I think you should drop everything that is just for trading to imperials, like lasgun flashlights 🔦. Anything we won't research and use ourselves is a waste. Imperial tech doesn't sound worthwhile either.
Remember that every trade, we give Stryxis something equal that WILL screw us over somehow.
Also, I think the Tsyji Helm looks better than the Stasis Field Emitter, if it grants a temporary sorcerous initiation.
I have no idea if the drugs and poisons are worth the drawbacks of trade with Stryxis.
Consider one of the ways trade can screw us over is that our signature weapons may be sold to monsters who can and will use them to kill and enslave humans, framing us for the deed.
[X] plan very sane Stryxis's very not sane bargains
Lasguns shoot light @Erinys, @F0lkL0re we may be able to adapt this so as to shoot holy light. Sure it would not be a mainline weapon like prayer casters but it does have a lot of thematic weight.
I think you should drop everything that is just for trading to imperials, like lasgun flashlights 🔦. Anything we won't research and use ourselves is a waste. Imperial tech doesn't sound worthwhile either.
well trading to Imperials, non-Imperial humans (which do exist outside of Chaos and the Tau) and any mortal races that don't have better in their armouries so it's a bit more useful then that.
And las weapons are better then their reputation suggests it's just that in comparison to automatic armour piecing RPG guns, monomolecular disc launchers, molecular disassemblers, etc a laser assault rifle meant more for fighting other humans rather then literal monster isn't that great.
Well Lho Sticks and Recaf are basically 40k cigarettes and coffee so we should be fine there.
Plas is essentially Chinese knockoff Polymorphine aka the shapeshifting drug.
Spook and Geist can temporarily grant and enhance psyker powers so they should give a bonus in figuring out how psykers work.
Mortis puts a person into a near death state allowing you to fake being dead.
Silver Anathema is described as a machine poison that fills the victim with silver thorns.
Vitae Rebellion transforms a persons blood into explosives.
Lasguns shoot light @Erinys, @F0lkL0re we may be able to adapt this so as to shoot holy light. Sure it would not be a mainline weapon like prayer casters but it does have a lot of thematic weight.
I think the argument is that a lot of this stuff could be gained by interacting with human worlds and trading them for basically shiny rocks instead of giving technology to sketchy slavers.
I'm fine with removing the Imperial weapons and power amour if that's what everyone wants I just thought that this was an alright opportunity to get them.
Please keep in mind that
A) you have a lot of stuff to research already,
B) You getting these means I need to come up with projects for them so
C) if you than never actually research them you just wasted my time for nothing so
D) I will go out of my way to make the techs you are selling the Stryxis bite you in the ass and how hard I will go out of my way depends on how true C is.
This is Not a neutral opportunity! This is Not harmless! This is explicitly designed to screw us over!
Anything that isn't overwhelmingly positive and irreplaceable and absolutely certain to be researched soon is Not worth it from this particular source.
Most of the drugs and all the Imperial tech is either very low worth or easy to get elsewhere. We have our own artifact armor and power weapons equal to Space Marine gear (here's a list comparing equipment quality) and our non artifacts gear is equal to lasguns. We vision quested for cacao, we can do it for coffee and tobacco. We have deadly magical poisons and diseases available that we haven't researched. We have other projects to improve our troops other than a Stasis Field Projector. We have Rhino research yet to do. Mainly some of the Stryxis tech is unusual.
It really bothers me to see recklessness when the GM explicitly tells us the costs and players ignore them. This isn't the first time. It feels like self-sabotage and it isn't funny in a cooperative game.
Alright then I'll remove the Imperial tech, Lho Sticks and Recaf but I'll keep the rest as those are harder to get and I just really want to get the poison that makes peoples blood explode.
Thank you F0lkl0re. That looks like a better list. Still long ish.
Is the silver anathema poison really revolutionary compared to the Nurglite poison/disease and Exalted tier poison-assassin bots we have available? Or something vegetative or crystal we can mass produce?
As for stasis field emitters, are they really going to be revolutionary compared to researching and making Primordial Stockpiles?
Is the silver anathema poison really revolutionary compared to the Nurglite poison/disease and Exalted tier poison-assassin bots we have available? Or something vegetative or crystal we can mass produce?
Going by the description it's ether nanotech (or even smaller scale) or some form of liquid technology and the Cog boyz really don't like it.
The description:
Silver Anathema (poison)
near unique
A rare example of a machine-poison, Silver Anathema's discovery quickly resulted in it being banned by the Mechanicus leaders of every Forge world in the Calixis Sector, The method by which it functions is a secret known only to very few within the Cult of the Machine, but what can be determined from rumour and hearsay is that it somehow reacts with the victim's body, leaving metallic thorns protruding from their body where it has done its deadly work. A creature exposed to silver anathema must pass a Hard (–20) Toughness Test or suffer 3d10 wounds, with no reduction for Toughness Bonus or Armour, as the poison reacts and tears through the creature's tissues with sharp metallic growths.
It's probably going to be a while yet before we get to researching all the steps needed for Primordial Stockpiles so in the meantime the stasis field emitters and pushpull beams should get us an easy boost.
I think something that gets forgotten in this particular story.
Reverse engineering and tech looting is common in 40k quests. I get it.
Keep in Mind though.
Dragon Kings are dealing with technology and reality altering on a scale that usually is where Eldar and Necrons are at.
You aren't a race that is desperate to scavenge tech from you betters. You ARE the betters that other races are trying to scavenge from.
Its a mindset thing and I know its hard.
you trading with the stryxis for most imperial tech is like trading a modern revolver to a primitive for a flint knife because its a well made flint knife. Only this primitive will be able to reverse engineer gunpowder and modern firearms thanks to this trade and well ABSOLUTELY use the power the gun gives them to enslave others, that part isn't a guess with stryxis, its a fact.
The effort/time vs safety is basically the trade off.
Directly, like as a power Dragon Kings have? No.
But they have access to the same indirect methods that every human society in the First Age would have had, excepting a blessing from a Celestial Exalted.
From Divine blessings, Wyld Questing for power, alchemical treatments and teaching ascetic martial arts until the supernatural portion clicks.
But no, it is not a thing that solves problems. Producing Essence using humans takes more effort than those essence using humans generally generate. You either need like 99 percent of a population working to support an essence using 1% (which is roughly the ratio that the first age managed with Celestial designed and built infrastructure and methodologies both boosting the economic potency of normal humans AND optimizing the conversion to essence wielder) or you need greater powers donating at a loss (which is probably at least some of how the first age got that high).
[X] Plan Light the Divine Forges
-[X] Anklok (17 AP)
-[X] Piety
--[X] Faradai, Artificer of Most Efficacious Prostheses AP Needed: 4. DC: 45. Success Needed: 8 5 Anklok AP + 6 General AP
DC: 45-10=35 > 47, 33+5, 59, 75, 76, 44, 18, 03+5, 38, 82, 84
While ritual practitioners are distracted with the constant flow of Dragon King sacrifices triggering the births of new Dragon Kings we manage enough focus on the Abraxan temples to see the integration of the Eye of Night into the a ritual to empower Faradai, Artificer of Most Efficacious Prostheses and direct him anchor the Technomorphic path to the side of good.
His temples once built can be visited by Technomorphs to be bound to Faradai. With his development we can call upon him to aid in advanced Augmetic developments, assist in blessing major upgrade projects as potent divinity and ask for blessings that protect any augmetics on the field from corruptive forces from those such as hereteks. Alternatively Arks might be built which use the lingering presence of the eye of the Night within Faradai to enable battlefield scope failure of augmetics… which could be crippling if your foe happens to be either a Heretek or a member of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Faradai could also be occasionally begged and prayed to in order to convince him to create a truly divine prosthetic if a worthy target could be found (like a primarch).
Reward: Consume Eye of Night. Empower Faradai, Artificer of Most Efficacious Prostheses who is now Essence 6 and grant him the Technomorphic Path to guide and develop.
--[X] Bribing spirits to do their job AP Needed: 1. DC: 15. Success Needed: 1. 1 Anklok AP
Reward: +5 to dice as spirits assist the works of the Dragon Kings.
--[X] Sheut Academy AP Needed: 4. DC: 28. Success Needed: 0/24. 4 Anklok AP
DC: 28 > 59, 62, 28, 59+ Heroic Ghosts (2)
Expansion of the academy takes a large surge when several heroic ghosts are recruited and quickly pass through the basic training and achieve high positions, freeing up critical personal more suited for teaching.
Reward: 10/24 Progress
--[X] Continual Grace (+30 Million Population) AP Needed 4. DC: 30. Success Needed: 5/26. 4 Anklok AP + 1 General AP + 1 Exotic Stockpile
--[X] Shining Flower sacrifice ritual [Continual Grace]: 1 General AP + 25m Dragon Kings + Corpse Eater AP
---[X] Corpse Eater AP is to go towards Continual Grace
DC: 30-15 > 46, 51, 67, 69, 67 + 15 Successes (Sacrifice) + 15, 81 (Corpse Eaters)
It has been seeming eons since the march of bodies to the sacrificial alter has flowed so freely. Thousands a day march to die upon a pyramid honoring the Sun at the Heart of Ondar Shambol. Shining Flower herself conducts most of the rites, carving out the hearts of millions of Dragon Kings with her own divine knife and offering them to the Unconquered as a boon to fertility among the Dragon King people.
With this are people are both diminished and made bountiful. And the later is far more permanent than the former.
Reward: Gain 33 Million current AND Maximum Population. Lose 25 million current population.
--[X] Set Lion Dogs to guard the Prying Veil of Discretion (Ophelis)
Reward: Done.
-[X] Military
--[X] Wyld Fighting Force AP Needed 3 + Ecstatic. DC 25. AP needed 24/120 + 4 x Atelier Manse. 2 General AP + Training Grounds + Ecstatic AP
DC: 25 > 05+5, 48, 89, Auto
Further progress on training these forces although the training rate is quite sluggish compared to the path in front of us.
Reward: 33/120 Progress.
--[X] Suppression (Therak) AP Needed 1. DC: varies, Orks is 10+Waaagh level. Success Needed 1. 1 General AP + Ashlord AP
DC: 15 > 87
Reward: Orks Suppressed on Therak
-[X] Mosok (20-2(upkeep stalking mantis)= 19 AP)
-[X] Espionage
--[X] Widen Spy Ring (Stryxis) AP Needed: 2. DC: ?? (Varies depending on target). Success Needed: 5. 5 Mosok AP + 1 General AP + 1 Atelier + Eucharist AP
DC: 93 > 21, 63, 95, 18, 05, 05 reroll 15, second reroll 100 + 3 Atelier Successes
Trade has begun with the Stryxis and our Eucharists quickly discover that Stryxis both have blood and are valid targets for their paths although a medical response was needed to save the Stryx's life and prevent an incident (and revelation). We have wormed several agents aboard Stryxis between special equipment and the use of Blood Path users to bind stryxis masters as servants and use their influence to help hide other agents and espionage devices.
Reward: Spy Ring among Stryxis Caravans in the Koronus Expanse is created. You may use Blood Path on Stryxis. You understand basically everything about the Stryxis on the Wiki page although mysteries are still mysteries and "lists of technology" are still just "lists of technology" Further work might be done such as trying to steal technology or answer mysterious questions which is risky, or trying to use insider information to enhance trade deals. Either would benefit from deepening the ring by using blood path servants who have been aided to achieve greater positions, of course the first steps is using what we have learned to better prepare our services for this spy work going forward.
-[X] Commerce and Shipbuilding
--[X] Soulsteel Trade Penetration AP Needed: 3. DC: 35. Success Needed: 6. 4 Mosok AP
DC: 35 > 51. 92, 30+5, 73 + 2 Heroic Ghosts.
With deepening ties to Chur your traders, clerics, confessors, and agents spread among the ghosts of the Underworld. Your agents no longer merely gather information but act. Those who use Soulsteel forging on innocents have their soulsteel quietly seized and are converted in turn to Soulsteel even as traders seek to trade Soulsteel for Jade and other living world goods. Clerics and administrators preach on the vile nature of using soulsteel creation as anything but a dire punishment and confessors start to track down souls that might be willing to give of themselves willingly to create White Soulsteel although little progress has been made there.
Reward: Soulsteel Trade Expanded. +1 Soulsteel, -2 Jade. Soulsteel is becoming more "ethical" over time although it is still mostly the result of punishing criminal Dead or seizing the results of work already done. With time and continuing efforts (ie invested AP) this may shift.
--[X] Heroic Ghosts Recruitment AP Needed: 1. DC: 45. 2 Mosok AP
DC: 45 > 47, 56
Reward: +4 successes on Dead Hero actions
--[X] 1 Atelier reserved for Stryxis trade
You supply the needed materials and baubles to the Stryxis and the Arena beasts from across the Galaxy come flooding in. Over just a few years trade picks up and you see multiple convoys of stryxis show up and make the trades allowing you a continual flow of beasts to be available.
You gain first tier Arena Beasts and gain +1 Breed AP in each breed from improved morale from fighting and defeating or dying against dangerous beings.
Improving tiers involves more variety and danger, not greater quantity. You also need more population. Benefiting from Tier 2 Arena Beasts requires you to have a population of roughly 400 million dragon kings. Tier three would need 1.6 billion Dragon kings and would likely cause some small amount of negative growth from killing off so many.
-[X] Martial Arts
--[X] Encourage Martial Arts AP needed 5. DC: 43. Success Needed: 4/24. 4 Mosok AP + 2 Dojo
DC: 43 > 22, 07, 52, 14, Auto, Auto x 3 = 9
Progress is made, although great difficulties were found, despite expanding into a major new Dojo site we still haven't found a new angle to speed up recruitment.
--[X] Divination Support: Continual Grace 1 Pterok AP
15
Reward: Divination Failed.
--[X] Divination Support: Faradai, Artificer of Most Efficacious Prostheses 1 Pterok AP
61
Reward: -10 DC on this action.
--[X] Divination Support: Storm Shield 1 Divination auto answer
Auto
Reward: Remove Rushed Penalty.
--[X] Divination Support: Widen Spy Ring (Stryxis) 1 Divination auto answer
Auto
Reward: allow a second reroll, which happened to grant the Eucharist AP a natural 100.
-[X] Elemental
--[X] Elemental Support AP needed 1. DC: 25. Success Needed 1. 4 Pterok AP + 5 General AP
DC: 25 > 59, 16, 40, 96, 46, 85, 45, 80
Reward: +24 Elemental AP.
-[X] Research
--[X] Lightning Lance Battery AP Needed: 3. DC: 40. Success needed: 9. 3 Pterok AP + Metalforger AP
DC: 40 > 33, 22, 77, 23
Metalforgers seem distracted that they DIDN'T get to work on a new Void Vessel design to help as much with this project as might be hoped. Still we have produced a lot of hololithic designs and path forged models of wood and crystal. Production of custom parts for the prototype build is underway but many have been backordered as critical supply chains for such things have been routed to our work in the Luminous Herald Redesign.
Reward: 1/9 Progress
--[X] Void Vessel Design (Solar Templeship Redesign) AP needed: 2. DC: N/A Reward: Ship Design Choice. 1 Anklok AP + 1 Mosok AP + 1 Pterok AP + 1 Raptok AP + 2 General AP
90, 64, 97, 97, 98, 80
No longer rushed. No longer Desperate. No longer fragile. No longer ignorant. We now undertake the ART that defines are people and undergo the proceeding design and prototype phase properly. Decades of efforts from technology research, component design, and manipulating paths with subtle divination combined with our experiences using a more hastily created version of this intended design in the forges of battle have led to breakthroughs.
Young Weaver of Crystal Dreams has been nurtured to lead this effort guided by astrology for decades. He put his utmost into optimizations of the frame of the Four Virtues hull with its component parts to free up volume and geomantic throughput for more potent abilities than might normally be expected on a traditional Templeship.
Luminous Herald of Dawn
Speed: +5, Maneuver: +4 dice
Hull: -0/-0/-0// -0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-2/-2/-2/-2/-3/-3/-3/Crippled/Crippled
Crew: Required 5,555, usually 10,000 naval crew and up to 2400 in guards (Cost: 3+ Upkeep, 21 Power, + 9 Logistic Stockpiles to send on mission.
Components: Solar Temple, Vault, Coronal Storm Barrier, Falling Starfire Defense Array, Sigh of the Votive Offering, Glorious Solar Temple Body, Wyldfaring Chancel, Choice A, Choice B
Note: Four Virtues of Glorious Purpose Hull, Reliable Theion Drive Mark III, Ondar Shambol class city counts as exotic Stockpile every turn during construction. Ondar Shambol class cities may be used as shipyards for this class despite not being orbital.
Yes or No?: These options cost no hullspaces, but are difficult to create artifacts that will need upkeep and raise the cost of building and operating the vehicle if added. ALL of these can be added as built in and thus benefit from percentage based discounts and avoid independent management of rare devices issues. But it's a cost so make a choice. Checking it means you want to include it, leaving it unchecked means it is NOT included.
[ ] Wondrous Globe of Precious Stability: If you built in it will synergize with the Theion drive, producing an area of effect that stabilizes space around the vehicle. Mechanically you need 5, 25, or 125 such vehicles in the same battlezone to notice various tiers of stabilization, with the tiers based on the effects of being close to a jade obelisk at various threshold distances. Thus if five are traveling the Wyld together, then other ships traveling with them will have a safer trip as long as the Solar Temples do not outrun their escorts. Cost: +15 AP, +1 Power, +1 Upkeep
[ ] Advisor Core: You plan to build a potent calculation engine into the ship, giving it robust self controls and a bit of personality, but most importantly making the ship ridiculously more dangerous as it will act as a high tier teamwork bonus to all tasks operating on the ship. Adds a 14 dice teamwork bonus from the Core to most ship rolls. Cost: +10 AP, +1 Power, +1 Upkeep
[ ] Void Abacus: You want your ships to be wicked fast so you build them with the Void Abacus from the keel up to enable high speed Wyld Travel. Cost: +10 AP, +1 Power, +1 Upkeep
[ ] In Built Ark(Choose?: Defaults to Wrath Beyond Measure): Building arks to be exploited by the Solar Temple is a lot of finicky management right? So cut the middle Dragon out and build in the most likely to be used Ark right into the temple itself. This built in Ark is assumed charged and ready to go after each upkeep refresh and may be refreshed in a long campaign just as any other Ark would be. Cost: +1 Logistics cost.
[ ] Lumina Whisperer: The Votive offering effect needs Lumina pacts to support it, which is a hassle to manage. Luckily the Herald has a built in solar temple. Making keeping up Pact relations part of the crew's duties and ensuring every Herald has a set when they go into battle. Keep in mind the five per battle is TOTAL. So if you have five Heralds then each could take one extra shot. But with this trait they could handle five battles per upkeep cycle without needing to produce extra Pacts. These pacts ONLY work for the Votive offering though and cannot be used for other purposes. Each Herald gains 5 pacts suitable for the Votive offering per Upkeep cycle. Cost: +1 Upkeep
Choose Two: These are special features developed and incorporated into the Luminous Herald by the mad lads you have working. You may choose two of the below.
[ ] Starfall Matrix: By working out a prototype version of the Coruscating Beam Weapons and working it into the Falling Starfire Defense Array you may create a rapid fire weapon system to use when surrounded. You may activate the Broadside maneuver against five different targets in range at once as long as you have the momentum to spend. Each does only a single hull of damage but does count as holy, doing two levels of damage against Creatures of Darkness. Cost: 15 AP, +2 power, +2 Logistics, +1 Upkeep
[ ] Sunburst Drive: You have incorporated an array of Sunburst Portal Relics into the Solar temple and a system for charging them using the ambient prayers of the Temple. Initiating a Sunburst takes about five minutes with a charged drive. It takes five hours to recharge for a Sunburst after a usage. Cost: 10 AP, +1 Upkeep.
[ ] Sunburst Portal Evocation Chamber: You may send boarders or planetary visiters to a Orichalcum Plinth to initiate sunburst to a nearby teleportation target and retrieval may be initiated with special lodestones carried by the users. You may send or retrieve 25 normal sized individuals per half hour turn. This can be but does not need to be used for combat, you can just use it to impress other races as a flex. Cost: 5 AP, +2 Logistics (may increase Logistic expenses with very heavy usage, like constantly using it at the max rate for over a week).
[ ] Dual Sutra Batteries: With the multiplex tracking and some extra space you have doubled the number of major cannons aboard the Luminous Herald of Dawn and can initiate two Broadside maneuvers against different targets with your Sutra cannons doing two damage each. You may use a special 12 Momentum maneuver to focus fire on a single target for three damage. Cost: 20 AP, +1 power, +2 Logistics.
[ ] Shining Finger: Bombardment Weapon comparable to Covenant Glassing Beams although it has a holy effect that causes more damage to Daemon worlds and other Creature of Darkness things. Can target Titans as the smallest and fastest possible targets, although not particularly fast armies can also be targeted. Cost: +5 AP, +1 Power.
[ ] Assault Bays: Barracks and Hanger space for landers to conduct "minor" invasions with "only 50,000 draconic troops and two special units. Cost: +4 AP, +1 Logistics.
[ ] Gate of Auspicious Passage: Keep a portal to home burning always, although this can make expanding the numbers of this class complicated. Cost: 15 AP, +5 power, +2 Logistics, +1 Upkeep.
[ ] Boarding Field: Your design crew have incorporated a Boarding field onto the Vessel despite not having completed more than the most preliminary investigations into the technology. You may extend your shields, including the Haze field effect, around a towed vessel equal or smaller than it. This is a powerful tractor beam that is intended to drag a ship close for either boarding an enemy or aiding a friend. Cost: +5 AP, +1 Power, +1 logistics.
[ ] Heavy Sutra: You have incorporated the Heavy Variant of Sutra weapons onto enough of your Battery of guns that with a bit of focus of fire you can choose to deploy a Heavy Broadside instead of a normal one. You can still choose a normal one. A heavy broadside costs 8 momentum, in exchange, IF you roll 3 successes over the enemy you deal an extra level of damage. Cost: Zero.
--[X] Spirit Gathering Thousand Forge AP Needed: 3. DC: 25. Success Needed: 11. 2 Pterok AP + 12 General AP + Crystalweaver AP
DC: 25 > 33, 63, 86, 15, 70, 14, 31, 08, 26, 88, 91, 11, 87, 33, 98
A Spirit Gathering Thousand Forge channels immense availability of Geomantic power through multiple Workshops with Factory Cathedral tier equipment as well as several systems designs to support working on multiple artifact projects. It can work comparable to an Atelier manse but better handles creation of magical goods and Artifacts, using the greater Geomantic power to empower the multiple workshops needed to better synchronize the site with the god and enable sustaining purified work crews of immense size for long durations. Thus when it comes to mundane goods a Thousand Forge is no better than an Atelier Manse. But for anything more magical the Thousand forge counts as five times as productive as a Factory Cathedral. Work out the design for making such a facility, expected to build on major fire, Earth, or Plasma Reactor manses.
The Crystalweavers being involved from the start has made the whole process more conducive to their mindset and the design includes a Central Throne where a Master Crystalweaver can station themselves to become a kind of overarching intelligence for the Industrial Manse. They work to optimize all aspects of the Spirit Gathering Thousand Forge.
Reward: Research complete, You may build Spirit Gathering Thousand Forges. These cannot build anything a Factory Cathedral cannot but can build more of what they can. A thousand Forge counts as five Factory Cathedrals but ONLY for purposes which REQUIRE factory cathedrals. For more mundane purposes it counts as one atelier manse.
Crystal Critical
-You may also build on Crystal Major Manses.
-Crystalweaver AP working at a Thousand Forge may be treated as an Alchemical Engineer at a Factory Cathedral, which means instead of providing its normal AP the action would count as TWO thousand forges working on the project together. Keep in mind it will take Five (5) Transdraconic Engineers to achieve this effect at a Thousand Forge themselves due to the sheer volume of production.
-[X] Thaumaturgy
--[X] Cleanse Therak AP needed: 2. DC: 30 (20). Success Needed 50. 4 Pterok AP + Thaumaturgy autosuccess + 1 Minotaur Transport
DC: 20 > 59, 82, 60, 61, Auto x 3 = 15 + 10 (Fungicide)
Reward: 25/50 Progress
--[X] Standard Stockpile AP Needed 2. DC: 35. Success Needed 0/8. 2 Atelier
Auto
Reward: +20 Standard Stockpiles
--[X] Logistics Stockpile AP Needed 1 or Atelier. DC 20. AP needed: 2/10 or Atelier. 2 Atelier
Auto
Reward: +20 Logistics Stockpiles
-[X] Raptok (23 AP)
-[X] Diplomacy
--[X] Call (Ulthwe) (New Contacts) AP needed 1. DC: 45 Success Needed 1. 1 Slicktongue AP
DC: 45 > 63
Your attempts to track down a new contact in Ulthwe meet new success as you are put in contact with the High Autarch of the Craftworld. He says he has reviewed the data put forth from your shared encounter and is willing to encourage closer relations, especially in the field of military cooperation. Seek him out if you want opportunities to gain favor by aiding Ulthwe in a military capacity or want to hire large amounts of Aspect Warriors as mercenaries. (He seems to ignore the possibility that Dragon Kings might be aware of a threat Ulthwe would WANT to fight on their own, which to be fair the Eldar, especially these Eldar are very guided by their Farseers).
Reward: Success New contact High Autarch Gavarion Earlan of Ulthwe
--[X] Call (Chur) (New Contacts) AP needed 1. DC: 45 Success Needed 1. 1 Ghostwalker AP
DC: 45 > 81
One of the heroes recruited to the Sheut academy, after passing and achieving renown for a few years, was identified as originating from Chur. He was convinced to go home for visits and his ability to defend the nation from hungry dead and help those desperate to move on in their unlife has won him instant acclaim in Chur.
Reward: Gain New contact Nathan, Sheut "Captain" (need to invent ranks for Sheut at some point). He visits Chur and considers it home but still attends his duties as commanded. He is optimal for Sheut work in the underworld in general and Chur in particular.
-[X] SCIENCE!
--[X] Chameleon Infiltrators AP Needed: 2. DC: 35. Success Needed: 6/22. 2 Raptok AP + Technomorph AP
DC: 35 > 40, 18, 35
Investment was minimal so progress was minimal. Still the prototypes seem to be done. With a bit more investment we can choose between said prototypes and develop some degree of repeatability in the genesis template.
Reward: 8/22 Progress
--[X] Storm Shield [RUSH] AP Needed 2. DC 38. AP needed: 24/25. 1 Raptok AP + 1 General AP + Spark AP
DC: 38 > 61, 58, 100
The project was mostly complete when the Lightning path users got a hold of it and ran rampant, reworking much of the design to incorporate "more lightning" somehow.
One of the most critical effects is that Lightning path users understand them and can build the devices without the support of a Factory Cathedral… somehow.
Reward: Complete Lightning Critical
-Factory Cathedrals are needed to construct BUT Lightning Path AP can take the place.
-High synergy between Coruscating Plasma and Storm Shields found
-Storm Shields can be upgraded to Coronal Storm Barriers and those are extra resistant to weapons which count as "conceptually lightning". This includes Necron Gauss Weapons, Ion Weapons, Lightning Guns, Haywire weapons and comparable. This means they ignore the first level of damage from such sources. This also means ships equipped with Storm shields can "hide" in the chromosphere of a star.
-free progress for Coruscating Plasma Beam Array +3 progress
-Will unlock Coronal Discharge weapons when Coruscating Plasma Beam Array completes. Your version of Necron Gauss weaponry.
Storm shields are large but not large by the standards of ships. A storm shield consumes its own upkeep and power supply by can be built and installed on ships without consuming space.
All Storm Shields produce 2 times -0 Levels of shielding and a two die Haze shield effect. Cost 10 AP, 3 power, and 2 logistics, one upkeep, and no hull space.
Coronal Storm Barriers cost .5 Hull spaces, and produce [ship maximum] +1 -layers of shielding and a 3 die Haze effect and when hit with a "lightning" attack the first hull level of damage is ignored from every broadside. In addition if a ship has Coronal Storm Barriers AND coruscating Plasma Beam arrays then the bonus of the Arrays goes from 2 dice to 3 dice. Coronal Storm barriers cost 15 AP + 1 AP per extra layer of shielding after the first, 2 power + 1 per extra layer, and 2 logistics and .5 hullspaces, +1 Upkeep and require a Factory cathedral (or lightning path) to be assigned to the ship construction to complete.
--[X] Shimmering Water Enhancement Suit AP Needed: 3. DC: 45. Success Needed: 9. 3 Mosok AP + Jadite
DC: 45 > 50, 43+5, 51, 32
Progress has begun on the next generation in Stealth augmentation peripherals, or SAP as involved Raptoks keep trying to name the project.
Reward: 3/9 Progress
--[X] Mineral Survey Equipment AP needed: 1. DC: 20. Success Needed: 2/3 1 Raptok AP
DC: 20 > 59
With a new surge of effort our technicians finalize the methodology for converting the Old Human technology for detecting Minerals at long range in adverse conditions into something we can replicate casually. We were stuck for quite a while on programming because so much of the human method depends on units of measure (distance, time, mass, etc) that do not correlate very well to our methods. In the end simple translation was insufficient and we had to thoroughly understand the human software and then replicate its purpose from scratch.
Reward: Mineral Survey Equipment Finally Complete! -5 DC on resource exploitation projects of appropriate type.
--[X] Design [Four Virtues of Glorious Purpose Hull + Corscating Plasma Beam Array + Rancor-Scenting Harmony Shroud] [RUSH] AP Needed: 1 AP. DC: varies but usually low. Success Needed. 3. 3 Raptok AP
DC: 03+5 reroll 87 , 72, 70
By tying sensors and tracking to the weapon system using Wishmetal and sublime geometries of the Sun's Excellence and Glory we improve response time. Especially when targeting Creatures of Darkness.
Reward: Falling Starfire Defense Array (may only be installed in Four Virtues of Glorious Purpose Hulls.
Provides a three die bonus instead of 2 die one when opposing indirect fire.
When facing creatures of darkness the bonus is 6 dice.
These bonuses can be applied to nearby allied ships.
-[X] Architecture and Geomancy
--[X] Temple of [Han-Tha] (Ophelis) AP needed: 2. DC: 30. Success Needed: 3. 2 Anklok AP
DC: 30 > 76, 07 elemental: 15, 07, 41, 22, 13, 54
Far from home it's only sensible to start building a set of basic temples on a world abundant in divine and geomantic energy. Of course now there will be a clamour for other gods to get back up temples on Han-tha. It might be best to just batch build multiple temples at Ophelis to save on administrative efforts?
Reward: Lose one basic Manse, gain one temple to Han-tha.
--[X] 2 Transalchemical Engineers (Requires Vat Complex) AP Needed: 2. DC: 35. Success Needed: 8/18. 4 Raptok AP + 6 General AP + 1 Ideal Workshop + 1 Alchemical Engineer
DC: 35 > 69, 73, 05, 93, 68, 68, 84, 15, 49, 90, Auto
When the primary candidates fell in love it caused some trouble, because of course we were about to strip them of organic parts and fill them with metal and crystal blessed by authochton.
The first alchemical Dragon King convinced them to go through the motions of a torrid affair, including having a clutch of eggs and spending a few years living together and even mentoring a youth interested in engineering and all but speed run a Dragon King relationship so when they made their final dip in the vat to complete their conversion they were satisfied that years may now go between seeing each other.
Reward: +2 Alchemical Engineers. You will need more factory cathedrals AND vat space to create more.
--[X] Teteocon Expansion AP needed 3. DC: 35. Success Needed 3/9. 2 Raptok AP + 2 General AP
DC: 35 > 25, 64, 71, 46
Solid progress is made assembling the massive Adamant dome in position over and around the celestial gate. Now we just need to enact the ritual to push it into and use it to expand the Heavenly Domain and than its just basic city building to outfit the most standard supporting infrastructure, After that the gods can take over the basics, although we will likely be called upon for large services like setting up orchards for Peaches of Immortality and vineyards for Celestial Wine.
Calling upon a lot of elemental aid and some clever guidance on the part of Raptok Engineers the many worlds of Khyral are tied into a mutual Chaos Consuming Infrastructure.
Reward: CCI established on Khyral. With the new colonization protocol of including Chaos consuming infrastructure on all new colonies, enacted for the first time on Therak, CCI now applies to all Dragon King planets and that should be considered the new standard. -5 Basic Manses, +50% latent demense locations on Khyral.
-[X] Ophelis Geomancy
--[X] All Mountain Fane [Ophelis] (+ Training Grounds) AP Needed: 3. DC: 25. Success Needed: 7/10. 3 General AP
DC: 25 > 52, 26, 58
The heavily Anklok led build team has a "blast" turning this volcano into a manse suitable for training future generations of Dragon King warriors.
Reward: All Mountain Fane + Training Grounds complete, gain +1 Training Grounds Success.
--[X] Brass Redoubt [Ophelis] (Automata Foundry + Greater Automatorium) AP Needed 2. DC 40. AP needed 5/10. 2 General AP + Automata autosuccess
DC: 40> 61, 91, Auto Elemental: 56, 23, 55
Established mostly to act as an anchor for the Metal Path, the Brass Redoubt of Ophelis experienced a massive growth in new facilities that will massively expand the realms capacity to produce Automata, especially on a larger scale.
Reward: Brass Redoubt Automata Foundry and Greater Automatorium are complete, Gain one Automata success. May use Automata success to proceed. Lose one Resource AP as upkeep, gain another Automata success. Large scale Automata projects (50+ AP) are more efficient. May use Automata Success to proceed.
-[X] Plantations and Beasts of Resplendent Alchemy
--[X] Tree Spires AP Needed 1. DC 20. Success Needed: 2/24. 1 General AP
DC: 20 > 25 elemental: 57, 46,
The tree spires are big by tree standards but still currently not as impossibly large yet.
Reward: 5/24 Progress
-[X] Equipment
--[X] Standardization AP needed 4. DC: 20. Success Needed 71. 2 Raptok AP + 2 Ideal Workshop + Slicktongue admin AP
DC: 20 > 69, 44, Auto, Auto
A long awaited project but the Galaxy will only get more dangerous as we see whats out there and setting up our troops with true equipment will be necessary in the long run.
Reward: 12/62 Progress. Slicktongue locked
--[X] Colonization Package AP Needed 1. DC 20. Success Needed 5. 1 Atelier
Auto
Reward: +2 Colonization Packages.
-[X] Recruiting Dinosaurs
--[X] Mount Up Boys! AP Needed: 2. DC: 20. Success Needed: 18/20. 1 Raptok AP + 1 Stable autosuccess
DC: 20 > 49, Auto
Reward: Host enhancement project complete, Storm Host is faster on the march, able to move 600 kilometers a day and gains a bonus to maneuver warfare.
--[X] Razor-Beaks AP needed 2. DC: 20. Success Needed 34. 1 Raptok AP + 1 Stable autosuccess
DC: 20 > 61, Auto
Progress is hard but mostly in the form of setting up facilities to start breeding and training a vast number of new razorbeaks.
Reward: 6/34 Progress
-[X] Resource Action
--[X] Resource Expedition (Therak) AP Needed 1. DC: 20/80. (+15 DC if no population on planet, -10 DC with dedicated ship) Success Needed 1. 3 General AP + 3 Maze Skiffs
DC: 25/85 > 100, 78, 49
While colonization was occurring, teams of wildcat miners visited the smallest of the 48 large islands on Therak and discovered that the place was affected by gravitational anomalies to a far larger extent than most of the planet's surface. Here, near the planetary equator the heat is high during the day but cold at night due to the chill of ocean currents nearby. The effect produces mirage-like haze over the island, giving illusions of greater size and fertility than is true. During the night the island bakes in the cold moonlight. Energies accumulate and the island has become the site of both a Lunar (aka Abraxan) Manse and entering a long dark winding cave filled with gravitational anomalies and odd creatures and plants you will eventually reach an open aquifer that acts as the home of one of the largest single lodes of moonsilver ever discovered in any record of Creation outside the Lunar Seat itself.
The minor flora and fauna have been influenced by this site, one of the few awake and active Demenses we have seen so far (most sites are latent and we have to wake them up). This has produced the typical essence mutations in the local environment granting a plethora of exotic ingredients to work from. One of the most valuable comes from a worm whose castings after moving through the root networks of a local small flower produce properties that cause the wearer to appear externally how they appear internally. Someone who is afraid or sad but hiding it with acting skill will look afraid and sad regardless of acting while affected by this substance. It can even cause a Dragon King to look like another Gender or Breed if they feel that way internally.
The island isn't massive in volume but there should be enough space to establish the moonsilver mine, a Lunar manse, and perhaps a site to tend the local creatures and secure a source of their unique properties.
[ ] Moonsilver Mine: A mystical Island on Therak with a deep cave leading to an underground Aquifer, A limnial space where Moonsilver can thrive. Can we harvest it without causing damage to the this magical place? AP Needed: 2. DC: 35. (High DC from avoiding wrecking the Manse site or the other ability to gather reagents on the island, DC would be 20 if you decided to only plant the mine). Successes Needed: 16. Reward: Lose 1 AP as upkeep which can come from Labor if needed, gain +30 Moonsilver availability, gain improved ability to design and build Moonsilver artifacts, components and ships.
--[X] Resource Expedition (Valki) AP Needed 1. DC: 20/80. (+15 DC if no population on planet, -10 DC with dedicated ship) Success Needed 1. Hotblood AP + 1 Maze Skiffs
DC: 25/85> 01
While attempting to extract valuable gasses from a comet the comet suddenly destabilized and a catalytic reaction occurred causing the comet to vaporize and ignite. The sudden explosion destroyed the whole team and their vehicle.
The loss of some of the best and brightest teams of Steam users will delay their ability to participate in future projects for a while until upcoming youths pick up where their elders left off.
-[X] Population and Colonisation
--[X] Colonize Therak (30 Million) AP needed: 3. DC: 35 (25). Success Needed 10/28. 3 General AP + 3 Colonization Packages + Abundant Feast
DC: 25-5=20 > 76, 81, 95 + 12 Auto, elemental: 7, 36, 85
With the aid of Elementals and the prepared colonization packages we manage to complete the effort of city building on Therak and within a few years the colony is self-sufficient, important considering how hard it is to travel to and from the planet.
These colonists are extremely excited about the Moonsilver mine found on one of Therak's most isolated islands and there are grand plans to build up the site.
While its assumed Valki will be colonized next, some wonder if the other worlds in the Therak system will be colonized before or after we move on to new worlds as the third planet of Therak's system contains one living moon and two that are better prospects for Archgenesis than Jach'uchil by far.
The combined sensor obscurity and preponderance of the Pterok population means many favor the idea of handling our most dangerous or secret research in this site, possibly setting up Vaults to hide away dangerous relics of other galactic powers.
Reward: Complete, -3 Colonization packages, 30 million established on Therak.
+3 AP + 2 Raptok AP + 3 Pterok AP – 1 Anklok AP;
You have one of each elemental Manse established as Manse cities. The planet has 3 Air, 2 Wood and Earth, 1 Water, 1 Crystal, 1 Lunar (Abraxan) major Demense locations and 150 minor Demense Locations.
As a reminder
This system, centered around another hard to re-align star, has a vast cloud of crystals and gravitational anomalies obscure details and cripple sensor sweeps. The first planet in the system is hidden deep in the "mist" zone and happens to be a small low gravity world that is very hot with a thin toxic atmosphere. Not water or life has been discovered on the planet nor valuable resources. Therak itself is the second planet in the system. It still lies with the crystal hazards of the system although the gravitational anomalies are much reduced. The planet has slightly lower gravity, easing pterok flight and raptok climbing but not benefiting the other breeds as much. It has verdant life (although not by Tocha or Ophelis standards) It has four continents and 48 large islands. Thus there is not enough open ocean without an island to create a Reef manse. It is believed that moonsilver production can be conducted on this planet as well as indications that the planet hosts deeply venomous beasts. The planet has two moons which amount to a very large asteroid and an asteroid so large its almost a spherical planetoid of its own. In the outer system the crystal shards fade to dust particles which shroud the system from detection. The third planet is a massive gas giant with many useful moons including one habitable one that is cold but still has a full ecosystem and two other distant larger moons with extremely limited ecosystems. The fourth planet is smaller and further away.
[ ] Moonsilver Mine: A chain of regular debris is falling from a Debris field onto Valki and we have tracked it thoroughly enough to predict the timing and location of falls, thus letting us convert this fallen debris into Starmetal through the tracking of the fate of the debris. AP Needed: 2. DC: 35. (High DC from avoiding wrecking the Manse site or the other ability to gather reagents on the island, DC would be 20 if you decided to only plant the mine). Successes Needed: 16. Reward: Lose 1 AP as upkeep which can come from Labor if needed, gain +30 Moonsilver availability, gain improved ability to design and build Moonsilver artifacts, components and ships.
Yes or No?: These options cost no hullspaces, but are difficult to create artifacts that will need upkeep and raise the cost of building and operating the vehicle if added. ALL of these can be added as built in and thus benefit from percentage based discounts and avoid independent management of rare devices issues. But it's a cost so make a choice. Checking it means you want to include it, leaving it unchecked means it is NOT included.
[ ] The gloves of mercy and malice are crudely stitched canvas. Mercy, the left glove, is white with a black symbol on its palm in the shape of two snakes entwined around a staff. Malice is black with a white skull-and-crossbones pattern on its palm. When worn, the gloves pulse and throb with Divine Energies which prickle along the wearer's arms.
*User who has faith in any god, good or evil cannot safely use the gloves and suffers agonizing pain and essence drain until removed.
*A user who has no faith but themselves may don the gloves and use them
Mercy may facilitate healing and restoration, practically defying death, user is immune to death energy and similar types of energies.
Malice can harm and kill others with death aspected energy and spread a potent supernatural contagion, even among those who should be immune to disease. These effects can bypass spell based abilities to ignore those energies and diseases.
These effects require touch although are very powerful. The downside is the power usage must be balanced. A potent restoration of someone good must be balanced by either harming someone else good or also restoring someone evil.
I like the idea of these, especially the utility they might have with the Tau auxiliaries. It's less a solution to something and more that old Exalted classic of "problem alchemy; instead of solving a problem, you turn it into a different problem". I rate the value of this as high, but the immediacy of acquiring it low. We'll take a while before being able to use it, especially given we need to do a lot of stuff before engaging with the Tau (or someone else) first. If possible recommend not trading for but using spies to keep an eye on the disposition of these for later acquisition.
[ ] Tsyji Helm: The helm and mask combo bears an obviously alien make of a while metal similar to White Jade, however it is not intended for Dragon Kings, Human, or any other known race. It grants a decent bonus to mental and social characteristics and your willpower score. Using sorcery while wearing the mask counts as having always spent one willpower already for any given spell and it stores 20 sorcerous motes which can be recharged by working to enforce Law and Order in society for a time.
I intend to make these as close to standard issue for our sorcerers as possible. It looks like it'd be our version of a Ghost Helm (technically not standard issue for Eldar Psykers but why under Isha's Grace would you not take this in your army lists?), and it's basically "your first TCS spell is free". 10/10, first rate buy, any trade plan should include this.
[ ] Exoeidetic memory engrams: Allows information to be effectively "remembered", even though that information may have been originally experienced by someone else. Allows creation of skill chips or passing on experience with a given foe to someone who never faced them before. Effectively an "upgrade" to dream learning by no longer requiring learning in a dream but just changing out a chip.
Skill chips? Yes please. I imagine we'd be trading our dream tutoring technology for this as our closest analogue, which is...well, there's potential for abuse with that but I imagine it's one of the 'safer' techs on the list to trade.
[ ] Digital Weaponry: An assortment of hyper miniaturized weaponry would both provide insight into out own miniaturization and act as a boon for our espionage agents.
"Getting more spy toys" is one of the prereqs for letting Ateliers(/Factory Cathedrals) help on Deeper Spy Rings techs, and Digital Weapons are one of those status symbols found among Inquisitors, Rogue Traders, Planetary Governors (the wealthy and important ones) and other such luminaries. It's a potential trade item as well as something immediately useful for our espionage efforts. Not sure what we'd trade in turn though. Since I am giving a serious think towards doubling down on "Mosok infiltrate literally the entire Expanse" projects being able to make Deepening projects work more smoothly is attractive to me. 6.5/10 if you just want the research options to make smaller stuff and learn more Autocthonian things, 9.5/10 for espionage advancement tech.
[ ] Aero Makepoint: Consuming massive amounts of energy to ex-nihilo create matter, in this case breathable air, from that energy. Given the amount of energy wrapped up in material matter this takes a breathtaking amount of power production and the unit provided would only keep five people alive even if provided unlimited energy. A lot of research would have to be done to make this useful in addition to providing abundant power.
This is interesting, and if we got this as loot somehow I'd not mind, but I don't know what we'd do with it much less what we'd trade for it. I think this'd be some sort of 'reality manipulation' tech, but honestly that's a shot in the dark. Feels more like the start of a research chain to make something useful with it than it is immediatley useful itself.
[ ] Matter converter: A complex and energy consuming device that can convert material inside a roughly 2 cubic meter volume into another material. You cannot make mundane materials into magical materials but you CAN make magical materials into OTHER magical materials.
Convert Magical Materials into other MMs? Sounds great, and a way to simplify some of our strategic materials considerations. I imagine we'd be trading the Forge that lets us generate MMs with a lot of talent and effort, which...honestly if someone's going to spend their talent and effort painstakingly making a few ounces of Noctolith that's probably better than them raiding someone else who already has it. Good trade.
[ ] Blacklight Unit: this is a powerful personal forcefield. It uses planing theory to shunt damage into 2-space, shrouding the user in an angular black field from which no light escapes.
We have a sort of forcefield (Light Shields) which I suspect we'd trade for this. I like this mostly as a new form of defensive tech that we could use to unlock Essence Battlements III or something similar to make our ships even tankier. It's on the medium-interest list but not a super-high priority (I doubt we're dropping another 30 AP on shields research anytime soon)
[ ] Targeting Oculus: While using a different system than your dragonfly ranging Eyes you believe that studying this device would let you improve that piece of your common gear.
"Make better DBZ scouters", simple but useful. I'm not sure if the improvement is 'you can now see in quantum linkages' or 'we simplified production and maintenance' but it seems like a good buy.
This sounds like either a DAoT or other precursor to the Hades Breaching Drill (if Imperial in origin) and thus a potential trade good alongside the DAoT Rhino, or a xeno variant of the same. Given preexisting Dragon King comfort with subterranian warfare, options opened up with Rolling Earth Rampart (and similar technologies) and now this I can imagine "death from below" attacks to become a semi-common staple in Dragon King warfare. Medium priority buy pending clarification on suspected origin of the Bore.
Fake edit; it may also help with prospecting and mining actions when coupled with the Mineral Survey tech, though that's already a pretty low-DC action.
[ ] Anoetic Blade: A short sword which is covered in glowing sigils and lines which does twice the damage you might expect of a normal masterwork blade of this type. You do not detect any form of essence manipulation in regards to the blade, despite its appearance, it seems to be technology.
We're a fairly melee-heavy force that has a cultural disposition towards fighting giant monsters. "Get magic swords for everyone" is already a project we've started this very turn, and "research how to make magic sword++ for everyone" seems a useful thing to get. Medium-to-high priority item depending on your thoughts on how much better we should try to make our legions (above 'what we had in the Primordial War'). Trade something like a daiklave or crystal war club for this?
[ ] Prescient Mark: A simple sigil which when placed on the forehead glows brightly, almost like a castemark. For about three hours the user can see a few second into the future and gains a massive improvement in their ability to react at high speed.
This looks useful for martial artists, battle-diviners, pilots...heck, just about anyone that might face combat. High priority item, I suspect our crystal staves that help detect danger are the trade item here.
[ ] Void Ring: A simple steel ring glowing with faint blue runes. The wearer of this ring is invisible to beings that are nanotechnology based hive minds, may not be effected by them and may not be targeted by any nanotechnological effect, even willingly.
That sounds interesting, but unless we're faced with the Void Dragon, Necrons or specialist Heretek forces I don't see an immediate use for it. Low priority buy, but flag for Mosok acquisition for later. "Immune to specific enemy types" is worth investigating in the long run.
[ ] White Noise Amulet: A tool that manipulates a phenomena known as white noise. You may create a zone of white noise around you to prevent any sound from carrying or internalize it, filling your mind with white noise and rendering you immune to verbal or sound based powers and effects at the cost of effectively being deaf.
I see this pairing with research into Sonic weaponry (miniaturizing Final Hymn of Judgement's Sonic Cannons into smaller and smaller forms) as well as being an espionage tool (countering Social attacks and voice-based supernatural attacks, otherwise just making it difficult to listen to a conversation etc). Medium-to-high priority purchase depending on how likely we are to see it deployed as a spy tool.
[ ] Pushpull Beam: This beam can be set to push objects away or bring toward the user with the strength of an extremely strong Dragon King (Strength 10). It can be used to help knock back or slow charging foes or drag some foes off balance. On brief examination the idea is to make something like a firedust tube with this effect instead of an element.
This kinda reads like a personal scale tractor beam. Not sure how useful that is, we have a vehicle scale one captured from Orks we mean to investigate. Honestly no guestimate on utility here, this could be amazing or trash I'm just not wrapping my head around it.
[ ] Stoneform Poison: A consumable or injectable substance which converts the target into a very hard and durable stone, but renders them unable to move for a full day. You can think of just as many uses in which this would be beneficial as a form of stasis drug or last ditch protection from an area attack as to harm enemies by rendering them unable to act (and possible be carried into containment or prison while stuck as a stone. There is also a hope the formula would enable easier development of your Skin Like Mountains oil research.
We've been sitting on SLM Oil research for a long time, and making it is one of the remaining steps to unlocking Primordial Stockpiles (which I think we're going to want) on top of its use as poison or combat drug. High priority purchase, expect we'd trade something out of our combat drugs or exotic poisons for it.
[ ] Teleport Seal: A crystal shard that when shattered prevents all scrying teleportation, wyld dimensional crossing, and phasing within a radius of two kilometers of the spot it was shattered for a full day. While they don't have very many the fact it is a crystal device gives high certainly of adopting the technology.
"Prevent Wyld crossing" is something we have experience in (CCI, Closing the Divine Gate Elder step, thaumaturgies, Order-Conferring Trade Pattern etc) and given the sorts of enemies we collect adding another tool in that chest seems prudent. High priority purchase reduced to medium-low if we think we're going to start 'borrowing' samples from the Stryxis in the next 4 turns or so.
[ ] Data Vault: An hourglass shaped object with a ring around it. When first activated an object with a maximum volume of 3 cubic meters can be absorbed into the vault. When the hourglass is flipped and it is activated again the object is projected as it was but made out of hardlight as a motonic projection which lasts one day at most. As motonic projections are common in our technology we hope we can improve either the device or are tech with study. Even if not, just copying it would allow someone to bring something large but disposable with them to set up traps or barriers in battle or larger equipment for espionage like vault cracking tools.
I wonder how the motonic projections work on disposables like 'combat drugs' or 'food'. Could we use an array of these to reduce logistics costs associated with mundane expenditures? Probably not (a bullet disappearing after 24 hours isn't important if it's fired soon, but we're not shooting mundane bullets) but it's worth consideration.
Another instance of 'this sounds like spy toys so lets go for it', there seems to be a lot of support for this anyway. Unexpectedly high priority.
[ ] Stasis field emitter: A small flat round device hooked up to a wristband, allows you to project a wave of energy at a target within a short range of you, doing minimal damage but also locking the target into a stasis effect for one round of action. The emitters are a consumable with only about half a dozen uses to them but could be used to enhance the effect of a combat stockpile.
It's a useful tech to have, but not one I expect to prioritize in the next 5 to 10 turns. Low priority, let it be on the 'you have now successfully puppeted the Stryxis, here are their loot lists' gatcha.
[ ] Write in: I am not bothering to list out things like lasguns and other basic tech items. Almost anything common to the Imperium can be subbed in as a choice if you want. Lots of drug and poison based options too.
Are we able to get anything off the Eldar/Dark Eldar wargear lists as a write-in given their antipathy towards the Eldar and (presumably) taking the opportunity to loot them when they have the chance? I'm not asking for relics or high end stuff, but Dark Eldar combat stimulants or fragments of their vehicles might be worth something, y'know?
Re: Imperial tech and plants
- basic imperial tech (lasguns, mining equipment, aviation etc) we can probably get in trade or espionage once we get diplomatic and trade links. If there's something specific that makes for a great opener (maize, promethium, recaff) or don't want to be seen asking for (Spook, Silver Anathema, Plas) that's one thing, but "let's set up a high quality amasec production facility" is probably best saved for 'we are a recognized friendly xeno species with trading rights, tell us what plant-based products you would like to purchase humans'.
- We may get some sort of trade deal with the AdMech Biologus faction trading in exotic plant samples
Therak will have a crystal manse so i added this to the info post.
Crystal
Perfect Memory Archive: A place of recording information, including from and to people's heads. Basically you making your own Sperimen with a bit more memory modification on the side.
Statistical Analysis Center: A place where infinite possible futures are aligned into realms of likelihood and condenses the most likely contingency. Basically collects massive amounts of information and combines it with analysis to help pin down fuzzier divination results. Allows Thaumaturgical Divination rituals (but not Dragon King or Loom of Fate Astrology) to gain improved information results, ie a place with this can get better quick answers and you can justify other forms of divination that optimize other things like statistics or Crystal divination for example. The manse can support Loom of Fate Astrology by providing information on how those effected will react.
Resource Managing Office: Through clockwork efficiency and cost cutting measures this manse site can provide improved results for big projects. Basically like the slicktongue bonus but can be applied to either other things or in conjunction with higher bonuses. Might have a trickier annex project that pushes it higher yet. Probably a facility for managing crisis's if I can work out a mechanic for it. Budget Disciplinary committee would allow the world with this to reduce the minimum AP investment for projects upon that world.
Hearthstone bearer: Perfect Defense, Immunity to Shaping, perfect memory, extra toughness, can detect lies, ignores illusions, can go invisible or phase through matter, can make a social attack that dispells unnaturally intense emotions under an imposed calmness.
Essence Crystallization Trap: A site that can "trap" spirits by forcing them into materialized or dematerialized states without the ability to switch thus acting as a prison for spirits. Can be used to farm exotic ingredients by crystallized ephemeral motonic concepts.
Precision Battle Discipline of the Unbreakable Crystal Formation: This is a relatively small training facility for a major manse but focuses or producing extremely elite units with tight discipline and tighter formations. That is, it aids in training Naval Phalanx, which are probably renamed Crystal or Adamant Phalanxes but this site can train them far faster (approximately 10 units per AP). Similar units which depend on small highly disciplined units with close formations could also be trained here.
These are all wonderful and I lust for each of them in turn. For Therak I favor the Archive (if it's to be a 'hidden research' sort of plant especially' but the "make more Adamant Phalanxes" manse really ought to be second or third on our list. Would we be able to make more of them using Geomantic Expansion projects and Crystalweaver pathists to help with the project?
Please keep in mind that
A) you have a lot of stuff to research already,
B) You getting these means I need to come up with projects for them so
C) if you than never actually research them you just wasted my time for nothing so
D) I will go out of my way to make the techs you are selling the Stryxis bite you in the ass and how hard I will go out of my way depends on how true C is.
A) True facts. Incentive to get Harmonious Lore Understanding and Savant manses up and running. (Any objections to making the HLU manse on Therak be a Sorcery research center? I figure between the Moonsilver lode, Lunar/Abraxus manse and general secrecy/expected Jupiter manse grounds in the area "sorcery" is a safe bet as a regional specialty)
B) True, but as you said we have plenty of other projects so if only a few such projects become available per turn I couldn't reasonably complain. It's not like we lack for things to do right now.
C) Something I hope to avoid.
D) This sounds more like 'prod towards plot' than 'threat' to me; I'd hate to see something like "Turn 800, you make numbers go up again". Instead "you made reckless bargains with the Stryxis who spread your toys about the Expanse. Your spies are frantically assimilating the caravaneers and attempting to find out who they traded what to, while your armies launch seemingly unprovoked attacks on clients who gained materials you freely surrendered and diplomats spin increasingly improbable tales of piracy suppression and Chaos conspiracies to the Imperial colonies struggling to maintain a toehold in the Expanse" makes a far better story, even if it's not the 'optimal' route.
well trading to Imperials, non-Imperial humans (which do exist outside of Chaos and the Tau) and any mortal races that don't have better in their armouries so it's a bit more useful then that.
Tangential to the above, we should probably decide what we want to trade to the humans. The more trade support we get from them the more we can do (like population rituals, military expansion and colonization) but the more they're able to do as well (like expand into the Expanse and take what is our rightful clay). I'm generally thinking 'sell luxuries but not necessities' because the notables will want their expensive brandies and Cuban cigars but selling grain, oil and iron actually feed their ability to expand. Every time they have to designate a colony an agriworld instead of a hive world, or a mining world instead of a forge world (etc) slows them down.
...this is perhaps slightly premature given how we haven't made contact with Imperials in the region that weren't Rogue Traders, but by golly it'll happen!
Slightly longer version is there is basically an iron triangle of "time, repeatability and safety" here:
- If you spend time to enlighten people, that tends to look a lot like the quintessential "sage meditate on a sacred mountain for years". You can do it reasonably safely and in comparatively large numbers (compared to the other methods) but if you want an army of kung fu masters starting training in your 60s is a bit of an ask.
- If you spend safety you have stuff like "a thousand people did this stupidly dangerous thing and one of them survived, reaching enlightenment". Examples include Celestial Cocaine, jumping off a sacred mountain and not expecting to die (despite evidence from the 800+ corpses below), or in our own case 'CMA enlightenment via battle royale in the Thunder Dome'.
- If you go for the repeatability angle, there are various one-off unrepeatable effects ranging from "DM fiat" to "transcendental genius discovers X". I would think that something like 'discover the recipie for repeatable yellow jade' can only happen once and thus is a viable method of enlightenment, with the caveat that there are many parties that absolutely have a vested interest in killing you and erasing your work so a powerful secret remains a powerful secret. Alternately, getting a patron (be it a Solar bestowing enlightenment upon a faithful retainer, a demon offering power for service or Little Beam deciding that little Marela should become a Solar Half-Caste because we made a convincing argument.
--[X] Faradai, Artificer of Most Efficacious Prostheses AP Needed: 4. DC: 45. Success Needed: 8 5 Anklok AP + 6 General AP
DC: 45-10=35 > 47, 33+5, 59, 75, 76, 44, 18, 03+5, 38, 82, 84
While ritual practitioners are distracted with the constant flow of Dragon King sacrifices triggering the births of new Dragon Kings we manage enough focus on the Abraxan temples to see the integration of the Eye of Night into the a ritual to empower Faradai, Artificer of Most Efficacious Prostheses and direct him anchor the Technomorphic path to the side of good.
His temples once built can be visited by Technomorphs to be bound to Faradai. With his development we can call upon him to aid in advanced Augmetic developments, assist in blessing major upgrade projects as potent divinity and ask for blessings that protect any augmetics on the field from corruptive forces from those such as hereteks. Alternatively Arks might be built which use the lingering presence of the eye of the Night within Faradai to enable battlefield scope failure of augmetics… which could be crippling if your foe happens to be either a Heretek or a member of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Faradai could also be occasionally begged and prayed to in order to convince him to create a truly divine prosthetic if a worthy target could be found (like a primarch).
Reward: Consume Eye of Night. Empower Faradai, Artificer of Most Efficacious Prostheses who is now Essence 6 and grant him the Technomorphic Path to guide and develop.
Does Faradai help with Alchemical research or implementation?
Also, we're starting to get some decent tools to bully Hereteks. Between this, Final Hymn of Judgement's enthusiasm (and bonus damage vs enemies of the Great Maker), our general anti-daemon kit and Marela-as-fleet-commander we can potentially farm reputation with the AdMech by beating up evil Forge Worlds and either decimating them or bringing them back into the faith.
Does having a relevant god make the 'make Dragon King skitarii' elite soldiers option look more attractive to anyone?
--[X] Sheut Academy AP Needed: 4. DC: 28. Success Needed: 0/24. 4 Anklok AP
DC: 28 > 59, 62, 28, 59+ Heroic Ghosts (2)
Expansion of the academy takes a large surge when several heroic ghosts are recruited and quickly pass through the basic training and achieve high positions, freeing up critical personal more suited for teaching.
Could you expand your reasoning on the progress here? By my count that's either 6 sux or 8 sux, not sure how you're getting 10. Still, glad to see progress here. It'll be funny if this project completes before the Wyld Fighters one does.
--[X] Wyld Fighting Force AP Needed 3 + Ecstatic. DC 25. AP needed 24/120 + 4 x Atelier Manse. 2 General AP + Training Grounds + Ecstatic AP
DC: 25 > 05+5, 48, 89, Auto
Further progress on training these forces although the training rate is quite sluggish compared to the path in front of us.
Glad that 05 wasn't a crit fail, I don't know what that'd mean for this project but I don't think we'd like it. What's the attitude towards a major investment in this for the next 2-3 turns until done?
--[X] Widen Spy Ring (Stryxis) AP Needed: 2. DC: ?? (Varies depending on target). Success Needed: 5. 5 Mosok AP + 1 General AP + 1 Atelier + Eucharist AP
DC: 93 > 21, 63, 95, 18, 05, 05 reroll 15, second reroll 100 + 3 Atelier Successes
Trade has begun with the Stryxis and our Eucharists quickly discover that Stryxis both have blood and are valid targets for their paths although a medical response was needed to save the Stryx's life and prevent an incident (and revelation). We have wormed several agents aboard Stryxis between special equipment and the use of Blood Path users to bind stryxis masters as servants and use their influence to help hide other agents and espionage devices.
Reward: Spy Ring among Stryxis Caravans in the Koronus Expanse is created. You may use Blood Path on Stryxis. You understand basically everything about the Stryxis on the Wiki page although mysteries are still mysteries and "lists of technology" are still just "lists of technology" Further work might be done such as trying to steal technology or answer mysterious questions which is risky, or trying to use insider information to enhance trade deals. Either would benefit from deepening the ring by using blood path servants who have been aided to achieve greater positions, of course the first steps is using what we have learned to better prepare our services for this spy work going forward.
#yikes That DC is scary and if I knew about it going into this I would have shied away. Still, "learn how to spy on Stryxis", "espionage manse" and "assorted spy toys" all seem like good projects going forward. Plus designing the next spy ship (I'd like the Iron Wolves Den and completion of SAP research done soonish before we move onto deepening, unless there are objections?) Wiki page for those interested.
Is "Widen spy ring [assorted pirate groups that deal with the Stryxis]" a valid project or below the abstraction of what we're working with here?
With deepening ties to Chur your traders, clerics, confessors, and agents spread among the ghosts of the Underworld. Your agents no longer merely gather information but act. Those who use Soulsteel forging on innocents have their soulsteel quietly seized and are converted in turn to Soulsteel even as traders seek to trade Soulsteel for Jade and other living world goods. Clerics and administrators preach on the vile nature of using soulsteel creation as anything but a dire punishment and confessors start to track down souls that might be willing to give of themselves willingly to create White Soulsteel although little progress has been made there.
Reward: Soulsteel Trade Expanded. +1 Soulsteel, -2 Jade. Soulsteel is becoming more "ethical" over time although it is still mostly the result of punishing criminal Dead or seizing the results of work already done. With time and continuing efforts (ie invested AP) this may shift.
You supply the needed materials and baubles to the Stryxis and the Arena beasts from across the Galaxy come flooding in. Over just a few years trade picks up and you see multiple convoys of stryxis show up and make the trades allowing you a continual flow of beasts to be available.
You gain first tier Arena Beasts and gain +1 Breed AP in each breed from improved morale from fighting and defeating or dying against dangerous beings.
Improving tiers involves more variety and danger, not greater quantity. You also need more population. Benefiting from Tier 2 Arena Beasts requires you to have a population of roughly 400 million dragon kings. Tier three would need 1.6 billion Dragon kings and would likely cause some small amount of negative growth from killing off so many.
We're at ~300m Dragon Kings currently and have plans to expand for a while yet so 400m isn't so far away. Furthermore Atlaaki has "death beasts" as a resource, which seems promising for moving to T2 Arena Beasts. The jump to 1.6b Dragon Kings is impressive though, especially if they're mean enough to inflict negative growth on a population that large.
-[X] Martial Arts
--[X] Encourage Martial Arts AP needed 5. DC: 43. Success Needed: 4/24. 4 Mosok AP + 2 Dojo
DC: 43 > 22, 07, 52, 14, Auto, Auto x 3 = 9
Progress is made, although great difficulties were found, despite expanding into a major new Dojo site we still haven't found a new angle to speed up recruitment.
Would introducing new Martial Arts help with that 'new angle'? I figure Piercing Augur helps with the divination crowd (mostly Pterok) and a combination of the Form of the Terrible Ancestors (that we'll want anyway to go along with the God-Beast research) and/or a more general "so you have combat shapeshifting" ala Shaping Wood path's lower ranked steps as a separate style (also useful for biokinetics that hulk out and bludgeon people to death etc) ought to help with the Raptok part of the population. (I also want to do Fivefold Shadow Hand Style but as that's a +ninja style it's basically preaching to the choir here; I imagine just about every Mosok is already onboard with the spread of Martial Arts to some degree)
--[X] Spirit Gathering Thousand Forge AP Needed: 3. DC: 25. Success Needed: 11. 2 Pterok AP + 12 General AP + Crystalweaver AP
DC: 25 > 33, 63, 86, 15, 70, 14, 31, 08, 26, 88, 91, 11, 87, 33, 98
A Spirit Gathering Thousand Forge channels immense availability of Geomantic power through multiple Workshops with Factory Cathedral tier equipment as well as several systems designs to support working on multiple artifact projects. It can work comparable to an Atelier manse but better handles creation of magical goods and Artifacts, using the greater Geomantic power to empower the multiple workshops needed to better synchronize the site with the god and enable sustaining purified work crews of immense size for long durations. Thus when it comes to mundane goods a Thousand Forge is no better than an Atelier Manse. But for anything more magical the Thousand forge counts as five times as productive as a Factory Cathedral. Work out the design for making such a facility, expected to build on major fire, Earth, or Plasma Reactor manses.
The Crystalweavers being involved from the start has made the whole process more conducive to their mindset and the design includes a Central Throne where a Master Crystalweaver can station themselves to become a kind of overarching intelligence for the Industrial Manse. They work to optimize all aspects of the Spirit Gathering Thousand Forge.
Reward: Research complete, You may build Spirit Gathering Thousand Forges. These cannot build anything a Factory Cathedral cannot but can build more of what they can. A thousand Forge counts as five Factory Cathedrals but ONLY for purposes which REQUIRE factory cathedrals. For more mundane purposes it counts as one atelier manse.
Crystal Critical
-You may also build on Crystal Major Manses.
-Crystalweaver AP working at a Thousand Forge may be treated as an Alchemical Engineer at a Factory Cathedral, which means instead of providing its normal AP the action would count as TWO thousand forges working on the project together. Keep in mind it will take Five (5) Transdraconic Engineers to achieve this effect at a Thousand Forge themselves due to the sheer volume of production.
If we use this on something like Ordinatus production is that 'required FC + 4 more' or 'required FC'? Also is it helpful for stuff like Standardization or Cores for Eldar where if we weren't using something like that it'd take forever to complete? Can we stack Crystal pathists and Alchemical Engineers or are the benefits too similar to stack?
A shame it didn't complete, but I understand that elementals were otherwise engaged in important tasks. These things happen, and barring terrible rolls should be completed tomorrow.
--[X] Call (Ulthwe) (New Contacts) AP needed 1. DC: 45 Success Needed 1. 1 Slicktongue AP
DC: 45 > 63
Your attempts to track down a new contact in Ulthwe meet new success as you are put in contact with the High Autarch of the Craftworld. He says he has reviewed the data put forth from your shared encounter and is willing to encourage closer relations, especially in the field of military cooperation. Seek him out if you want opportunities to gain favor by aiding Ulthwe in a military capacity or want to hire large amounts of Aspect Warriors as mercenaries. (He seems to ignore the possibility that Dragon Kings might be aware of a threat Ulthwe would WANT to fight on their own, which to be fair the Eldar, especially these Eldar are very guided by their Farseers).
Reward: Success New contact High Autarch Gavarion Earlan of Ulthwe
So we made contact with a travel agent who'd be willing to offer suggestions on where vacationing Dragon Kings might want to go? How is this helpful? /joke
This seems like a useful contact to make. I'd say we will want to make contact with an economic coordinator of some sort (for trade and strategic goods exchange) and a loremaster (for research), otherwise we seem good to go as IIRC they don't really have 'priests' as we use the term.
Imagine rolling into town with a doomfleet and just going "so where do you want us?".
--[X] Call (Chur) (New Contacts) AP needed 1. DC: 45 Success Needed 1. 1 Ghostwalker AP
DC: 45 > 81
One of the heroes recruited to the Sheut academy, after passing and achieving renown for a few years, was identified as originating from Chur. He was convinced to go home for visits and his ability to defend the nation from hungry dead and help those desperate to move on in their unlife has won him instant acclaim in Chur.
Reward: Gain New contact Nathan, Sheut "Captain" (need to invent ranks for Sheut at some point). He visits Chur and considers it home but still attends his duties as commanded. He is optimal for Sheut work in the underworld in general and Chur in particular.
--[X] Storm Shield [RUSH] AP Needed 2. DC 38. AP needed: 24/25. 1 Raptok AP + 1 General AP + Spark AP
DC: 38 > 61, 58, 100
The project was mostly complete when the Lightning path users got a hold of it and ran rampant, reworking much of the design to incorporate "more lightning" somehow.
One of the most critical effects is that Lightning path users understand them and can build the devices without the support of a Factory Cathedral… somehow.
Reward: Complete Lightning Critical
-Factory Cathedrals are needed to construct BUT Lightning Path AP can take the place.
-High synergy between Coruscating Plasma and Storm Shields found
-Storm Shields can be upgraded to Coronal Storm Barriers and those are extra resistant to weapons which count as "conceptually lightning". This includes Necron Gauss Weapons, Ion Weapons, Lightning Guns, Haywire weapons and comparable. This means they ignore the first level of damage from such sources. This also means ships equipped with Storm shields can "hide" in the chromosphere of a star.
-free progress for Coruscating Plasma Beam Array +3 progress
-Will unlock Coronal Discharge weapons when Coruscating Plasma Beam Array completes. Your version of Necron Gauss weaponry.
Storm shields are large but not large by the standards of ships. A storm shield consumes its own upkeep and power supply by can be built and installed on ships without consuming space.
All Storm Shields produce 2 times -0 Levels of shielding and a two die Haze shield effect. Cost 10 AP, 3 power, and 2 logistics, one upkeep, and no hull space.
Coronal Storm Barriers cost .5 Hull spaces, and produce [ship maximum] +1 -layers of shielding and a 3 die Haze effect and when hit with a "lightning" attack the first hull level of damage is ignored from every broadside. In addition if a ship has Coronal Storm Barriers AND coruscating Plasma Beam arrays then the bonus of the Arrays goes from 2 dice to 3 dice. Coronal Storm barriers cost 15 AP + 1 AP per extra layer of shielding after the first, 2 power + 1 per extra layer, and 2 logistics and .5 hullspaces, +1 Upkeep and require a Factory cathedral (or lightning path) to be assigned to the ship construction to complete.
At first I was going to make a joke about 'bully Necrons' but then I remembered how scary Necron ships are and how they're the closest thing the Eldar have to peers in space. That -1 damage from lightning attacks is going to be crucial.
To clarify, the CSB is extra space, not reduced space, right?
--[X] Design [Four Virtues of Glorious Purpose Hull + Corscating Plasma Beam Array + Rancor-Scenting Harmony Shroud] [RUSH] AP Needed: 1 AP. DC: varies but usually low. Success Needed. 3. 3 Raptok AP
DC: 03+5 reroll 87 , 72, 70
By tying sensors and tracking to the weapon system using Wishmetal and sublime geometries of the Sun's Excellence and Glory we improve response time. Especially when targeting Creatures of Darkness.
Reward: Falling Starfire Defense Array (may only be installed in Four Virtues of Glorious Purpose Hulls.
Provides a three die bonus instead of 2 die one when opposing indirect fire.
When facing creatures of darkness the bonus is 6 dice.
These bonuses can be applied to nearby allied ships.
--[X] Temple of [Han-Tha] (Ophelis) AP needed: 2. DC: 30. Success Needed: 3. 2 Anklok AP
DC: 30 > 76, 07 elemental: 15, 07, 41, 22, 13, 54
Far from home it's only sensible to start building a set of basic temples on a world abundant in divine and geomantic energy. Of course now there will be a clamour for other gods to get back up temples on Han-tha. It might be best to just batch build multiple temples at Ophelis to save on administrative efforts?
Reward: Lose one basic Manse, gain one temple to Han-tha.
Since we couldn't build a bunch of temples for one god on a bunch of planets I presumed we couldn't build a bunch of temples to several gods on the same planet. Is this not the case? Because if so I have a list.
-[X] Plantations and Beasts of Resplendent Alchemy
--[X] Tree Spires AP Needed 1. DC 20. Success Needed: 2/24. 1 General AP
DC: 20 > 25 elemental: 57, 46,
The tree spires are big by tree standards but still currently not as impossibly large yet.
So...are we going to get a Green Rider named Lo'Rax to finish this project do you think? Also we're now looking at 9 gen AP and 10 Elemental AP to complete this.
-[X] Equipment
--[X] Standardization AP needed 4. DC: 20. Success Needed 71. 2 Raptok AP + 2 Ideal Workshop + Slicktongue admin AP
DC: 20 > 69, 44, Auto, Auto
A long awaited project but the Galaxy will only get more dangerous as we see whats out there and setting up our troops with true equipment will be necessary in the long run.
-[X] Resource Action
--[X] Resource Expedition (Therak) AP Needed 1. DC: 20/80. (+15 DC if no population on planet, -10 DC with dedicated ship) Success Needed 1. 3 General AP + 3 Maze Skiffs
DC: 25/85 > 100, 78, 49
While colonization was occurring, teams of wildcat miners visited the smallest of the 48 large islands on Therak and discovered that the place was affected by gravitational anomalies to a far larger extent than most of the planet's surface. Here, near the planetary equator the heat is high during the day but cold at night due to the chill of ocean currents nearby. The effect produces mirage-like haze over the island, giving illusions of greater size and fertility than is true. During the night the island bakes in the cold moonlight. Energies accumulate and the island has become the site of both a Lunar (aka Abraxan) Manse and entering a long dark winding cave filled with gravitational anomalies and odd creatures and plants you will eventually reach an open aquifer that acts as the home of one of the largest single lodes of moonsilver ever discovered in any record of Creation outside the Lunar Seat itself.
The minor flora and fauna have been influenced by this site, one of the few awake and active Demenses we have seen so far (most sites are latent and we have to wake them up). This has produced the typical essence mutations in the local environment granting a plethora of exotic ingredients to work from. One of the most valuable comes from a worm whose castings after moving through the root networks of a local small flower produce properties that cause the wearer to appear externally how they appear internally. Someone who is afraid or sad but hiding it with acting skill will look afraid and sad regardless of acting while affected by this substance. It can even cause a Dragon King to look like another Gender or Breed if they feel that way internally.
The island isn't massive in volume but there should be enough space to establish the moonsilver mine, a Lunar manse, and perhaps a site to tend the local creatures and secure a source of their unique properties.
[ ] Moonsilver Mine: A mystical Island on Therak with a deep cave leading to an underground Aquifer, A limnial space where Moonsilver can thrive. Can we harvest it without causing damage to the this magical place? AP Needed: 2. DC: 35. (High DC from avoiding wrecking the Manse site or the other ability to gather reagents on the island, DC would be 20 if you decided to only plant the mine). Successes Needed: 16. Reward: Lose 1 AP as upkeep which can come from Labor if needed, gain +30 Moonsilver availability, gain improved ability to design and build Moonsilver artifacts, components and ships.
Does anyone not plan on keeping the Manse site and reagents resources? Because I will fite you! I figure it's prudent to do a 25y divination to see when the best time to complete this project is (should save us ~4 AP of effort) but not linger on trying for the Best Possible Time.
--[X] Resource Expedition (Valki) AP Needed 1. DC: 20/80. (+15 DC if no population on planet, -10 DC with dedicated ship) Success Needed 1. Hotblood AP + 1 Maze Skiffs
DC: 25/85> 01
While attempting to extract valuable gasses from a comet the comet suddenly destabilized and a catalytic reaction occurred causing the comet to vaporize and ignite. The sudden explosion destroyed the whole team and their vehicle.
The loss of some of the best and brightest teams of Steam users will delay their ability to participate in future projects for a while until upcoming youths pick up where their elders left off.
-[X] Population and Colonisation
--[X] Colonize Therak (30 Million) AP needed: 3. DC: 35 (25). Success Needed 10/28. 3 General AP + 3 Colonization Packages + Abundant Feast
DC: 25-5=20 > 76, 81, 95 + 12 Auto, elemental: 7, 36, 85
With the aid of Elementals and the prepared colonization packages we manage to complete the effort of city building on Therak and within a few years the colony is self-sufficient, important considering how hard it is to travel to and from the planet.
These colonists are extremely excited about the Moonsilver mine found on one of Therak's most isolated islands and there are grand plans to build up the site.
While its assumed Valki will be colonized next, some wonder if the other worlds in the Therak system will be colonized before or after we move on to new worlds as the third planet of Therak's system contains one living moon and two that are better prospects for Archgenesis than Jach'uchil by far.
The combined sensor obscurity and preponderance of the Pterok population means many favor the idea of handling our most dangerous or secret research in this site, possibly setting up Vaults to hide away dangerous relics of other galactic powers.
Reward: Complete, -3 Colonization packages, 30 million established on Therak.
+3 AP + 2 Raptok AP + 3 Pterok AP – 1 Anklok AP;
You have one of each elemental Manse established as Manse cities. The planet has 3 Air, 2 Wood and Earth, 1 Water, 1 Crystal, 1 Lunar (Abraxan) major Demense locations and 150 minor Demense Locations.
For manses I'm thinking:
AIR (Harmonious Lore Understanding (sorcery research), Savant, Sensors)
WOOD (Verdent Respite Pavilion, Predator Breeding)
WATER (Coral Reef)
EARTH (Undetermined, leaning vaguely Gravity)
Others I'm a bit unsure of, but "Moonsilver factory" and "Godforging" are the leading contenders for the Lunar manse and the Archive for the Crystal imho
Sooo many critical successes! And magical worm poop XD
I only want to trade for "high priority" items with the huge downsides of trade with Stryxis.
We can make our own power swords, we have no need to buy one from these particular sleezebags. Also, keep in mind that although Lugganath is far away and regular trade with them is off the table for now, they like us enough that if we build a fast trade ship with a Void Abacus we could potentially buy their totally-not-stolen goods.
I forgot we already have Orkish tractor beams to research. We can probably develop our own person-scale version of those without buying one from Stryxis. Likewise, finishing Standardization is more valuable than Pushpul Beams or Stasis Field Emitters. Our own regular-issue gear is already in the top-tier of regular Imperial quality and that's without actually trying. With Standardization, we get 200 legions each equal to a legion of power-armored Sororitas. Each of our elite legions is equipped like Space Marines.
Data Vault may be especially useful if we start producing it while our Hotbloods are still unavailable.
What does Plas do that the Shaping Wood and Shimmering Water Paths don't already do? I don't want to give the Stryxis another "screw us over" button for this.
Are we really this desperate for more people in death trances than the Ghostwalkers (Tormented Bodhisattva Path) already give us? They already have this power as the 3rd step in their Path.
My plan is a lot more reasonable, but it's still long and would still let the Stryxis Screw Us Over. These are the items we genuinely can't already match or exceed with our own technology and research options. And I'm not sure we actually desperately need Digital Weaponry.
[Plan Not Shooting Ourselves In the Face
-[Stryxis items
--[ Tsyji Helm
--[ Exoeidetic memory engrams
--[ Matter converter
--[ Prescient Mark
--[ Stoneform Poison
--[ Teleport Seal
-[ drugs
--[ Spook
--[Geist
QM signal. I thought we had already completed the Coruscating Plasma Beam in a previous turn?
For the new Luminous Herald Class Templeship, Lumina Whisperer is tempting. It would simplify the process so we don't forget to make pacts, at the cost of upkeep when we're not fighting a war. The upkeep will be annoying. On the other hand, if we're constantly at war then we'd constantly need them. An upkeep cycle is 5 years or 1 turn, right? So during a space war this is cheaper until we have 5 Heralds, then it's break-even. When not in a space battle, it's more expensive, but we can always pick a fight with Orks or Chaos once we scout their locations. We're going to need to speed up production of more Naval Ateliers, Academies of Constellations, and Naval Admin Oversight.
In-built Arks are very much worth it, because they're a pain to build and infuse.
[yes] Wondrous Globe of Precious Stability. Cost: +15 AP, +1 Power, +1 Upkeep
[yes] In Built Ark (Wrath Beyond Measure) Cost: +1 Logistics cost.
[probably] In Built Ark (Blessed Is the Light) Cost: +1 Logistics cost. (powerful healing vs. injury, poison, disease, shaping, crippling, unnatural mental influence, fatigue, mutation for any non-creature of darkness. if boosted by Solar templeship can heal an entire Sun-worshipping planet, or probably a space navy in battle)
[probably] In Built Ark (Grace Dawns Eternal) Cost: +1 Logistics cost. (raises skill, attributes and Essence to at least 5 for all non-creatures of darkness in our army, actually awakens Essence in any mortal humans we bring and turns them into god-blooded Golden Children)
[probably] In Built Ark (Adamant Circle Banishment) Cost: +1 Logistics cost. (can banish one greater daemon or lots of lesser daemons)
[probably] Lumina Whisperer: The Votive offering effect needs Lumina pacts to support it, which is a hassle to manage. Luckily the Herald has a built in solar temple. Making keeping up Pact relations part of the crew's duties and ensuring every Herald has a set when they go into battle. Keep in mind the five per battle is TOTAL. So if you have five Heralds then each could take one extra shot. But with this trait they could handle five battles per upkeep cycle without needing to produce extra Pacts. These pacts ONLY work for the Votive offering though and cannot be used for other purposes. Each Herald gains 5 pacts suitable for the Votive offering per Upkeep cycle. Cost: +1 Upkeep
[maybe] In Built Ark (Incantation of the Invincible Army) Cost: +1 Logistics cost. (mass unit buff, increases Might and morale, presumably applies to ground and air troops instead of spaceships)
[maybe] Advisor Core: You plan to build a potent calculation engine into the ship, giving it robust self controls and a bit of personality, but most importantly making the ship ridiculously more dangerous as it will act as a high tier teamwork bonus to all tasks operating on the ship. Adds a 14 dice teamwork bonus from the Core to most ship rolls. Cost: +10 AP, +1 Power, +1 Upkeep
Choose Two: These are special features developed and incorporated into the Luminous Herald by the mad lads you have working. You may choose two of the below.
I favor these components the most. I haven't narrowed it down further, but I do think Starfall Matrix is a better choice than the other Broadside attack options.
[ ] Starfall Matrix: By working out a prototype version of the Coruscating Beam Weapons and working it into the Falling Starfire Defense Array you may create a rapid fire weapon system to use when surrounded. You may activate the Broadside maneuver against five different targets in range at once as long as you have the momentum to spend. Each does only a single hull of damage but does count as holy, doing two levels of damage against Creatures of Darkness. Cost: 15 AP, +2 power, +2 Logistics, +1 Upkeep
[ ] Sunburst Drive: You have incorporated an array of Sunburst Portal Relics into the Solar temple and a system for charging them using the ambient prayers of the Temple. Initiating a Sunburst takes about five minutes with a charged drive. It takes five hours to recharge for a Sunburst after a usage. Cost: 10 AP, +1 Upkeep.
[ ] Shining Finger: Bombardment Weapon comparable to Covenant Glassing Beams although it has a holy effect that causes more damage to Daemon worlds and other Creature of Darkness things. Can target Titans as the smallest and fastest possible targets, although not particularly fast armies can also be targeted. Cost: +5 AP, +1 Power.
[ ] Assault Bays: Barracks and Hanger space for landers to conduct "minor" invasions with "only 50,000 draconic troops and two special units. Cost: +4 AP, +1 Logistics.
[ ] Boarding Field: Your design crew have incorporated a Boarding field onto the Vessel despite not having completed more than the most preliminary investigations into the technology. You may extend your shields, including the Haze field effect, around a towed vessel equal or smaller than it. This is a powerful tractor beam that is intended to drag a ship close for either boarding an enemy or aiding a friend. Cost: +5 AP, +1 Power, +1 logistics.
