- Location
- Here & There
This. Honestly at this point all we can do is wait, vote and see if Warboss Cogazog isn't some overinflated threat.
An Extra Primarch
- Thread starter ilbgar123
- Start date
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
You are aware that even if you have a massive operation set up, Exterminatus weapons aren't guaranteed to actually land hits in contested territory? Also, you only have 15 currently, because being able to blow up planets was fairly down the priority list. You only have your current reserve 'just-in-case' a quarantine absolutely has to be enforced or a xenos race of particular horror appears, etc. It's going to take a year to spool it up to 6 a year from it's current 3 (1 per 100 planets, rounding down, some of the planets had one in reserve).
Sir LagsAlot
Yandere Dice Magnet
- Location
- In the fridge
We don't need to blow up the planet we just need to render it uninhabitable so a continent buster would do. Plus we have Serras literally just drive her into a system and you have your delivery system. Also super lasers are a thing especially with energy runes. Not to mention Serras ability to just make massive time consuming projects instantly with psyker powers.
Seriously we talked this over before and short of the Orks shooting themselves in the foot and sealing the Warp in their area of space there is little they can do to us when we have the mobility advantage and the assurance that they won't attack.
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- Location
- Here & There
I do distinctly remember me being pissed off when I read that these Orks are the most Unorky thing imaginable, waiting when they can't outpace us.
EDIT: QM you might want to rescind that statement of Orks just taking it on the chin.
Like if we were piloting the Orks for this Quest we'd pretty much go "bs tactics to piss off superior foe" and "last long enough to get the crystals and replicators to be part of the Ork psyche, giving one last middle finger to the Warp Spawn Primarch."
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Astra Myst
Do you want a wish?
- Location
- Milky Way Galaxy
- Pronouns
- Femhon/Boymoder
Remember two days until release date
Travler66
Let her name echo in song!
- Location
- Beyond
Why would you want that? We have enough problems as it is.
- Location
- Here & There
Because it'd be boring if this foe we waited months to fight was a chump. What problems do you even mean? The one where in a 30k quest we hardly have any fights worth mentioning?
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- Location
- Florida
You do realize that this stage of the quest is basically the prologue...right? Once we kick off the Great Crusade proper, things are going to be much tougher.
- Location
- Here & There
You do realize that your statement doesn't invalidate my request for the Orks to not be a fluffed up bag of nothing?
Tougher? If you mean by us exponentially growing than yes "tougher."
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- Location
- Planet Earth
not very likely, there's nothing out there capable of threatening us so long as we head off the orks. We're in this lucky spot of having insane growth and being the first group to really start snowballing since warp travel has become possible. The orks could outpace us if they survive the next few years, but every other threat canbe defeated either by massed exterminatus or isn't ready yet. Eldar can't replace losses, nids aren't in the galaxy yet, the first necrons only woke up to see the end of the HH so they won't be around for centuries, chaos doesn't have an army of their own yet,we're basically only have the orks to directly threaten us and chaos manipulations to deal with.
If you want to worry about things getting harder latter, you'll have to wait till either chaos gets a primarch or a while after the heresy happened in canon when one of the major necron overlords wakes up.
- Location
- Here & There
Or one of these mythical xenos empires like the Rangdan to actually be something worth being scared of instead of "Yeah they kind of dangerous but Serras is here"
Travler66
Let her name echo in song!
- Location
- Beyond
Honestly? I'm scared.
Ever since we learned about the Ork Empire, it's been bothering me for months.
I'm not sure how strong we are in space against the Orks as they have, a warlock (Unless we can cull the Orks in his immediate area and then psychically pop his head with Magnus and Jack helping), some super WAAGH! powered hulks, and two battle-moons. Orks like these were built for war, humans aren't. While Primarchs were built for war, we are just one Primarch.
So yeah, I'm just quite scared.
As for the problems I mentioned, we don't have any organisation to protect our crystals, humanity is scattered amongst the stars, the Rangdan are still out there, Chaos is lurking in the shadows (for now), cruel xenos empires are enforcing their will across the stars and a lot of other stuff. I know its Warhammer, but still.
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- Location
- Venezuela
I know she has them, I just put them like that since I believe she has not seem them yet(the "I believe" is because I really don't remember Serras ever meeting her kids in the Quest yet)
tho you do have a point, Gonna change that to Guardsmen.
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- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
Hm, well, the K-orks' main force is going to take it on the chin to guard their incomplete War World, but I'm not sure I ever stated they aren't going to send out raiding parties at all. If I did, in hindsight that was dumb. Also, Battle Moons have ludicrous shields, even without strong Wargh! energies buffing it's literally planetary durability.
I mean, they had to make tunnels to actually convert the thing into a ship. They're going to adapt those for combat purposes. They're literally incapable of not doing so. As Red says, the basic difference between People and Monsters is that Monsters can't consider the possibility of being wrong about the things they're doing. In general, not the specific method. Though, in the Old Ones' defense, they were kind of in a hurry.
I mean, they had to make tunnels to actually convert the thing into a ship. They're going to adapt those for combat purposes. They're literally incapable of not doing so. As Red says, the basic difference between People and Monsters is that Monsters can't consider the possibility of being wrong about the things they're doing. In general, not the specific method. Though, in the Old Ones' defense, they were kind of in a hurry.
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- Location
- Here & There
Great to here. Is that all the people done? If not who is left?
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
Albert's double. Already did the RER and Explorer. Working on the Galactic Rumor Mill. Probably going to be 8-9K update.
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Turn 15 SLs, RER, Exploration Roll, and System
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
AN: Let me just say now, that I'm unhappy with this update, Albert's section in particular, and Serras felt whiny in places to me, but eventually I just decided to bull through it because of how long it had been since I updated.
There's been some research made in various doctrines used by the fleet, with the Stellar Bellows due to come online soon. The amount of resources this will provide will feed directly into the navy, the army, and the economy that supports both. There are 3 doctrines, one for each section, in the works at this point in time to take advantage of the massive surge of resources.
For the navy, there's the Toolbox Fleet Doctrine. This doctrine requires good ships, good crews, and excellent communications. While this requires a great deal of discipline and cooperation, the sheer adaptability of such a fleet means that it's very unlikely for a more specialized fleet to keep up outside their area of expertise. This includes things like ambushes and assassination strikes, as the fleets is uniquely well-suited to resisting strikes against the chain of command, due to the constant chatter between all the ships. It remains the best way to slow the fleet's reactions, but unlikely to be decisive by itself.
It's also easily integrated with any fleet it can actually talk to. Filling whatever role would best work with the other fleet, so long as the communication hubs are intact. Which means this doctrine is theoretically capable of cooperating with any other fleet of any doctrine, perhaps even allying with non-aligned fleets of human or xenos origin.
The bad news is that the training of such skilled crews, and the building and maintenance of ships meant to perform very well in any given area make it a very expensive doctrine to use, and actually makes the crew the most difficult thing to replace. Speaking of performance, they are usually outperformed by the specialization of a more specialized fleet, which can be used against it by an observant and/or skilled commander.
For the army, the Unified Battle Doctrine is under investigation. Similarly to the naval doctrine, this doctrine is one of the more expensive ones, as a consequence of improved efficiency, versatility, adaptability, and cooperation, swiftly integrating auxiliary forces regardless of their species or training, which in turn causes a disadvantage when faced with a force of specialized units playing the game their way.
The reasoning behind this is that there is a definite soft-cap for ships in orbit, a few thousand on a give side, as there is only so much space near the planet and ships are notoriously difficult to turn sharply if crowding them together necessitates such. Ships may have a large number of individual targets, but those numbers have a limit, and there are going to be millions of soldiers on all but the most sparsely populated worlds. This means that a ship that is part of a coherent fleet, even an Orkish one, will have a general strategy, which the individual ships will not deviate from much on average.
Meanwhile, the forces on the ground have intensive training programs, which are more similar to what an officer of an ordinary army would receive than a normal soldier. Combined with their comms and scanners, accuracy, maneuverability and strategy at the micro-level are all immensely improved, and tests have shown this particular doctrine to be very effective, if also very expensive.
The Economy has the New World Economy Doctrine in the works. The gist is that even with replicators, not all products will be made equally well, as a 1% increase in efficiency is simply not worth making a replicator for each different type of item. Larger items, such as road sections and spaceship components do benefit from this. Items that are both large and complex, while infrequently required, benefit the most from this process.
A freighter might use almost exactly the same parts, but use different numbers and have them in different places, resulting in a different end product once the parts are assembled. While the customization can be added afterward, the initial product can be churned out relatively quickly by a Heavy Industrial Park, which a Mechanicus Forgeworld will almost always have at least one of, to carry out maintenance on trader ships if nothing else, but more commonly to build freighters and transports for their own personal use.
Larger versions are found attached to shipyards, particularly those frequently used by the military. Larger ships are more complex, but the process is much the same. Of course, more replicators means a larger power drain, and it is not uncommon for more than a quarter of a HIP to be dedicated to fusion plants. Though most factory workers will note how much cleaner fusion power is when compared to the byproducts of their previous factories, particularly on Hive Worlds where until relatively recently, smog was ever-present to ensure the population was adequately provided for to the point that they didn't riot more than the military could handle/discourage.
This does cause some unemployment problems, and while skilled labor fields, such as scientific research, can't be replaced, jobs like asteroid mining can only take up so much of the factory work slack even if some factories are kept online as a contingency. In addition, while the average meal made with replicators isn't quite the same as one made with ingredients prepared normally (presumably due to the odd nature of the replicators and the dimension they interact with) they are much more efficient than agriculture, with more customization, and no shipping and potential contamination by the Warp resulting from such to affect the food. The continued advance of replicators certainly doesn't help as more and more niche jobs fall into their jurisdiction.
Omake Reward: Burgeoning Doctrines. Background research is being conducted into a set of doctrines developed for a post-poverty, potentially post-scarcity state. +50 to Doctrine Research. Each Doctrine available for research will be done with automatic +50 applied to them upon AP investment.
[X] [Minor] [SL] Magnus (x1)
"Well, Father tells me you've been busy with the Crystals. I'm a little jealous to be honest, I've had to deal with a Psychneuein infestation since we last chatted. Very unpleasant. I thought I'd wiped them all out, but apparently" A note of anger entered his voice. "another strain was attracted to the display of psychic power." Magnus began. "Er, are you alright? You feel… off." he noticed.
Karma Check: 4200. Required: 1500. Passed. +300 Karma.
While Serras was less than approving towards herself for using Magnus to blow off steam, she needed to talk to someone who wouldn't panic at her panicking. "...Not really no. I lost a whole scouting fleet to Orks. They didn't take any losses." Serras admitted.
"Orks?" Magnus asked, momentarily baffled. He'd glimpsed futures where Prospero was attacked, and the Orks were idiots. Certainly they gained some intellect and fighting prowess if the conflict lasted some time, but not enough to catch an entire fleet off-guard without losses.
"From what I was able to see, they seem to have spent centuries trapped in a Warp Storm. Internecine conflict, after taking control of about 30 worlds, fed them and caused a slow evolution into massive beings with human-level intellects, if not superior, and physiques on par with Astartes, if the surveillance cameras and reports are to be believed. They managed to predict the fleet sent to look for the first coming well enough to have their guns firing on them within seconds of the disturbance from exiting the Warp making itself known." Magnus gave the impression of a wide-eyed stare. Orks having either the technology or the psychic discipline to detect incoming Warp vessels or reliably see them coming in the near-future was a terrifying thought.
"When the ships got close enough, they bombarded the ships just enough to disable the shields, and then started to teleport Ork boarders onto the ships. The only reason none of them were overrun was that they managed to flee outside teleporter range, which was itself because the Orks were more concerned with making sure their recent conquest was properly pacified than a small fleet attacking them." She continued.
"Considering how much Orks like fighting, that is probably the most disturbing thing you could have said." Magnus noted with some trepidation.
"No, the most disturbing thing is that MY DIVINATION IS ON THE FRITZ!" Serras corrected with something that was nearly a roar. "Ever since I looked into the WAAGH and its leaders, I haven't been able to divine anything properly. I haven't detected any curses or memetic hazards I might have triggered. It's like I'm being blocked from divining properly wholesale. I can still divine, but any further than a day is wildly inaccurate, as if I were a total novice again."
"...What." Magnus was beyond baffled. Divination could only be blocked in specific areas by rival diviners or powerful wards, so far as he knew. Someone was muddling all of her attempts? That would require an immense amount of effort. Who could possibly have the resources to do that, and a good reason to do so? Father almost certainly had no reason, and Magnu knew he didn't. The head of the Orkish psykers was a possibility, but why put forth the effort to block her divinations in general? It would be far more efficient to focus on the WAAGH itself, rather than a broad, sweeping attempt at nullification.
Stress Check: Passed.
Serras gave the impression of a deep inhale and exhale. "Sorry, I've calmed down now, I just needed to vent at someone for a bit who either wasn't going to be involved in the fighting in any way or wasn't going to be perturbed by my panic attack, which is a very small pool of people considering my relative ability in… everything compared to virtually everyone who isn't a Primarch. I managed to get a decent amount of information about the WAAGH before my Divination gave out, so I shouldn't have too much trouble strategizing. In the short-term, little has changed. In the long-term, well, I'll deal with that when I don't have a genocidal empire bearing down on me."
"Are you sure you're alright?" Magnus asked. That had been an awfully fast reversal.
"No, no, I'm fine. I just needed to get a little ranting out of my system, now I can deal with this. You wanted to ask about the Crystals?" She might have been changing the subject, but it wasn't exactly irrelevant.
"Er, yes. The Crystals have been working with much greater potency ever since you made all those new ones, and many of the new ones have been very popular with the psykers here on Prospero. They've also been much easier to make, even the ones you'd already pushed to their limits."
Serras nodded. Magnus had supported Serras in getting Father to give the Crystal deity a chance, so he had as much of a right as anyone to know the details. Besides, he already knew about the 'Crystal Daemon' because she'd told him about it, so Father's very emphatic desire for as few people to know about it was already a moot point here. She had absolutely no real reason not to inform his of the specifics.
"As it turns out, my theory was correct. A powerful Warp entity has conglomerated from the aggregate psychic energy of the concepts the Crystals embody, and more Crystals seem to have a synergistic effect, making Hydaelyn stronger, and thus making the Crystals stronger, though it seems to require more to achieve the next 'tier' with each one passed, presumably because of the psychic energy being spread thinner as the number goes up. She can activate the first three tiers of Crystal automatically, but I'm sure you already noticed that." she explained.
"That is very interesting. Anything else I should be aware of?" he asked.
"She seems to resent Father a bit, though I'm not sure if it's just because he grilled her on the day she was born, or if she finds being restricted, even for a good reason, exacerbating, so be careful about that. I'll work to figure out her issues. How's Jack by the way?" she asked.
"Fine. His experience in avoiding detection makes it a lot easier for him to detect hidden foes, so he's leading the effort to find any straggling Psychnneueins now that I've take out the main body and major nests." Magnus answered.
The conversation devolved into small talk for a few minutes, and the pair of psykers parted ways to continue their respective projects.
Reward: Magnus SL has advanced to 4. Karma has increased to 4500. +15 to Psyker Skills.
Psyker: Sorcery: 135. You are a great sorcerer, with abilities that leave normal sorcerers rather impressed. +135(235 total) to yourself in combat, +65(115 total) to allies within 23000 meters.
Psyker: Sorcery: 140. You are a great sorcerer, with abilities that leave normal sorcerers rather impressed. +140(240 total) to yourself in combat, +70(120 total) to allies within 24000 meters.
Psyker: Sorcery: 150. You are a great sorcerer, with abilities that leave normal sorcerers flabbergasted. +150(250 total) to yourself in combat, +75(125 total) to allies within 25000 meters.
Psyker: Spirit: 125. Your soul rejects Daemons who do nothing more than enter your personal space. +225 to attempts at mind-reading/domination, and to defending against such attempts. Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses whether they try force or stealth. Greater Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses if they try force anyway, with a large chance of dying to them if they attempt subterfuge. Even a Chaos God wouldn't be able to just waltz in without a very noticeable struggle. Lesser Daemons will be destroyed simply from coming into contact with you.
Psyker: Spirit: 130. Your soul rejects Daemons who do nothing more than enter your personal space or a meter of that radius. +230 to attempts at mind-reading/domination, and to defending against such attempts. Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses whether they try force or stealth. Greater Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses if they try force anyway, with a large chance of dying to them if they attempt subterfuge. Even a Chaos God wouldn't be able to just waltz in without a very noticeable struggle. Lesser Daemons will be destroyed simply from coming into contact with you.
Psyker: Spirit: 140. Your soul rejects Daemons who do nothing more than enter your personal space or 2 meters of that radius. +240 to attempts at mind-reading/domination, and to defending against such attempts. Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses whether they try force or stealth. Greater Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses if they try force anyway, with a large chance of dying to them if they attempt subterfuge. Even a Chaos God wouldn't be able to just waltz in without a very noticeable struggle. Lesser Daemons will be destroyed simply from coming into contact with you.
Psyker: Navigator: 125. You can read and manipulate the Warp around you to the same degree as the senior members of a Navigator House. You can reliably predict events1250 125 minutes into the future, and get some flashes of events up to 1250 125 days hence. +225 to ritual-disruption Checks and similar esoteric uses of psychic power such as divination and guiding ships through the Warp. +110 to ritual-disruption Checks among allied psykers.
Psyker: Navigator: 130. You can read and manipulate the Warp around you to the same degree as the senior members of a Navigator House. You can reliably predict events1300 130minutes into the future, and get some flashes of events up to 1300 130 days hence. +230 to ritual-disruption Checks and similar esoteric uses of psychic power such as divination and guiding ships through the Warp. +115 to ritual-disruption Checks among allied psykers.
Psyker: Navigator: 140. You can read and manipulate the Warp around you to the same degree as the senior members of a Navigator House. You can reliably predict events1400 140 minutes into the future, and get some flashes of events up to 1400 140 days hence. +240 to ritual-disruption Checks and similar esoteric uses of psychic power such as divination and guiding ships through the Warp. +120 to ritual-disruption Checks among allied psykers.
6530/7300 to Level 64.
AN: I thought Tzeentch and co. feeding Serras junk data rather than trying to block the ability entirely made more sense. Doing something similar for Emps, only a lot more long-term and subtle (only doing it very rarely if at all before the Heresy was about to kick off), would feed into his general sense of being right, or at least the most right, and help lull him into a false sense of security.
[X] [Minor] [SL] Rogal Dorn (x1)
'Rogal, do you have a few spare minutes? I'd like a second opinion on tactics, and between the two of us, I have difficulty finding anyone who operates at the same intellectual level as myself, as Father is more or less constantly busy. Not to treat you as a backup advisor, I just feel like his experience is going to trump your talent for a while yet.' Serras explained.
'It is not a problem. My campaign to unite Inwit is proceeding well. Presumably the lesser number of Long Night horrors bogging my elite troops down and the relatively small number of unreasonable maniacs roaming the countryside killing for fun instead of simply for resources are responsible. My adoptive grandfather claims that I've taken well to my tactical studies, but I concede that my experience may be lacking compared to Father, though I am unsure as to the margin by which this may be true. Do you have any idea how old he is? I confess to a moderate amount of curiosity in that regard.' Rogal responded.
'No idea, but Magnus says he's seen religion go bad multiple times, so 500 years our elder is probably a conservative estimate, quite possibly less than a tenth of his true age. I don't see any reason to be concerned about it. At some point, the scale of his lifetime would render any age less than a century something of a moot point, and none of us are anywhere near that point.' Serras projected a shrug. There came a point where the percentage difference became a better thing to wonder over than the sum difference.
'Alright then, what is your situation?' he asked. Couldn't form a strategy from a completely blank slate after all.
'Well, I've explained how Orks grow more advanced and intelligent as they fight, right? Apparently a thousand or so years of that on even a small-scale, such as 30 or so planets, is enough to make them evolve into a horde of Astartes-level soldiers with human-level intellects, advanced technology, and the replacement of their rampant insanity with a more machine-like efficiency, though still backing war for the sake of war. They nearly killed off entire ships' crews with less than a tenth of their relative number, and the only reason they didn't was that the Ork fleet was too busy pacifying a recent conquest to bother keeping their ships in range to teleport boarding crews onto Bastion ships.
The good news is, passive sensors have been scattered throughout the edges of their territory, so I have a decent idea of their fleet movements, and at least a general estimate of their fleet numbers as a whole, though I'm much less sure of the status of their industry and population.'
'That is an unusual situation for me. Normally, a few scouts and spies can tell me what level the population and industry of my opponent is functioning at, but I have little idea of their overall troop movements until they're about to move on territory that is mine or adjacent to my own. I suppose you can't do the same for Orks because, for one thing, a human would stick out amongst xenos.' Rogal noted.
'Orks are surprisingly good at detecting infiltrators. I believe it's something to do with their gestalt psychic field. They can tell when someone isn't actually part of it subconsciously. Not to mention these Orks were using actual tactics more complex than 'shoot in the same general direction' and succeeding. They're probably smart enough that wearing green armor probably isn't going to be enough to fool the dim ones, assuming they aren't all total savants or something moronic like that.' Serras said, a hint of bite entering her voice. She'd moved past hysteria at suddenly not knowing the probable future, beyond educated guesses, into moderate bitterness so far as her reduced divination was concerned, which she was taking out at the only reasonable target. She assumed Chaos was responsible, sure, but she couldn't exactly march to the giant Warp vortex hundreds of sectors away and demand that they give her back her precognition.
Rogal, completely missing the bitter undertone in Serras' voice, agreed. 'That is unlikely, yes. I will do my best to advise you in any case. What are you relative numbers and how comparable are your soldiers and equipment?' he asked.
'In ships? Numerically superior, and, well, the fact that there weren't any Dreadnoughts in the fleet they nearly wiped out was a major problem for meaningfully contesting them in space in that instance, but my forces could almost certainly have done serious damage even without one. The main problem is that their infantry was monstrously overpowering. They'd chew through an average of 20 crew members before falling, and they'd normally have numbers on their side. Not to mention that was in the confines of the ship, where the crew knew the environment and the enemy couldn't fully leverage their superior physiques.
The infantry averages the height of an Astartes,' Recalling that Rogal had never seen an Astartes, she added. 'so roughly 8 feet tall. They possessed the strength to tear through a centimeter of steel with their bare hands with trivial ease, and casually shrugged off most small-arms. The heavy weapons division of the marine contingent was more successful, but they are few in number both because of the impracticality of having the entire force too slow to maneuver and the expense of their gear relative to most others. Their beasts, commonly referred to as 'Squigs' by both sides, were also a major problem. Universally cybernetically augmented, frequently possessing strange abilities from acid spit to lightning breath, they luckily lacked the higher intelligence to follow complex commands in most cases, and if separated from their handlers, had little in the way of tactical acumen beyond attempting to regain access to their more strategically-minded handlers.' she explained.
'Knowing one's weaknesses is regarded as a sign of wisdom in most cases.' Rogal noted. 'Though wisdom and intelligence are not always found together. Some of the smartest people I've met have been completely insufferable to spend time with due to their, in fairness, not completely unjustified egos, while the town fool is far better liked in several places because he's aware enough of his own stupidity not to cause trouble. Though the situation is reversed just as often as the fool is too stupid to realize he's moronic while the town genius has learned from his mistakes and become bearable.'
Serras blinked at that anecdote, then continued. 'From what the sensors picked up, their teleportation is somehow gravity based, unlike the Immaterium-based Teleportariums we commonly use, which doesn't explain why the Void Shields failed to stop them, as gravity is one of the few things that affects both the material and immaterial to similar degrees, but we have data on several thousand instances of it now, so theoretically a jammer should be possible even with the interference of their psychic fields, but it would be a drain on finite resources that wouldn't be devoted to the shields or weapons. Better than being overrun by boarders like those though.' Serras explained.
'I would recommend investing those resources into prevention of boarding if your troops are so badly outmatched. A battle avoided when you cannot win is not a question of honor or dishonor, just whether it actually serves any purpose to have your men and materials lost. Save them for the likely incredibly bloody ground campaigns if do not simply plan to burn the planets in question, and for future battles in general if you do.' Rogal advised.
Karma Check: 500. Passed. +100 Karma.
'Well, in the long-term, simply wiping the slate clean and restoring the planet afterward would probably be the best option. I'm just worried about my stores of Exterminatus-grade weapons. We only have 15 of those across the entire Bastion, mostly because planet-scouring weaponry is a low-priority production item, and even assuming they all reach their destination, I'd estimate at least 30 planets. A ground campaign of some sort is going to be necessary. I'd lead my Legion to do so, but they're drastically understrength compared to a full Legion, and almost completely green."
'What subspecies of humans possesses green skin?' Rogal asked in complete seriousness.
Serras blinked at him, strange, concepts usually came across so well. Maybe she should check herself for any other instances of interference. Again. 'It's a euphemism for inexperience.'
'Odd, the commanders I'd spoken to had always used the term 'rookie' for such a description. I presume the relative value of plant life here made calling an inexperienced soldier 'green' counterintuitive, causing the phrase to fall out of use.' Rogal noted. That made sense.
'Right. So, what do you think about…'
Reward: Rogal Dorn SL has advanced to 2. Karma has increased to 4600. +15 to Tactics.
Tactics: Fortification: 5. You're at the bottom rung of building fortifications quickly, rather than digging a trench and hoping the artillery misses. More time consuming under most circumstances, but definitely more effective if you can set them up in time. +105 to Tactics Checks.
Tactics: Fortification: 10. You're at the bottom rung of building fortifications quickly, taking days to set up fortifications meant to hold months, and weeks to build fortifications meant to last years. +110 to Tactics Checks.
Tactics: Fortification: 20. You're at the bottom rung of building fortifications quickly, taking a day to set up fortifications meant to hold 2 months, and a week to build fortifications meant to last 2 years. +120 to Tactics Checks.
Tactics: Cunning: 5. You've utterly surpassed the peak of 'winging it' among the vast majority of humans. +105 to Tactics Checks.
Tactics: Cunning: 10. You've utterly surpassed the peak of 'winging it' among the vast majority of humans, and can see the realm of legends. +110 to Tactics Checks.
Tactics: Cunning: 20. You've utterly surpassed the peak of 'winging it' among the vast majority of humans, and have entered the realm of legends. +120 to Tactics Checks.
Tactics: Guile: 5. You have begun studying tactics of mind-bending complexity. +105 to Tactics Checks.
Tactics: Guile: 10. You have begun studying tactics of mind-bending complexity, the realm of legend almost within your grasp. +110 to Tactics Checks.
Tactics: Guile: 20. You have begun studying tactics of mind-bending complexity, the realm of legend within your grasp. +120 to Tactics Checks.
6610/7300 to Level 64.
[X] [Minor] [SL] Mehtrya (x1)
To say that Serras was concerned by the Orks was an understatement. This was not to say she was panicked, merely that she was well-aware her star nation had never fought anything resembling a peer opponent, and she was concerned that cracks would start to show that could only be revealed in the crucible of genuine conflict. After all, she'd used her charisma to some degree in getting some of the more belligerent worlds to fall in line without major fuss, as she suspected Father was doing to the rowdier of his Terran recruits. It had seemed a bit… shady, to say the least, but if nothing else, the Cogsmasher Empire proved the necessity of it.
Mehtrya, on the other hand, was shaken enough by what she'd heard to be noticeably twitchy.
After the fifth time a sudden noise made Mehtrya's hands clench, Serras asked "Alright, what about this is bothering you so much? We have a number of advantages even without my foresight." the Eldar agreed with her speculation that Chaos was to blame for her sudden lack of accurate foresight. She could certainly see why Father was so set on limiting the Warp's involvement in the Imperium he was building.
Mehtrya opened her mouth, closed it again, and then sighed. "You know, I'm starting to wonder why I bother trying to avoid telling you things. Old habits I suppose." she began to explain the history of humanity, Orks, and the Eldar in more detail, having read up on the subject at Quenya, including a few texts recently recovered from the Webway. Apparently some especially stubborn Eldar librarian had created vaults of historical texts and hidden them in the Webway all over the galaxy. The sensitive things were out of reach of just any librarian, but their general history was not completely lost.
The Eldar and later Dark Age humans had kept the Orks contained together at first. Following humanity spreading beyond the Sol sector at any rate. Exterminatus weapons simply failed to wipe out the infestation completely, as there was always a derelict somewhere with Orks onboard, and some spores would sometimes survive the planet being heated to 80 degrees Celsius all day.
The Eldar, upon beginning to fall into debauchery, left the task of containing the Orks increasingly to the humans, leading to moderate feelings of resentment that still existed even on certain worlds relatively cosmopolitan for the current age. The occasional raid by the Webway-dwelling Eldar certainly did not help, as these grew more frequent as the Eldar grew less interested in maintaining their roles as stewards of the galaxy and became thoroughly bewitched with exploring the extremes of sensation.
Then the Warp Storms that signaled Slaanesh was gestating in the Warp broke apart the human Federation, already crippled by their long war with the Men of Iron, all but leaving the Orks to their own devices. If they had not broken into the Webway, perhaps things wouldn't have gotten too bad, but they did, and they spread to thousands of worlds without so much as seeing a ship in this manner.
The Krorks were designed for the sole purpose of waging war, and Orks that engaged in such began to restore themselves to their former psychic and technological glory. This first set of war planetoids was likely merely the first in a long line. It was, therefore, once again the Eldar race's fault that the galaxy was falling apart.
Karma Check: 4600. Required: 300. Passed. +60 Karma.
"Wait, the Old Ones made the Krorks, and thus the Orks, right? Which they only did because the Necrons and C'Tan were trying to kill off all sentient life." Serras pointed out.
"Yes..." Mehtrya said slowly.
"Then I would argue that the Old Ones are more at fault for not installing an off-switch, and the C'Tan and Necrons' are further still at fault for backing them into a corner like that. Mostly the second of the three. Ironically, the Necrons might actually be least to blame, since they'd lost any real ability to control their actions by the time they became enough of threat to push the Old Ones to desperate measures."
"Still, we didn't just destroy ourselves, we actively hindered your civilization's attempts to hold itself together. I don't think your Father is ever going to fully forgive us for that. Is he willing to work with us out of the goodness of his heart, or does he just want the Webway and think we're the quickest way to get it?" Mehtrya questioned pointedly.
Serras considered this for a moment. It was true that Father had admitted that humans were his first priority, and he'd always seemed wary at best in regards to the Eldar. Lying to her would only set her up for more damage in the long-term. "Well, if you're absolutely set on beating yourself up over it, treat helping us fix this mess as atonement. After all, it's only fair that you help" She placed special emphasis on her decision not to use the word 'fix' on it's own. The Eldar were in no condition to fix this all by themselves, especially with their more twisted brethren waiting in the wings and limiting their use of the Webway, their greatest asset. "fix your mess. I wouldn't worry too much about Father. He's not going to blow you up for taking up human living space or something moronic like that. Being especially useful is just extra security. He knows full well that humanity can't afford to fight everyone at once in its current state, particularly anyone able to provide unique services."
Mehtrya seemed relieved at the reassurance from someone who'd actually interacted with Father.
Reward: Mehtrya SL has advanced to 7. Karma has increased to 4660. +15 to Psyker Skills.
Psyker: Sorcery: 150. You are a great sorcerer, with abilities that leave normal sorcerers flabbergasted. +150(250 total) to yourself in combat, +75(125 total) to allies within 25000 meters.
Psyker: Sorcery: 165. You are a great sorcerer, with abilities that leave normal sorcerers awestruck. +165(265 total) to yourself in combat, +80(130 total) to allies within 30000 meters.
Psyker: Spirit: 140. Your soul rejects Daemons who do nothing more than enter your personal space or 2 meters of that radius. +240 to attempts at mind-reading/domination, and to defending against such attempts. Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses whether they try force or stealth. Greater Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses if they try force anyway, with a large chance of dying to them if they attempt subterfuge. Even a Chaos God wouldn't be able to just waltz in without a very noticeable struggle. Lesser Daemons will be destroyed simply from coming into contact with you.
Psyker: Spirit: 155. Your soul rejects Daemons who do nothing more than enter your personal space or 3 meters of that radius. +255 to attempts at mind-reading/domination, and to defending against such attempts. Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses whether they try force or stealth. Greater Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses if they try force anyway, with a large chance of dying to them if they attempt subterfuge. Even a Chaos God wouldn't be able to just waltz in without a very noticeable struggle. Lesser Daemons will be utterly destroyed simply from coming into contact with you.
Psyker: Navigator: 140. You can read and manipulate the Warp around you to the same degree as the senior members of a Navigator House. You can reliably predict events1400 140 minutes into the future, and get some flashes of events up to 1400 140 days hence. +240 to ritual-disruption Checks and similar esoteric uses of psychic power such as divination and guiding ships through the Warp. +120 to ritual-disruption Checks among allied psykers.
Psyker: Navigator: 155. You can read and manipulate the Warp around you with slightly greater precision than a senior members of a Navigator House. You can reliably predict events1550 155 minutes into the future, and get some flashes of events up to 1550 155 days hence. +255 to ritual-disruption Checks and similar esoteric uses of psychic power such as divination and guiding ships through the Warp. +125 to ritual-disruption Checks among allied psykers.
Gained Psyker Advanced All: 150 Perk. Warp Holder. A dangerous exercise, but a simple and useful one. Taking as much Warp energy as you can hold, and holding it for as long as you can without mutagenic effects or being overwhelmed, rather than letting it in and then pushing it out as quickly as possible. Good for building a tolerance to it, though most psykers are not able to do this without major risks, as they lack a Primarch's inherent resistance to the Warp's whims. May be useful for certain high-tolerance Astartes. +350 to Psyker Checks.
7050/7300 to Level 64.
[X] [Minor] [SL] Albert Salnus (x2) (max out parent SL and Speech)
The superhuman and her adoptive father simply decided to spend some time together, and took the afternoon off. They did simple things, watching birds, eating simple food outside, a short hike, things like that.
Karma Check: 4660. Required: 450.
While initially feeling like she ought to be working, Serras soon relaxed. She'd needed this.
*Stress reduced.*
"Thanks dad." she said simply.
Serras and Albert were going over the projections for the resource output of the nearly-complete Stellar Bellows, as well as the initial requests for allocations of those resources. The complex dance of accepting or denying such requests without major offense towards anyone was the most difficult part, to be honest. When they finished, Serras took a moment to get her thoughts in order.
Karma Check: 4750. Required: 500. Passed. +100 Karma.
She was quite sure of what she was about to say. "You know, I was rather bothered by losing access to my ability to see the future at first. Then I remembered what you said." Serras glanced at the pile of papers. "These documents are from people who expect the Stellar Bellows to work, many of them with little more proof than my say-so. They believe in me, and I think I should return their faith in me. So, I'm not worried about the Orks. We'll handle whatever they throw at us, and avenge every world that fell to them. We'll build a world where everyone has a place. Together."
Albert didn't say anything. He simply smiled proudly at her, patting her on the shoulder.
Reward: Albert Salnus SL has advanced to 10. Karma has advanced to 4850. +30 to Speech Skills. Gained Albert Salnus SL 10 Perk. Mentors Stat bonus has increase to 50.
Albert Salnus SL 10 Perk. Speaker of the House. While sheer skill at your job can take you far, a government agent of any kind, including a governor, needs good people skills to be truly effective. +100 to Speech Checks. Doubled when speaking to the public.
Speech: Seller: 0. Persuasion, is, in essence, selling an idea to someone. Logic or emotional appeals, the means matters little so long as you convince them.
Speech: Seller: 10. You can sell someone on something they would normally only do under dire circumstances with incredible difficulty. +10 to Speech Checks.
Speech: Seller: 20. You can sell someone on something they would normally only do under dire circumstances with enormous difficulty. +20 to Speech Checks.
Speech: Seller: 30. You can sell someone on something they would normally only do under dire circumstances with great difficulty. +30 to Speech Checks.
Speech: Barter: 0. Diplomacy, when done properly, is nothing more than a puffed-up form of 'Do this for me, and I'll do this for you.' with the respective positions of those bartering having a major impact on what they can demand and supply.
Speech: Barter: 10. You are acceptable at determining when to go along with pomp and ceremony, and when to be blunt and direct, in every conceivable setting, and can negotiate a slightly better deal than is strictly fair if you so choose. +10 to Speech Checks.
Speech: Barter: 20. You acceptable at determining when to go along with pomp and ceremony, and when to be blunt and direct, in every conceivable setting, and can negotiate a marginally better deal than is strictly fair if you so choose. +20 to Speech Checks.
Speech: Barter: 30. You are acceptable at determining when to go along with pomp and ceremony, and when to be blunt and direct, in every conceivable setting, and can negotiate a somewhat better deal than is strictly fair if you so choose. +30 to Speech Checks.
Speech: Fear: 0. Intimidation is nothing more than causing someone else to lose confidence. In other words, to make them feel fear.
Speech: Fear: 10. You are preternaturally skilled as engendering fear. In a very few rare cases, you don't need to move a muscle or take advantage of your psychic abilities to leave the average sentient paralyzed with terror. +10 to Speech Checks.
Speech: Fear: 20. You are preternaturally skilled as engendering fear. In a few rare cases, you don't need to move a muscle or take advantage of your psychic abilities to leave the average sentient paralyzed with terror. +20 to Speech Checks.
Speech: Fear: 30. You are preternaturally skilled as engendering fear. In a very few cases, you don't need to move a muscle or take advantage of your psychic abilities to leave the average sentient paralyzed with terror. +30 to Speech Checks.
7130/7300 to Level 64.
AN: Too cheesy?
RER: 97+10(FBTW)+ 20(Level Perks)=127. Critical Success!
Critical Success Roll: 39+10(FBTW)+ 20(Level Perks)+27(Overflow)=96. Excellent Result.
A Greater Hive World of 130 billion with a huge number of minor STCs intact is discovered by almost total accident, as the planet orbits it's dim red dwarf star in an isolated system well off established Warp routes. The Hive nobles were actually very competent by their usual standards, and the population was actually pretty happy even before The Bastion's technology made them go from incredibly crowded to barely starting to fill the planet.
Knowledge of The Ancients upgraded. While the Ancients didn't know everything, they knew a great deal. To the point that they used technology in day-to-day life that wouldn't be found in the most advanced laboratory. This manifests in a great number of blueprints for everything from car parts, to missile launchers. +1100 to PDF rolls. +1100% to industry. +1100 to morale rolls.
Exploration Roll: 51+10(FBTW)+20(Level Perks)+10(Explorer Corps)=91. Excellent Result.
A Forgeworld is discovered.
Totaling 382 planets.
Galactic Rumor Mill: From what your satellites can discern, The Cogsmasher Empire is keeping most of its larger fleets back to guard their incomplete war planetoid, but smaller fleets, as in, singular Dreadnought fleets, are massing on the border. From what chatter can be discerned, the Waaghlok claims that The Bastion would provide a good fight. Cogzaog had decided to let the rowdy warbands vent their frustration, as they merely needed to buy some time until the War World was operational and it would be far more difficult to stop them. Particularly since they'd have rolled out the looted tech by then.
First off, the present system will be used for Events, but a number of changes will be made to Main Turns. I kept trying different systems, but they kept getting overly complex and becoming too mathy. So, I decided on a system that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
The production of ships and Mega-Projects in general will subtract from an overall production determined by the number of planets multiplied by the production bonus number. Then that number will have the number of planets multiplied by 1050 subtracted from it to account for the average planet's needs. I'm not going to give you a different value depending on the planet's type and population, as that level of detail would simply bog me down with spreadsheets trying to keep track of the planet's production. Perhaps if a single planet were involved, then I could be persuaded to do something like that, but not on this scale. It would simply take too long, even if I were willing to do that kind of work. However, you can't use more than 100 times the consumed goods of your empire, after the upkeep cost is taken into account of course, as there's a limit on the number of factories you can have and how many factories people will bother to have around/be available to work. This means that there's a limit to the utility of a Stellar Bellows (which provide 100000 base production and the multiplier works on them), and having one in each system would be massive overkill.
Escorts cost 1000 production, Cruisers 5000, Dreadnoughts 10000, Battleships/Gorianas/Battle Barges 25000, Super-Battleships 50000, and a tenth of that in upkeep. Halve those figures for their shipyards, and you don't have the tech for anything bigger than 20 km, which is the upper limit for SBs. Also, keep in mind that Research Coordination adds 50 to the per planet upkeep, though if you intend to spam Stellar Bellows that may be of benefit to you. In addition, production not used will be stockpiled at 10% efficiency, which you can thank replicators and sundry other technologies for having instead of 1% since not using it tends to mean nothing much was made.
Checks, for Invention and regular actions alike, will follow this system. With each action, the relevant Stat, plus the relevant Skills divided by 10 (ordinarily 20, but Advanced Skills are only divided by 10. It's by 5 for Exotic, 2 for Relic, and 1 for 1 on Divine), plus the relevant Perks (1 per Basic Perk, 2 per Advanced Perk, 4 per Exotic, 8 per Relic, and 16 per Divine, with All Perks counting as additional Perks of the relevant category. Competence adds a +1 to all Skill dice rolls for example. Relevant categories are any Perk that falls under the umbrella of a Skill used in the Check.) multiplied by the number of actions, with a 1d20 for each action, to progress to a threshold for something, which have similarly had 2 powers of 10 knocked off. This rule does not apply to Checks undertaken during Events, as mentioned earlier, just Main Turns. SLs fall under Main Turns. Wars, Council of Nikea-type diplomatic meetings, etc. are Events.
I considered adding a Trait system, an evolution of the Racial Perks that would result in something not dissimilar to Durin's system in Embers in the Dusk, but ultimately decided against it, as adding more parts to the system would be counterproductive towards the goal I've set. Though, it's worth noting that heroic willpower is a thing, as the Warp makes narrative physics an in-setting thing, and if someone crit succeeds their survival roll enough times, they can pull a But It Refused… once. They tend to die if they get hit with another lethal attack or succeed in taking their opponent down, but hey, mutual kills are better than nothing. Things get weird if existing psychic phenomena interact with such an instance, and if the person is a psyker or a Perpetual or something similarly odd, well, I'll leave it up to your imagination.
The Integration Actions can be directed to accomplish certain goals, such as making a 'bridge' to Terra or Prospero, but otherwise I'll just list a planet number claimed and EXP gained for the unimportant planets, with the crit-fails and the really, really important ones at the end, and those are the only specific planets I'm going to bother showing. It'll probably get condensed with Invention, all things considered. The division by Main, Minor, and Invention will otherwise remain the same.
SLs are unlikely to have their Skill checks bothered with, you'll just get 80 EXP from each at the end. Also, those +50s and such are unchanged. I figured making the SL bonuses actually useful was in order.
Super-AN: Okay, going to try to put the Turn Options up by Halloween, but I'm not making promises. By the way, anybody interested in the pair of stories I've written a good chunk of in my sig?
There's been some research made in various doctrines used by the fleet, with the Stellar Bellows due to come online soon. The amount of resources this will provide will feed directly into the navy, the army, and the economy that supports both. There are 3 doctrines, one for each section, in the works at this point in time to take advantage of the massive surge of resources.
For the navy, there's the Toolbox Fleet Doctrine. This doctrine requires good ships, good crews, and excellent communications. While this requires a great deal of discipline and cooperation, the sheer adaptability of such a fleet means that it's very unlikely for a more specialized fleet to keep up outside their area of expertise. This includes things like ambushes and assassination strikes, as the fleets is uniquely well-suited to resisting strikes against the chain of command, due to the constant chatter between all the ships. It remains the best way to slow the fleet's reactions, but unlikely to be decisive by itself.
It's also easily integrated with any fleet it can actually talk to. Filling whatever role would best work with the other fleet, so long as the communication hubs are intact. Which means this doctrine is theoretically capable of cooperating with any other fleet of any doctrine, perhaps even allying with non-aligned fleets of human or xenos origin.
The bad news is that the training of such skilled crews, and the building and maintenance of ships meant to perform very well in any given area make it a very expensive doctrine to use, and actually makes the crew the most difficult thing to replace. Speaking of performance, they are usually outperformed by the specialization of a more specialized fleet, which can be used against it by an observant and/or skilled commander.
For the army, the Unified Battle Doctrine is under investigation. Similarly to the naval doctrine, this doctrine is one of the more expensive ones, as a consequence of improved efficiency, versatility, adaptability, and cooperation, swiftly integrating auxiliary forces regardless of their species or training, which in turn causes a disadvantage when faced with a force of specialized units playing the game their way.
The reasoning behind this is that there is a definite soft-cap for ships in orbit, a few thousand on a give side, as there is only so much space near the planet and ships are notoriously difficult to turn sharply if crowding them together necessitates such. Ships may have a large number of individual targets, but those numbers have a limit, and there are going to be millions of soldiers on all but the most sparsely populated worlds. This means that a ship that is part of a coherent fleet, even an Orkish one, will have a general strategy, which the individual ships will not deviate from much on average.
Meanwhile, the forces on the ground have intensive training programs, which are more similar to what an officer of an ordinary army would receive than a normal soldier. Combined with their comms and scanners, accuracy, maneuverability and strategy at the micro-level are all immensely improved, and tests have shown this particular doctrine to be very effective, if also very expensive.
The Economy has the New World Economy Doctrine in the works. The gist is that even with replicators, not all products will be made equally well, as a 1% increase in efficiency is simply not worth making a replicator for each different type of item. Larger items, such as road sections and spaceship components do benefit from this. Items that are both large and complex, while infrequently required, benefit the most from this process.
A freighter might use almost exactly the same parts, but use different numbers and have them in different places, resulting in a different end product once the parts are assembled. While the customization can be added afterward, the initial product can be churned out relatively quickly by a Heavy Industrial Park, which a Mechanicus Forgeworld will almost always have at least one of, to carry out maintenance on trader ships if nothing else, but more commonly to build freighters and transports for their own personal use.
Larger versions are found attached to shipyards, particularly those frequently used by the military. Larger ships are more complex, but the process is much the same. Of course, more replicators means a larger power drain, and it is not uncommon for more than a quarter of a HIP to be dedicated to fusion plants. Though most factory workers will note how much cleaner fusion power is when compared to the byproducts of their previous factories, particularly on Hive Worlds where until relatively recently, smog was ever-present to ensure the population was adequately provided for to the point that they didn't riot more than the military could handle/discourage.
This does cause some unemployment problems, and while skilled labor fields, such as scientific research, can't be replaced, jobs like asteroid mining can only take up so much of the factory work slack even if some factories are kept online as a contingency. In addition, while the average meal made with replicators isn't quite the same as one made with ingredients prepared normally (presumably due to the odd nature of the replicators and the dimension they interact with) they are much more efficient than agriculture, with more customization, and no shipping and potential contamination by the Warp resulting from such to affect the food. The continued advance of replicators certainly doesn't help as more and more niche jobs fall into their jurisdiction.
Omake Reward: Burgeoning Doctrines. Background research is being conducted into a set of doctrines developed for a post-poverty, potentially post-scarcity state. +50 to Doctrine Research. Each Doctrine available for research will be done with automatic +50 applied to them upon AP investment.
[X] [Minor] [SL] Magnus (x1)
"Well, Father tells me you've been busy with the Crystals. I'm a little jealous to be honest, I've had to deal with a Psychneuein infestation since we last chatted. Very unpleasant. I thought I'd wiped them all out, but apparently" A note of anger entered his voice. "another strain was attracted to the display of psychic power." Magnus began. "Er, are you alright? You feel… off." he noticed.
Karma Check: 4200. Required: 1500. Passed. +300 Karma.
While Serras was less than approving towards herself for using Magnus to blow off steam, she needed to talk to someone who wouldn't panic at her panicking. "...Not really no. I lost a whole scouting fleet to Orks. They didn't take any losses." Serras admitted.
"Orks?" Magnus asked, momentarily baffled. He'd glimpsed futures where Prospero was attacked, and the Orks were idiots. Certainly they gained some intellect and fighting prowess if the conflict lasted some time, but not enough to catch an entire fleet off-guard without losses.
"From what I was able to see, they seem to have spent centuries trapped in a Warp Storm. Internecine conflict, after taking control of about 30 worlds, fed them and caused a slow evolution into massive beings with human-level intellects, if not superior, and physiques on par with Astartes, if the surveillance cameras and reports are to be believed. They managed to predict the fleet sent to look for the first coming well enough to have their guns firing on them within seconds of the disturbance from exiting the Warp making itself known." Magnus gave the impression of a wide-eyed stare. Orks having either the technology or the psychic discipline to detect incoming Warp vessels or reliably see them coming in the near-future was a terrifying thought.
"When the ships got close enough, they bombarded the ships just enough to disable the shields, and then started to teleport Ork boarders onto the ships. The only reason none of them were overrun was that they managed to flee outside teleporter range, which was itself because the Orks were more concerned with making sure their recent conquest was properly pacified than a small fleet attacking them." She continued.
"Considering how much Orks like fighting, that is probably the most disturbing thing you could have said." Magnus noted with some trepidation.
"No, the most disturbing thing is that MY DIVINATION IS ON THE FRITZ!" Serras corrected with something that was nearly a roar. "Ever since I looked into the WAAGH and its leaders, I haven't been able to divine anything properly. I haven't detected any curses or memetic hazards I might have triggered. It's like I'm being blocked from divining properly wholesale. I can still divine, but any further than a day is wildly inaccurate, as if I were a total novice again."
"...What." Magnus was beyond baffled. Divination could only be blocked in specific areas by rival diviners or powerful wards, so far as he knew. Someone was muddling all of her attempts? That would require an immense amount of effort. Who could possibly have the resources to do that, and a good reason to do so? Father almost certainly had no reason, and Magnu knew he didn't. The head of the Orkish psykers was a possibility, but why put forth the effort to block her divinations in general? It would be far more efficient to focus on the WAAGH itself, rather than a broad, sweeping attempt at nullification.
Stress Check: Passed.
Serras gave the impression of a deep inhale and exhale. "Sorry, I've calmed down now, I just needed to vent at someone for a bit who either wasn't going to be involved in the fighting in any way or wasn't going to be perturbed by my panic attack, which is a very small pool of people considering my relative ability in… everything compared to virtually everyone who isn't a Primarch. I managed to get a decent amount of information about the WAAGH before my Divination gave out, so I shouldn't have too much trouble strategizing. In the short-term, little has changed. In the long-term, well, I'll deal with that when I don't have a genocidal empire bearing down on me."
"Are you sure you're alright?" Magnus asked. That had been an awfully fast reversal.
"No, no, I'm fine. I just needed to get a little ranting out of my system, now I can deal with this. You wanted to ask about the Crystals?" She might have been changing the subject, but it wasn't exactly irrelevant.
"Er, yes. The Crystals have been working with much greater potency ever since you made all those new ones, and many of the new ones have been very popular with the psykers here on Prospero. They've also been much easier to make, even the ones you'd already pushed to their limits."
Serras nodded. Magnus had supported Serras in getting Father to give the Crystal deity a chance, so he had as much of a right as anyone to know the details. Besides, he already knew about the 'Crystal Daemon' because she'd told him about it, so Father's very emphatic desire for as few people to know about it was already a moot point here. She had absolutely no real reason not to inform his of the specifics.
"As it turns out, my theory was correct. A powerful Warp entity has conglomerated from the aggregate psychic energy of the concepts the Crystals embody, and more Crystals seem to have a synergistic effect, making Hydaelyn stronger, and thus making the Crystals stronger, though it seems to require more to achieve the next 'tier' with each one passed, presumably because of the psychic energy being spread thinner as the number goes up. She can activate the first three tiers of Crystal automatically, but I'm sure you already noticed that." she explained.
"That is very interesting. Anything else I should be aware of?" he asked.
"She seems to resent Father a bit, though I'm not sure if it's just because he grilled her on the day she was born, or if she finds being restricted, even for a good reason, exacerbating, so be careful about that. I'll work to figure out her issues. How's Jack by the way?" she asked.
"Fine. His experience in avoiding detection makes it a lot easier for him to detect hidden foes, so he's leading the effort to find any straggling Psychnneueins now that I've take out the main body and major nests." Magnus answered.
The conversation devolved into small talk for a few minutes, and the pair of psykers parted ways to continue their respective projects.
Reward: Magnus SL has advanced to 4. Karma has increased to 4500. +15 to Psyker Skills.
Psyker: Sorcery: 135. You are a great sorcerer, with abilities that leave normal sorcerers rather impressed. +135(235 total) to yourself in combat, +65(115 total) to allies within 23000 meters.
Psyker: Sorcery: 140. You are a great sorcerer, with abilities that leave normal sorcerers rather impressed. +140(240 total) to yourself in combat, +70(120 total) to allies within 24000 meters.
Psyker: Sorcery: 150. You are a great sorcerer, with abilities that leave normal sorcerers flabbergasted. +150(250 total) to yourself in combat, +75(125 total) to allies within 25000 meters.
Psyker: Spirit: 125. Your soul rejects Daemons who do nothing more than enter your personal space. +225 to attempts at mind-reading/domination, and to defending against such attempts. Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses whether they try force or stealth. Greater Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses if they try force anyway, with a large chance of dying to them if they attempt subterfuge. Even a Chaos God wouldn't be able to just waltz in without a very noticeable struggle. Lesser Daemons will be destroyed simply from coming into contact with you.
Psyker: Spirit: 130. Your soul rejects Daemons who do nothing more than enter your personal space or a meter of that radius. +230 to attempts at mind-reading/domination, and to defending against such attempts. Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses whether they try force or stealth. Greater Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses if they try force anyway, with a large chance of dying to them if they attempt subterfuge. Even a Chaos God wouldn't be able to just waltz in without a very noticeable struggle. Lesser Daemons will be destroyed simply from coming into contact with you.
Psyker: Spirit: 140. Your soul rejects Daemons who do nothing more than enter your personal space or 2 meters of that radius. +240 to attempts at mind-reading/domination, and to defending against such attempts. Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses whether they try force or stealth. Greater Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses if they try force anyway, with a large chance of dying to them if they attempt subterfuge. Even a Chaos God wouldn't be able to just waltz in without a very noticeable struggle. Lesser Daemons will be destroyed simply from coming into contact with you.
Psyker: Navigator: 125. You can read and manipulate the Warp around you to the same degree as the senior members of a Navigator House. You can reliably predict events
Psyker: Navigator: 130. You can read and manipulate the Warp around you to the same degree as the senior members of a Navigator House. You can reliably predict events
Psyker: Navigator: 140. You can read and manipulate the Warp around you to the same degree as the senior members of a Navigator House. You can reliably predict events
6530/7300 to Level 64.
AN: I thought Tzeentch and co. feeding Serras junk data rather than trying to block the ability entirely made more sense. Doing something similar for Emps, only a lot more long-term and subtle (only doing it very rarely if at all before the Heresy was about to kick off), would feed into his general sense of being right, or at least the most right, and help lull him into a false sense of security.
[X] [Minor] [SL] Rogal Dorn (x1)
'Rogal, do you have a few spare minutes? I'd like a second opinion on tactics, and between the two of us, I have difficulty finding anyone who operates at the same intellectual level as myself, as Father is more or less constantly busy. Not to treat you as a backup advisor, I just feel like his experience is going to trump your talent for a while yet.' Serras explained.
'It is not a problem. My campaign to unite Inwit is proceeding well. Presumably the lesser number of Long Night horrors bogging my elite troops down and the relatively small number of unreasonable maniacs roaming the countryside killing for fun instead of simply for resources are responsible. My adoptive grandfather claims that I've taken well to my tactical studies, but I concede that my experience may be lacking compared to Father, though I am unsure as to the margin by which this may be true. Do you have any idea how old he is? I confess to a moderate amount of curiosity in that regard.' Rogal responded.
'No idea, but Magnus says he's seen religion go bad multiple times, so 500 years our elder is probably a conservative estimate, quite possibly less than a tenth of his true age. I don't see any reason to be concerned about it. At some point, the scale of his lifetime would render any age less than a century something of a moot point, and none of us are anywhere near that point.' Serras projected a shrug. There came a point where the percentage difference became a better thing to wonder over than the sum difference.
'Alright then, what is your situation?' he asked. Couldn't form a strategy from a completely blank slate after all.
'Well, I've explained how Orks grow more advanced and intelligent as they fight, right? Apparently a thousand or so years of that on even a small-scale, such as 30 or so planets, is enough to make them evolve into a horde of Astartes-level soldiers with human-level intellects, advanced technology, and the replacement of their rampant insanity with a more machine-like efficiency, though still backing war for the sake of war. They nearly killed off entire ships' crews with less than a tenth of their relative number, and the only reason they didn't was that the Ork fleet was too busy pacifying a recent conquest to bother keeping their ships in range to teleport boarding crews onto Bastion ships.
The good news is, passive sensors have been scattered throughout the edges of their territory, so I have a decent idea of their fleet movements, and at least a general estimate of their fleet numbers as a whole, though I'm much less sure of the status of their industry and population.'
'That is an unusual situation for me. Normally, a few scouts and spies can tell me what level the population and industry of my opponent is functioning at, but I have little idea of their overall troop movements until they're about to move on territory that is mine or adjacent to my own. I suppose you can't do the same for Orks because, for one thing, a human would stick out amongst xenos.' Rogal noted.
'Orks are surprisingly good at detecting infiltrators. I believe it's something to do with their gestalt psychic field. They can tell when someone isn't actually part of it subconsciously. Not to mention these Orks were using actual tactics more complex than 'shoot in the same general direction' and succeeding. They're probably smart enough that wearing green armor probably isn't going to be enough to fool the dim ones, assuming they aren't all total savants or something moronic like that.' Serras said, a hint of bite entering her voice. She'd moved past hysteria at suddenly not knowing the probable future, beyond educated guesses, into moderate bitterness so far as her reduced divination was concerned, which she was taking out at the only reasonable target. She assumed Chaos was responsible, sure, but she couldn't exactly march to the giant Warp vortex hundreds of sectors away and demand that they give her back her precognition.
Rogal, completely missing the bitter undertone in Serras' voice, agreed. 'That is unlikely, yes. I will do my best to advise you in any case. What are you relative numbers and how comparable are your soldiers and equipment?' he asked.
'In ships? Numerically superior, and, well, the fact that there weren't any Dreadnoughts in the fleet they nearly wiped out was a major problem for meaningfully contesting them in space in that instance, but my forces could almost certainly have done serious damage even without one. The main problem is that their infantry was monstrously overpowering. They'd chew through an average of 20 crew members before falling, and they'd normally have numbers on their side. Not to mention that was in the confines of the ship, where the crew knew the environment and the enemy couldn't fully leverage their superior physiques.
The infantry averages the height of an Astartes,' Recalling that Rogal had never seen an Astartes, she added. 'so roughly 8 feet tall. They possessed the strength to tear through a centimeter of steel with their bare hands with trivial ease, and casually shrugged off most small-arms. The heavy weapons division of the marine contingent was more successful, but they are few in number both because of the impracticality of having the entire force too slow to maneuver and the expense of their gear relative to most others. Their beasts, commonly referred to as 'Squigs' by both sides, were also a major problem. Universally cybernetically augmented, frequently possessing strange abilities from acid spit to lightning breath, they luckily lacked the higher intelligence to follow complex commands in most cases, and if separated from their handlers, had little in the way of tactical acumen beyond attempting to regain access to their more strategically-minded handlers.' she explained.
'Knowing one's weaknesses is regarded as a sign of wisdom in most cases.' Rogal noted. 'Though wisdom and intelligence are not always found together. Some of the smartest people I've met have been completely insufferable to spend time with due to their, in fairness, not completely unjustified egos, while the town fool is far better liked in several places because he's aware enough of his own stupidity not to cause trouble. Though the situation is reversed just as often as the fool is too stupid to realize he's moronic while the town genius has learned from his mistakes and become bearable.'
Serras blinked at that anecdote, then continued. 'From what the sensors picked up, their teleportation is somehow gravity based, unlike the Immaterium-based Teleportariums we commonly use, which doesn't explain why the Void Shields failed to stop them, as gravity is one of the few things that affects both the material and immaterial to similar degrees, but we have data on several thousand instances of it now, so theoretically a jammer should be possible even with the interference of their psychic fields, but it would be a drain on finite resources that wouldn't be devoted to the shields or weapons. Better than being overrun by boarders like those though.' Serras explained.
'I would recommend investing those resources into prevention of boarding if your troops are so badly outmatched. A battle avoided when you cannot win is not a question of honor or dishonor, just whether it actually serves any purpose to have your men and materials lost. Save them for the likely incredibly bloody ground campaigns if do not simply plan to burn the planets in question, and for future battles in general if you do.' Rogal advised.
Karma Check: 500. Passed. +100 Karma.
'Well, in the long-term, simply wiping the slate clean and restoring the planet afterward would probably be the best option. I'm just worried about my stores of Exterminatus-grade weapons. We only have 15 of those across the entire Bastion, mostly because planet-scouring weaponry is a low-priority production item, and even assuming they all reach their destination, I'd estimate at least 30 planets. A ground campaign of some sort is going to be necessary. I'd lead my Legion to do so, but they're drastically understrength compared to a full Legion, and almost completely green."
'What subspecies of humans possesses green skin?' Rogal asked in complete seriousness.
Serras blinked at him, strange, concepts usually came across so well. Maybe she should check herself for any other instances of interference. Again. 'It's a euphemism for inexperience.'
'Odd, the commanders I'd spoken to had always used the term 'rookie' for such a description. I presume the relative value of plant life here made calling an inexperienced soldier 'green' counterintuitive, causing the phrase to fall out of use.' Rogal noted. That made sense.
'Right. So, what do you think about…'
Reward: Rogal Dorn SL has advanced to 2. Karma has increased to 4600. +15 to Tactics.
Tactics: Fortification: 5. You're at the bottom rung of building fortifications quickly, rather than digging a trench and hoping the artillery misses. More time consuming under most circumstances, but definitely more effective if you can set them up in time. +105 to Tactics Checks.
Tactics: Fortification: 10. You're at the bottom rung of building fortifications quickly, taking days to set up fortifications meant to hold months, and weeks to build fortifications meant to last years. +110 to Tactics Checks.
Tactics: Fortification: 20. You're at the bottom rung of building fortifications quickly, taking a day to set up fortifications meant to hold 2 months, and a week to build fortifications meant to last 2 years. +120 to Tactics Checks.
Tactics: Cunning: 5. You've utterly surpassed the peak of 'winging it' among the vast majority of humans. +105 to Tactics Checks.
Tactics: Cunning: 10. You've utterly surpassed the peak of 'winging it' among the vast majority of humans, and can see the realm of legends. +110 to Tactics Checks.
Tactics: Cunning: 20. You've utterly surpassed the peak of 'winging it' among the vast majority of humans, and have entered the realm of legends. +120 to Tactics Checks.
Tactics: Guile: 5. You have begun studying tactics of mind-bending complexity. +105 to Tactics Checks.
Tactics: Guile: 10. You have begun studying tactics of mind-bending complexity, the realm of legend almost within your grasp. +110 to Tactics Checks.
Tactics: Guile: 20. You have begun studying tactics of mind-bending complexity, the realm of legend within your grasp. +120 to Tactics Checks.
6610/7300 to Level 64.
[X] [Minor] [SL] Mehtrya (x1)
To say that Serras was concerned by the Orks was an understatement. This was not to say she was panicked, merely that she was well-aware her star nation had never fought anything resembling a peer opponent, and she was concerned that cracks would start to show that could only be revealed in the crucible of genuine conflict. After all, she'd used her charisma to some degree in getting some of the more belligerent worlds to fall in line without major fuss, as she suspected Father was doing to the rowdier of his Terran recruits. It had seemed a bit… shady, to say the least, but if nothing else, the Cogsmasher Empire proved the necessity of it.
Mehtrya, on the other hand, was shaken enough by what she'd heard to be noticeably twitchy.
After the fifth time a sudden noise made Mehtrya's hands clench, Serras asked "Alright, what about this is bothering you so much? We have a number of advantages even without my foresight." the Eldar agreed with her speculation that Chaos was to blame for her sudden lack of accurate foresight. She could certainly see why Father was so set on limiting the Warp's involvement in the Imperium he was building.
Mehtrya opened her mouth, closed it again, and then sighed. "You know, I'm starting to wonder why I bother trying to avoid telling you things. Old habits I suppose." she began to explain the history of humanity, Orks, and the Eldar in more detail, having read up on the subject at Quenya, including a few texts recently recovered from the Webway. Apparently some especially stubborn Eldar librarian had created vaults of historical texts and hidden them in the Webway all over the galaxy. The sensitive things were out of reach of just any librarian, but their general history was not completely lost.
The Eldar and later Dark Age humans had kept the Orks contained together at first. Following humanity spreading beyond the Sol sector at any rate. Exterminatus weapons simply failed to wipe out the infestation completely, as there was always a derelict somewhere with Orks onboard, and some spores would sometimes survive the planet being heated to 80 degrees Celsius all day.
The Eldar, upon beginning to fall into debauchery, left the task of containing the Orks increasingly to the humans, leading to moderate feelings of resentment that still existed even on certain worlds relatively cosmopolitan for the current age. The occasional raid by the Webway-dwelling Eldar certainly did not help, as these grew more frequent as the Eldar grew less interested in maintaining their roles as stewards of the galaxy and became thoroughly bewitched with exploring the extremes of sensation.
Then the Warp Storms that signaled Slaanesh was gestating in the Warp broke apart the human Federation, already crippled by their long war with the Men of Iron, all but leaving the Orks to their own devices. If they had not broken into the Webway, perhaps things wouldn't have gotten too bad, but they did, and they spread to thousands of worlds without so much as seeing a ship in this manner.
The Krorks were designed for the sole purpose of waging war, and Orks that engaged in such began to restore themselves to their former psychic and technological glory. This first set of war planetoids was likely merely the first in a long line. It was, therefore, once again the Eldar race's fault that the galaxy was falling apart.
Karma Check: 4600. Required: 300. Passed. +60 Karma.
"Wait, the Old Ones made the Krorks, and thus the Orks, right? Which they only did because the Necrons and C'Tan were trying to kill off all sentient life." Serras pointed out.
"Yes..." Mehtrya said slowly.
"Then I would argue that the Old Ones are more at fault for not installing an off-switch, and the C'Tan and Necrons' are further still at fault for backing them into a corner like that. Mostly the second of the three. Ironically, the Necrons might actually be least to blame, since they'd lost any real ability to control their actions by the time they became enough of threat to push the Old Ones to desperate measures."
"Still, we didn't just destroy ourselves, we actively hindered your civilization's attempts to hold itself together. I don't think your Father is ever going to fully forgive us for that. Is he willing to work with us out of the goodness of his heart, or does he just want the Webway and think we're the quickest way to get it?" Mehtrya questioned pointedly.
Serras considered this for a moment. It was true that Father had admitted that humans were his first priority, and he'd always seemed wary at best in regards to the Eldar. Lying to her would only set her up for more damage in the long-term. "Well, if you're absolutely set on beating yourself up over it, treat helping us fix this mess as atonement. After all, it's only fair that you help" She placed special emphasis on her decision not to use the word 'fix' on it's own. The Eldar were in no condition to fix this all by themselves, especially with their more twisted brethren waiting in the wings and limiting their use of the Webway, their greatest asset. "fix your mess. I wouldn't worry too much about Father. He's not going to blow you up for taking up human living space or something moronic like that. Being especially useful is just extra security. He knows full well that humanity can't afford to fight everyone at once in its current state, particularly anyone able to provide unique services."
Mehtrya seemed relieved at the reassurance from someone who'd actually interacted with Father.
Reward: Mehtrya SL has advanced to 7. Karma has increased to 4660. +15 to Psyker Skills.
Psyker: Sorcery: 150. You are a great sorcerer, with abilities that leave normal sorcerers flabbergasted. +150(250 total) to yourself in combat, +75(125 total) to allies within 25000 meters.
Psyker: Sorcery: 165. You are a great sorcerer, with abilities that leave normal sorcerers awestruck. +165(265 total) to yourself in combat, +80(130 total) to allies within 30000 meters.
Psyker: Spirit: 140. Your soul rejects Daemons who do nothing more than enter your personal space or 2 meters of that radius. +240 to attempts at mind-reading/domination, and to defending against such attempts. Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses whether they try force or stealth. Greater Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses if they try force anyway, with a large chance of dying to them if they attempt subterfuge. Even a Chaos God wouldn't be able to just waltz in without a very noticeable struggle. Lesser Daemons will be destroyed simply from coming into contact with you.
Psyker: Spirit: 155. Your soul rejects Daemons who do nothing more than enter your personal space or 3 meters of that radius. +255 to attempts at mind-reading/domination, and to defending against such attempts. Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses whether they try force or stealth. Greater Daemons will find your soul impossible to take by force, and will get themselves killed on your passive defenses if they try force anyway, with a large chance of dying to them if they attempt subterfuge. Even a Chaos God wouldn't be able to just waltz in without a very noticeable struggle. Lesser Daemons will be utterly destroyed simply from coming into contact with you.
Psyker: Navigator: 140. You can read and manipulate the Warp around you to the same degree as the senior members of a Navigator House. You can reliably predict events
Psyker: Navigator: 155. You can read and manipulate the Warp around you with slightly greater precision than a senior members of a Navigator House. You can reliably predict events
Gained Psyker Advanced All: 150 Perk. Warp Holder. A dangerous exercise, but a simple and useful one. Taking as much Warp energy as you can hold, and holding it for as long as you can without mutagenic effects or being overwhelmed, rather than letting it in and then pushing it out as quickly as possible. Good for building a tolerance to it, though most psykers are not able to do this without major risks, as they lack a Primarch's inherent resistance to the Warp's whims. May be useful for certain high-tolerance Astartes. +350 to Psyker Checks.
7050/7300 to Level 64.
[X] [Minor] [SL] Albert Salnus (x2) (max out parent SL and Speech)
The superhuman and her adoptive father simply decided to spend some time together, and took the afternoon off. They did simple things, watching birds, eating simple food outside, a short hike, things like that.
Karma Check: 4660. Required: 450.
While initially feeling like she ought to be working, Serras soon relaxed. She'd needed this.
*Stress reduced.*
"Thanks dad." she said simply.
***
Serras and Albert were going over the projections for the resource output of the nearly-complete Stellar Bellows, as well as the initial requests for allocations of those resources. The complex dance of accepting or denying such requests without major offense towards anyone was the most difficult part, to be honest. When they finished, Serras took a moment to get her thoughts in order.
Karma Check: 4750. Required: 500. Passed. +100 Karma.
She was quite sure of what she was about to say. "You know, I was rather bothered by losing access to my ability to see the future at first. Then I remembered what you said." Serras glanced at the pile of papers. "These documents are from people who expect the Stellar Bellows to work, many of them with little more proof than my say-so. They believe in me, and I think I should return their faith in me. So, I'm not worried about the Orks. We'll handle whatever they throw at us, and avenge every world that fell to them. We'll build a world where everyone has a place. Together."
Albert didn't say anything. He simply smiled proudly at her, patting her on the shoulder.
Reward: Albert Salnus SL has advanced to 10. Karma has advanced to 4850. +30 to Speech Skills. Gained Albert Salnus SL 10 Perk. Mentors Stat bonus has increase to 50.
Albert Salnus SL 10 Perk. Speaker of the House. While sheer skill at your job can take you far, a government agent of any kind, including a governor, needs good people skills to be truly effective. +100 to Speech Checks. Doubled when speaking to the public.
Speech: Seller: 0. Persuasion, is, in essence, selling an idea to someone. Logic or emotional appeals, the means matters little so long as you convince them.
Speech: Seller: 10. You can sell someone on something they would normally only do under dire circumstances with incredible difficulty. +10 to Speech Checks.
Speech: Seller: 20. You can sell someone on something they would normally only do under dire circumstances with enormous difficulty. +20 to Speech Checks.
Speech: Seller: 30. You can sell someone on something they would normally only do under dire circumstances with great difficulty. +30 to Speech Checks.
Speech: Barter: 0. Diplomacy, when done properly, is nothing more than a puffed-up form of 'Do this for me, and I'll do this for you.' with the respective positions of those bartering having a major impact on what they can demand and supply.
Speech: Barter: 10. You are acceptable at determining when to go along with pomp and ceremony, and when to be blunt and direct, in every conceivable setting, and can negotiate a slightly better deal than is strictly fair if you so choose. +10 to Speech Checks.
Speech: Barter: 20. You acceptable at determining when to go along with pomp and ceremony, and when to be blunt and direct, in every conceivable setting, and can negotiate a marginally better deal than is strictly fair if you so choose. +20 to Speech Checks.
Speech: Barter: 30. You are acceptable at determining when to go along with pomp and ceremony, and when to be blunt and direct, in every conceivable setting, and can negotiate a somewhat better deal than is strictly fair if you so choose. +30 to Speech Checks.
Speech: Fear: 0. Intimidation is nothing more than causing someone else to lose confidence. In other words, to make them feel fear.
Speech: Fear: 10. You are preternaturally skilled as engendering fear. In a very few rare cases, you don't need to move a muscle or take advantage of your psychic abilities to leave the average sentient paralyzed with terror. +10 to Speech Checks.
Speech: Fear: 20. You are preternaturally skilled as engendering fear. In a few rare cases, you don't need to move a muscle or take advantage of your psychic abilities to leave the average sentient paralyzed with terror. +20 to Speech Checks.
Speech: Fear: 30. You are preternaturally skilled as engendering fear. In a very few cases, you don't need to move a muscle or take advantage of your psychic abilities to leave the average sentient paralyzed with terror. +30 to Speech Checks.
7130/7300 to Level 64.
AN: Too cheesy?
RER: 97+10(FBTW)+ 20(Level Perks)=127. Critical Success!
Critical Success Roll: 39+10(FBTW)+ 20(Level Perks)+27(Overflow)=96. Excellent Result.
A Greater Hive World of 130 billion with a huge number of minor STCs intact is discovered by almost total accident, as the planet orbits it's dim red dwarf star in an isolated system well off established Warp routes. The Hive nobles were actually very competent by their usual standards, and the population was actually pretty happy even before The Bastion's technology made them go from incredibly crowded to barely starting to fill the planet.
Knowledge of The Ancients upgraded. While the Ancients didn't know everything, they knew a great deal. To the point that they used technology in day-to-day life that wouldn't be found in the most advanced laboratory. This manifests in a great number of blueprints for everything from car parts, to missile launchers. +1100 to PDF rolls. +1100% to industry. +1100 to morale rolls.
Exploration Roll: 51+10(FBTW)+20(Level Perks)+10(Explorer Corps)=91. Excellent Result.
A Forgeworld is discovered.
Totaling 382 planets.
Galactic Rumor Mill: From what your satellites can discern, The Cogsmasher Empire is keeping most of its larger fleets back to guard their incomplete war planetoid, but smaller fleets, as in, singular Dreadnought fleets, are massing on the border. From what chatter can be discerned, the Waaghlok claims that The Bastion would provide a good fight. Cogzaog had decided to let the rowdy warbands vent their frustration, as they merely needed to buy some time until the War World was operational and it would be far more difficult to stop them. Particularly since they'd have rolled out the looted tech by then.
Turn Workings Update.
First off, the present system will be used for Events, but a number of changes will be made to Main Turns. I kept trying different systems, but they kept getting overly complex and becoming too mathy. So, I decided on a system that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
The production of ships and Mega-Projects in general will subtract from an overall production determined by the number of planets multiplied by the production bonus number. Then that number will have the number of planets multiplied by 1050 subtracted from it to account for the average planet's needs. I'm not going to give you a different value depending on the planet's type and population, as that level of detail would simply bog me down with spreadsheets trying to keep track of the planet's production. Perhaps if a single planet were involved, then I could be persuaded to do something like that, but not on this scale. It would simply take too long, even if I were willing to do that kind of work. However, you can't use more than 100 times the consumed goods of your empire, after the upkeep cost is taken into account of course, as there's a limit on the number of factories you can have and how many factories people will bother to have around/be available to work. This means that there's a limit to the utility of a Stellar Bellows (which provide 100000 base production and the multiplier works on them), and having one in each system would be massive overkill.
Escorts cost 1000 production, Cruisers 5000, Dreadnoughts 10000, Battleships/Gorianas/Battle Barges 25000, Super-Battleships 50000, and a tenth of that in upkeep. Halve those figures for their shipyards, and you don't have the tech for anything bigger than 20 km, which is the upper limit for SBs. Also, keep in mind that Research Coordination adds 50 to the per planet upkeep, though if you intend to spam Stellar Bellows that may be of benefit to you. In addition, production not used will be stockpiled at 10% efficiency, which you can thank replicators and sundry other technologies for having instead of 1% since not using it tends to mean nothing much was made.
Checks, for Invention and regular actions alike, will follow this system. With each action, the relevant Stat, plus the relevant Skills divided by 10 (ordinarily 20, but Advanced Skills are only divided by 10. It's by 5 for Exotic, 2 for Relic, and 1 for 1 on Divine), plus the relevant Perks (1 per Basic Perk, 2 per Advanced Perk, 4 per Exotic, 8 per Relic, and 16 per Divine, with All Perks counting as additional Perks of the relevant category. Competence adds a +1 to all Skill dice rolls for example. Relevant categories are any Perk that falls under the umbrella of a Skill used in the Check.) multiplied by the number of actions, with a 1d20 for each action, to progress to a threshold for something, which have similarly had 2 powers of 10 knocked off. This rule does not apply to Checks undertaken during Events, as mentioned earlier, just Main Turns. SLs fall under Main Turns. Wars, Council of Nikea-type diplomatic meetings, etc. are Events.
I considered adding a Trait system, an evolution of the Racial Perks that would result in something not dissimilar to Durin's system in Embers in the Dusk, but ultimately decided against it, as adding more parts to the system would be counterproductive towards the goal I've set. Though, it's worth noting that heroic willpower is a thing, as the Warp makes narrative physics an in-setting thing, and if someone crit succeeds their survival roll enough times, they can pull a But It Refused… once. They tend to die if they get hit with another lethal attack or succeed in taking their opponent down, but hey, mutual kills are better than nothing. Things get weird if existing psychic phenomena interact with such an instance, and if the person is a psyker or a Perpetual or something similarly odd, well, I'll leave it up to your imagination.
The Integration Actions can be directed to accomplish certain goals, such as making a 'bridge' to Terra or Prospero, but otherwise I'll just list a planet number claimed and EXP gained for the unimportant planets, with the crit-fails and the really, really important ones at the end, and those are the only specific planets I'm going to bother showing. It'll probably get condensed with Invention, all things considered. The division by Main, Minor, and Invention will otherwise remain the same.
SLs are unlikely to have their Skill checks bothered with, you'll just get 80 EXP from each at the end. Also, those +50s and such are unchanged. I figured making the SL bonuses actually useful was in order.
Super-AN: Okay, going to try to put the Turn Options up by Halloween, but I'm not making promises. By the way, anybody interested in the pair of stories I've written a good chunk of in my sig?
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Jack vile Ripper
The swellest guy in Creation.
- Location
- Indonesia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
*raises hand*
*deep breath*
IT UPDATES! We have hope once more!!!
*deep breath*
IT UPDATES! We have hope once more!!!
- Location
- California
Neat. I was prepared to wait until Halloween, but this is fine.
Well since you asked I can at least check Wishology, but no promises for Of Monsters, Malice and Magic.
I felt like I was missing too many references to enjoy that one, so I stopped after the first chapter.
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
The number of references goes down a bit after the first couple chapters. I felt obligated to make clear how many crossovers were going on after what happened when a crossover got sprung here.
- Location
- Here & There
Yay we finally have Serras emoting more. Yay early update. YAY FOR HAVING A, EASIER TO GET SYSTEM, MAYBE. IDK I NEED TO SEE EXAMPLE OF IT IN ACTION.
EDIT: So how are we supposed to help Sir lags alot and co in terms of those spreadsheets? Keep them, edit them, toss them?
Also glad to see the hard nerf happen, because well that was completely making the game into the equivalent of well Progress Quest
Yay the biggest problem has been noticed and addressed.
Finally some fucking action. We've been waiting for so many updates for a worthy foe worth all these big numbers.
EDIT: So how are we supposed to help Sir lags alot and co in terms of those spreadsheets? Keep them, edit them, toss them?
Also glad to see the hard nerf happen, because well that was completely making the game into the equivalent of well Progress Quest
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- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
Well, you should probably keep the sheets around, since War Turns and the like are going to happen eventually. Maybe have a footnote with the Main Turn totals under the relevant Skills?
- Location
- Here & There
@Sir LagsAlot GET YOUR DAMN ASS IN HERE WE GOT WORK TO DO
AND BY WE I MEAN YOU WITH ME SOMETIMES HELPING.
AND BY WE I MEAN YOU WITH ME SOMETIMES HELPING.