[X] We should keep it underground--quiet--pick only the ones who can keep their mouths shut and who we can trust to agree with your ideas.
[X] Plan: Feed the Hungry
Personally I think that the benefits of greater secrecy and more loyal followers outweighs strength of numbers and the (probably) minor synergetic benefits from connection, given our current situation being on an imperial cult hating world and all.
Plus I like the idea of all our followers getting along with us and what we want, not just what they think we want.
Makes everything feel very tight nit, a group of good friends out to live a nice long life and spread the good word of the Maiden make more good friends, a nice place for a cult to start in my opinion.
Life is our (only) Core Domain. Everything we do has Life attached to it. There is no way for us to take divine action that isn't, in some way, Life-y. Only Associated Domains need to have resources spent on being included in actions.
Upgrading other domains to Core down the line presents the following tradeoff: we won't have to spend resources to add divine oompf of that sort to our actions... but we can't do things in a way that leaves out our Core. Our Core empowers us by bringing stuff into our themes, but also limits us by making it impossible to leave them out.
I'll take you at your word, but if this is the case it'd be nice if Alectai shared info this important directly with the thread as a whole, for those of us who aren't on the discord (and in my case, I prefer not to use discord for quest threads at all).
[X] We are not going to get anywhere by being too secret, we should bring in anyone who will hear us out
[X] Plan: Feed the Hungry
I can confirm it, nobody really bothered to ask until I was getting on the bus to work, and shortly afterwards I went dark until I got set up in my room.
[X] Plan Kudzu
-[X] Go big or go home, right? Let us speak with as many people as we can.
-[X] Aggressive Expansion (DC 10+)
--[X] Hero: Dana Magistrix
--[X] Connection Domain
-[X] The Famine Problem (DC 75)
--[X] Endurance Domain
[X] We should keep it underground--quiet--pick only the ones who can keep their mouths shut and who we can trust to agree with your ideas
[X] Plan: Feed the Hungry
-[X] Aggressive Expansion (DC 10+)
--[X] Hero: Dana Magistrix
-[X] The Famine Problem (DC 75)
--[X] Domains: Endurance, Weaving (-2 Tokens of Favor)
Nah, presumably the base DCs for our options (and the selection of those options themselves) already take that into account.
Which is to say, basically, the Life domain is what allows us to have a "fix the famine" option at all, and if one of our siblings had to deal with this issue instead of us, even if they had "Weaving, Endurance, Connection" domains, they wouldn't have that option available in that form.
Discord is great for playing games and chilling with friends, or even building a worldwide community. Customize your own space to talk, play, and hang out.
[x] We are not going to get anywhere by being too secret, we should bring in anyone who will hear us out
[X] Plan: Feed the Hungry
-[X] Aggressive Expansion (DC 10+)
--[X] Hero: Dana Magistrix
-[X] The Famine Problem (DC 75)
--[X] Domains: Endurance, Weaving (-2 Tokens of Favor)
There was just no messing with the classics--a mystery cult might have a certain air of dignity while populism was really good at getting something done really fast, but if you want to get things done as a God you need to do it properly, and that means an honest cult with clear scripture and a willingness to induct anyone who's willing to go through the effort to join it.
Of course, a lot of it has to do with how Dana is really good at this whole business. Sure, you weren't the God she was hoping for when she made her plea--but as you watch her stand in the midst of the cornfields, waving her censer over them while speaking of the great spirit that had been moved by their plight, while introducing just enough Imperial 'Emperor Entry Hatches' to it to make it just look like some ghost of a saint or something?
Well, her own faith was a mighty thing--you knew she was a Good Girl all along!
[Traditional Church Doctrine decided upon]
The Cult of Verdance formed in the dawning days of the Fifty-Second Millennium in response to the twinned crises of an impending famine brought on by a series of poor harvests and a festering Xenos incursion. Claiming to be the disciples of a spirit of life sent by the God-Emperor of Man, the Cult's first public figure was Dana Magistrix, a failed supplicant to Ecclesiarchal rank who clearly had hidden taint that festered in the frontier, leaving them prey to the seductive whispers of the Daemon. They are organized in a loose hierarchy, the peak of which are granted foul corruptions of body and soul in a fell shade of the Plaguefather, given a more pleasant face by the cunning witch-queen of the Warp to tempt the weak-willed into eternal bondage.
Your Cult is the mechanism through which you have impact on the Material Realm, those who have come to believe in you as a God and have welcomed you into their soul. To an extent, this means 'Anything your Cult knows, you know', though your interpretation will be colored by your Core Spheres. As such, for each rank of Cult you achieve, you gain an additional Manpower Token, which is used to buy actions in the same fashion that a Hero does, or to enable ones that cannot be achieved by a single Hero alone. They spread your faith, you reward them with blessings and miracles, and this in turn galvanizes them to redouble their efforts on your behalf. As is proper.
However, your Cult are still people, they have their own thoughts and opinions--and this can result in unexpected outcomes. When an action is taken by your Cult fails, a D100 is rolled and compared to a table to determine precisely how it went off the rails and if it succeeded anyway despite the Complication. As you went with a Traditional Church, these Complications will never outright create a problem you would find repugnant as a God, but when you're looking to do a discreet infiltration and one of your cells sprays chrome paint on their faces and scream "WITNESS ME" before charging into an Inquisitorial Cell to create an opening, you often find yourself having to play damage control.
Your greatest work though were with the Corntatoes
"Why are you calling them that..." Dana groans, rubbing her forehead as your image lies across from her, lounging on the couch with your pipe languidly held in in one hand. "It's just so..."
"Simple? Silly?" You chuckle. "The best Names often are, speak of a thing as it is and people will understand what they are meant to be" Your pipe goes to your mouth, and you breathe the smoke in deeply. "Your people are--on the whole--farmers. Who would understand a word like 'Deeproot Starch' or 'Soylens Veridian?' It means nothing, and they call these things by the ancient words instead. Simply splicing together two establishes clearly even to the most distant farmer that it is a crop that has both properties."
You close your eyes, and stretch. "I think it was a rather good play myself, altering the wheat crops to take a greater share of the sunlight and funnel it into the roots you would normally discard as wastage. Your harvest has doubled--which keeps the taxman happy and not looking too closely--while the amount you would actually get to keep is near tripled."
"It's still not enough, not yet..." Dana shakes her head. "This will keep us from starving, but the Publicani has already stripped our walls bare and is burning for the outer system, the Flayers will not leave such a weakness unpunished, and we have but women and children left to take their place--none of which have experience in battle."
"Is experience really that important?" You wonder, idly tracing a circle in the air with your pipe. "Courage and Will are the core of conflict, so long as both of these are held--I do not see why defeat is in the cards."
"We can have all the courage in the world" Dana bitterly laughs at that. "But the flesh is weak, and the enemy is at our gates--we've been lucky in that the PDF was extracted while the Flayers had pulled back, but the moment they realize they can take what they want, we'll be helpless before them."
"And that is my responsibility" You smile, and flow to your feet, passing by her. "So long as you and your new fellows stand with me, I will grant you the tools you need to win."
You have ideas after all. As fine a task as growing the means of survival was--it is your nature to embody all of the aspects of Life.
The stubborn refusal to die, the courage to adapt to changing conditions...
And the will to take it from those who would threaten you.
"My my..." You pause in your stride and turn back. "How do you feel about weeds?"
[The Famine Problem Results: 84 + 10 (Dana) + 20 (Domain Invocations): 114]
[A Miracle! The Corntato is born through the aggressive rearrangement of cereal crops to consume greater degrees of sunlight and catalyze calories into the root systems, expanding them beyond all realistic sanity, as the crop should be catching fire from the added energy. As most of the currently available crops are cereal products of which the roots are traditionally waste products, the Publicani happily accepts the bumper crop--and completely misses the fact that there's more to claim. Your people will not starve--though half rations will be a necessity until the next harvest. +15 to Publicani Success Roll]
[Publicani Tax Collection: 93 + 15: 108!]
[The Publicani's holds are filled, he has made a tidy profit with this expedition and ignores the reports about a rising cult in the world--after all, they'll be dead by the next time he does his rounds anyway. He sends his landers off to press gang the PDF from the walls, and departs the system, pleased with his gains and equally pleased with the likelyhood of a recolonization contract when he returns.]
[Flayer Pressure: 12 + 15 (Empty Walls): 27]
[The Flayers had been withdrawing for some reason when the walls were empty, and did not notice the vulnerability of the Equinox Settlers--this will assuredly change, soon. You must be prepared.]
Ensure the Publicani leaves satisfied (PRIMARY) COMPLETE: +1 Tale
Eradicate the Flayer Menace (PRIMARY)
Establish your Cult (PRIMARY)
Ensure a famine does not break out on Equinox (SECONDARY)
Minimize damage inflicted to the people of Equinox (SECONDARY)
You are a Scope 1 God (1/3 Tales to Scope 2)
You currently have 3 Tokens of Favor
You have 1 Heroic Cultist
You have a Rank 0 Cult, giving you 1 Manpower Token
Preaching Actions: [ ] Aggressive Expansion (DC 10+)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Connection) You should make a splash you think, have Dana do some strong preaching, maybe give her a bit of a nudge here and there? Just generally really show the non-existent flag around.
[ ] Write the Book (DC 50)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Connection) Your Cult is small and nobody really understands what's going on with it, just that the first one speaking it presided over the harvest and a brand new miracle crop was born--just like she said. While you've got a good base of interested parties coming in, your doctrine isn't the most well developed yet--you and Dana should work on that to maybe avoid some problems later.
Infiltration Actions [ ] Ears to the Ground (DC 50)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Connection) You're a proscribed cult to begin with, sort of by definition what with the whole 'You're not actually a spirit of life sent by the God-Emperor". It's also flagrantly easy to prove bullshit by any agent of his with Power. More importantly, you're going to be taking some pretty obvious actions going forward, and making sure there's nobody around who'll backstab your people for recognizing you is just... It's just good sense, you know?
Charity Actions [ ] The Famine Problem Part 2 (DC 50)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Endurance, Weaving) The Corntato is an excellent start, but it's honestly a bit harsh on the soil, so it needs to be grown on a pretty long rotation, maybe introduce a few more modified crops here and there to ease things along and make sure that the famine recovery goes as smoothly as it can.
[ ] Good Works (DC 50)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Connection) The best way to become popular as a god is to have your followers do nice things in your name. You do nice things for people and people do nice things for you, that's just the basics of how civilization works, is it not? That's the idea anyway
Kinetic Actions [ ] A Panoply for your Hands (DC 80) (1 Manpower Token Required to open up)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Weaving, Endurance, Death) The Flayers are coming soon--and you will see your people well prepared. Aggressive modification of your cultists might be your initial first reaction--but ultimately you can do little to enhance their strength, which will be key in holding position. Instead, you should see to it that your Cult is granted a suitable form of external strength. You've got all those legends about giant Angels of Death after all and a nigh infinite amount of weed-based biomass. You know what needs to happen.
[X] Plan Plague Marine? No, Petal Marine!
-[X] Aggressive Expansion (DC 10+)
--[X] Hero: Dana Magistrix
-[X] The Famine Problem Part 2 (DC 50)
--[X] Hero: Dana Magistrix
--[X] Domain: Weaving.
-[X] A Panoply for your Hands (DC 80)
--[X] Manpower Token
--[X] Domains: Endurance, Death
I'm thinking we probably want to do the panoply sooner rather than later and the Famine Problem is also something that needs dealing with, so that's probably where I'd want to put our resources.
[X] Plan All in on Evangelions
-[X] Aggressive Expansion (DC 10+)
--[X] Hero: Dana Magistrix
-[X] The Famine Problem Part 2 (DC 50)
--[X] Hero: Dana Magistrix
-[X] A Panoply for your Hands (DC 80)
--[X] Manpower Token
--[X] Domains: Weaving, Endurance, Death
[X] Plan Solid foundation.
-[X] Write the Book (DC 50)
--[X] Hero: Dana Magistrix
-[X] The Famine Problem Part 2 (DC 50)
--[X] Hero: Dana Magistrix
-[X] A Panoply for your Hands (DC 80)
--[X] Manpower Token
--[X] Domains: Weaving, Endurance, Death
The idea is that instead of spread the cult again is to get the book done while we are small so we don't have to worry about it after we are big and potentially introduce a divide book vs non-book
[X] Plan Solid foundation.
-[X] Write the Book (DC 50)
--[X] Hero: Dana Magistrix
-[X] The Famine Problem Part 2 (DC 50)
--[X] Hero: Dana Magistrix
-[X] A Panoply for your Hands (DC 80)
--[X] Manpower Token
--[X] Domains: Weaving, Endurance, Death
[X] Plan Solid foundation.
-[X] Write the Book (DC 50)
--[X] Hero: Dana Magistrix
-[X] The Famine Problem Part 2 (DC 50)
--[X] Hero: Dana Magistrix
-[X] A Panoply for your Hands (DC 80)
--[X] Manpower Token
--[X] Domains: Weaving, Endurance, Death
[X]Plan Grow, Hide and Fight
-[X]Aggressive Expansion (DC 10+)
--[X]Hero: Dana Magistrix
-[X]Ears to the Ground (DC 50)
--[X] Manpower Token
--[X] Connection
-[X] A Panoply for your Hands (DC 80)
--[X]Hero: Dana Magistrix
--[X] Domains: Endurance, Death
