives of the central valley region aren't your typical Generic European Caucasian stock, described as having olive skin and dark hair. These people make up about half the region's population with the rest being a melting pot of blonde, pale northerners, night people, vata, sea-folk, Jarzoni refugees (who apparently trend towards red hair), "and even a small community of dark-skinned traders from the distant island of Lar’tya" which is a place I'm not sure is ever mentioned again anywhere else in the book. Consequently diversity and acceptance are big parts of central valley culture, and people who judge based on things like skin tone, gender, or customs is liable to receive polite explanations and lectures at best, outright mockery at worst. Word has it that they roll their eyes at anyone trying to play the "you're all intolerant of my intolerance" card too. Central valley houses tend to be big and home to extended families from grandparents on down. Also two more loving paragraphs about clothing, the only noteworthy part of which is that the central valley region tends to set style across much of Aldis and that dress is largely determined by profession and status, not gender. This means that trousers are the norm for both men and women when going about their daily lives and if a man wants to wear the stylish dress he bought to one of the region's many festivals then nobody's going to bat an eye. Eddie Izzard would approve. Next is the city of Aldis itself. It's Aldis. We've already kind of covered this place in detail but did you know that its construction is mostly marble and whitewashed brick? Now you do! Think marble, domed buildings, and trees and you've more or less got it. Interesting details include some information on the palace which is described as spacious and inviting, and also happens to be much more open to visitors than many might expect. Guards trained in psychic arcana observe visitors and if anyone filled with rage or hate enters they make their way over and try to ascertain if they're dangerous or simply upset about a legitimate grievance. In addition to identifying potential threats this also enables them to help direct people with serious grievances to the appropriate authority. Also Aldis has a "small but well-tended zoo." What do you keep in a zoo in a setting where sentient psychic animals exist and might view the entire notion of "let's put animals in an enclosure for people to come and watch them" to be somewhat distasteful? The book doesn't say, probably because it's wasted too much page-space describing clothes. The southern coasts and the Scatterstar Archipelago are home to people similar to the natives of the central valley region "except for being swarthier" which, like, wouldn't have been my first choice of descriptor but okay then. At any rate, life along this region is a lot less idyllic than it is in the land of olive trees and marble buildings...the winter brings harsh storms and the sea grows treacherous enough that small fishing boats are periodically lost. Many coastal people spend these months indoors weaving and dying cloth and carving shells, and in response to this more rugged life the fisher folk have evolved a social system known as the hearth, which is essentially a polygamous marriage only considerably larger, somewhere between a conventional family and a clan, and members of the hearth all live in a single rambling house with new wings and additions to the building sprouting up as the need arises. Hearths can have dozens of members and frequently work together, crewing boats and herding animals along the coast, and many hearths split their trades between the two professions to minimize the risk of tragedy to the hearth as a whole due to a work accident or a problem with the local fish or herd-animals. Hearths can and do include both humans and sea-folk. In the islands of the Scatterstar Archipelago things are much the same, with around 15,000 people living in hearths across the 22 islands ranging between 4 and 50 square miles each. The winter storms are even worse on the islands however given that they lack natural breakwaters or high cliffs. Fortunately the islanders are close friends with rhy-dolphins, and fishing vessels can expect to be escorted by a few of them in a mutually beneficial arrangement...the dolphins herd schools of fish into the nets and then the fishermen let part of the schools escape through a narrow opening where the dolphins can wait for them to emerge and eat their fill. In this way, as well as the large numbers of native sea-folk, the islanders are quite capable of making a comfortable living out on the open ocean, though storms and sea monsters are still threats even then. Landlubbers who travel to the islands need to prove themselves because the islanders put more stock in seamanship than anything else. If you're willing to pitch in and learn how to get things done around a boat then you can earn their respect. The Sovereign's Finest tries to assign envoys to the region who either have prior sailing experience or who they feel could stand a dose of humility from the dour and pragmatic islanders. Those who can't adapt get reassigned, those who thrive frequently wind up marrying into a hearth. More clothing descriptions! Three entire paragraphs this time! Stop it Blue Rose, you can't make me care about oilskin cloaks and dyes extracted from seashells! And lastly we have the east which comprises the buffer between Aldis and Jarzon, courtesy in large part due to the Veran Marsh. The land is rocky, the soil is thin, it's overcast more often than not, and while it's possible to raise hardy crops and lean cattle it's nobody's idea of prime real estate and few people voluntarily choose to live there...except for the Jarzoni refugees who've settled there since it's a pretty close approximation of their native land with the added benefit of no one trying to set them on fire for heresy. Refugees from Jarzon have been settling in the region for going on two centuries now, and the oldest of these settlements have largely assimilated into the local culture, aided by intermarriages and a steady progression of life lessons on not being bigoted jerks. The most recent communities, however, are having a rough process of adjustment. Ata-San, meaning "sacred to Ata" the Jarzoni name for Aulora, goddess of justice was established 15 years ago while the town of Relgis, named for their prophet who was slain by the priesthood, came over about 40 years ago. While they're both grateful to be living in Aldis instead of burning alive, at the same time they're having trouble adjusting to concepts that rub against their conservative traditions such as the open practice of arcana and dudes sometimes doing it with other dudes. Visiting either of these communities can be a touchy process, with the somewhat more assimilated citizens of Relgis still fearful and mistrusting of those who employ psychic arcana, remembering all too well the priests using such arts to root out dissidents and heretics, and Ata-San being almost comically huffy over the Aldins' "brazen and immoral" ways. Helping them to acclimate and shed some of their more obnoxious cultural baggage has been a delicate and ongoing process but Queen Jaellin is starting to get a little impatient and is taking some steps to try and get them to adapt faster, among them having the Sovereign's Council start sending more female envoys to Ata-San to start getting them used to dealing with women in positions of authority. More clothing details. Jarzoni clothing is boring in more ways than one...it's mostly done in shades of grey, brown, and tan with occasional touches of color. Their buildings are also similarly uninviting, made from grey stone and built with thick walls and narrow windows, but they have the excuse of frequent attacks by shadowspawn, bandits, and dangerous beasts making such architecture serve a practical purpose. All able-bodied men (not women) in the region are trained in the use of arms to defend their communities, and armed men regularly guard the gates in and out of each community, but while many Aldins would find such towns and dwellings oppressive and foreboding the refugees living there know that life in Aldis is better than anything they could expect back home and when loyalist Jarzoni raiders sneak into Aldis these communities are especially enthusiastic about helping kick them back out. Places Which Don't Have a Rad Magic Deer Now that we've covered Aldis in extensive, occasionally too extensive detail, the chapter concludes with an overview of those places which aren't Aldis, not all of which are actually antagonistic towards the Kingdom of the Blue Rose. The first place isn't a kingdom at all though, it's the Veran Marsh. If you recall from earlier, the land that the Veran Marsh currently occupies used to be known as Veran-Tath, one of the greatest strongholds of the Sorcerer Kings, until the darkfiends that they'd been summoning en masse suddenly turned upon their masters. The city's Sorcerer King used to divert the mighty Tath River from its banks, and after a series of terrible earthquakes the entire city-state had settled several yards downward and everything was broken and hosed-up. The river spread across the entire landscape, forming the marsh that everyone knows and loves to this day. The Veran Marsh sucks. It's full of treacherous quicksand, mud, poisonous plants, and dangerous animals. It's Blue Rose's own Blighttown. There are only four known paths through it, most of which are sized for player-character groups and their equivalents only. The exception is the Great Westerly Road. Merchant caravans, Jarzoni refugees, diplomats, and spies all regularly use this road, which is too well guarded at either end to be of any use to potential invading armies, and the terrain to either side of the road is an impassible expanse of mud and quicksand with no food or safe water to be found, meaning that even a comparatively small garrison can hold off an invading force many times its size. And it's this that keeps Jarzon from invading fertile and abundant Aldis. Aldis doesn't invade Jarzon because Jarzon is resource poor and holds nothing of interest to them, but the marsh helps. And in case you're wondering Jarzon also has a rocky and ruined coast which means that a naval invasion is right out as the Jarzoni navy is small and almost purely defensive. The Hierophant continually sends raiders and spies however, hopeful that they can one day find a new path through the inhospitable terrain. More than a century ago someone did discover such a path. Fortunately for Aldis it was discovered first by an Aldin border scout. Queen Fashi ordered a group of adepts to remove the path using their mastery of the shaping arts. They succeeded, but at the cost of several of their lives...it turns out that the Veran Marsh reacts violently to the use of shaping arcana, and the marshland itself struck back at them like a living thing. Since then Aldin adepts have avoided the use of shaping arcana within the marsh if possible, but the Hierophant keeps throwing adepts at the problem of constructing a new path through the marsh with limited results thus far. They have inadvertently created a new type of quicksand pit which can extend tendrils to pull in prey, so there's that. Speaking of which, there's a sidebar with some actual rules crunch for determining what happens if your player-characters decide to ignore all of these very clear warnings and use shaping arcana inside the Veran Marsh. Roll badly enough and you too can cause your own earthquakes, you idiot, what did the book just tell you? Okay, so Jarzon. We've all pretty much gotten the picture on this place by now...repressive and oppressive, big on religion and bigotry. So did they just spring fully formed out of the earth as a convenient antagonist for natives of Aldis to feel smugly superior to? Well, not really, no. What happened is this...during the Shadow Wars and the Great Rebellion, Jarzon suffered more than Aldis did. The land they live in was blasted by dark sorceries, leaving it barren and useless for growing more than scrub, a few weeds, and maybe a hardy goat or three, littered with magical ruins and dangerous relics. The agents of the Sorcerer Kings were also ruthless in their hunt for dissidents and many people were slaughtered even as the flames of rebellion continued to grow within the Jarzoni peoples' hearts. And it certainly doesn't help that Jarzon is presently bordered by a place with the inviting name of the Shadow Barrens. All of this has taken its toll upon Jarzon, and an understandable mistrust of sorcery and the works of the Sorcerer Kings has developed over time into a paranoia regarding anything which might even possibly be considered similar to the darkfiends and aberrations which even now continue to plague them, including vata'sha, rhydan, night people, and even on occasion sea-folk, as well as any form of magic other than the healing arts. The Jarzoni's view of homosexuality as perverse is implied to be a result of the severe depopulation they faced as a result of the Shadow Wars and the emphasis they placed upon rebuilding their peoples' numbers in the wake of that tragedy. It's not really clear why women get the second-class treatment though. Jarzon owes much of its survival to its religion known as the Church of Pure Light or the Purist faith. Born in the oppression of the Shadow Wars and nurtured around bonfires in secret caverns and basements, martyrs died at the hands of the Sorcerer Kings and crusaders led the charge against them during the Rebellion. After the war the church's influence and power grew until Jarzon became a full-blown theocracy. The central god of the Purist faith is Leonoth, god of the hearth, and he embodies the Jarzoni ideals of hard work, perseverance, and faithfulness, while Maurenna, the Summer Queen, is generally relegated to a secondary role as Leonoth's consort. Purist temples are imposing edifices of rough-hewn stone bedecked with gargoyles and chimneys, and the cavernous interiors are windowless and feature great roaring fires meant to invoke the earliest days of the faith. quote:The religion is deeply divided in many ways: militaristic but valuing peace, preaching love but often practicing hate. Its priests and the faithful run the gamut, from Light- to Shadow-aligned. The upper levels of the church are riddled with hypocrisy and corruption, but also have some truly good men trying to do what they fervently believe is right, although often based on ignorant views of the world beyond Jarzon’s borders. The theocracy is ruled by the Hierophant who's supported by the priesthood who are the only people within Jarzon permitted to study arcana. Anybody else who gets caught studying the arcane arts, be it sorcery or the psychic arts, receives the same sentence of death by burning. Foreign healers are grudgingly permitted to practice their art so long as they don't violate any other laws. Jarzoni priests are more than adepts though, they also form the militant arm of the church, training as warriors in addition to studying theology. These Knights of the Pure Light are the Jarzoni equivalent to the Rose Knights and lead the theocracy's soldiers in battle. In addition to these priests the Hierophant maintains an extensive network of spies and assassins that he's all too willing to turn inward towards his own people, utilizing them as a secret police to root out heresy and subversion, the sentence for which is, you guessed it, death by burning.  There's not really a lot of interesting art in this section unfortunately. And then we come to the biggest and baddest menace looming over Aldis and Aldea as a whole, the kingdom of Kern presided over by Jarek the Lich King himself. I'm going to go ahead and post it in its entirely, totally not because I'm lazy no sir. quote:Tallow smoke hung low in the small room, hazing the air. The Lich King, Jarek, leaned on the edge of the map table, ignoring the smoke and the uneasy shifting of his generals. Jarek no longer breathed, nor cared about the feelings of the living. They would do as he wished and that was what mattered. I talked at length in the section outlining Aldea's creation myth about how the writers worked to keep things within the thematic framework of the romantic fantasy setting that Blue Rose aims to evoke...it's not a myth that glories in bloodshed and battle but in creation and redemption. This bit of fiction up here is the first time we get to see anything more of Jarek beyond his name and title throughout the book so far, and what I like about it is that it once again shows that the writers are doing a good job of keeping things tied into those themes. Jarek is obviously bad news, you don't call yourself the Lich King for nothing, but look at what's emphasized in this passage...his lack of concern for others save their obedience, his covetousness, the fact that only one of his generals dares to question him. Selfish and self-centered, seeking domination over others instead of cooperation, Jarek is everything that an aspiring romantic fantasy protagonist isn't, and we don't need to see him grinding up live puppies for his Soul Furnace to see that this guy is a huge jerk. And I'll go you one further. Take a look at Jarek's secret weapon up there...it's not a Death Star, it's not some artifact or ritual or a giant monster, it's betrayal. The true threat comes from someone who's given into their hatred and is willing to turn on those he (presumably) once loved. It's not an award-winning bit of fiction, no, but I appreciate how it further reinforces what Blue Rose is going for. All that said, Kern is about what you'd expect for a kingdom of evil and despair presided over by an undead sorcerer king (who refers to himself as the Grand Thaumocrat among other things, which I have to admit is a pretty baller title). It's frozen and it's miserable and it sucks. The Ice-Binder Mountains would be a treacherous and formidable natural barrier protecting the land even if they weren't haunted by shadowspawn and darkfiends, which they totally are, and this is one reason why Kern has remained unassailed for as long as it has. Assuming anyone is able to brave the mountains and break through to the other side what they find is a ruin of a land populated by brutalized slaves and even more darkfiends. Another thing which keeps Kern firmly in Jarek's hands is the land's natural abundance of shas crystals. Humans work during the day and night people naturally work during the night in addition to serving as overseers, and they all work towards the singular purpose of unearthing a steady flow of crystals from within the huge mining pits. Even zombies and skeletons aid in the unending toil, carting away loads of rock, but they're too clumsy to be trusted with handling the more delicate shas crystals themselves which is why Jarek bothers to concern himself with living subjects at all. Over-reliance on undead laborers might also risk expending too much of his power, but that's only a theory. It turns out that Jarek was actually one of the least of the Sorcerer Kings of old, and it's largely due to his kingdom's remote location and natural defenses that he held out when his peers were falling one by one. That said, he's still a Sorcerer King and his ambition is matched only by his ruthlessness. He desires to rule over far more than his small kingdom and spends a fortune in gold and gems mined out of the earth by his slaves procuring magical tomes and artifacts from other lands as well as employing bandits and pirates. These bandits are frequently sent on slaving raids into Aldis, Jarzon, or Rezea, accompanied by darkfiends or shadowspawn, zombie thralls, and members of the Knights of the Skull, the finest warriors among Jarek's living subjects who serve him willingly, taking a twisted delight in doing so. There's also a sidebar here about turning things around and raiding the Lich King himself. Aldis, Jarzon, and Rezea periodically mount raids on Kernish shas crystal shipments both to secure the valuable crystals for themselves while simultaneously denying the Lich King valuable resources. In addition these raids also take the opportunity to rescue any slaves that happen to be transporting the crystals. Griffons and rhydan often accompany Aldin raiding parties. On rare occasion Jarzoni priests and members of the Sovereign's Finest even work together on such raids, but the cooperation usually only lasts until the Lich King's forces have been routed and the shiny, candy-like treasure is sitting there waiting to be claimed, and more than once envoys have been betrayed by their allies from Jarzon. So what the heck is Rezea then? The Khanate of Rezea lies to the northwest of Aldis in a land of vast prairies and seasonal rivers with very few natural resources. The inhabitants are clans of nomadic herders and hunters who owe allegiance to the Great Khana, a revered priestess who nonetheless possesses very little political power. The Rezeans worship the Primordials, viewing the gods of Light as the gods of soft, overcivilized people and back in my day we had to walk uphill in the snow both ways, now get off my lawn. They have a lot of respect for rhydan and the mystic arts, particularly animism and meditation, but forbid sorcery in any form. Sea-folk and vata are also cool but night people from Aldis get the cold shoulder. The Rezeans are big horse-people. They spend most of their lives on horseback and tend to great herds of horses, the finest of which they train for riding and battle and the rest of which get used for leather and food. They also hunt large herds of elk and bison that roam the great prairies and if you're starting to go "waiiiiiiiit a minute, these guys sound a lot like some sort of weird fantasy Native American by way of the Mongols thing" then you're not the only one. It's not anywhere near as bad as it could be thankfully (as other RPGs featuring Native Americans and analogues thereof have helpfully demonstrated), but it still comes across as a bit too "paint by TVTropes." Rezean-bred horses are some of the finest in the world, but the finest scouts, hunters, and warriors of Rezea ride the rhy-horses who have long since allied with them. Since rhy-horses are exceptionally long-lived both the rider and the horse share a bond that lasts a lifetime, and gives them someone to talk to during those long rides across the prairie. If either rhy-horse or bond-rider dies the other usually sickens and dies shortly thereafter, or begins leading suicidally dangerous raids against bandits and darkfiends until death finally comes. Some Rezean rangers and warriors also earn extra money for their clan by selling their services as mercenaries, hiring out as caravan guards or to merchants setting up mining camps in the Ice-Binder Mountains. Rezean warriors also occasionally work with the Sovereign's Finest to launch raids into Kern, freeing slaves and destroying dangerous magical artifacts.  That one kid looks so smug about his weird knife-boomerang thing. And last, but actually least, out of loving nowhere we have the Roamers. The Roamers are...look, I'm just going to be blunt, the Roamers are essentially gypsies with the serial numbers filed off. quote:Roamers once had a land of their own, a prosperous nation of mosaic-covered domes, fragrant perfumes, and long nights of dance, storytelling, and prophecy. Faenaria, as it was called then, was more wracked in the Shadow Wars than any other land. Today it is the Shadow Barrens. Roamers are the descendants of the few Faenari who escaped the devastation of their homeland. They are now a nomadic people, living in brightly painted wagons and staying in one place for no more than a week or two, often only for a few days. So yeah. This exists and it's pretty dumb. This is the one part of this writeup so far that I've been unsure of exactly what to say or how to say it. I'm not really sure why fantasy RPG writers have this weird seeming obsession with sticking not-gypsies in all their settings, as though things aren't complete with yet another iteration of the fortune-telling, thieving, magical travelers with their dancing and their caravans, but of all the things I don't think Blue Rose was really crying out for this is somewhere on the list. Even setting aside the roleplaying hobby's historically, I'll say questionable track-record with how it portrays Roma and their assorted off-brand "gypsy archetypes," the fact remains that the Roamers are basically completely uninteresting and bring nothing new to the table. Take every romanticized gypsy stereotype you can find, file some of the edges off (they aren't really thieves and kidnappers, that's just their reputation), and call it a day. I've generally been pretty positive towards Blue Rose up to this point, more for its setting than its system, but this part right here is one that I'll straight-up admit that I think is badly done, lazy, and not at all necessary. And on that upbeat note, we've now reached the end of chapter 1! It only took me about two or three more updates than I'd originally intended, but it's the journey that matters, not the destination. Except the destination is also important because now that I'm finished with the first chapter it means I can finally tag my extremely patient partner gradenko_2000 back in and turn things over to him for a while as we move beyond Aldis' fluffy exterior and crack into the crunchy center lying beneath. Next Time: Characters have six abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Conszzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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Jul 31, 2015 09:22
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Zereth posted:Wouldn't its effectively infinite supply of signifigant charges mean it's long since hit the cap for those boosting effects? There's not technically a limit. You can't have more than 250 Wound Points, but Master of Flesh doesn't have a cap on your top Body or Speed. Although there's not usually a lot of motivation to have a Body higher than 126 or a Speed higher than 101, because that's when most of the significant benefits kick in...but there are potential benefits to going higher...a huge Body score means that most injuries are considered minor (a big deal for an epideromancer, a Body of 200+ means that you won't ever suffer a major injury when getting a significant charge) and it makes you practically immune to drugs, alcohol and poison. A speed score of 200+ means you automatically win Initiative. There's also the considerable benefit of being able to sacrifice Body or Speed to get Major charges...even if the Law of Transaction prevents you from exceeding your "natural" scores, having 200+ points on top of the natural rating gives you plenty of buffer to work with. There's also the question of what happens when you get your abilities to truly ludicrous levels. UA is very anthrocentric and its stats reflect this...there's no rules for animal stats for instance. But the Freak could potentially increase its Body score without limit and at some point that's going to let it start flipping cars and bending steel. Most epideromancers hit a practical limit of a little over 100 because that's where most of the benefits are and Master of Flesh costs 5 significant charges (meaning you've got to suffer and then heal from 2d10 damage per charge). That's a couple of months of hurting yourself and patching yourself up for most Epideromancers: until your Body exceeds 100 taking 11 points is a Major injury which means it can't be fixed with first aid and heals probably about 1 point a day (since you can't get assistance from anyone else due to the epideromancer taboo). That's almost 2 months for a single charge, assuming nothing bothers you in the meantime, meaning almost a year to build up the charges you need for Master of Flesh. The Freak can build up 5 Significant charges in 5 days. In the time it takes someone to recover from one significant charge it can get 55 charges, enough to cast Master of Flesh 11 times (and gaining an average of 10-ish stat points every casting).
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Jul 31, 2015 09:38
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Halloween Jack posted:*Unless you're playing a Mystic Hermaphrodite, and even then, the Freak is capable of both whimsy and mercy toward other MHs that don't pose a direct threat. The Sleepers sourcebook Hush, Hush, mentions that one of the high-ranking Sleepers is a Mystic Hermaphrodite who is powerful enough that they could make a push for Godwalker. However, they've made a deal with the Freak: they won't try to become the Godwalker, and the Freak won't rip off their arms. They're not exactly happy about that, but there's not much they can do.
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Jul 31, 2015 11:28
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chiasaur11 posted:The haircut thing makes me think of that Thomas Jefferson video linked earlier. Just the reporter carefully trying to ask about, you know, all the murders, and he's just saying how great his barber is, and how this guy, he's an artist, you know? He cares about his work, and that's something you just don't see every day. The World of Progress is a Very Special place for haircuts. Everyone has late 70s/early 80s feathered hair. loving EVERYONE. Slayer looks like a cross between Michael Jackson, Don King, and Nosferatu. Intruder and half the named NPCs have generic 80s goth hair. The Shaktar have huge Predator dreadlock manes, and the Stormers are lizardmen with Poison hair. If I took crazy reality drugs and then you replaced SLA's Halloween Jack with me, I'd still be totally insane, but instead of a chain-axe I'd just run around with clippers giving people grownup haircuts.
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Jul 31, 2015 12:20
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quote:The Sleepers sourcebook Hush, Hush, mentions that one of the high-ranking Sleepers is a Mystic Hermaphrodite who is powerful enough that they could make a push for Godwalker. However, they've made a deal with the Freak: they won't try to become the Godwalker, and the Freak won't rip off their arms. They're not exactly happy about that, but there's not much they can do. Yeah, it comes up in the 2e book as well. Basically, the Freak's position as Godwalker is about as secure as its possible to get. In addition to the Freak's enormous personal power it's got an understanding with the Archetype itself (who's very interested in having the Freak serve as a nearly unbreakable barrier to Archetype-hood)...meaning that anyone gunning for Godwalker has to deal with not only figuring out how to beat the Freak with anything short of a missile strike, but they've also got to contend with opposition from the Mystic Hermaphrodite itself. The Freak is so secure in its position that it hasn't even bothered to come up with its Godwalker channel yet. The Freak's only real danger is itself, the MH taboo is vague and can be a bitch to maintain...it only takes one infraction for the Godwalker position to open up. That's probably why the Freak comes off as fairly neutral in the Underground, it's deliberately avoiding getting itself involved in anything that might tempt it to break taboo. Probably the most interesting use of the Freak is as a Cosmic-level "neutral party". It doesn't really care about anything other than itself, it's individually powerful enough that its not likely to be swayed by threats or intimidation and it's mystically mandated to avoid dedicating itself to a particular cause. This makes it something of an ideal third party in high-level Cosmic dealings. When two other Godwalkers need to negotiate some kind of truce they call the Freak to act as an observer, when the Sleepers and TNI get into a scrape and need to sort out their relationship the Freak can serve as mediator. It makes it a bit more interesting than just a boogeyman.
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Jul 31, 2015 12:29
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The world of Blue Rose looks pretty small. Any word on what's beyond the map's edges? Space for the GM to fill in himself? An Exalted-esque elemental chaos? The literal edges of a flat world?quote:the cavernous interiors are windowless and feature great roaring fires This bit made me think of Zoroastrian fire temples.
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Jul 31, 2015 14:02
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Kai Tave posted:Then we have the central valleys, the densely populated and fertile heartland of the kingdom. It's very pastoral and scenic, with the first but certainly not the last mention of Aldis' profusion of olive and almond trees. Also white marble and murals. It's all fantastically uninteresting, though something of note is the fact that most of the natives of the central valley region aren't your typical Generic European Caucasian stock, described as having olive skin and dark hair. These people make up about half the region's population with the rest being a melting pot of blonde, pale northerners, night people, vata, sea-folk, Jarzoni refugees (who apparently trend towards red hair), "and even a small community of dark-skinned traders from the distant island of Lar’tya" which is a place I'm not sure is ever mentioned again anywhere else in the book. Lar'tya is described in some detail in the World of Aldea supplement and .... well, I personally really, really hope it gets a complete overhaul in Blue Rose 2.0 because it's, frankly, racist as all get out. Some choice excepts: "During the Old Kingdom, the islands’ peaceful but primitive natives lacked both cities and writing. They traded fruits and hardwoods for metal tools and other useful products of civilization brought by merchant sailors. Although there was talk of making the islands part of the Old Kingdom because of their abundant natural resources, the islands simply were not populous enough to justify building a shadowgate there, and without a means of instantaneous transport, Lar’tya remained a somewhat primitive client state. ... During Delsha’s reign, thousands of people from the mainland found their way to the islands. These refugees brought literacy as well as knowledge of shas crystals, metalwork, and the like. Their presence gradually transformed the islands, and Lar’tya became a civilized nation in the years before the Shadow Wars and maintained limited trade with the mainland." pp. 97-98 "The islands already had hereditary rulers and nobles, who formed the Lar and Hagin castes. Almost a quarter of the refugees from the empire were allowed to join the Hagin caste. The remainder formed the majority of the Bleyn caste, while the Nuit caste consisted of nonnoble natives who continued their lives as farmers and laborers. The manner in which refugees were absorbed into Lar’tyan society is reflected in the appearance of the castes. Lighter skin, long noses, and even brown or blond hair are occasionally seen in members of the Hagin caste and are somewhat common in the Bleyn caste, but they are unknown in the Lar and Nuit castes, where kinky, jet-black hair, chocolate-brown skin, and dark eyes are the norm." p. 98 Oh, and the 'Bleyn caste' is all the artisans, crafters, merchants, the sociocultural movers basically, the ones who innovate and create things. So, yeah, refugees from the Old Kingdom 'formed the majority' of that caste. Subtle. Seriously. When I first got the book I didn't think I'd ever scrape my jaw off the floor finding this in Blue Rose. Sorry, writer person, but I don't think having the ruling caste as well as the effective peasant caste be free of refugees really exempts you from having pretty much written "the enlightened pale-skinned people who were too Good to stay in their corrupting kingdom fled and brought art, culture and civilization to the dark-skinned primitives".
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Jul 31, 2015 14:18
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Forces of Hordes: Legion of Everblight Blighted Nyss Raptors have actually changed rather little. The Nyss raptors have been around since the days of Khardovic, raiding the northern tribes on their swift and powerful ulk. Each raptor earned the right to join the group in an ancient tradition, heading naked in tho the wilderness to find and tame the ulk stag that would be their mount...or they died. The raptor tradition ahs continued in the Legion, and they ride ahead of the other forces to harass the enemy flanks with arrows before the bulk of the Legion joins theb attle. Only masters of both blade and bow can become raptors. The traditional ulk, a sort of very large and hardy deer, instinctively shun the blighted Nyss, but the striders tracked several herds to exhaustion and captured them. Blighted ulk become as aggressive as their riders, using their massive antlers as weapons rather than just self-defense and dominance tools.  The Blighted Nyss Scather Crews utilize light catapults that fire liquid blight itself. It can dissolve metal, wood or stone as easily as flesh and bone, and even a few drops cause searing agony before killing victims. The blight liquid inside the ammo speads over a wide area, sending up clouds of killing vapors. They disperse quickly, but where they land, no plants will ever grow again, and only dragonspawn can draw sustenance from the flesh of those it kills. The Nyss were once happy to relyo nly on their bows, but in clashes with regimented armies, they realized they needed more firepower. Everblight taught them to make machines devised by the warlords of Morrdh. These lightweight but formidable catapults transport easily, using hinged wooden arms drawn back by rope to fire their projectiles. The projectiles themselves are light, almost delicate, and would puzzle any human siege negineer, until they realized the spiked, perforated globe contained a fragile bladder full of blight essence.  A Blighted Nyss Strider Officer and Musician will sometimes lead the striders. They are trusted to operate autonomously in scouting, and their prominence in blighted Nyss society is a reflection of their anticipation of the Legion's needs. They are masters of ambush, relying on the call of the horn to communicate across any landscape. They use it to call to gather and fight, and the horn dates back to ancient times as a way to convey information long distances. Nyss musicians can convey a lot of information in subtle shifts of tone and note length, and in battle they can unleash a terrible wail that drowns out all other sound and instinctively frightens foes.  A Blighted Nyss Swordsman Abbot and Champion sometimes lead the swordsmen. Many sowrdsmen lost their sense of self under Everlight, with their new hollowness naturally aligning with their meditative sowrd mastery, focusing on their skill to avoid the horror of what they did. Those who fully embraced this murder meditation have become the greatest bldaemasters of the Nyss, the abbots, who are both feared and respected for their absolute calm in atrocity. They are almost enlightened, able to fight with total dispassion. They have earned devotees among the most skilled swordsmen, devoted not a god but to the abstraction of blight and its refinement of the flesh. The best students are known as champions, some of whom have learned to immerse themselves so utterly in swordsmanship that they can wield two claymores at once.  Blighted Ogrun Warspears are only slightly less violent than the warmongers of their race. They are twisted in mind and body, addicted to bloodlust. The force of their spears is enough to pierce iron and impale men at thirty paces. They enjoy the chance to face formidable foes out of some twisted sense of sport. While killing humans is fun, it's not challenging, and the warpsears prefer to face the like of trolls, warpwolves and warjacks. They phrl their spears before rushing forward in a murder frenzy. Those not killed outright are often stunned long enough for them to close and finish the job.  When the blighted Nyss talk about Blackfrost Shard, they mean its three most ruthless scions, the warrior-sorcerers Sevryn, Rhylyss and Vysarr. While the clan has always had a reputation for magic, the shard rose to prominence after the coming of Everblight. These three brothers who lead the shard have great reputations for lethality and viciousness, even for blighted Nyss. Once, they were seen as rebellious malcontents, but now they lead. Sevryn heads the trio, and his severe, practical mind has great insight into the interaciton of blight and magic. He can unravel enchantments while also summoning powerful blasts to strike down his foes, and it is he who maintains order in the shard. His brothers Rhylyss and Vysarr accompany him at all times, obeying him unquestioningly. Even before the blight, they had an intuitive bond that let them complement each other in battle. Rhylyss has learned how to hurl curses, while Vysarr can shield the trio from sight. Working together, they can trap anything in an icy cage. With the blight deepening the darkest parts of their personalities, Rhylyss' cruelty is always present and Vysarr is as focused on killing as a hawk on prey. Sevryn has changed least, but now, he is an ambitious and intelligent leader, who secretly hopes to permanently lead the blighted Nyss and to earn an athanc shard. He will do anything, even sacrifice his brothers, to achieve that.  Blighted Nyss Shepherds are granted perfect purity of purpose by the blight, sensing the echoes of Everblight in the thoughts of the spawn around them. While most of the Legion fears and respects the dragonspawn, the shepherds are close to them. They spend all their time with the spawn, preferring even to sleep among them, and can become angry if forced to deal with other Nyss more than briefly. Others look on them with awe and envy, as only the warlocks have a closer connection to Everblight. They stand apart from others, blessed by their unique relationship with the dragon. Next time: The least sexy incubus in the world
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Jul 31, 2015 15:24
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taichara posted:Sorry, writer person, but I don't think having the ruling caste as well as the effective peasant caste be free of refugees really exempts you from having pretty much written "the enlightened pale-skinned people who were too Good to stay in their corrupting kingdom fled and brought art, culture and civilization to the dark-skinned primitives". I thought the theocracy was going to be the racist as poo poo part, but I guess they saved it for the supplements. Kai Tave, do the Jarzoni ever get physically described?
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Jul 31, 2015 16:20
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Kavak posted:I thought the theocracy was going to be the racist as poo poo part, but I guess they saved it for the supplements. Kai Tave, do the Jarzoni ever get physically described? So far the only real bit of physical description they've gotten is a mention that red hair is a typical Jarzoni trait. That Lar'tya writeup sounds pretty bad. I never owned the supplements so I have no idea what's in them, but I hope it's not all stuff like that. Mention is made in the core book of far-distant lands but that's about it, so the implication is that there are other places out there beyond the seas but the creation thereof is left up to the GM.
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Jul 31, 2015 16:28
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Kai Tave posted:So far the only real bit of physical description they've gotten is a mention that red hair is a typical Jarzoni trait. I could buy Jarzon as not-Ireland. A small colony constantly crapped on by greater powers and abused and once it gets its independence doesn't handle it terribly gracefully at first even assuming other powers aren't poking around inside.
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Jul 31, 2015 16:39
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oriongates posted:Yeah, it comes up in the 2e book as well. Basically, the Freak's position as Godwalker is about as secure as its possible to get. In addition to the Freak's enormous personal power it's got an understanding with the Archetype itself (who's very interested in having the Freak serve as a nearly unbreakable barrier to Archetype-hood)...meaning that anyone gunning for Godwalker has to deal with not only figuring out how to beat the Freak with anything short of a missile strike, but they've also got to contend with opposition from the Mystic Hermaphrodite itself. The Freak is so secure in its position that it hasn't even bothered to come up with its Godwalker channel yet. Perhaps the real danger to The Freak is acceptance of other gender identities, a world where a 'Mystic Hermaphrodite' called 'The Freak' is offensive, a world with trans individuals on the cover of magazines. Perhaps the only way to 'defeat' The Freak is with... tolerance. This started out sarcastic but I think it means you can do a Hedwig & the Angry Inch style game that ends with Laura Jane Grace ascending as a punk goddess.
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Jul 31, 2015 16:44
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Forces of Hordes: Legion of Everblight The Blighted Nyss Sorceress and Hellion are new. Traditionally, they would ride into battle on ulks, but Everblight gave them hellions, which once carried the warlords of Morrdh. They fall out of the sky onto their foes, delivering the sorceresses into the heart of battle. These women are half-mad, and they must be strong and agile enough to stand atop the hellions without saddles or harnesses. They cross the field at amazing speed to unleash their magic, summoning up deadly winds. Everblight has assimilated their rich magical tradition, which has a long history among the Nyss, particularly as part of religion. The sorcerous bloodlines have risen to new prominence now, as Everblight awakens the power even in those who had not manifested it before. The sorceresses are vassals and messengers of the generals, as while the warlocks are in instant communication with each other, the rest of the Nyss must still rely on mundane means. Sorceresses are key, with their swift mounts, and they also use their power and knowledge of blighted runes to create spawning vessels.  The Incubus is an insidious creature, which infects its host like a sentient disease to spread the energy of death and blight. The infected Nyss transform into hideous abominations when slain. It's impossible to tell who is host to a Nyss, until they transform. Incubi are a byproduct of the research that gave Everblight the nephilim. Chosen hosts consider it an honor to bear the infection of dragon blood, knowing that when they die, the incubus will carry on. These things survive no more than a hour before dissolving, but they can kill a lot of people in that time as well as destroy enemy morale. Often, those who witness them will hesitate to kill in later battles for fear of incubi.  Strider Deathstalkers are the cream of the crop, mutated so far that they resemble birds of prey more than most Nyss. They revel in slaughter, planning their attacks meticulously and with as much information as possible before striking. One deathstalker is enough to convince many foes that an entire force of bowmen is attacking. They toy with their prey intricately and cruelly, provoking them into rash action and waiting in ambush. They can blend into their surroundings and remain still for hours, patient to a level unnerving even to other striders. They have an honored place in the legion, demanding the obedience of their fellow Nyss thanks to their intellect and the favor of the dragon. They are arrogant, but their skill and ruthlessness earns that right. They are trusted to execute long and complex missions with considerable leeway in coordinating and commanding other striders.  Spell Martrys float above the earth, reminding the Legion that every life within is bound to Everblight. They are barely alive, vessels for the magic of the warlocks. Channeling magic through a martyr greatly extends a warlock's reach, though it also consumes the martyr in ashen flame. While the Nyss are Everblight's favorite servants, they are relatively rare and valuable. Thus, Everblight seeks to make even the damaged followers useful throughout their lives. Martyrs offer up their bodies for use as the warlocks see fit and are one product of his experimentation in using, as it were, all of the buffalo. The most permanent camps in the north have cabals of sorcerers dedicated to arcane research. They are the ones that design many Legion weapons, and when they sought to find ways to extend the lives of injured Nyss, they experimented with the use of Aeric runes and dragon secrets. Eventually, they used their knowledge of the athanc to make a crude simulation of an athanc, a talisman to bind a dying Nyss to the will of Everblight, capable of briefly serving as a conduit of the blight energy. The false athanc holds the Nyss in perpetual stasis at the moment of death, awaiting the will of Everblight. The warlocks send their power through the martyrs, releasing them fro mtheir torpor in a moment of radiant sacrifice.  Few blighted ogrun have the will and intellect of the Warmonger War Chiefs. They lead the tribes, looking to Thagrosh as the embodiment of the dragon. When he stands before the ogrun, they are united in purpose, stronger than any other Legion forces. War chiefs delight in their kills, devouring them mid-battle and challenging anyone to question their dominance over the ogrun. The scent of blood itself gives them strength, and drinking it fresh heals them. Though the blight has transformed both mind and flesh, parts of their original psyche remain. Ogrun feel it is their purpose in life to follow a great leader, a worthy korune. This is so potent an instinct that it can even override their berserker frenzies, inciting them to follow the war chiefs in battle.  Anyssa Ryvaal, Talon of Everblight is a stealthy killer, moving in the night with poisoned arrows. She is first among the raptors, one of the best trackers and hunters in Immoren, second only to Lylyth. By the time Everblight dominated the Nyss, she was already an outcast, leading a band of marauders who would do anything to survive. They stole from the Nyss and murdered humans, and when they heard about the Legion, Ryvaal turned on them. She was no match for the dragon's forces in direct battle, so she spent months on a campaign of harassment and assassination, hunting blighted Nyss and then vanishing. She did not escape Everblight's notice, and it became harder and harder to evade pursuit. She sensed the coming of death and decided that if she would die, she'd take as many with her as she could, growing reckless. Eventually, she drew the attention of Lylyth herself. Lylyth chased her down in a narrow canyon, and Ryvaal turned her ulk to charge in one final act of defiance. She was a master of the raptor fighting arts, firing her arrows while using her bow to parry attacks as her ulk impaled the blighted Nyss. They began to fall back, and she might have routed them, were it not for Lylyth, who fired a blight-empowered arrow, ending her defiance in a single perfect shot. She lost consciousness, sure she would die. When she awoke to the pain of her wound and the sensation of the blight, she saw only Lylyth. She was spared because Lylyth saw in her a mirror of her own determination and ruthlessness. Ryvaal took Lylyth's hand and never looked back. As Lylyth took control fo the scouts, she made Anyssa her lieutenant, and under her command, the raptors range out miles ahead of the Legion to scout and make attacks on targets of opportunity. More than one Rhulic or Winter Guard patrol has met its death under her poison arrows. The End! Next up - Hordes: Domination or Warmachine: Wrath?
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Jul 31, 2015 17:01
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 07:37 |
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Mors Rattus posted:
Or they'll dance on the corpse because the rules for Incubi require there being an open space for them to spawn on the turn after they die 
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Jul 31, 2015 17:31
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