Re: Busy, I just want to say I apologize if I was of any bother, I do not want you to feel pressured to move any sooner than you are comfortable, I've seen games with far more output than this, which is not to say this is low output, that have suffered in quality from rushing things.
No it's alright, I'm aware I have a tendency to get burnt out on such things, but I'm fairly chill about. I was writing like 1000 words for orc quest a day which was quite tiring, but this one I'm taking slower. Your input is very helpful though so feel free to conitnue, but equally if you're busy you don't have to vote or plan etc, take your time.
Yes, but equally SMs have always been the protagonists of 40k. I would have been happy to write another faction but when I first thought up this story I was thinking about SMs.
To reiterate a point about those early days when we began I and I think others thought we would have an entirely monofaction force with no other supports.
If there could have been something like an even mix of administratum, inquisition and mechanicus initially I would have voted for that rather than mechanicus. Rather than also being terrified that one nearby orc waaagh would end an administratum playthrough in one turn say.
THis is similar to the above really. Limited games are fun, they create conflict to give substance to the story. It would be boring if you could do everything all the time. It's good feedback though about the monofaction, I tend to be friendly to write ins, but this is the first ck2 type quest I've run so I can see that some people might not nbe comfortable challenging the GM about stuff. As for a waaagh, you'd probably have had some defences, and you could have called on allies in the natives, so tht's how you could have defended yourselves.
I've heard a desire from other players not to have things be governed like something between a black templar world and ultramar where marines are permanently ensconced in running things espoused by other players.
Generally speaking I'm flexible. The Golden Magus and Arenessa Saltspite were both int he story so far, they're from Manowar, and I may or may not have the Heart of the Jungle (southlnds jungle wood elves) pop up in your back line at some point. It's all about the utility of a particulr thing. For example, I know lot about warhmmer, but I don't know everything, I didn't know mermids exist for example. However, I don't relly need to know because they're not a major force and therefore I don't relly need to worry about them.
Warhammer 3 will probably be useful for Cathay though yea, so I'll play it eventually. In this quest though the Dragon Emperor is currently away and cathay in civil war.
As a general notice, I rely on logic and extrapolation. If you as a player wnted to know, for exmaple, the cpbilities of wood elves, you'd look at what they do. I don't think they'd have seige towers no, becuse they're not that sort of civilistion, they don't practice seige warfare and they'd be pretty terrible at it. If you therefore needed to make a decision or whatever about how to deal with them, you could always rely on that sort of logic. Or just ask me really, I'm happy to give various steers.
Oh thank the stars because these aforementioned devices and creatures would have made my brain melt harder than having to fight in the realm of Tzeench. And I say this as someone who can accept Jabberslythes, Mermaids and Amazons.
BIG EDIT:
So I realized I haven't thought about expanding the fortress mon in a while!
I feel like investing in more holding areas is probably most important to my vision of our goals.
We want to take and remold the planet, possibly into an imperially compliant world and possibly into a chapter homeworld which we all know only behave nominally in the former category.
In either case, we want to be as hard to destroy as possible. Now our armies have the offense part of that equation covered pretty well methinks.
However defending a people is different, it requires space for those people and a preservation of knowledge to maintain that living space above all.
Therefore next time we can expand I think the priority list should look like such:
• Scriptory
• Hydro-culture
• Terrarium
Serf dormitories
• Refectory
• Generatorum -
• Local Defences
Does anyone disagree with the idea of trying to make the FortMon not just hardpoint but a fallback position for enough of a population to reboot at least a city or two if our other holdings are lost?
PS: Don't worry I'm not taxing myself yet, that will begin when I try to collate every magical item in the Warhammer world that might be used against us But seriously I'm stopping here for the night and hopefully for the next few days if I can help myself.
Warhammer 3 will probably be useful for Cathay though yea, so I'll play it eventually. In this quest though the Dragon Emperor is currently away and cathay in civil war.
It was interesting when I looked at the spoilers that it was obvious from the clues of how the advisor looked. Still maybe it'll give you new ideas if the Imperials through Amra will be the new gangster in the town of the realms of chaos.
Vampire Wars progressing largely without Imperial input. Events slightly altered by contact by Imperium via 3 Astartes and their formation of an army in the northern Empire. Contact made with Cult of Sigmar.
Okay, so another thing I might not have considered if I had continued rushing myself as much as before.
The GM warned us before so who knows could even be wurrzag himself.
Point is we won't know without intelligence.
We are liable to need Intel on these ''Fuedal Orcs'' more than even on bretonnia as near term threats, methinks.
We ought to try and find out:
1: How many thousands are headed our way
2: What allies do they have if any, trolls? Giants? Hobgoblins maybe? Given where we are giant spiders are unlikely but I wouldn't call them completely impossible and those have killed our marines before.
3. How well equipped are they? Are they packed to gills with waggh energy and shamans or not? Scrap Launchers and catapults(stone lobbas)or just dudes with slingshots? Wyvern riding bombing formations or just a bunch of goblins being launched with hang gliders?
4. How quickly are they moving, how much time do we have before they reach us.
Okay, so this has been on my mind longer than anything else I have posted this month, hell I've posted about it before but I don't think I could quite capture the sentiment, as well as I, can now so I return to it.
Before I say anything else let me clarify that for the most part, I love this game and what has been done with it.
Also please don't feel pressured to respond sooner than you need to, I know y'all can be busy.
I am not saying we will face no significant challenges, I think Arhan The Black still walks the world and that maybe we only haven't met him because he does keep leaving the land of the tomb kings to stick his nose hole into things if my memory serves. That and the Skaven are either selling or researching our tech as of now.
All that said for context, I've had one massive thing bothering me since say about turn 2 or whenever things started really getting set in stone. I deeply wish we had not gone so far back in the timeline.
Don't get me wrong having a chance to intervene in the vampire wars is interesting but I am not sure it makes up for all the other bits about this that trouble me.
I have heard the QM's justification for it but I do not think I understand it really. As far as my awareness goes we started this far back to have the opportunity to fight Asavar kuul, however A: if we continue intervening in the far north which we should have a vested interest in doing( the Norscans and the people of Medes are our only willing followers, we would be idiots to abandon them.) I have a hard time seeing him not being replaced by a different possibly less powerful chaos lord.
....and B: He shouldn't be the hardest thing for us to contend with, the loss of opportunity to face a united Empire Of Man/ Empire Of Sigmar, and a United Cathay, and or the Damaz Kron, dwarves of order, etc at the height of their technological prowess[but not population] really leaves me with a lingering sense of sadness and not in a ''the story is sad'' but rather ''the story could have been more interesting and the game more challenging'' sort of way.
I know this was not intended to make the challenge easier for us players the same way voting for the Southlands over the Darklands was but it still feels like it has resulted in that.
I know it can't be helped now but the decision really does still baffle me more than any others I can think of ever being taken with this game.
Sidenote:
''Ulthuan growing more hostile toward Imperium due to interference in trade and hostile actions by Imperium.''
I do wonder if there is any way we can at least mitigate the Imperiums hostility here? Such seems extremely self-sabotaging in this instance.
If he's even born and develops his personality the same way though as more and more butterflies begin to spread their wings I find myself with more and more reasons to doubt.
Even if that is the case it would still leave his advance on the oldworld slowed, and he'd still have to chew through both before ever becoming a threat in araby.
Besides he's still (enhanced)flesh and blood and not even a nurgle blessed dude when it comes right down to it he's not tanking a nuke to the face if we see him *very* hypothetically crossing the great ocean on a longship.
Well unless that timeline warping makes him a champion of nurgle or gives him a teleporting tzeench boat I guess, but again I'm not sure he will even be *born* anymore.
So, it turns out there are several hundred more magic items than I expected that I need to write about to make y'all a proper list and I'm not sure that will be possible this semester, for goodness sakes it looks like even the halflings and beastmen use them. Many of them are especially weird and poorly described as well so that's fun.
Key point is I'm not sure I can get that done this semester at least not as a oh I'll just add twenty things each Saturday sort of plan.
So I have to wonder tyranids(even sessile ones) and sqigs(because they'd birth gretchin and orks) are out, are kroot hounds and the like out too? I don't think they are sapient and their whims seem fairly malleable but I can't imagine the lions have met them in any engagements to begin with?
Also if this game is dead can 'Peggy Sue Saves Azeroth' return? That concept caught my eye as interesting.
And we're back, will address comments up till now in a bit.
-x-
While Tuthmes considered the wider matters of the Imperium-on-Mallus, his officers and subordinates looked to their own affairs.
Deep in the meditation chambers of the Librarium, Hath-Horeb, Chief Librarian of the Celestial Lions, sat in a psychic throne of his own design. All around him were the psycho-reactive components of the Serenkai's warp reactor, and the chamber itself sat upon a nexus of energy flowing through the planet.
Whoever had built the fortress the Lions had established their Fortress-Monastery within had done so upon the nexus, perhaps in some ancient day, primitive tribes or peoples had inhabited the place. Certainly it would have given them advantages in warpcraft, but Hath-Horeb stirred himself, he had other matters to consider.
Epistolary Kaelar sat across the chamber from him, while 10 Acolytum stood watch around the sides of the chamber. They would not speak, it was for Hath-Horeb and his deputy to debate, the others were only observers.
There was one other figure, hooded and shrouded, but he too kept his silence.
"By my measure," Kaelar said, "Our brothers have manifested psychic abilities. It falls to us to direct and tutor them, as we would any Neophyte."
"And yet," replied the Chief Librarian, "Such abilities do not manifest so late in life, especially in Astartes. Amra is my senior, yet he would have been screened and allotted according to the Grading. He was not a psyker then."
Humans were graded according to their psychic abilities for various purposes. A hive worker or a agri-menial might not be screened, but Astartes aspirants were as a matter of course. Astartes were generally slightly more psychically sensitive than the general population of the Imperium, but not enough to matter significantly. Those who survived the implantation processes would grow to become Librarians, wielding the Chapter's psychic might and holding charge of the Librarium and the Chapter's records.
"Yet he is one now."
Hath-Horeb nodded, "This is so."
Silence stretched across the chamber.
"Three paths lie before us." said a new voice, and Hath-Horeb had known it would sound before it had happened.
Arius, once a veteran sergeant of the 1st Company held forth. He had been the first to spontaneously manifest psychic abilities and had spent most of his time afterward in lamentation and penance, atoning his curse as a mutant. The matter had hit him hard, and Hath-Horeb had intentionally kept him away from the Chaplains, unsure of their policies and their possible reaction at first.
"First, we slay any who fall to the Curse." Arius continued, "Thereby we prevent mutation from running rampant through the Chapter. None who manifest the psychic mutation should be allowed to pass on their Gene-seed, lest their infect others."
It was certainly a possibility, Hath-Horeb considered, though it was a heavy thought. Unchecked mutation had brought low many a Chapter, and the Lions' archives held numerous records of Red Thirst and Black Rage of the Blood Angels, who tolerate their own mutation as a matter of pride and tradition.
"The Chapter Master promised the 3rd freedom if their fought beside him." Kaelar pointed out.
"The second possibility," Arius continued with a nod, "That any who fall to mutation take a Death Oath. Let them serve as Mortiat Killers, in this way we maintain their combat prowess, yet exclude them all the same, protecting the Chapter still."
Hath-Horeb remembered at first when Arius had tried to swear such an oath. He had forbade it of course, but the Marine's depression had only worsened till he had, over the years, begun to accept his new position as a psyker. Death Oaths in general were not uncommon among the Adeptus Astartes. In some Chapters they were even frequent. A Battle-brother who failed in his duty, disobeyed orders, contravened some tradition or doctrinal imperative would often take such an oath, but here Arius referred to the practice among some Chapters of forming aberrant Astartes into formations and deploying them in battle. The Mortiat had been shock troops among shock troops, the most fanatical and suicidal of the Great Crusade's forces, deployed primarily among the Raven Guard, though others adopted the practice as well. In the modern Imperium, the Death Company of the Blood Angels might be considered one such formation, the black-armoured Astartes of that cursed unit deploying with fearsome howls and castigations against the enemy.
Hath-Horeb smiled. "'The warp is a vital tool to us, a means of communication and transport. Without it, there would be no Imperium of Man, for there would be no quick bridges between the stars. We use it, and we harness it, but we have no absolute control over it. It is a wild thing that tolerates our presence, but brooks no mastery. There is power in the warp, fundamental power, not good, nor evil, but elemental and anathema to us. It is a tool we use at our own risk.'"
Kaelar tilted his head minutely, "I do not recall that quotation, who do you cite, Master?"
The Chief Librarian's smile only grew, "Horus Lupercal."
Arius' fist clenched so hard that Hath-Horeb could hear the ceramite grinding together. Kaelar started a little, but settled quickly back into his kneeling pose.
"Our brothers of the Blood Ravens say 'Knowledge is Power', and that is still true, no matter the source." Hath-Horeb reminded his subordinates. "The Arch-Traitor was undone because he sought to master the Warp, and in doing so, made it his own master, never forget that. The Warp does not serve us, it does not obey us, nor is it our friend or boon companion. The Mechanicus believe that everything can be employed, the Ecclesiarchy that everything can be overcome, the Administratum that everything can be categorised. We know better." The aged Marine sighed. "In ancient times, men built wonders, laid claim to the stars and sought to better themselves for the good of all. But we are much wiser now."
"The third course," Kaelar spoke after a time, looking at them both, "is to treat our new brothers as we would any acolyte. Arius has demonstrated incredibly development in certain areas, but absolutely none in others, the 3rd display an innate skill in Pyromancy which defies explanation, and Brother Kaaram seems to have had all knowledge of other psychic disciplines scourged from his mind. If we do accept these 'Manifest Psykers' into our ranks in the long term, we do risk the genetic contagion Arius fears, but we also risk the dilution of the discipline of Sanctioned Psyonics in general."
The matter was more complex than that, but those were the essential points. Hath-Horeb was confident the rest of the Captains would accept his recommendation, but it bore careful consideration before he reached a conclusion. It would set precedent as well, and given Hath-Horeb expected the Chapter to be stranded on Mallus for a century at least, precedent was a weighty thing.
He planned to use Biomancy to ensure higher rates of survival than might ordinarily be expected of Astartes implantation, and Hath-Horeb expected he could probably rely on at least five new Librarians within three or four years. After that he would do what he could to ensure the reinforcement of the Librarius in future Blood Tithes. Within twenty years he might have a score of psykers, but they would grow slowly without including the 'Manifest Psykers' as well. Further study would be required to determine the doctrine of the new Acolytes, some of the Norscan tithe, for example, claimed to feel a certain affinity toward certain disciplines, but could still practice the whole range of psychic traditions, whereas comparably, Arius, Kaaram and the 3rd had all be forcibly specialised into certain disciplines as a result of their experiences.
Choose 1:
[ ] Purge
All Astartes manifesting psychic abilities in later life are to be immediately purged, their geneseed destroyed. Psykers discovered before implantation and surviving the maturation process will be trained as normal.
[ ] Death Oath
Manifest Psykers will form suicidal units, spending their lives, the Emperor's Currency, well.
[ ] Acceptance
Battle-brothers spontaneously manifesting psychic abilities will be accepted into the Librarium, with their precise function to be determined at a later date.
[X] Acceptance
Battle-brothers spontaneously manifesting psychic abilities will be accepted into the Librarium, with their precise function to be determined at a later date.
Their mages they are far easier to handle then 40k
[X] Death Oath
Manifest Psykers will form suicidal units, spending their lives, the Emperor's Currency, well.
The witch and the mutant can't be trusted, but our brothers can be trusted long enough to sell their witch cursed lives dearly for the Imperium and Chapter, at least
[jk] Purge with prejudice!
Our only chance to save the chapter of Amras psychic mutant loving influence
All Astartes manifesting psychic abilities in later life are to be immediately beheaded by hacksaw, their gene-seed destroyed by being made servitor nutrient gruel. Psykers discovered before implantation and surviving the maturation process will be made lifelong chapter serfs, whahah long live the Reclusium and The Chaplaincy down with the warped librarius!
Nah, sorry that would never get past even if it would appeal to the head of the chaplaincy and the momentum they have built up.
Good to see this back my lousy week has been brightened.
[X] Acceptance
Addressing the stuff I've left for the last month or so, so excuse the long quotations.
Firstly, I'm going to collect some 'priorities' stuff here. This is more for my own info so I can look over it when writing options, let me know if you want other stuff, this will inform the turn options as I've mentioned before, but I'm usually pretty open to write ins so just ask if you want to consider something specific. I'll put some of my own points as annotations.
I think our priorities in this broad order should be:
A: Reequipping our men
B: Stabilizing the population of Araby that will form a future stock of those men.
C: Kicking Norscan and Gorkamorkite Grobbi teeth in from afar, don't give them any pleasure in battle, crash a spaceship into them if they start forming a waagh or chaostide if it comes down to it.
D. Keeping Bretonnia from launching an errantry war I don't care how, I prefer conquest but will take other suggestions that the marines wouldn't be galled by
-Handing off most of the regular administration to the Missionaria Galaxia and associates. Make them more popular, expand their numbers, give them authority, recruit locally, remind everyone about how Space Marines aren't supposed to be in the regular mortal chain of command and the emergency exception is mostly over. (And from an OOC perspective, this means less BLAMming of commoners.)
-Oil wells. Last time we had regular Stewardship actions, wells were at 1 of 2. Finish that, then expand them. Oil/Prometheum drives so much of our technological edge. If we're out of bullets we still have mobility and armor and stuff, but oil seems to me the most important resource of our manufacturing chain for re-equipping people, also it can fuel civilian industry when we get to that point.
-Roads. Easily traveled roads, roads that bridge rivers and canyons, bandit-free roads, high quality roads in general will be useful for 1) our logistics, 2) Arabyan prosperity, 3) popular trust, 4) controlling a region that isn't six ports and some inland "Map Painting" that has our color on the map but de facto independence, 5) foreigners being impressed and wanting some of that.
These are in no particular order of priority, and some may not be feasible until the situation in Araby is more stable. Though I will mention that with the destruction and upheaval in Araby we have the opportunity to build the country in our image. We were gonna do so anyway, but the latest events expedite it and makes it a priority.
- Clean up the remaining hostile forces within Araby as reasonably as we can. I've no doubt there'd be things who will retreat into the inland desert amd hide.
- Integrate existing Arabyan military forces as auxiliaries into the Imperium-on-Mallus' military structure. If there are no professional Arabyan soldiers then raise from the Arabyans a professional and standing army.
- The Chaplain and Librarium will perform their tests concerning corruption and Warp-influence on the 3rd Company, Brother-Sergeant Arius, and Amra.
- Perform reconnaissance on the Old World, both physically through the Chapter Scouts and diplomatically through the Missionaria Galaxica.
- Map out the Nehekharan wastes. Use Chapter Scouts and the Librarium jointly in order to find out if it is possible to move military forces northward. Also find out if we can cleanse the wastes of all Nehekharan magics. We might need to do this before we get surprised by more Greenskins streaming down south.
- Assist the Southland tribes in their fight against the rat beastmen. This will get us to know about the Skaven, which is a good thing as they know about us. Some of them really well thanks to spying on us and stealing our stuff.
- Track down the remnants of the Djincallers. Use Nassor's network to do so.
- Upgrade Nassor's network into a inward-focused secret police or an outward-focused spy agency.
For the last two I don't think it's a good idea to have your enemies watching you while you don't know anything about them. But with the Space Marine's intrigue it's a toss up whether we could find them.
Maybe I got an idea for Amra when his confinement is done. Is he a bad enough daemon to rescue the Imperial Norscans? The Norscans are ever superstitious and both would take the presence of this fella rather seriously especially if Champions of Chaos want to teach their heretical cousins a lesson of the price of apostasy only to meet Amra. The 3rd company can help. In fact that would serve to see how those who serve Chaos react to them and at least in the eyes of the Chapter perceive their suspicions of those they deem tainted.
Btw, for particular people who contribute a lot, eg those above, does anyone want some sort of reward? I'd be perfectly happy to throw in some bonuses on rolls or something. In theory the narrative I as the GM craft is the reward but meh, lmk.
Reminder to self: When you have more time make an info post on magical artefacts likely to exist at now o' clock in the timeline from least to most powerful.
You don't really need to do this. To start, why? Merely to categorise? possibly I suppose but I'm not sure about the utlity. You could easily say 'what if we got X which does Y', for example the Dwarves are pretty inventive, they probably have a rune which does whatever you'd like to do.
You might consider broad categories, for example Astartes are very powerful in CQC, so any sort of 'anti armour' weapon would be very dangerous to them. For example, runefangs would go straight through their armour, which would be very surprising to them, but would then lead to the elector count getting killed quickly, because Astartes can still fight even without an arm that's just been chopped off etc.
One question about Settra but can it be said Amra beat him to earn a perk like in total war for beating a faction lord or did the rolls before not make it count for the second chance?
Can we update long-term plans? I think we can but I'm not remembering, slow brain day, anyway some things to consider just in case updating my old posts adds these.
I'm less inclined to update them just because they don't need specifics. They're long term which stand to remind people about stuff you can do. Int he 'greening' plan for example you don't need to specify that you'll take a look at teh River MOrtis too etc. That would come up in the narrative I write when the vote or action is offered later down the line. I also maintain several threadmarks already so I'm less inclined to add another tbh.
Hey does Numas still exist, and if so is there any chance that we can bring it into the fold without removing more heads from shoulders? They seem like some of the most diplomatic undead in the setting barring maybe the Von Carstens on a good day.
The chance to study how these '''Immortal Humans'' are functioning could be very worthwhile for us, maybe we could even learn to create a much lesser version of the effects of our warp touched ashwalkers or amra en mass from such research.
Some really dumb unfeasible ideas and unlikely scenarios have been haunting me for more than a week.
Please feel free to laugh and or / ignore all of these, I just needed them to stop festering
1. It would be reeeaally reeeally cool to form an elite squad of marine veterans including the Ostland marines, Amra, The Ashwalkers and the head of the Librarius to form a vanguard for attacking the most well-entrenched of our foes.
Yes I get this would destroy chain of command that is why it is here.
2. The Chaos Dwarves and Skaven could put aside their bad blood, and their RND team could throttle ours within a decade. Yes, I am aware they loathe each other despite both being underground dwelling hairy monotheistic mammals with a penchant for elaborate contraptions and enslaving others.
3. Nagash gets reborn super early and decides to connect the southern chaos wasters to the Southlands with a long thin but nigh unbreakable bridge. This hurts everyone, yes even chaos because chaos always hurts chaos.
4. We take Mermaids on board as useful abhumans akin to more primitive pelegars and begin offering rewards for every enemy ship they sink with say loaned bombs, both dwarven navies fucked over as soon as they hit the open sea and a new recruitment pool of spies like we can never dream of opens up.
I get it though the reclusium would rather farm them for their valuable bones.
5. We hire a bunch of ogre lead belchers to guard our cities because it still sounds cheaper to me than fueling forests of macrocanon's
1. Sure, possibly not all together, but yes some sort of elite unit can certainly be formed. You also have several sets of Terminator Armour lying around that you've not needed yet.
2. 'if' being the key point here, neither side are overly collaborative, though trade has indeed been done.
3. I've not really thought about NAgash yet but yea he's hanging about
4. Seem to recall we covered this
5. Possible again, but same problems as mermaids
At the very least I've heard a desire from other players not to have things be governed like something between a black templar world and ultramar where marines are permanently ensconced in running things espoused by other players.
Will be considered alongside the admin stuff. As I've mentioned previously I'm drawing a lot from Huron and the Astral Claws for the themes of this quest
So I realized I haven't thought about expanding the fortress mon in a while!
I feel like investing in more holding areas is probably most important to my vision of our goals.
We want to take and remold the planet, possibly into an imperially compliant world and possibly into a chapter homeworld which we all know only behave nominally in the former category.
In either case, we want to be as hard to destroy as possible. Now our armies have the offense part of that equation covered pretty well methinks.
However defending a people is different, it requires space for those people and a preservation of knowledge to maintain that living space above all.
Therefore next time we can expand I think the priority list should look like such:
• Scriptory
• Hydro-culture
• Terrarium
Serf dormitories
• Refectory
• Generatorum -
• Local Defences
Does anyone disagree with the idea of trying to make the FortMon not just hardpoint but a fallback position for enough of a population to reboot at least a city or two if our other holdings are lost?
FortMon stuff is free because you're using the Battle Barge for materials, but there'll still be a labour cost to do this. Certainly possible though, will be up to the thread and voters about whether to prioritise it.
Okay, so another thing I might not have considered if I had continued rushing myself as much as before.
The GM warned us before so who knows could even be wurrzag himself.
Point is we won't know without intelligence.
We are liable to need Intel on these ''Fuedal Orcs'' more than even on bretonnia as near term threats, methinks.
We ought to try and find out:
1: How many thousands are headed our way
2: What allies do they have if any, trolls? Giants? Hobgoblins maybe? Given where we are giant spiders are unlikely but I wouldn't call them completely impossible and those have killed our marines before.
3. How well equipped are they? Are they packed to gills with waggh energy and shamans or not? Scrap Launchers and catapults(stone lobbas)or just dudes with slingshots? Wyvern riding bombing formations or just a bunch of goblins being launched with hang gliders?
4. How quickly are they moving, how much time do we have before they reach us.
You don't know much yet. You know the Tomb Kings sentinels have previously kept watch over the badlands and prevented small incursions, with the actual tomb kings leading risen armies against the larger attacks. The Orcs have steadily learnt that there's not much fun fighting the dead, and look to other areas. You know that there's certainly several thousand, one of the larger tribes/bands in the badlands, and htat they have 20 or so giants. You can't really see much else, but you assume they're savage orcs, so they'll have shamans etc but not much mechanisation or allies in terms of goblins etc
Okay, so this has been on my mind longer than anything else I have posted this month, hell I've posted about it before but I don't think I could quite capture the sentiment, as well as I, can now so I return to it.
Before I say anything else let me clarify that for the most part, I love this game and what has been done with it.
Also please don't feel pressured to respond sooner than you need to, I know y'all can be busy.
I am not saying we will face no significant challenges, I think Arhan The Black still walks the world and that maybe we only haven't met him because he does keep leaving the land of the tomb kings to stick his nose hole into things if my memory serves. That and the Skaven are either selling or researching our tech as of now.
All that said for context, I've had one massive thing bothering me since say about turn 2 or whenever things started really getting set in stone. I deeply wish we had not gone so far back in the timeline.
Don't get me wrong having a chance to intervene in the vampire wars is interesting but I am not sure it makes up for all the other bits about this that trouble me.
I have heard the QM's justification for it but I do not think I understand it really. As far as my awareness goes we started this far back to have the opportunity to fight Asavar kuul, however A: if we continue intervening in the far north which we should have a vested interest in doing( the Norscans and the people of Medes are our only willing followers, we would be idiots to abandon them.) I have a hard time seeing him not being replaced by a different possibly less powerful chaos lord.
....and B: He shouldn't be the hardest thing for us to contend with, the loss of opportunity to face a united Empire Of Man/ Empire Of Sigmar, and a United Cathay, and or the Damaz Kron, dwarves of order, etc at the height of their technological prowess[but not population] really leaves me with a lingering sense of sadness and not in a ''the story is sad'' but rather ''the story could have been more interesting and the game more challenging'' sort of way.
I know this was not intended to make the challenge easier for us players the same way voting for the Southlands over the Darklands was but it still feels like it has resulted in that.
I know it can't be helped now but the decision really does still baffle me more than any others I can think of ever being taken with this game.
To begin, this is a really good peice of feedback so thanks for that. It's always good to understand the concerns of readers.
This, as I udnerstand it, is essentially a concern about whether things will be too easy right? Well, happily I can say that as the GM I can just do stuff to make it harder. Not necessarily as fiat, but as the natural expansion of particular points. For example, instead of Astavar Kul, someone else walks out the Chaos Wastes. This could be 'Basically Kul still', eg, a powerful chaos lord, or it could instead be Agron. The Chaos Wastes directly connect to the Warp. Archaeon wanders about to various daemonic places in the Realm of Chaos, so perhaps one of the 40k champions gets dispatched out. Alternatively, I can just say that the arrival of the Lions has 'activated' something, that their prescence has somehow provoked various unknown horrors slumbering on the planet. I can't think of many but there's stuff like a greater daemon that's beeen sealed somewhere for example.
One theme I keep coming back to in my stories (eg my Soviet one, the Peggy Sue one, this to an extent), is Trotsky's Uneven and Combined Devleopment. Essentially it's a theory of how states develop over time, and can 'skip' stages of development. I won't go into the theory too much here but one thing Trotsky emphasises is how the more undevelopmed a state is, and the further they have to develop to get to the top, the more violent that process of development is. THerefore, for the Dwarves for example, I could say that although they get hammered a bit by the Marines for whatever reason, this forces them to break with tradition, which shames them, but also kicks them till they recover the secrets of making their golems or something. If the whole 'hide in our tunnels' thing doesn't work out for them, we would presumably be forced to do other things. They might be incredibly uncomfortable with this obviously, but they might still do it. Comparably, you might see Ulthuan saying 'actually Malekith, you're bad, but you're not as bad as the Imperium, do you want to come back and be king etc?'
Also keep in mind the stuff in this first arc. You ripped yoru way through Araby, but you took lots of losses. Agilies, a clever strategist with good connections to the Djincallers and Skaven, managed to destroy abbout a Company of Marines, basically through subterfuge. Agilies is dead, but the Regent of the Djinn has escaped and the Skaven have been stealing imperial tech. Neither party are immediately going to jump out from behidn a bush and shank you, but these are the sorts of antagonists you'll face.
I'm also holding stuff like 'Nagash does something' and 'Chapter Civil War' in my back pocket for future use potentially. I'm not saying anything in particular is certain, but I don't think it'll be difficult for me to establish a difficult quest. Even then, there's the wider conflict of 'can the Lions get out with their souls/purity/loyalty etc intact?'
I wouldn't say the Imperium knows about Uthuan yet. I specifically didn't note it in the first chapter when they were looking at the planet, and the Imperials definitely don't know that Ulthuan is perhaps the most powerful area etc. The Elves (at this time) are still isolationist, they like a bit of trade, but it's finubar who does the whole 'sea king' thing. I may roll for their reaction at some point, but for now, unless you went after them specificaly, your offense was limited to the kingom who's ships you destroyed, not Ulthuan in general. You did declare an embargo after all.
So I have to wonder tyranids(even sessile ones) and sqigs(because they'd birth gretchin and orks) are out, are kroot hounds and the like out too? I don't think they are sapient and their whims seem fairly malleable but I can't imagine the lions have met them in any engagements to begin with?
The sanctioning of certain non-standard forms of life is genreally the purview of the Planetary or Sector Governor. In certain places you get sanctioned mutants for example, or sanctioned xenos for specific purposes. These are even outside of Inquisitors having a Jokero in their retinue etc. There's obviously certain more or less acceptable things. A techpriest who has a weird alien dog wouldn't be unusual, a governor who arms mutants to fight something else would be looked down on, but more because that shows the govenor as incompetent in his military affairs because he 'had to' use the mutants. A different official who sanctions kroot mercs might get more pushback, but the xenos are dying in the place of humans so meh, not a big deal. The only problem would be that a legit imperial official should never take the position that the xenos/mutatnts were in any way acceptable in normal affairs, that they should replace humans, or could do the job better, or were in some other way not subjugated by humans. It's that sort of thing really.As you note, some species would be regarded as just too dangerous, eg it would never be acceptable to employ an orc or an eldar, even if they seemed chill.
Also, keep in mind that the Inquisition might be chill sometimes. If a Governor can justify some particular action, they might accept that and be ok. The Inquisition's job is to check stuff like that, but if there's not actually any heresy there then that's ok.
SO this goes to a point around my writing in general. I tend to write in bursts, then sometimes get bored of it and do other things. FOr the last month or so I've been playing dota and eu4 for example, and also doing work for my actual job for example. I don't maintain a crowdfuning platform like patreaon etc so I have no real external incentive to write, I do it mainly for my own enjoyment etc. If I can load up dota I've got 40 mins of entertainment instantly, that I don't really have to concentrate on. This answer for example is 1800 words or so, that's a moderate time commitment to me, and while yes I enjoy engaging like this, it does indeed require effort. I also tend to get burnt out sometimes. I was doing 2 quests for a while at the start of last year and ended one and hiatused another which I intentd to get back to, but I tend to write like 1000 words a day on average through several months, which is why my quests are fairly long. For this quest specifically I've done about 10k per month, which while not an incredible amount is just the story threadmarks etc not the other stuff.
This isn't to tell you off for questioning it btw, it's really just an explanation.
[jk] Purge with prejudice!
Our only chance to save the chapter of Amras psychic mutant loving influence
All Astartes manifesting psychic abilities in later life are to be immediately beheaded by hacksaw, their gene-seed destroyed by being made servitor nutrient gruel. Psykers discovered before implantation and surviving the maturation process will be made lifelong chapter serfs, whahah long live the Reclusium and The Chaplaincy down with the warped librarius!
So while I get that this was a joke, I do hope the concerns of the Lions are coming across. The Soul Drinkers are a good example of a chapter ruined by runaway mutation, and I would say a lot of Chapters probably look at the Blood Angels and their problems with some horror. The Reclusiam here are actually acting pretty reasonably all told, they've taken a sensible stance, which Hath-Horeb is cooperating with.
So glad to see this back! There is plenty I can elaborate on!
Re: Rewards, Rewards can be great if handled correctly, like say a chance to reroll something related to administration for example would be appreciated but I'd be against any of us getting a flat bonus added to things just for writing a neat side story for example. That route can lead to a certain degree of madness from what I've seen before and makes me feel distinctly uncomfortable.
I see Bretonnia as one of our currently greatest threats for a few reasons.
A: They currently have one of the most organized and united militaries on the planet barring the high elves.
B: Yes they have been hostile not just to Araby before, but have shown distinct enmity towards The Lions.
C: In addition to all the above aside from the badland Orks, or the southland skavens(seems mostly like pestilens dudes, so might be more isolationist than usual) I think the descendants of the Bretonni tribe will have the easiest time reaching us and attacking our main settlements out of any factions currently on my radar.
Re: Magical Artefacts, yes I suppose the list I am trying to make is geared more towards ''whats funky enough to skrew with the imperium'' as a loose standard, armor-piercing blades are one thing, but for an average example: some beastmen have an item called a ''totem of rust'' which seems capable of supernaturally damaging metal I get very intimidated thinking about not what that might do to a marine(ceramite is not metal last I checked) but thinking on what that could do if we met one in a vehicle engagement or what it could do to our guns and shells is....well its intimidating certainly no?
Anything that can affect the mind or body without direct contact is especially dangerous. I appreciate this feedback though, it gives me a good criterion for filtering things out that will likely have minimal effect on our forces.
Re: Writing,
It is good to know you write in bursts, I will not presume this is dead going forward unless say two years pass with no word then.
Re: Difficulty, This too was a relief to hear, facing a reunited elven empire, or chaos marines or dwarves having a break with tradition, those all indeed would be worthwhile challenges.
SO this goes to a point around my writing in general. I tend to write in bursts, then sometimes get bored of it and do other things. FOr the last month or so I've been playing dota and eu4 for example, and also doing work for my actual job for example. I don't maintain a crowdfuning platform like patreaon etc so I have no real external incentive to write, I do it mainly for my own enjoyment etc. If I can load up dota I've got 40 mins of entertainment instantly, that I don't really have to concentrate on. This answer for example is 1800 words or so, that's a moderate time commitment to me, and while yes I enjoy engaging like this, it does indeed require effort. I also tend to get burnt out sometimes. I was doing 2 quests for a while at the start of last year and ended one and hiatused another which I intentd to get back to, but I tend to write like 1000 words a day on average through several months, which is why my quests are fairly long. For this quest specifically I've done about 10k per month, which while not an incredible amount is just the story threadmarks etc not the other stuff.
Given the fears, the sensible option is to keep the geneseed of psykers in stasis when they die until more information can be analysed to determine the final outcome.
Death oaths while understandable is not an affordable outlet right now.
Honestly, we should be keeping more samples of what we are encountering as a general policy as much as possible, it is hard to analyze most of the nonsense we encounter in the field.
Btw the biggest thing I'm most excited to see next we have a chance to act will be Ostland and Norsca again. Not that the Southlands have not turned out to be very interesting but the mystery at work here is intense! It's like walking into a cave blind not knowing if the cave itself can eat you!
@rx195 I like your plan to bring Amra to Norsca if possible.
Btw the biggest thing I'm most excited to see next we have a chance to act will be Ostland and Norsca again. Not that the Southlands have not turned out to be very interesting but the mystery at work here is intense! It's like walking into a cave blind not knowing if the cave itself can eat you!
@rx195 I like your plan to bring Amra to Norsca if possible.
But seriously I'm stopping here for the night and hopefully for the next few days if I can help myself.
