Cult Creator - The Pilgrims Journey

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Something I just thought of:

@HeroCooky, why does the walking industrial abattoir have top tier armour and weaponry? The plague engine made sense, it's a weapon of war, but this thing shouldn't have encountered anything more dangerous than cattle.
 
Leon12431 said:
Also I am really really worried about the fact that is a butcher which implies that there are enough of these things around for them to have been given a true title or type.
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There are relatively few machines that are not known, since most survivors could look at the rampaging things and be like: "screw that XYZ thing." Then they went on to talk about the machines and most people listened since even wrong information could save their lifes.
Godwinson said:
I feel like existential threats come up a bit too often on the random event tables for there to be nations of, y'know, survivors in this setting. :p
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There are 108 Dangers on the table. 4 are Titans. 2 of those are behind a natural 100, with a confirmation-roll of higher than 50. Your luck is just that bad.
Leon12431 said:
One harpoon is mostly useless, we need 10 of the things to have a real chance of killing the Butcher and its also a Knight weapon. So its doubly out of our reach, frankly the better option is hope that the Emperor gets the warning and sends back a few knights.
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A harpoon can be used as a crewed artillery-device, and you can give the weapon to the Blue Lance. Two are better than none, and three are better than two. (They are also going to call in 4 Harpoons from nearby Chapters, unless you decide to not tell them.)
Profectus said:
Should be 1/3

Should be 1
Few questions:
1. Can we unlock that personal action? Contacting the Marquis and another noble house is a lot more important right now.

2. If we build [ ] Waterwheels For (Choose Mine) then research Flow As We Demand will we have to upgrade again?
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1. Yes, but you must mark that on your plan, and the action that is dropped gets a malus.

2. Yes, though it won't cost an action.
BelligerentGnu said:
Something I just thought of:

@HeroCooky, why does the walking industrial abattoir have top tier armour and weaponry? The plague engine made sense, it's a weapon of war, but this thing shouldn't have encountered anything more dangerous than cattle.
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Because of *see below*
Godwinson said:
Because during the decline and fall of the Roman Empire? ancients, they repurposed it into a weapon of war?
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Yep. Modification of existing machines for defensive/offensive purposes was everywhere. And when you have to go against actual war-machines/organisms then you tend to go overboard.
 
[ ] What Will You Do? - Arrange a meeting with the Marquis, the noble houses and the military and inform them of the behemoth, offer to shoulder the cost of a single harpoon.
[X][Faith] Establish Soup-Kitchens (Bulk)(Mirn) - (1/3 Turns Complete)
[X][Diplomacy] Unity Of Purpose - (2/3 Turns Complete)
[ ][Martial] Construct A Hangar Cost: 9 Materials, 1 Goodwill
[ ][Martial] Train A Militia Cost: 2 Materials, 6 Goodwill
[X] Scientific Theory
[ ] Under Pressure - (Broken Pump)
[X][Archeology] Prepare an Expedition - (WO-02) - (House Mirn support: Y) - (1/2 Turns)
[X][Tree of Knowledge] Living Quarters - Grand - (3/4 Turns Complete)
[X][Tree of Knowledge] Administration Center - (Faith) - (1/2 Turns Complete)
[ ][Personal] Personal Introduction - Marquis of Tessen
[ ][Personal] Personal Introduction - House Ulatarn (drop the diplomacy action)
[ ] Stupendously Scholastic Scholars of Science
-[ ] Because of SCIENCE! - Scientific Theory
[ ] The Union Of Herbalists
-[X] Study Sessions - (3/8 Turns)

The nobles and the military probably get a better price than what the merchant guild is asking of us so it's probably to offer to shoulder the cost of what one of them has, ideally we'd pay in installments over a few turns. Picked milita since it's the only thing with a single turn besides scouting, picked under pressure to increase our income as we are going to shoulder a huge cost, dropped schooling the diplo-corp since preparing for this emergency is more important, SCIENCE to try to finish Scientific Theory this turn

Thoughts?
 
HeroCooky said:
There are 108 Dangers on the table. 4 are Titans. 2 of those are behind a natural 100, with a confirmation-roll of higher than 50. Your luck is just that bad.
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Ye flipping gods on a cracker. Well, good to know anyways.

I like the plan. We definitely need to start working on getting our Knight operational when we can manage it though.
 
HeroCooky said:
A harpoon can be used as a crewed artillery-device, and you can give the weapon to the Blue Lance. Two are better than none, and three are better than two. (They are also going to call in 4 Harpoons from nearby Chapters, unless you decide to not tell them.)
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That still means we need at least another 5 Harpoons, the emphasis being on at least 5 more. I don't think a straight fight is going to work here. We probably either need to manipulate the Butcher into going elsewhere to get more time or find another way to slow it down. Shutting it down would be optimal but...

@HeroCooky Could we do a Military/Archeology action to find our where the Butcher came from? It apparently got new orders so it has to be connected to something. If we can find a terminal we could at least throw someone from the Scholastic Scholars at it to force the Butcher into a self-diagnosis cycle or something.

And is it correct to assume that the Marquis of Tessen is the boss of House Mirn and House Ulatarn?

Oh and:
HeroCooky said:
Personal: Sometimes, you have to get your own hands dirty. Sometimes you want to relax, since leading the Pilgrims rarely leads to a dull moment. Now? Now you have to decide on what to focus. (2 Actions Locked In Diplomacy)
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Shouldn't this be 1 Action Locked in Diplomacy?

[] Plan Warning People and Looking for Tech-support
-[][Faith] Establish Soup-Kitchens (Bulk)(Mirn) - (1/3 Turns Complete)
-[][Diplomacy] School The Diplomat-Corp - (Specialized) - (The Church Of Eden)) - (1/2 Turns Complete)
-[][Martial] Retrace The Steps. - (Tech-Scouts) - (???/??? Turns Complete)
-[][Martial] Train A Militia - (-2 Materials, 6 Goodwill) - (0/1 Turns Complete)
-[][Learning] Scientific Theory - (3/6 Successes)
-[][Learning] Flow As We Demand - (Machinery/Hydraulics/Mechanical) - (0/3 Successes)
-[][Archeology] Prepare an Expedition - (WO-02) - (House Mirn support: Y) - (1/2 Turns)
-[][Tree of Knowledge] Living Quarters - Grand - (3/4 Turns Complete)
-[][Tree of Knowledge] Administration Center - (Faith) - (1/2 Turns Complete)
-[][Personal action] Too Much To Do - (High-End Introduction - (Marquis of Tessen)) - (0/1 Turns Complete)
-[][Personal action] Unity Of Purpose - (2/3 Turns Complete)
-[] Merchants - (All Are Free Actions)
--[] Buying Goods In Bulk - (Expanded Hospice)
-[] The Union Of Herbalists - (1 Free Action)
--[] Study Sessions - (-3 Materials) - (3/8 Turns Complete)

-[] What Will You Do?
--[] Inform the Military, Lord Malarn, and the Marquis about the Butcher. The Military is the most likely group to get enough Harpoons to matter. Lord Malarn is responsible for Mirn and could help you get into contact with the Marquis of Tessen. The Marquis is your best bet for evacuating cities, reducing the number of possible targets and casualties.

So, I actually wanted to do the wedding this turn but we don't have the required Personal actions.
Instead, I do a Diplomacy action to talk with the Marquis of Tessen and inform the Military and our local Lord about the Butcher. House Ulatarn isn't our local Lord and they should be minions of the Marquis so he should inform them.
The Militia because it takes only one turn and the scouting to learn more about the Butcher, assuming we can do that.
Flow As We Demand to make the waterwheels even more effective. Next turn we have both Tree actions open and could boost the jewel mine and the silver mine with them.
The final Personal action depends on if we can use a Martial action for scouting, if not it's going to be used as an Archeology action.
I might add a Scholastic Scholars action but those are expensive and we might need those Materials next turn.

Worst case, we need to buy a Harpoon next turn from the Merchants. We should have enough Materials for that by then.

Edit: Changed the plan a bit. I'm probably going to post two versions of it. One as is and one with Retrace The Steps. as the Personal action. We get +25 on meeting the Marquis anyway but a failure on that action could be much worse than on the action to find the origin of the Butcher.
 
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karmaoa said:
1. That still means we need at least another 5 Harpoons, the emphasis being on at least 5 more.

2. @HeroCooky Could we do a Military/Archeology action to find our where the Butcher came from? It apparently got new orders so it has to be connected to something. If we can find a terminal we could at least throw someone from the Scholastic Scholars at it to force the Butcher into a self-diagnosis cycle or something.

3. And is it correct to assume that the Marquis of Tessen is the boss of House Mirn and House Ulatarn?

4. Oh and:
Shouldn't this be 1 Action Locked in Diplomacy?
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1. If you buy a Harpoon and give it/use it, there will be 7 (2 from the local, 4 from nearnby Chapters, with 1 from you) Harpoons.
2. You can certainly try.
3. Yep. And due to the political structure of the Empire, he is directly under the Imperial Family and thus the Emperor! Please don't piss him off. Great, huh?
4. Fixed.
 
for the danger table have they been fleshed out already or do they have simple descriptions that you have prepared? If the latter I might do an omake on another top tier threat like the Butcher or something similar.
 
Leon12431 said:
for the danger table have they been fleshed out already or do they have simple descriptions that you have prepared? If the latter I might do an omake on another top tier threat like the Butcher or something similar.
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There are a bunch of stories of Behemoths/Dreadnoughts around, which I can share! They are not all Titans that are here, but the most well known.

Note that there are like 3-8 of them each on the world, most heavily damaged/wounded. And most hide away, so don't panic too hard.

Behemoths:
Mother, a Wendigo that had lost an arm to a Knight and is still at large.
Brood-Mothers, bloated skittering masses of flesh, birthing masses of hive-mind controlled swarms.
Resurgence, a ß01nbd)&g8s64§;'*@³²da.
Nightstalkers, a chameleonic ambush predator.
King, a 40-meter tall beast of chitin, bone-armor, and hatred.

Dreadnoughts:
Fabricators, large crawling machines shoveling resources into their "mouths" and processing them into either useful materials or machines intent on creating another Fabricator/assembling something else, though they always fail in its construction.
That-Which-Seeks, a 20-meter tall Titan-Walker, feared by all but seen by only a few. It stalks the lands of the Evertorch, killing seemingly at random, though very precisely and no more than ten at a time.
The Undying Agents, capable of repairing even the most horrendous damage, even from a few drops of the grey oil they bleed.
Sin is the epitome of psychological warfare due to its ability to move unseen and push nations into collapse by driving the rulers insane.
Torment is a floating leviathan-like creature that traps and tortures its victims and projects their screams out of controlled drones.
 
[Canon] - Image Of King | [Canon] - A Mimic Aberration | [Canon] - The Undying Agents | [Semi-Canon] - Sin
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    • For some reason I was struck with the idea that spaghettibastard's art would work really well for the rarer mutants. Here's my idea for King and a Mimic. I'll add more if I see any that matches the descriptions.

    Here's some ideas of The Undying Agents and Sin as well. They are a bit more biological than I would prefer, but I think a Xenomorph really fits the "pyschological horror machine of death" for Sin. And The Undying Agents being humanoid adds an "endurance-based predator" aspect on top of the "can regenerate from anything that doesn't obliterate them" factor. They don't need to be the strongest or the toughest, they just need to outlast you, and they were designed to outlast everything.
     
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    • Doctor Elsewhere said:
    For some reason I was struck with the idea that spaghettibastard's art would work really well for the rarer mutants. Here's my idea for King and a Mimic. I'll add more if I see any that matches the descriptions.
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    Pretty much spot-on for king, though Mimics have beaks. So, Canon and Semi-Canon!

    Edit: Then again, they are Mutants, so an aberration? Canon.

    Edit2: TUA image is great! I would like to give Canon status to the Sin one, but can't for Lore reasons. :(
     
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    HeroCooky said:
    1. If you buy a Harpoon and give it/use it, there will be 7 (2 from the local, 4 from nearnby Chapters, with 1 from you) Harpoons.
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    That would mean we are still 3 Harpoons short of the 10 we need. Well, except if the Butcher is already damaged. Its description did mention some malfunctions, but the book's description could assume some damage as a standard...
    We can buy one Harpoon next turn anyway.

    HeroCooky said:
    2. You can certainly try.
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    Well, we can assume that the Butcher killed most things in its path so we would only have to worry about robots, who should stay in the areas they were in the last few centuries. And given the Butcher's giant footprints, we should be able to follow its trail while avoiding too dangerous areas.
     
    karmaoa said:
    That would mean we are still 3 Harpoons short of the 10 we need. Well, except if the Butcher is already damaged. Its description did mention some malfunctions, but the book's description could assume some damage as a standard...
    We can buy one Harpoon next turn anyway.
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    Okay, I feel that what I inteded to say is not what I wrote.

    So: WORD OF GOD: Ten Harpoons are needed for a sure (80%) kill. Ten harpoons are NOT needed TO KILL. It can be killed with ONE if you are extremly lucky and clever with a trap, since Harpoons deal 1d1000+500 damage.
     
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    Godwinson said:
    So there will be a constant churn of threats with only a few turns of breathing room no matter what?
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    Not necessarily, since some threats (like the Blightdog-Invasion) present more opportunity, rather than danger. And some are things you can sit out, or actively choose not to engage. There will be things happening, but the Pilgrims can say, "Nah. I'm good." to about half of them. Nobody would object, since the military/nobles/guards/law/various institutions are expected to deal with that shit.

    It's mostly a tool to help me write a more dynamic world between more significant Arcs in the story. Optional Mini-Bosses if you will.

    You can also stop some of them, should you grow powerful enough. There are some things in the Forest that would help with that...
     
    [Canon] - Image Of An Abomination |[Canon] - Image Of An Fabricator
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    • Here's two more, a Fabricator and an Abomination. The Abominations in the quest have arms and legs unlike the image, but the monster from Carrion seemed like a perfect fit otherwise to me. Fabricators feel similar to the Butcher to me, something repurposed into a combat role, with an added ability to rebuild its numbers if they get too low. Of course, with degradation over time, battle damage, etc. it's construction ability is faulty/outright broken, but it still can go out and harvest materials.
     
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    • Looking through the thread, I noticed that I never described or even mentioned how a Harpoon even functions.

    Oops.

    So here goes! A Harpoon has three parts: The Spear, The Engine, and The Anchor. The Spear is the pointy-bit that punctures the Titan. Depending on what type of Spear is used, it is either attached to a cable, has thorns for shredding flesh, piercing armor, or a combination of all three and other features as the situation demands. The Spear is essentially ammunition.

    The Anchor is the Harpoon piece shot into the ground or a sturdy wall, keeping the Harpoon steady and in place.

    The Engine is the unique part, the one that costs so much to create. It is the piece that shoots both the Spear and Anchor and has a particular function that a crafty tactician can use. Suppose the Spear is attached to the Harpoon with a cable, and the Anchor is in place. In that case, the Engine can either hold a Titan in place, drag it towards the Harpoon, or overclock the Engine to rip the Spear out (mostly used on biological targets, to increase hemorrhaging) and fire again. However, the last one has a 10% meltdown chance.

    Just so that people know what to expect besides the damage the weapon does. Any questions?
     
    HeroCooky said:
    So: WORD OF GOD: Ten Harpoons are needed for a sure (80%) kill. Ten harpoons are NOT needed TO KILL. It can be killed with ONE if you are extremly lucky and clever with a trap, since Harpoons deal 1d1000+500 damage.
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    Huh, Ok. It's just this bit that made me assume otherwise.
    HeroCooky said:
    But the real bad news is something different: it is recommended not to attempt to attack it unless you have at least ten Harpoons."
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    I thought the description in the book already assumed some damage. Anyway, that means the 7 possible Harpoons give us a good chance of killing the Butcher. Although, now I'm curious if the book has anything on how a damaged Butcher behaves.

    Profectus said:
    We already have +30 without personal action, talk about overkill. Narratively it also is cooler to do the personal introduction than to send our diplomats.
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    Now that there is a Martial action for the scouting I'm going to change things a bit.
    I mainly want this as a Personal action because of how the different bonuses are calculated over the three turns. We get the +30 anyway but without a Personal action this turn we only get +21 on top of that. With a Personal action, it's +38. That would mean a +68 on the dice roll, guaranteeing that we won't anger the Base faction of the Herbalists.
    We can still get a bad roll and piss off the Unionists but they are at -2 anyway, so fuck them.
     
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