What is this for anyway? A Storage Unit for our troops? Like shove the bodies in a corpse carrier bag and then show it in the thing to guard till they are out of the field?
Neither has the Gentle Repose feature so it's still gonna be rotting corpses in their mouths. Unless you just designate it as less smelly loot guardian which might be useful. But it all just seems like trying to build a item guardian unit for battlefield work.
That said I like @Azel's creature and think it would actually make a good guard creature for dangerous loot. Like the Illithid Statue. With its immunities the thing doesnt have to worry about most types of corruption. So it is suitable as the ultimate Lead lined holy water filled chest.
Assign one to any raid team or battle group to handle and hold any dangerous stuff for later disposal.
What is this for anyway? A Storage Unit for our troops? Like shove the bodies in a corpse carrier bag and then show it in the thing to guard till they are out of the field?
Neither has the Gentle Repose feature so it's still gonna be rotting corpses in their mouths. Unless you just designate it as less smelly loot guardian which might be useful. But it all just seems like trying to build a item guardian unit for battlefield work.
It's a corpse gatherer, not for our troops, but for selling to the Githzerai, and the Celestials in the Fortresses on Nirvana, they are stuck in constant battles, the kind where a battlefront might be fought over for weeks, the Vipers are meant to zip in and out of those battlefields, and recover corpses to be fed to the Fungus Forge.
The battles we typically engage in are short things, were my Vipers would be useless, but that's not the only way battles are fought across the planes, lots of battles take hours or even days, and in such battles, it's very useful to have stealthy looters, to bring back corpses and loot, before the enemy can recover them.
The Tiny/small Vipers, would probably be the most useful of them all for the Fortresses, they're more or less in a constant defensive battle, it must very often happen that someone with a magic item die, only for another combatant to loot the magic item, the Tiny/small Vipers are very stealthy, and with their Hoard gullet and detect magic, they can quickly locate dropped magic items, setting a couple hundred of these to recovering loot from the battlefield around a fortress, would probably yield a great haul of various minor magical items.
But yeah they're meant for battles where you don't expect total victory, or battles where you don't expect victory at all, just to hurt you enemy before sounding the retreat, in both of those cases corpse gatherers are useful, because if the enemy are allowed to retreat, they might take their dead with them, and if you are the one to retreat, it's the enemy that get to loot the battlefield after the battle, meaning if you want to loot it, you have to do it during the battle.
It's a corpse gatherer, not for our troops, but for selling to the Githzerai, and the Celestials in the Fortresses on Nirvana, they are stuck in constant battles, the kind where a battlefront might be fought over for weeks, the Vipers are meant to zip in and out of those battlefields, and recover corpses to be fed to the Fungus Forge.
The battles we typically engage in are short things, were my Vipers would be useless, but that's not the only way battles are fought across the planes, lots of battles take hours or even days, and in such battles, it's very useful to have stealthy looters, to bring back corpses and loot, before the enemy can recover them.
The Tiny/small Vipers would probably be the most useful of them all for the Fortresses, they're more or less in a constant defensive battle, it must very often happen that someone with a magic item die, only for another combatant to loot the magic item, the Tiny/small Vipers are very stealthy, and with their Hoard gullet and detect magic, they can quickly locate dropped magic items, setting a couple hundred of these to recovering loot from the battlefield around a fortress, would probably yield a great haul of various minor magical items.
Hmm ok. It sounds like it would fit that. I think Azel's one is suited to assign to our own troops though. Like a armored carrier for dangerous loot. Anything that you wouldnt want low CR troops handling for fear of corruption or subversion.
It's a nuclear waster carrier. Good to store and transport the dangerous stuff if you dont have Viserys handy.
What is this for anyway? A Storage Unit for our troops? Like shove the bodies in a corpse carrier bag and then show it in the thing to guard till they are out of the field?
The sea serpent is mostly meant as a secure amphibious transport for the Basilisk Isles since between the local mid-level wildlife and the Illithid base, Salladhor is starting to look for alternatives to regular boats for the time when things get really ugly.
The sea serpent is mostly meant as a secure amphibious transport for the Basilisk Isles since between the local mid-level wildlife and the Illithid base, Salladhor is starting to look for alternatives to regular boats for the time when things get really ugly.
Neat, really usefull in general. Could see it deployed along with Merfolk and our underwater units too. Armored transports as a boon in any form of warfare.
Hmm ok. It sounds like it would fit that. I think Azel's one is suited to assign to our own troops though. Like a armored carrier for dangerous loot. Anything that you wouldnt want low CR troops handling for fear of corruption or subversion.
It's a nuclear waster carrier. Good to store and transport the dangerous stuff if you dont have Viserys handy.
Yeah Azels idea seem ideal for assigning to such task, whereas my Vipers are meant for 2 things.
1. Guerilla warfare where you have to get in and out as fast as possible, and so the warriors don't have time to stop and loot, having them each carry a Tiny Viper, that grab the magic items from their enemies, would let them loot the enemies without slowing down to do it.
2. Prolonged battles, when battles rage back and forth for hours or even days, the combatants tend to loot the corpses during the battle, and while that's fine when it's our side doing it, the fact is both sides will be doing it, the Vipers can slither unseen from corpse to corpse, and with detect magic, they can identify most of the valuable things on the corpse(exception being the occasional non-magical valuables) increasing how much of the loot our side get.
You know what the more I think about it, the more I think my Vipers main value isn't collecting corpses, it's collecting small valuables from active battlefields, that can be done by even Tiny Vipers, and those have +15 to hide, and only cost 1HD to make in the Fungus Forge, even if only half of them survive, and only half of the survivors manage to grab a magic item, with so low prices to make them, and the general value of magic items, using them would net a good haul, and while I expect them to take high losses, I don't think the loss to loot ratio will be quite that high, people generally have better things to do than blast a small snake during a battle, and well if they actually get targeted during the battle, then that mean the enemy wasted a spell on killing a 1HD snake, that's a spell they would otherwise have cast at more valuable people.(our side would of course know not to blast the snakes)
Yeah I'm going to rename the project from corpse gatherers, to Looting snakes, and have it focused on Tiny Vipers slithering across battlefields to grab loot, maybe also some Small Vipers, who the Tiny Vipers can call, if they find a magic item too big for them to swallow.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Nov 6, 2019 at 10:05 AM, finished with 179 posts and 17 votes.
[X] Although the possibilities are nearly limitless, depending on the Githerzai's needs, we believe the following may be suitable for Rondar's first request: -[X] Razorspore Hippogriff (FungalBladeleafHippogriff) - CR 4 (600 IM each) --[X] A sturdy, agile flying mount that can shrug off many forms of attack, heal from almost any non-fatal wound, and simply ignores the Mind-Affecting powers so often employed by the Deep Ones, Razorspore Hippogriffs are capable melee combatants but are also able to engage enemies at fairly long range with their Bladeleaf Swarms and can even employ a poisonous spore breath weapon at close range. -[X] Razorleaf Hippogriff (GreenboundBladeleafHippogriff) - CR 5 (900 IM each) --[X] Razorleaf Hippogriffs are much like the Razorspore Hippogriff, but they are even more resilient, slightly faster and stronger, and have access to a small handful of useful spell-like abilities. -[X] Razortail Ankylosaurus (DireFungalBladeleaf*Ankylosaurus) - CR 10 (4,800 IM each) --[X] Living behemoths, each massive Razortail Ankylosaurus is capable of absorbing and dealing a huge amount of punishment. Not only can they trample their foes into the ground and slash them to bloody ribbons with their razorleaf studded armor, they can also employ the unique magic focused into their bony tails to launch long-range razorleaf attacks capable of shredding all but the most resilient of foes. -[X] NOTE: Assuming no one has a problem with it, I've removed the Immunity to Cold, Fire, and Electricity from the creatures I cooked up using the Bladeleaf Creature template. The immunities are nice, of course, but they're a bit much for a +1 CR template. -[X] We would be willing to trade our Forge services to offset the cost of our latest commissions.
Never had a deal quite like this been reached under the roof of a githzerai monastery, of that you can be certain. Sketches are passed over, arcane limitations turned this way and that as Lya and the Grandmaster struggle to reach common ground of understanding with Jeyne occasionally pressed into the breach to try and filter the lore of flesh-crafting through the language of the mind mage. She surely does not lack for concepts dredged from the half-remembered nightmares of her interment, but more than once words fail her as even the spell of tongues cannot grasp the dreadful truths of the Deep Ones' work.
At such times the Grandmaster offers to speak mind to mind and, seeing her shy away, you offer to reach out yourself to twine your thoughts with his. The experience is odd, but not unpleasant, like floating above a sea of smoke, passing through countless gates not as a traveler, but as a key to open new layers of meaning within the mind the aged mystic.
"Ah... I see," He nods thoughtfully. "Let us say twenty of the weaker flyers, ten of the stronger and two of the great lizard beasts, if my brothers and sisters who care for beasts find them a good fit we shall acquire more of them."
20 Razorspore Hippogriff (Fungal Bladeleaf Hippogriff) - CR 4 (600 IM each) TOTAL 12,000 IM A sturdy, agile flying mount that can shrug off many forms of attack, heal from almost any non-fatal wound, and simply ignores the Mind-Affecting powers so often employed by the Deep Ones, Razorspore Hippogriffs are capable melee combatants but are also able to engage enemies at fairly long range with their Bladeleaf Swarms and can even employ a poisonous spore breath weapon at close range.
10 Razorleaf Hippogriff (Greenbound Bladeleaf Hippogriff) - CR 5 (900 IM each) TOTAL 9,000 IM Razorleaf Hippogriffs are much like the Razorspore Hippogriff, but they are even more resilient, slightly faster and stronger, and have access to a small handful of useful spell-like abilities.
2 Razortail Ankylosaurus (Dire Fungal Bladeleaf* Ankylosaurus) - CR 10 (4,800 IM each) TOTAL 9,600 IM Living behemoths, each massive Razortail Ankylosaurus is capable of absorbing and dealing a huge amount of punishment. Not only can they trample their foes into the ground and slash them to bloody ribbons with their razorleaf studded armor, they can also employ the unique magic focused into their bony tails to launch long-range razorleaf attacks capable of shredding all but the most resilient of foes.
FINAL COST: 30,600 IM
Gained 30,600 IM
Just as you had paid your commission in gold already so too does the Grandmaster's soft command summon a pair of monks carrying a chest filled not with coin, but pale moonstones larger and more even than any you had ever seen. Curious, you ask where they are mined, for you know that which is wrought in Limbo by will alone degrades as soon as it is parted from the sphere.
"They are gathered in Elysium, many name them the Star Tears and claim they are forged from some dreadful torment of the azata folk, in truth they are simply mined in some of the islands of purity that yet remain where they are used as currency. The azata do not object to the dark tales, occasionally using it to deceive a foolish fiend into trading them one of their own back, thinking they are leading the bright ones into damnation."
Dany giggles. "And that has been working all this time since the Sundering?"
"Yes," Randar nods, a small almost impish smile upon his aged features. "Being far weaker than many of their old foes the children of bright Elysium have gained quite the penchant for illusion and trickery, not only that which deceives the five senses, but the mind and the soul. Many a devil has taken to his lord what he thought was an azata imprisoned in a particularly large Star Tear, only to find that all had been deception."
"The better for the Archduckes to weed out the fools," you note, less cheerful about the whole business. Still, it is good to see that there are some in Elysium who still fight even in such a small manner as this.
You will, however, be taking more than a chest full of otherworldly gems home, though Randar himself cannot leave the monastery on such short notice lest he upset the delicate balance that anchors it into being, he offers to send one of his most skilled diviners for the task of identifying the Deep One idol.
You meet Master Nazath in a chamber wrought like a star filled sky, from the floor to the walls to the ceilings, velvet black and silvery crystals. Though he is courteous in greeting he also proves to be a man far less free with smiles and jests, insisting first of all that he is no diviner, but a precognitive. For it is the mind freed from the empire of time, not omens and portents that the githzerai look to. You, of course, correct yourself at once. You have dealt with more prideful folk with far less cause for it.
The translation back home is as smooth as ever and after a few moments staring up a the sky in something approaching dread your newest visitor snaps back to himself and even makes a faintly stilted compliment on the city all around you. You begin to suspect he had not traveled far and wonder if perhaps this might be a test for him from the Grandmaster.
What precautions to you take before identifying the illithid idol?
[] Write in
OOC: A bit more Elysium world-building in this one to make up for the lack of maps last update.
@tarrangar, if you want something of little value that can gather shinies for you, I would suggest making Kobolds instead. They have the added benefit of breeding more of themselves without further investment.
[X] Do it in the Snare, the safest place you know to hold the darkness, should the Idol release some sort of corruption, or make a guiding light for transposing the forces of Deep Ones.
-[X] Fabricate additional layering of Hardened lead sheets around the room (approximately 20cm of lead in total width, placed with slight distance between sheets so as to not spread possible corrosion-effects).
--[X] The cage surrounding drop-platform should, too, be covered in lead for this.
-[X] Have Breath Taker, Jeyne and Relath present.
-[X] Have Mindblank cast on everyone present.
-[X] Spread many of the Aberration-detecting Pearls from Vialesk throughout the room, so that nothing can escape in secret without triggering them.
-[X] The modifications to the room will be removed after the identification, the Snare's main purpose can be impeded by overly-specialised anti-psionic layout.
Any other anti-psionic resources we have?
I cant remember off the top of my head, and the list of exotic materials eludes me.
@tarrangar, if you want something of little value that can gather shinies for you, I would suggest making Kobolds instead. They have the added benefit of breeding more of themselves without further investment.
[X] Do it in the Snare, the safest place you know to hold the darkness, should the Idol release some sort of corruption, or make a guiding light for transposing the forces of Deep Ones.
-[X] Fabricate additional layering of Hardened lead sheets around the room.
--[X] The cage surrounding drop-platform should, too, be covered in lead for this.
-[X] Have Breath Taker and Relath present.
-[X] Have Mindvlank cast on everyone present.
Any other anti-psionic resources we have?
I cant remember off the top of my head, and the list of exotic materials eludes me.
There's nothing wrong with creating beings to serve. Every sentient being we make is given an offer for vassalization/recruitment, and pretty much all of them accept.
We do it with Leshys, we do it with Calligraphy Wyrms, etc.
There's nothing wrong with creating beings to serve. Every sentient being we make is given an offer for vassalization/recruitment, and pretty much all of them accept.
We do it with Leshys, we do it with Calligraphy Wyrms, etc.
Ofcourse what could be fairer then asking beings after they have been created to serve you. Its not like we hold all the power here and they would agree out of terror.
Yeah Azels idea seem ideal for assigning to such task, whereas my Vipers are meant for 2 things.
1. Guerilla warfare where you have to get in and out as fast as possible, and so the warriors don't have time to stop and loot, having them each carry a Tiny Viper, that grab the magic items from their enemies, would let them loot the enemies without slowing down to do it.
2. Prolonged battles, when battles rage back and forth for hours or even days, the combatants tend to loot the corpses during the battle, and while that's fine when it's our side doing it, the fact is both sides will be doing it, the Vipers can slither unseen from corpse to corpse, and with detect magic, they can identify most of the valuable things on the corpse(exception being the occasional non-magical valuables) increasing how much of the loot our side get.
You know what the more I think about it, the more I think my Vipers main value isn't collecting corpses, it's collecting small valuables from active battlefields, that can be done by even Tiny Vipers, and those have +15 to hide, and only cost 1HD to make in the Fungus Forge, even if only half of them survive, and only half of the survivors manage to grab a magic item, with so low prices to make them, and the general value of magic items, using them would net a good haul, and while I expect them to take high losses, I don't think the loss to loot ratio will be quite that high, people generally have better things to do than blast a small snake during a battle, and well if they actually get targeted during the battle, then that mean the enemy wasted a spell on killing a 1HD snake, that's a spell they would otherwise have cast at more valuable people.(our side would of course know not to blast the snakes)
Yeah I'm going to rename the project from corpse gatherers, to Looting snakes, and have it focused on Tiny Vipers slithering across battlefields to grab loot, maybe also some Small Vipers, who the Tiny Vipers can call, if they find a magic item too big for them to swallow.
Yeah they would be great for looting items. Nut you have to get them Mental Effect Immunity if you dont want to risk one being corrupted by some item and biting its user in the ass (if they are lucky).
Ofcourse what could be fairer then asking beings after they have been created to serve you. Its not like we hold all the power here and they would agree out of terror.
Ofcourse what could be fairer then asking beings after they have been created to serve you. Its not like we hold all the power here and they would agree out of terror.
There's a pretty long list of sentient beings that have been created by Viserys, Lya and Vee. Likewise, there were a lot of recruitment pitches where the power balance was just as skewed.
[X] Do it in the Snare, the safest place you know to hold the darkness, should the Idol release some sort of corruption, or make a guiding light for transposing the forces of Deep Ones.
-[X] Fabricate additional layering of Hardened lead sheets around the room.
--[X] The cage surrounding drop-platform should, too, be covered in lead for this.
-[X] Have Breath Taker, Jeyne and Relath present.
-[X] Have Mindblank cast on everyone present.
-[X] Spread many of the Aberration-detecting Pearls from Vialesk throughout the room, so that nothing can escape in secret without triggering them.
Any other anti-psionic resources we have?
I cant remember off the top of my head, and the list of exotic materials eludes me.
The entire Snare chamber is contained within a lead shell thick enough to impede Divination effects. Adding more isn't a simple undertaking by any means, considering the size of the chamber, and adding it to the cage is just superfluous. Remember, the metal of the cage is already coated in a thin layer of Hardened stone. There is no mechanical benefit to coating it in lead, and could instead impede it.
Dany can cast a Reached Chained Mind Blank on everyone who isn't protected already.
Yeah but we don't give them any other real choice as well.
We offer to let them go out in a world they have never seen and have no experience with. Knowing that there is no one else like them. With no contacts.
They don't have a real choice. We are very much making them take the lesser of two evil choices.
There's a pretty long list of sentient beings that have been created by Viserys, Lya and Vee. Likewise, there were a lot of recruitment pitches where the power balance was just as skewed.
