From a Dead World (Skaven Quest)
- Thread starter Xantalos
- Start date
- Fantasy
Sirrocco
Pedantic
So... a lot of ogres have died, but at the same time, they were the ones that Greasus didn't have such good control over... and he pretty much realized that there was a good chance he was sending them off to die. If we show up again, with every single one of them dead (as expected) and ask him for some of the more loyal ogres, that seems... unlikely to work all that well.
I still say we need to hit Nagash. Also, Plan "Let's crush Nekhara for the Necromancy spells" seems not all that likely to work. Sylvania, though, is still around, and will tend to not want to let the Empire know if they are weakened. I think we'd be quite well-served to basically go eat out the middle of their stuff with something resembling overwhelming force. Deal them wounds from which they will not soon recover, while also grabbing a bunch more useful lores. He's fully capable of being a major end-times threat all by himself.
As for the dwarves... the dwarves, ironically, aren't going anywhere. We can let someone else rampage through them (say, the orcs?) and then rampage through *those* guys (or through the then-weakened dwarves). Now, doing some attrition/raiding/robbery to the dwarven horde heading north is probably a good idea for the easy loot, and because if we wound and weaken them a bit, then Chaos can wound them more, and it'll be that much harder for them to put together a threat-level army to come *back* through the gate.
Do we even know IC that the Slaan exist? If we do... well, we'd really like to throw *someone* at them.
I still say we need to hit Nagash. Also, Plan "Let's crush Nekhara for the Necromancy spells" seems not all that likely to work. Sylvania, though, is still around, and will tend to not want to let the Empire know if they are weakened. I think we'd be quite well-served to basically go eat out the middle of their stuff with something resembling overwhelming force. Deal them wounds from which they will not soon recover, while also grabbing a bunch more useful lores. He's fully capable of being a major end-times threat all by himself.
As for the dwarves... the dwarves, ironically, aren't going anywhere. We can let someone else rampage through them (say, the orcs?) and then rampage through *those* guys (or through the then-weakened dwarves). Now, doing some attrition/raiding/robbery to the dwarven horde heading north is probably a good idea for the easy loot, and because if we wound and weaken them a bit, then Chaos can wound them more, and it'll be that much harder for them to put together a threat-level army to come *back* through the gate.
Do we even know IC that the Slaan exist? If we do... well, we'd really like to throw *someone* at them.
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
The Skaven have been fighting against the Lizardmen for literally millennia IIRC and are one of their biggest enemies. There's a whole Temple-City in the Southlands, aka the main stronghold of Clan Pestilens, which the Clan only occupied after their failed invasion of Lustria itself.
So yes, we definitely know the Slaan exist.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
So... if/when we decide to go after Ulthuan, maybe let the Dark Elves know about the Slaan and all of their shiny, shiny gold?
Alternately... hmmm...
It may be that we are past the time for decapitation strikes on major players. Fortunately, we're still *largely* unknown. The dwarves know about us (and hate us) and the Slaan know about us (and hate us). At this point, we should dig in, possibly knock over a few minor areas that no one will miss, try to keep our "largely unnoticed" benefit intact, and digest the upgrades that we have.
Other thought: I can pretty much guarantee that when the Slaan *do* start moving, we're going to be their first major target. We'll want to do something about that. Not sure what - but something.
Alternately... hmmm...
It may be that we are past the time for decapitation strikes on major players. Fortunately, we're still *largely* unknown. The dwarves know about us (and hate us) and the Slaan know about us (and hate us). At this point, we should dig in, possibly knock over a few minor areas that no one will miss, try to keep our "largely unnoticed" benefit intact, and digest the upgrades that we have.
Other thought: I can pretty much guarantee that when the Slaan *do* start moving, we're going to be their first major target. We'll want to do something about that. Not sure what - but something.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
They've raided Lustria before, they know the gold is there.
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
For the moment the Lizardmen in Lustria proper will be fighting off a Chaos assault. That's why I want to take out the Southlands and the Temple City there, remove one big threat. Plus, it means Clan Pestilens won't be having trouble fighting the Slaan for control of the region. The whole region's rather isolated from the rest of the world anyways.
King Arthur
The Once and Future King
Why not?
We are the richest faction around, we can get tons mercs from all over the place, definetly Ork's, possibly Ogre's, Dark Elves, and Cathay, and possibly even all of Araby if we are convincing enough. You know, I don't think we've ever ben to Ind and they actually have good guy Beastmen there, they probably won't be suspicious so it shouldn't be too hard to get a mercenary army from them as well.
Throw them all at Nehekara, then jump in ourself.
...........
Alternatively, send a bunch of letters to Settra from Tilea saying that they suck, Settra as the proudest man ever might actually invade over that, and then, with them off of their home territory and distracted by Tilea we swoop in and dominate them? That's a bit of a longshot honestly.
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
None that are really accurate - some skaven think you killed as much as a third of all the ogres with your gambit, some think there's billions of them all crammed into the mountains with no room to move for all the flab, and there's a bunch of guesses in between. It's hard to tell because of the extreme prevalence of ogre mercenaries/adventurers* literally everywhere, which tend to skew population estimates.
*Unimportant headcanon: ogres are spread out across the world and act in many cases like your standard D&D murderhobo adventurers. There's bunches of them all over the planet exploring and doing shit for people in exchange for money and stuff.
Nervos Belli
Don't think this means you've won!
- Location
- Murica
Given there are Ogres who've been to Nippon and trained in the art of the ninja, I don't think that's just head canon. Also I'm pretty sure there are Conquistador Ogres mentioned somewhere in one of the Lustria books.
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
shenron
Marengo crossing the Alps
Uh, last time the Dark Elves made any serious raid on Lustria, Lore Mazdamundi toook a long walk through Nargaroth, which ended with him raising a mountain range.
I dun thing the Dark Elves would be interested in attacking there again.
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
You should be glad this isn't an ogre quest or there would be so many Shrek references you guys would try to strangle me through the internet.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- Location
- New York
Oh imagine the possibles of a Rat Dragon.... The abominations that we would create
Lore: Dragon Aging and Emperor Classification
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
Yep! I'm too lazy to bother to look up the tabletop stats and try to work out how strong units are compared to each other in those stats and such so the change isn't exactly like the transition from star -> emperor on tabletop, but they're a thing.
In my headcanon, the difference between an Emperor dragon and a Star dragon is a matter of ... experience? Experience, momentous deeds performed, etc. Due to some things about dragons I'm not revealing, they're one of a few races that basically have an IC levelup mechanic, one of the others being Orks. You have your various dragon types - basic ones like the Asur work with, magma, black, carmine, shard, etc, and all of those progress along basic categories as they get older. Think of it kinda like how D&D dragons get stronger as they age, except for convenience I'm keeping it to three basic age categories: Juvenile, Adult, and Elder, or what the elves call Sun, Moon, and Star. There's variance in those classifications, for instance a dragon getting closer to being an Elder would be on average stronger than one that just became an adult a few centuries ago. While dragons are functionally immortal and never stop growing in power, they do tend to kinda suffer diminishing returns as they get older, so a century for an adult might be only a year's worth of growth for a juvenile. For the most part, dragons develop like that.
There are exceptions, though, the Emperor dragons you asked about. This is more like a boosted stage they reach when they either gain a shitload of experience from killing a whole crapton of things or do a bunch of really momentous deeds like killing something much stronger than them or diplomancing an entire nation or something. Has to do with [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]. Dragon Ogres have something similar with their Shaggoth classification. However, a dragon doesn't have to be an Elder to become an emperor-type, they can do it at any age. If they're a juvenile when they achieve it, they're referred to as a Prince Dragon. Adults are Kings, and then Elders are Emperors. Once a dragon achieves it, they basically keep it forever unless they go to sleep for like half a million years or something. It is generally more difficult to
Their capabilities as 'royal' dragons are basically boosted versions of their non-superdragon kin. They're faster, stronger for their size, quicker to react, their fire is hotter and they can sustain it for longer, far more durable than an otherwise equivalent dragon, etc. Don't underestimate the normal dragons, of course, they're still massively powerful, intelligent, and dangerous beasts. The difference between a Star Dragon and an Emperor Dragon is that the Star is an immensely powerful battlefield asset, one capable of letting allied armies outnumbered many times over win a battle by the sheer morale damage and leadership decapitation strikes it can pull off, while an Emperor can take on small armies on its lonesome and win. One is a powerful and feared creature, the other is a monster you usually only hear tell of in legends that you hope aren't true.
Huh, I went on a tangent again. Might as well threadmark this then.
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/Him
If the rumor mill/infiltration/Skaven presence is sufficient in an area, will we receive extraneous details of importance relating to a threat level, like armies being off elsewhere, or a country being invaded by another, etc?
shenron
Marengo crossing the Alps
- Location
- Tulsa Oklahoma
No, that seems a bit odd, and stupid. Expanding those who would be considered Skaven so that all sapient rodents would be considered our kin, or should it be any species of animal that thrives on refuse? … I wonder if we can create a Pigeon Skaven?Oh imagine the possibles of a Rat Dragon.... The abominations that we would create
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
Gods no, can you imagine the update slowdown that'd cause? 'Sides, that'll already be an option if you all die somehow.
Yeah pretty much. More infiltration more info, more info more accurate dice rating.
King Arthur
The Once and Future King
How would that happen without either Chaos winning or the planet exploding?
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
Well, there's [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], the possibility of [REDACTED], you guys creating a superweapon powerful and unreliable enough that it kills you all when it misfires - unlikely - or those two you mentioned. Also [REDACTED], though the chances of that happening are very slim.
Oh, and [REDACTED] could be a thing. [REDACTED] too. There's the possibility of [REDACTED] doing [REDACTED]. And of course there's always the possibility that you might cause [REDACTED].
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I've been thinking it might be a good idea to hire Ogres to take the Karaz Ankor regardless of us hitting the Ogre Kingdoms around the same time. It saves Skaven lives and maintains the anonymity we have so far. I don't expect even the weakened dwarf kingdoms to not at least get word out of what happens, after all. And it would still weaken the Ogres for our eventual takeover.
In the end, I still want to take at least one turn putting a majority of our efforts towards improving the quality of the Skaven, in incorporating the new tech and resources and spreading the USA-Mors competence throughout our race. Not this turn, but maybe the turn after.
In the end, I still want to take at least one turn putting a majority of our efforts towards improving the quality of the Skaven, in incorporating the new tech and resources and spreading the USA-Mors competence throughout our race. Not this turn, but maybe the turn after.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
On a side note, one of the ideas I had which almost certainly isn't suitable in its current iteration was to make a rocket able to carry a stabilized avatar of the Horned Rat and send it to Morrslieb.
The "eat the moon" scenario fantasized by many.
We don't have the time or appropriate precautions to descend all the warpstone without calamitous results, so I figured the next best thing was to use it up via our god.
Incidentally, I'm also interested in establishing a covenant to the Horned Rat ala Nehekhara, but that's going to take even longer to get around to if at all possible.
The "eat the moon" scenario fantasized by many.
We don't have the time or appropriate precautions to descend all the warpstone without calamitous results, so I figured the next best thing was to use it up via our god.
Incidentally, I'm also interested in establishing a covenant to the Horned Rat ala Nehekhara, but that's going to take even longer to get around to if at all possible.
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
That ... could either go VERY well or VERY poorly for you depending on if ... things.
...
Things.
Hmm. I might even actually have to roll for the outcome if that comes about.
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Like I said, almost certainly not suitable.
It's certainly something the Skaven could conceivably do, it's just what popped into my head a few months ago. I'm not confident in doing it myself-though the imagery is awesome, as are the possibilities of success.
As is, just an amusing vision in my head right now, not worth pursuing unless our current competence and ability increases in certain, very significant ways.