[x] Plan: Full Holds
-[X] SELL (7 points total)
--[X] Gratitude
--[X] Additional Supplies (use Atelier Workshop)
--[X] Exotic Stockpile
--[X] Cultural Exchange
Mass amounts of useful materials, food, water, and fuel allow the Rogue Trader to continue his travels a few more years and samples of exotic jewelry and "xeno" crafts should allow him to turn a profit even if he finds nothing else. At least enough to pay to have his ships searched for Hrud and overhauled. Throne Damned Hrud.
--[X] Age-Staving Cordial
--[X] Life Extension for Lockheart
A large supply of cordial is sent along, including the highest quality versions for Lockhart personal life-extension which combined with the procedure he underwent should allow him additional centuries of life. The "normal" cordial is sufficient to add about 40% to the lifespan of a few hundred million humans. He wants to see if it is compatible (or synergistic) with existing juvenat treatments or simply an alternative to the basic Juvenat.
--[X] Bodyguard
Crentzir, an experienced 150 year old Anklok skilled in both traditional Dragon King warrior arts and Supernatural Martial Arts, agrees to escort Lockhart for potentially the rest of his life and report back when he can. [Feel free to make omake's showing Crentzir and Lockhart's adventures.]
-[X] BUY (7 points total)
--[X] Grox
A breeding population of Grox is sent down to Tokat. With the aide of Animal Husbandry based Thaumaturgy we can expand the population across Tokat, or other planets and improve the quality and quantity of the food supply. Setting up a Grox Ranch costs roughly as much as a Plantation and planets can usually house as many ranches as it can natural industrial Plantations (but does not use them up). Each one improves the total allowable population on a planet by 20 million Dragon Kings and improve the quality of life of 120 million (ie 100 million plus the extra 20 million).
Reward: Project similar to an Industrial Plantation to spread Grox herds across a planet.
--[X] Faith
The Cult Imperialis is the official and only state religion of the Imperium of Man. It is devoted to the worship of the Emperor of Mankind as the ascended divinity and saviour of Humanity.
Those who believe in the cult's teachings hold that the Emperor is a living spiritual entity and the only true god of Mankind. The Imperial Cult is led by the state church known as the Adeptus Ministorum, also called the "Ecclesiarchy," whose priests devote their lives to spreading the Word of the Emperor and doing His will.
Almost all variants on the Imperial Cult are tolerated by the Ecclesiarchy's priests, but all worship of the God-Emperor must comply with certain Imperial values including, but not limited to: unquestioning political loyalty to the High Lords of Terra and the various agencies of the Adeptus Terra, diligence in carrying out the Emperor's will, belief in the Emperor's ultimate divinity, and conscious contributions to the Imperium's overall well-being, even if this means nothing more than helping to improve one's own homeworld or even just home city or town.
The Cult Imperialis is one of the few common factors that link the disparate worlds of the Imperium together. No matter what conditions prevail upon a world within the Imperium, the Imperial Cult will be found there. The ways in which the Emperor is worshipped are multitudinous. To some He is revered as a distant patriarchal and Human figure. Others identify Him with some aspect of nature or, like the primitive Epheisians of Dwimlicht, regard Him as a star-god, for His agents only visit occasionally and they descend from the heavens when they do so.
But all the creeds of the cult agree upon this one thing: there is only one Emperor. To worship a pantheon of gods and put other gods alongside Him is heresy. However, there have been many individuals over the millennia who have been seen as His Saints, people visibly touched by the Emperor, and they are venerated all over the Imperium. There are Saints for every aspect of life and there is a thriving trade in their relics on many worlds.
Whatever the world's particular teachings, almost universally, citizens pray before work, before meals and before downtime. They thank the Emperor for what they have and pray to Him for what they desire. As most citizens of the Imperium are poorly educated, often knowing only what they need to do their jobs, prayer and the teachings of the Ministorum are all they know of the galaxy or world beyond their homes.
They often believe wholeheartedly that if they do not pray to the Emperor and follow the instructions of His clerics, they risk their very souls. Over time, citizens become entwined in the rituals of worship, so that daily prayers to the Emperor are as natural to them as breathing. For most, this is as far as they come in their religious observance, convinced of their faith, living and dying without ever questioning the Ministorum or the god it serves.
Of course, there are those who stray from the path. Paying no more than lip service to the Imperial Creed, these people forget their faith (if indeed they ever had it) and instead choose to see the Emperor as a distant overlord, ruling an empire that He will never see from a state of neither death nor life. Such folk choose to live by their own set of morals and ethics, though usually they have little of either. On many advanced worlds these kinds of people thrive. Where the rise of technology has overshadowed spirituality and wonder, so too does it undermine the belief in a power greater than Mankind.
Such places can be breeding grounds for the faithless or for those that would scorn the power of the Emperor for more tangible and immediate rewards. For many citizens, however, the truth is, as always, somewhere between fevered worship and the brink of heresy. Most citizens pray at their local shrine once a ten-cycle, and invoke the Emperor's name to protect them from evil; but beyond this they go about their daily lives like everybody else.
The official position of the Ecclesiarchy on the spirits of the deceased is that the Emperor judges all faithful Humans after death and, if they are worthy, grants them a place in His celestial army.
Differing interpretations of the Imperial Creed offer a wide variety of explanations for what happens to those souls deemed unworthy of joining the God-Emperor's ranks, but who are not so heretical as to be damned out of hand.
Some versions say they are reborn to try again, others, that they must wander the afterlife for a time, braving the dangers of the Warp unshielded as penance for a life ill spent until their actions have redeemed them, proving them worthy of the God-Emperor's service. There are also many tales of legendary servants of the Emperor returning from the Immaterium to the world of the living when the people of the Imperium once again need them.
Some more rationalist versions of the Creed refuse to acknowledge the sentience of such entities, referring to them in technical terms such as "post-life Warp signatures" and "the aetheric charge contained by a residual personality."
Regardless of the fine points of doctrine, the Ecclesiarchy does acknowledge the existence of spirits of the dead and of the rare Living Saints. The God-Emperor's version of the Lumina it seems, and formed a very similar methodology.
The Ecclesiarchy does enforce several basic tenets of the Imperial Creed, deviation from which is considered heresy. These tenets include the following beliefs:
*That the God-Emperor of Mankind once walked among men in their physical form and that He is and always has been the one, true god of Humanity.
*That the God-Emperor of Mankind is the one true god of Mankind, regardless of the previous beliefs held by any man or woman.
*It is the duty of the faithful to purge the Heretic, beware the psyker and mutant, and abhor the alien.
*Every Human being has a place within the God-Emperor's divine order.
*It is the duty of the faithful to unquestionably obey the authority of the Imperial government and their superiors, who speak in the divine Emperor's name.
Reward: You understand the basics of the Imperial Creed. You can build shrines and temples suitable for followers of the Imperial Creed and if needed can provide at least rudimentary ministry to His followers. You do not know Him or his Panoply sufficiently well to insure prayers reach Him as efficiently as they do your own gods, perhaps if you can engage in deep conversation with a true follower of His (rather than a Rogue Trader). Difficult considering Abhor the Alien is part of the creed.
--[X] Ordinatus
Every individual Ordinatus is a unique construction and named for the world on which it was first employed or built. Each Ordinatus is unique in that it was designed for specific purpose, for a particular battle. This is why the different Ordinatii have very specialized weapons configured for their intended role. Some were designed to devastate whole cities with a single shot, some devoted to dealing with enemy Titans, while others can transport entire regiments of soldiers under the earth.
This specific one was Ordinatus Incus used against Orks during the War of the Beast and believed lost. Lockhart believes it was not truly lost but made its way to this sector and he hopes to recover it and bring it to Incus Maximal (its ancient Forge World home) to win much acclaim.
We receive enough information on the scale and deployment of such weapons that we could in Theory design one ourselves. Maybe make one able to deploy the Mark IV Sonic Cannon?
Reward: Inspiration for conceptualizing Ordinatus scale constructs of your own, knowledge to identify Ordinatus Incus if you ever find it.
--[X] Plasma Reactor
These reactors are truly difficult to grasp. They work in ways completely non-intuitive to even our finest Autochthonian techno-savants. But their potential is great. Wrapping our minds around Exothermic Transmutation of lighter elements into heavier ones. We have dealt with the issues by incorporating what we understand of the technology into a Geomantic structure to both cover the gaps in our understanding and act as a distribution and buffering system for it energy production.
In essence a Basic Manse may have a Reactor installed which allows it to act as a generic non-aspected Major Manse, suitable for city construction. Still it will need fuel, which can be produced in Atelier Manses. Each Atelier Manse can run three Reactors. Specifically a Weyr City can be made with 4 Basic manses, one is an atelier Manse feeding three reactor manses which together produce the power needed to operate the Weyr City.
Worlds which have Promethium fuel stocks, Oil Reserves, or that have Industrial Plantations with feedstock being produce can produce even more Fuel per Atelier Manse.
Currently installing one on a ship would use up a slot and reduce the total power cost by 4 (min 1) in exchange for raising the Logistics cost by 5 but hopefully improvements can be made.
Reward: Plasma Reactors can be built but need geomantic support to work or do anything useful for you. At this point you cannot build a free standing Plasma Reactor that another race could use.
--[X] Promethium
Promethium seems to be the Imperial equivalent of Ardent Embrace Resin, although theirs has many variants and specific dilutions for whatever intended purpose they put it. Something close to the resin might be used in a flamer weapons but vehicles running on Alchemical Combustion Engines to their Vessels and Cities running on what they call Plasma Reactors running on Exothermic Transmutation reactions derived from highly refined Promethium fuels.
With the knowledge they have provided we can create the more common fuel variants needed to fuel Imperial Vessels and Vehicles. More over we know what they look for in raw material, something about decaying organic matter compressed in the Earth over time into an Oil like substance as a form of natural thaumatuergy.
A planet's Promethium reserves will be rolled for when sufficiently surveyed. It will be measured in oilfields and each one acts as a three times multiplier to a single Atelier manse dedicated to production of Oil based materials, such as Promethium fuels. Generally the "success" of a Atelier manse produces enough to run a major reactor on a continual basis, thus an oilfield fed Atelier Manse can support nine reactors. A planet can and usually will have multiple Oilfields. No extra effort is needed to tap these oilfields beyond the setting up of an Atelier Manse that uses them.
Tokat: 91. Lots of Promethium. Tokat has 4 Oil Reserves
Ophelis: 27. None, but that makes sense with it being a world that was subject to Arch-genesis.
Tocha: 100. Holy shit son! Tocha has 10 Oil Reserves.
Reward: Knowledge of Promethium reserves, how to refine it and use to for sale to Imperial Vessels which if set up and made known would encourage trade. Of course no traveler would trust you to build it AFTER you had made an agreement with them, you would have to have the infrastructure to support refueling in place before an Imperial visit. A Plasma Reactor driven ship needs as many units of fuel as the equivalent Dragon King ship would need Power relays, usually I will ambiguity this as just Logistics Stockpiles but if you can supply abundant fuel to allies I can keep it separate.
--[X] Fashion
Imperial Nobility tend to concentrate a huge amount of wealth and influence in the hands of a small percentage of humanity. In theory these nobles use this concentrated power to advance their societies for the glory of the Imperium but it seems all too often they use it as an excuse to engage in contests of one upmanship with each other, both through the throwing of lavish parties and celebrations as well as the food and entertainments available at them. Guests of course reply in kind with lavish, and by some measures gaudy, garb.
Imperial society leans heavily on easily visible symbols of status and authority. Nobles are no different but the desire of nobles to stand out from each other means each world or even region of a world may have different standards of how status is displayed. Compounded with the need to often replace costumes to show off status more "subtly" and the attempts to outstage someone of greater official status by using an outfit made of more expensive materials and design. This seems to be Lockhart's specialty, supplying a world with an outfit designed from another world that still fits the standards of the world he is selling at, usually made with materials of noteworthy difficulty in acquisition from multiple OTHER planets so that his customer can show off.
While Lockhart has not given us all his secrets we do have some insight into designing attractive clothing that still fits the cultural requirements of Imperial humans as well as figuring out the current trends on a planet as quickly as possible. We may be able to turn this into a trade item and it may also give a discrete route of infiltration for Mosok. Assuming we can convince Mosok to pose as tailors.
Reward: Can send Dragon King spies to live in Human controlled territory like Garak of DS9. May be able to sell exotic clothing to nobles if you can find someone willing to deal with Xenos.
--[X] +3 AP
Upon receiving food and water in such abundance, Lockhart dumps much of his "trade goods" as well as some of the less valuable materials picked up from his previous explorations of the Sector. These can be incorporated into your plans for the economy of the next few years easily.
One noteworthy contribution is a crystal shooting device picked up from an alien world in the Sector. The crystal grows when fractured and the device uses a mechanism to carefully shatter the crystal ammunition in such a way as to get a truly ridiculous amount of shots out of a small amount of ammunition. It seems like the Rogue Trader has no method of making more crystals and after a brief testing period decided the weapons he made to outfit his guards were not worth the difficulty in acquiring sufficient rounds. He left all the devices with you and all the ammunition. Of course that is barely sufficient ammunition to even bother learning to use the devices let alone make more, however once he leaves you find you can casually copy the exotic crystal using various steps of the Earth Path.
Not terribly impressive by the standards of artifact weaponry, even the most simple Thorn Tube is as good, AND poisonous. But they are better than anything that can be used with Zero essence for attunement or use than we had available previously. Perhaps we can equip the weapons in mass to non-essence channeling auxiliaries or vast armies of Staran Defenders if that ever becomes a thing.
Reward: +3 AP and access to Shardcaster weapon tech. These are not as good as even the basic fire projecting crystal wands or thorn tubes typically used by Planetary Guards, but are better than just throwing non-enchanted shurikens or bow and arrow. Mostly by being a projectile weapon which can produce a huge amount of shots from relatively small and low-density crystal ammunition. As mundane weapons we can build them prodigious volumes and even enchant them to outfit non-magical allies. The Rogue Trader considered even non-enchanted versions slightly better than the Lasguns he had, although he admitted part of that was not having access to the best quality versions of the standard Imperial weapon.
[x] Invasion Plan Dragon v.02
-[x] Bring Jungle Host, Tidal Host
--[x] Tidal Host is to assault and preferably seize or if necessary destroy the shipyard, then assault the capitol city and hold it against reprisal.
--[x] Jungle Host is to invade the area with the dispersed Mek settlements. Goal is to envelop and isolate, then defeat in detail.
---[x] Upon regional pacification, move to support Tidal Host in conquest of Mountainous Region
-[x] Bring 39 standard stockpiles, 5 grace stockpiles, 1 elemental stockpile, 3 orders of Staran Knights, 2 Brass Legions
--[x] Brass Legions are assigned to Tidal Host for duties as needed (mostly being extra claws as necessary/shocktroops as called for)
--[x] Staran Knights are assigned to Jungle Host for securing rear-line areas
Nobz Gob and our Prototype transport are loaded up and make the Waytravel passage to Tocha. As they arrive an unnatural tear forms in the void as the Unlight of beyond shines upon the new system and our vessels move out of the spatial fissures with wisps of dreamstuff evaporating off their hulls.
The vessels travel in system and find the remaining orks in orbit completely unprepared. Our Brute Ramship is able to "dock" with the scrapyard they have, wholly unsuitable to constructing anything although there is a mostly completed Onslaught class Attack ship. However it looks like we will not be able to transfer ownership to our orks, not in time to keep it form joining the scrap pile. (Yes I rolled for it).
Orbital vehicles and mining craft out quickly dispatched by the standard guns aboard the Nobz Gob and the planet is bare to our assault. The Brute Ramship takes roughly an hour to make a combat landing nearish to the Ork capital, Durkah, led by their remaining Warboss Uskogar.
Prototype transport lowers itself as far into the atmosphere as its void oriented design allows, far away from any Orks on the Second continent, deploys orbital lighters and globes of transport to unload its burdens and our Jungle host quickly disperses into the forests. Scattered reports tell stories of isolated ork bands getting jumped by many times their number in commandos and larger ork communities falling to poison or infighting before vanishing. By the time reinforcements arrive they report roughly 3000 Dragon King losses and estimate 6.82 million of the 90 million orks on the second continent are dead.
After dropping off the troops the Nobz Gob returns to orbit to defend the planet from assault from Other orks while the transport returns to Tokat for more reinforcements.
The siege laid upon the Drukah by our Tidal Host is fierce. Fighting moves to and from the wall again and again. The Orks can never deploy their numbers in sufficient volume to try to overwhelm the Dragon Kings despite out numbering them vastly. Not without abandoning their "defenses" and a combination of psychological warfare and clever raids keeps them from risking doing so. Still the fighting is brutal, out of curiosity we projected the expected losses on both sides if we avoided deploying any special strategies or trump cards.
Total Losses: 8.68 million of 20 million orks dead. 18,573 dead Dragon Kings of 50,000 total troops. All Clockwork soldiers broken. 20 Standard Stockpiles and 4 grace stockpile spent.
Of course we did deploy special teams, clever stratagems and trump cards. Remind me again what we did:
Note: Percentages are added up and modify the above losses appropriately. If Dragon losses reduction reaches 100 percent than its assumed very few die, they just kept getting wounded and than healed. A bunch might need to get cycled back for LTR sphere time but nothing that needs mechanically addressed. There is no benefit to exceeding 100% loss reduction.
Strategos: Commanding a Siege limits the field of choice of who can lead in the first place. We have to choose between an Ork specialists who can exploit the orks as much as possible. An expert in managing Legion resources, pulling back the wounded and similar things to preserve her forces. A cautious type who will draw out the whole affair in order let the guns work and reinforcements arrive, and someone aggressive who will lose more troops but kill more orks too.
[ ] Specialist: +15% Ork Casualties
[ ] Traditionalist: -15% DK Losses
[ ] Cautious: -50% losses for both sides, does not effect Devotion Cannons if used to kill orks
[ ] Aggressive: Double Ork Losses, increase DK losses by 50%
Earth Path: Those who use Earth paths usually act as medics, but could also be used to repair your clockwork troops or even set their sight on the future, building a fortress to prepare Tocha to repel other ork invaders and prepare for colonists. Keep in mind if we abandon the planet, orks will probably claim the fortress.
[ ] -10% DK losses
[ ] Clockwork Legions fully repaired
[ ] Fortress Construction: Defensive hardpoint established in case orks from offworld attack. Acts as 1 AP towards future DK colonization.
Devotional Cannons: Using these big guns will cost stockpiles but their ability to arc shots into the town and smash orks without requiring a direct clash will let them kill a lot of orks, or they could target heavy weapons or concentrated troops. That will slow their killing rate but preserve the lives of Dragon Kings who might have fallen if the guns did not act. We could also choose to save the stockpiles for later.
[ ] 6.4 Million dead orks (use ten more stockpiles)
[ ] -20% DK losses (use ten more stockpiles)
[ ] Save the ammo (do not use 10 stockpiles)
Mosok Infiltrators: Mosok are trained in infiltrating orks and this town is a port and being attacked by Tidal aspected troops. We can sneak mosok in through the water have have them infiltrate the city. They can sow discord and trigger infighting, slit throats against the best commanders to save Dragon King lives or provide intel for targeting Devotional Cannons.
[ ] -10% DK Losses
[ ] +10% Ork Losses
[ ] 50% Boost to effect of Devotional Cannon
Moon-Touched Draculee: Draculee are able to handle many of the tasks infiltrators could and usually do even better thanks to unique charms, only held back by limited numbers. We could also turn them upon the Orks to the north and keep them from realizing anything is amiss on this world. Or they could just arrange a well-timed assassination and let the orks fall into infighting.
[ ] +15% Ork Losses
[ ] -15% DK Losses
[ ] Orks in the Mines have no clue whats going on.
[ ] Warboss assassinated, next batch of combat will involve infighting among orks.
Walkers of the Crossroad: Sorcerers can deal quite potent effects on the battlefield, of course we could just use infalliable messengers and Eye of Alliance to coordinate better. Or we can steal the Warboss's shadow and start tormenting him. With clever timing we can have him charge out with his most loyal boyz into a trap to die and with the loss of both him and those most likely to replace him, even greater infighting will result.
[ ] Coordination: +10% ork deaths and -10% DK losses
[ ] Direct Attack: +20% Ork deaths
[ ] Steal Shadow: No effect now, but with clever timing the Warboss will leave the Cities defenses and charge out into a trap, allowing large losses to be inflicted AND than triggering infighting among the orks.
Elemental Stockpile: We can use the Elemental yasal crystal stockpile to level the walls and defensive structures of the city and radically improve the losses they suffer, or we can target the vulnerable mines to the north, killing 10 million orks, countless lesser shroomborn and basically remove a whole segment of conquering this world from planning purposes.
[ ] +50% Ork losses at the city
[ ]Elemental Fury. The orks in the mines are all destroyed in collapsing mines, earthquakes, and exploding pipelines.
Reinforcements:
[ ] Write in Plan? You can bring 10 more legion and 30 more stockpile equivalents. Choose what you want and where to deploy them. Keep in mind that you need more stockpiles to keep the Tidal Host going full tilt.
