1. A Troodontid like species, a social and highly intelligent group of animals able to relay messages to other members of it's pack using distinct and unique calls and chirps, allowing for swift coordination and understanding between members in the pack.
2. A species of arboreal ape like avians (Hoatzin but more primate) with incredible hearing, able to pick up any disturbance along a good distance, they can release a sonar screech which can heard from up to miles away, alerting all nearby creatures of any impending danger.
3. A leech species which can absorb health from enemies, and once popped they will release a wave of spore like particles effectively healing anyone in the vicinity of the explosion.
4. A species of pygmy hippo, rounding to just the height of a skink, their meat is possesses an incredible and utterly savory taste, making it a would be candidate to becoming a locale delicacy, offering another resource to trade with.
5. A species of jungle boar able to sniff any form of fungi, and wastes no time devouring it's fungal quarry, a sturdy creature with an instinctual drive to drive itself into a brazen rage when threatened.
4. A species of pygmy hippo, rounding to just the height of a skink, their meat is possesses an incredible and utterly savory taste, making it a would be candidate to becoming a locale delicacy, offering another resource to trade with.
Strictly true. On the other hand, I don't think any of those plants are involved in commercial rubber production in the present day- which suggests they're dramatically less suitable for the purpose than the rubber tree as we know it. Furthermore, the more fundamental problem is that dwarves tend to live in environments that are a poor match for the environs of Zlatlan in general. Plants that flourish here will likely not flourish around a dwarven Karak, so unless we specifically breed some kind of plant for the sole purpose of growing in dwarfland (an outlandish project for Lord Wik to waste his time on if he doesn't specifically have prior awareness of the industrial uses of rubber)... Well, the dwarves can't adopt anything that grows well here, and we can't cultivate and prototype here anything that grows well there.
We could eventually figure this out, but it's starting to sound like a VERY long-term thing that MIGHT happen.
4. A species of pygmy hippo, rounding to just the height of a skink, their meat is possesses an incredible and utterly savory taste, making it a would be candidate to becoming a locale delicacy, offering another resource to trade with.
I'm not sure I understand what you're referring to.
Strictly true. On the other hand, I don't think any of those plants are involved in commercial rubber production in the present day- which suggests they're dramatically less suitable for the purpose than the rubber tree as we know it. Furthermore, the more fundamental problem is that dwarves tend to live in environments that are a poor match for the environs of Zlatlan in general. Plants that flourish here will likely not flourish around a dwarven Karak, so unless we specifically breed some kind of plant for the sole purpose of growing in dwarfland (an outlandish project for Lord Wik to waste his time on if he doesn't specifically have prior awareness of the industrial uses of rubber)... Well, the dwarves can't adopt anything that grows well here, and we can't cultivate and prototype here anything that grows well there.
We could eventually figure this out, but it's starting to sound like a VERY long-term thing that MIGHT happen.
@CuttleFish2.0, what's the current travel time to Ulthuan and back? Could we being Atahuinqua back to Zlatlan, debrief them, and return them in the same turn?
The more time passes, the more curious I get to get the full story from our elf liaison.
Last time it took about 8~ months round trip. Without having to escort the merchant vessels, it could be cut down to 3-4, but more realistically it would be about 5~ for a non-urgent mission. That said I would say no on being able to recall and send back Atahuinqua on the same turn just as a matter of balance.
Last time it took about 8~ months round trip. Without having to escort the merchant vessels, it could be cut down to 3-4, but more realistically it would be about 5~ for a non-urgent mission. That said I would say no on being able to recall and send back Atahuinqua on the same turn just as a matter of balance.
I mean, I think that's the most likely path. IF dwarves trade with us on the regular (kind of unlikely for the foreseeable future, but not impossible), AND IF we're using rubber ourselves, THEN the dwarves will probably figure out some applications for rubber, IF they can get ahold of enough of it easily enough that they don't just dismiss it as an uncertain and unreliable material they don't fully know, which is a problem because dwarven engineers are actually very conservative about introducing new mechanisms, lest those mechanisms be proven unreliable.
Non-lizard or dinosaur combat forces are out of character for our faction.
Skink Osterich Calv are a maybe due to ostriches more or less being modern raptors. Give em blow guns and they could be good ultralight skermish Calv.
Fun fact - the genes for beaks overwrites the genes for toothy mouths in birds, but all the genes are still there. You can suppress the beak genes and birds develop fanged snouts. We could redinofy ostriches.
[X] Plan Salamanders, Orcs and Pirates Oh My!
-[X] Into Dark Waters Khaxilitli
-[X] Waaagh Remnants Loqtli, Ittetuhlot, 1 Dice
-[X] Hunting Pirates - Huatza-Botl + Harpoon + 6 Dice
-[X] Roads, Roads, Roads Poh'paloq
-[X] Refounding the Temple of Itzl Awanabil'tat
-[X] Hunting Grounds Tehe'Tenq +Cuaqli
-[X] Gates of the Underworld Mai'xon + Tzakani
-[X] Copper Mines Xilotl
-[X] Leadwood Groves Gif'a-Gahb
-[X] Fleet Expansion Xehtzaihl
-[X] Further Afield Zille'mi
-[X] A Quieter Search (Orc Shaman): Hua'Ximni, 3 dice
--[X] Assassinate the head shaman if practical. If not, bring back data on optimal expedition routes and actionable information on the shaman's strategic position (power, troops, etc).
-[X] Seeking Salamanders 3 Dice
-[X] Feeding the Forge Fires 1 4th Gen
-[X] Arcane Insight Collation 2 4th Gen+Disc of Yuxa
-[X] Plant Investigations - Ash-Growing Tree Personal Dice
-[X] Study [Artifact]
--[X] Carapace of Winds 3 5th Gen
-[X] Review the Sequence: 3 5th Gen
-[X] Teachers Learn Too 1 Personal
-[X] Lend your Insight: Ash-Growing Trees 1 Personal
[X] Plan Avast and Scout Around with Customs Inspections
-[X] Into Dark Waters: Loqtli, 0 dice (autosuccess, autocomplete)
-[X] Waaagh Remnants: Ittetuhlot, Khaxilitli, 0 dice (DC 0)
-[X] Hunting Pirates: Gif'a-Gahb, Huatza-Botl, Qu'Qu-Kor, 6 dice (DC ??-15)
--[X] Take the Leviathan-Bone Harpoon and the Mirror Shield. Arm the cruiser flagship with solar engines.
-[X] Hunting Grounds: Cuaqli, 0 dice (DC 0)
-[X] Refounding the Temple of Itzl: Awanabil'tat, 0 dice (2x autosuccess)
-[X] Gates of the Underworld: Mai'xon, Tzakani, 0 dice (DC 0)
-[X] Copper Mines: Xilotl, 0 dice (2x autosuccess)
-[X] Silk Farms: Tehe'Tenq, 0 dice (DC 30)
-[X] Fleet Expansion: Xehtzaihl, 0 dice (2x autosuccess)
-[X] Further Afield: Zille'mi, 0 dice (DC 35)
-[X] Go south to spy on the ork shaman: Hua'Ximni, 3 dice (DC ??)
--[X] Orders: Before, the orcs' great numbers and the shaman's preparations made it impractical to assassinate him without great risk. If this is no longer the case, assassinate him. If this is still the case, simply report back with information, with an eye to a future expedition to eliminate this threat.
-[X] Customs Inspections, 2 dice (DC 35)
-[X] Troll Action: Poh'paloq, 2 dice (DC 60)
--[X] Poh'paloq's terradon riders will support the hunt with aerial reconnaissance.
-[X] Feeding the Forge Fires: 1 Fourth Spawning slann die (rolls against DC 20, auto-succeeds, auto-clears)
-[X] Peer to Peer: 1 Fourth Spawning slann dice (rolls against DC 20, auto-succeeds)
-[X] Arcane Insight Collection: 1 Fourth Spawning slann with Disc of Yuxa (rolls against DC 25, auto-succeeds)
-[X] Plant Investigations - Ash-Growing Tree: 2 Personal dice (Fivefold Hive bonus)
-[X] Study the Carapace of Winds: 1 Fifth Spawning slann die (DC 35)
-[X] Review the Sequence: 5 Fifth Spawning slann dice (DC 90, but it's the Plan)
Edit: Right! So Plan Avast and Scout Around with Customs Inspections wins! Probably some delay in the results, so maybe late this week or this weekend.
I'm going to place my bets on "pirate battle features three crit fails". Probably more on the pirate's side than ours, based on the word choice of 'farce'.
If it were particularly good or bad I wouldn't even post about it, it's only when it's weird that I post about the rolls. Just as a way to vent about the bizarre ways the dice fall sometimes.
Can we build a scrying pool or otherwise upgrade the scrying pool we have?
Because it occurs to me that scrying the present would be really useful for us. Finding things like orcs and pirates would be much easier if we could just look for them with magic. Scrying what is should be easier than trying to divine the future.
We could add jets, maybe install a floating coffee bar, really spruce the place up.
Edit - and with silk production, we should see about developing dyes. I bet the jungle has many plants that can be processed into vibrant colors that are hard to replicate.
Can we build a scrying pool or otherwise upgrade the scrying pool we have?
Because it occurs to me that scrying the present would be really useful for us. Finding things like orcs and pirates would be much easier if we could just look for them with magic. Scrying what is should be easier than trying to divine the future.
We could add jets, maybe install a floating coffee bar, really spruce the place up.
Edit - and with silk production, we should see about developing dyes. I bet the jungle has many plants that can be processed into vibrant colors that are hard to replicate.
[X] Plan Avast and Scout Around with Customs Inspections
-[X] Into Dark Waters: Loqtli, 0 dice (autosuccess, autocomplete)
-[X] Waaagh Remnants: Ittetuhlot, Khaxilitli, 0 dice (DC 0)
-[X] Hunting Pirates: Gif'a-Gahb, Huatza-Botl, Qu'Qu-Kor, 6 dice (DC ??-15)
--[X] Take the Leviathan-Bone Harpoon and the Mirror Shield. Arm the cruiser flagship with solar engines.
-[X] Hunting Grounds: Cuaqli, 0 dice (DC 0)
-[X] Refounding the Temple of Itzl: Awanabil'tat, 0 dice (2x autosuccess)
-[X] Gates of the Underworld: Mai'xon, Tzakani, 0 dice (DC 0)
-[X] Copper Mines: Xilotl, 0 dice (2x autosuccess)
-[X] Silk Farms: Tehe'Tenq, 0 dice (DC 30)
-[X] Fleet Expansion: Xehtzaihl, 0 dice (2x autosuccess)
-[X] Further Afield: Zille'mi, 0 dice (DC 35)
-[X] Go south to spy on the ork shaman: Hua'Ximni, 3 dice (DC ??)
--[X] Orders: Before, the orcs' great numbers and the shaman's preparations made it impractical to assassinate him without great risk. If this is no longer the case, assassinate him. If this is still the case, simply report back with information, with an eye to a future expedition to eliminate this threat.
-[X] Customs Inspections, 2 dice (DC 35)
-[X] Troll Action: Poh'paloq, 2 dice (DC 60)
--[X] Poh'paloq's terradon riders will support the hunt with aerial reconnaissance.
-[X] Feeding the Forge Fires: 1 Fourth Spawning slann die (rolls against DC 20, auto-succeeds, auto-clears)
-[X] Peer to Peer: 1 Fourth Spawning slann dice (rolls against DC 20, auto-succeeds)
-[X] Arcane Insight Collection: 1 Fourth Spawning slann with Disc of Yuxa (rolls against DC 25, auto-succeeds)
-[X] Plant Investigations - Ash-Growing Tree: 2 Personal dice (Fivefold Hive bonus)
-[X] Study the Carapace of Winds: 1 Fifth Spawning slann die (DC 35)
-[X] Review the Sequence: 5 Fifth Spawning slann dice (DC 90, but it's the Plan)
Turn 13 Results
Into Dark Waters: Loqtli
Auto
1 Success!
Total: 1
Loqtli stood still as the skink attendants carefully secured the last of the suite of specialized gear against their frame - the clear crystal dome went over their head, cinched tight at the leather cowl about their neck and crest - and then waited several more moments while they ran final check against all the various components. Waves of magic brushed against their scales, innumerable clawed fingers tugged at every bit of the scar-veteran's panoply, and then there was a cold rush of water as a bucket was upended over them. No leaks showed themselves.
At last the priest in charge gave the all clear. Turning to the other eleven saurus assembled, Loqtli led them the short distance towards the placid pool of water.
Long midday rays of summer sun pierce the pristine waters, scattering shadows from the trees edging the border of the pools across the stone bottoms and casting a shaft of light deep into the ragged-edged hole near its center. A wooden platform extended out over top, supported by several arrays of thick logs which lay against the pool floor and counterweighted by heavy blocks of unworked stone at the poolside. In synchronized sequence, born out of having complete similar such operations at least a dozen times already, the saurus stepped off the platform in pairs.
Loqtli went last with another saurus, Tar-Rok, less than a century old.
They plunged into the sun warmed, but still mountain spring cool, waters and all dozen of them set off into the depths. Today was the day of the final push into the last unexplored depths. Unless some new twist or surprise revealed itself the question of the last two unoperational spawning pools of Zlatlan would be laid to rest by the day's end.
For long minutes they swam into deeper and darker waters. Gradually the faint light of the sun disappeared and all that remained was what the enchantments laid over the crystal domes atop their heads could provide. And then even that began to fail as they crossed into the deepest parts.
Half of the team brought out glyph-lamps.
They swam on.
Around them flashes of pale, slimy bodies and long white-shelled limbs went by, always retreating away from their presence. Down and down.
Slowly the sides of the aquifer began to pull in, though none of them could quite tell for quite a while, but eventually they did begin to see one side of the chamber close in on them - the southwest. Coming up as a worn wall of dark stone, potted with small cracks and crevices and strange alien growths with little resemblance to any sort of animal or plant life witnessed before by Lizardmen. As they went there began to build in their hearing a sound beyond sounds, like hundreds of voices raised in symphony, a choir singing a hymnal of singular beauty.
None among the saurus could say whence such a description had come, it was not one familiar to them. This, always on previous explorations, had been the limit. But after several extended stays at the same depth and careful examination by priests and slann alike each of the assembled saurus had been deemed free of interference.
If there was danger from whatever lay beyond this point, it was not one which corrupted at the simplest of contacts.
So on they went again into the lightless depth.
Near lightless.
Slowly, like the creep of dawn over the horizon at the world's edge, the dim pale-blue light of the glyph-lamps began to catch on something within the shadows of the aquifer's bottom. On diamond edges and crystal flat edges the light caught and scattered, cascading a thin glow across a yawning sawtoothed pit. And as the faint shine grew the chorus rose with it, climbing into a multi-tonal harmony the swelled the feeble light shimer sparks dancing between the peaks and valleys of the enormous geode that sat open mouthed beneath them. Crystal grew so thick - sometimes as tall as kroxigor - in deep blue that it looked almost like ice.
There was enough space in the central cavity for the entire group to fit without risking contact with the sides. In fact four or five stegadon could have fit within the cavity and not risked themselves.
Action Completed. Enormous Geode discovered at the bottom of the aquifer. Learning Action Unlocked, Stewardship Action Unlocked.
Gates of the Underworld: Mai'xon, Tzakani
96, 5, 87
3 Successes!
Total: 3
More chokepoints secured by heavy stone doors, more peripheral tunnels graded and smoothed, more supporting pillars, more fortified barracks and depots. All around the periphery of the temple-city, beneath the dense crush of the jungle - interspersed with strips and patches of rollings fields - the sprawling mess of tunnels began to resemble something approaching civilized. Glyphs and mosaics proclaimed it loudly as the territory of the firstborn servants of the Old Ones.
At each sinkhole a pair of winding staircases were carved into the outer walls, the width of three kroxigor standing side by side, and each branching tunnel was sealed with an enormous gate emblazoned with the snarling reptilian face in bronze. The bottoms were smoothed flat, and paved, and the cranes readjusted into slightly more permanent positions.
There still remained some few minor tunnels to seal and the final inner gates and chokepoints had to be fortified to create the two-tier defensive arrangement which would ensure Zlatlan's safety. But it was nearing completion.
Action Incomplete - 2 Successes Remain
Feeding the Forge Fires: 1 Fourth Gen Slann Dice
45
1 Success!
Total: 1
Even repairing an Engine of the Gods was a monumental task. It was a miracle that the damage example available to Zlatlan - and thus Udhi-Tegha who had taken up the final stretch of the task - was not more extensive and thus that repair was possible at all. Had even one or two of the more delicate arcane elements been significantly damaged it likely would have been entirely out of the capabilities of the temple-city to repair.
As it was the overall damage was quite extensive; three secondary focusing lenses cracked, one mystic capacitor reduced to scrap, three out of five structural supports for the main enchanted bronze ring split in twain, six aligning spars (each shorter than the length of a skinks finger) twisted utterly out of whack from the impact of repeated assault by daemons of the bloody and demented brute-god, seventeen minor glyphs scarred or distorted under stress conditions, three major glyphs melted from the residual feedback of a Lord of Change attempting to subvert a spell mid-cast, twelve gems - used for channelling and stabilizing winds, of varying types - shattered, and many more minor issues.
Cross verifying with detailed records from during and before the Great Catastrophe along with archived schemata and even a trawl through the memories of skink and saurus witnesses allowed the rapid design of a number of bespoke tools. A specialized gantry that would not only hold the Engine in place while it was damaged, but also once major portions had been repaired. Limited use furnaces and mountings for forming the lenses and crystals needed.
Action Completed. Damaged Solar Engines, Revification Crystals, and Engines of the Gods now Repairable. Stewardship Action to Upgrade Forge District - allowing the production of new Solar Engines and Revification Crystals - Unlocked.
Copper Mines: Xilotl
Auto, Auto
2 Successes!
Total: 2
While there was vastly more work to be done to properly exploit the veins of copper discovered underneath Zlatlan, it was also much simpler work to accomplish due to all ore being clustered tightly rather than being scattered over a wide number of locations as had been true for the tin. Tunnels were planned to connect the major reserves, future locations for support locations. Storage depots and dumps for tailings, and barracks, carts and loading mechanisms.
It would all eventually be connected up to the same tunnels where tin ore makes its way up to the surface, but for the moment the bare bones of the needed infrastructure was taking shape.
Raider Dregs vs Zlatlan Round 2 - 82 vs 39, 67, 100
Close to Capture - 98
DARK MASTER INTERRUPT! - 100! + ??? - Escape!
Gif'a-Gahb - 1
QU'QU-KOR INTERRUPT! - 46 - No Injury
Shore Bombardment vs Prepared Defences - 26, 97 vs Nothing
Lizardman Assault vs Raiders - 34 vs 0
Huatza-Botl vs Empowered/Possessed Raider Leader - 33 vs 1
Loot Rolls - 26, 40, 79
Sweat poured down Caedim's back - half from exertion and half from pure-hearted terror - the pirate ship had appeared out of the early dawn gray like a nightmare, somehow sneaking up on the small merchant cog without being seen despite the clear skies and the careful watch. No merchant made the trip south without well disciplined sailors, didn't matter how well those fancy feathers sold on the market you couldn't turn a profit if you were enjoying the hospitality of Mathlann's Halls. It shouldn't have been able to happen.
But it had. And now the Fortunate Daughter was running for its dear life.
Captain Asiiya was one of the best on the seas, even if he hadn't been forced to Caedim would bet his life on her being able to get her ship out of basically any trouble. Her family was from Lothern and she had been sailing since before he was born. More, she'd poured a fortune into the Fortunate Daughter and even without a sea-mage it would outsail half of the Sea Guard's ships.
There were enchantments on the sails so they never, quite, lost the wind. Magic swirled about the figurehead, cutting through even the heaviest seas like a Nagarythii cad through war widows, letting the Fortunate Daughter fly like a hawk set into a dive. Even when they had to put the oars out - like now - it wasn't so hard work as the spells worked into the oars eased the burden.
And yet, somehow the pirate was gaining. He knew if from the way the boatswain kept getting calmer and calmer, like the sea before a nasty swell tossed a crew overboard.
Well, he wouldn't be the one to doom them all. So Caedim bent his back redoubled his effort.
Tar-Rok tensed in anticipation, their claws working on the haft of their spear as they strained for details on the distant shape of the two elven vessels. The chasing ship, one of the raiders mostlike, was already turning away as the weak illusions surrounding the two frigates unwove themselves. Keeping it up longer was possible, even with a moderate increase to their pace, but that would have meant letting the pirate bring their quarry into range long before any chance of intercept.
Unacceptable. So the captain, a scar-veteran by the name of Un'Qor, had ordered the priests to drop it and resolved to tolerate the failure of a secondary objective.
With the angles and relative speeds there would only be a brief passing exchange. No hope of bringing the raiding vessel to battle.
Still the pair of frigates sped forward, their sails billowing.
Gif'a-Gahb dropped their gaze from the long bronzework eyepiece and, turning towards Huatza-Botl and the rest of their attendants, contemplated the matter before the flotilla.
"So sign of major arcane devices, or active rituals. Indications of work ongoing ashore, we proceed."
Because the quarry had slipped Un'Qor's grasp, the enemy had full warning. Evidently they either lacked the inclination, time, or materials to prepare heavier mystic defences, but they had worked to shore up the physical defences of their makeshift fortress.
Under the cloak of illusion Huatza-Botl had maneuvered the cruiser in order to gain a clearer glimpse into the lagoon where the raiders had decided to fortify themselves. There were clear signs of decades of development, wooden shacks dotted along the interior of the crescent island all over the rolling hills and spotty forests, a rough stone fortress built at the far end of the lagoon, watch towers built into the lower peaks of dormant trio of mountains. A thriving, if minor, community built off the bloody rewards of reaving.
It was exactly where predicted, along the one-hundred and forty seventh meridian and approximately fourteen degrees north of the equator.
There were indeed seven ships sitting at anchor in the lagoon - one more than the flotilla boasted, though none fit to rival the power of the cruiser - and many of those showed signs of poor maintenance. Only two of the number would be of any true threat. Slightly larger than a frigate; the two vessels had sails in significantly better condition, crews armed and armored to a better quality than any of the others, and radiated arcane power from their bowels.
While it was likely, considering past experience, all the ships would have a sorcerer or two aboard, the majority of their mystical weight would be upon those two.
It would hardly serve them much. They would not have the time to bring whatever foul magics they knew to bear.
"Tactical command passes to you," Gif'a-Gahb nodded towards Huatza-Botl, who only grunted in return, "I will take a position aboard one of the frigates."
Better maneuverability would let the priest leverage themselves more ably, interposing protections at vulnerable angles and unleashing power upon less secure flanks.
A beat passed.
"Is all else prepared?"
Huatza-Botl turned their head to face the diminutive figure of the skink priest and in their growling voice said, "Yes, priest, all vessels stand ready to deliver victory."
"Good. You may be underway, then."
*
*
In the steady silence of the encroaching dusk six vessels of Zlatlan's navy - five frigates and a single cruiser - coasted steadily towards the entrance of the lagoon. Picking up speed as they went they remained under the cover of paltry illusions for the time being, already fraying under the strain of what meagre velocity they had accumulated.
As the sun touched the horizon and the sky began to streak ever more orange and pink.
Straining illusions grew threadbare, thin like a gauze pulled too tight, at last and then finally gave way like bursting bubbles shattering into hundreds of gossamer fragments that evaporated into nothingness.
All six vessels burst into being in an instant, asserting their presence with the indomitable certainty of all things wrought by the servants of the Old Ones, they plowed through waves headlong towards the seven vessels laying at anchor. Their crews stood silent at their stations or moved with the assured caution of practiced sailors, readying weapons and securing the last bits of loose material. Arrayed in a wedge, cruiser at the fore with two pairs of frigates flanking it and the final direct astern they came on.
It took only moments for them to be noticed from the decks of the ships themselves and from ashore. Simultaneously bells went up from both. And in short order the raiders began to set into motion.
Of course it was much too late. It had been too late for hours, days, months, years, decades.
Against the firstborn servants of the Old Ones it would always be too late, this was a natural law as certain as the pull of gravity and atomic bonds.
Still the crews of the pirate vessels put up a valiant effort, quickly arranging themselves into something resembling a battle order, with the weaker ships up front and the two strongest behind them, and began plying their way out to meet the Lizardmen ships. But with the enemy caught somewhat by surprise - having expected to spot their foe coming from well away - all the difficulties which might have saved them from being savaged at range - the necessity of rangefinding and the possibility of sudden maneuver at speed - failed.
At a range far in excess of what an elven bow could reach the vessels of Zlatlan's flotilla opened fire in unison - nineteen greatbows all loosed their missiles, raking the decks of the lead vessels with bolts nearly as large as some of the elves they tore through. Blood and viscera painted the wood.
Screams of the dead and dying filled the air. Their agony shaking the hearts of merciless murders.
But they did not break. Shouts went up from their commanders and lieutenants, steeling their spines and setting their minds to grim survival. Fell sorcerers scrambled forth, garbed in flowing robes and wielding staves crackling with power to contend against the might of Zlatlan.
Sigils of protection girded flesh and wood alike. Weaves of magic took shape to answer back their own fury, but before they could another volley of bolts rained down upon the decks, cleaving swathes of elven sailors into so much shattered bone and flesh and pools of blood.
Railings splintered under the assault and sections of decking burst into splinters the size of nails which rained down on the crews - their skin wept blood in rivulets freely. Archers fled to what little safety the stern could offer and only rushed forth again when the barrage had stopped. But that was not the end.
For even as the raiders magicians prepared to unleash their magics - bolts of lightning and searing roils of fire and actinic lances of pure power - a twinned glow of light flared from the cruiser. Two streaks of blistering heat raced towards the line of ships, striking the rear most vessels along their starboard flank and head on respectively.
Dozens died in seconds as burning pitch and flaming splinters cut down elves - mage and sailor alike - and the sheer pressure waved of the impact tossed more bodily across the deck and over it to the waters below.
Their answering attack was ineffectual. Many spells fell short of the mark or overshot, either crashing into the sea or flying off overhead to wither into nothingness, and even those few that did find the mark did little. Where they did not simply strike the vessels themselves and shatter against the enchantments worked into the very vessels themselves, they were met by the supreme magical talent of Zlatlan's priests.
Only two found any purchase. Crashing into the deck of one of the frigates, a fireball burst and swallowed a pair of skinks whole before the priest aboard managed to contain the roil of magic and save another dozen from death. The other, a streak of lightning, caught a bolt in flight and followed it's path back to the greatbow which had fired it. In an instant the crew of the weapon were just a pile of smoking corpses.
Another volley of bolts sliced across the air and dealt further death to the raiders. Fully half their number had already been rendered all but ineffective simply from the overwhelming deaths of their crews.
Then the two formations interpenetrated one another.
It became a chaotic brawl in an instant. Both Solar Engines raked fire across the top decks of the largest two vessels, setting their masts and decks alight and even spearing through one of them completely. Greatbows swiveled to fire at point blank range even as their ships pressed closed to let skink and saurus boarding parties leap from deck to deck.
Scaled flesh met warm, and though each elf was an excellent combatant with decades - even occasionally a century or two - of experience under the belt in combat, the scaled won. No elf had ever faced any of the firstborn servants of the Old Ones in battle and lived.
Fighting orcs and goblins might prepare one for a certain level of ferocity. And fighting fellow elves might prepare one for a parity of skill. There was nothing in the world - save for events which were naught but history to these pirates - to prepare them for both.
A saurus in battle was a creature of pure violence, quick as instinct and yet ready in every moment to exploit the slightest misstep in their opponent. There was no safe angle of approach against a saurus; side, front, or back. All posed their own challenge and fatal danger. None of which took into account weaponry and armor and the edge of experience that age gave ever saurus.
But not everybody that leapt from the deck of one of Zlatlan's ships to the deck of one of the raider's was a saurus, not even a quarter were, most were skinks. Small, slight, diminutive, and more than a little nervous. And yet, many foes had died at the hands of skinks over the long millennia.
Alone a skink was weak, but skinks were rarely alone.
Together they made dangerous foes, each individual willing to sacrifice health, safety, and even life in order to afford the whole a chance of victory. Many an orc or daemon had struck down a skink only to find itself slain in turn by the comrades of the first skink, and even more had found themselves unable to do the first part at all. A near tide of skinks and saurus poured over to the raider's ships and began to dismantle the crews in a bloody orgy of violence which struck the assembled elves quite off balance.
Death and injury of course came for the Lizardmen as well, for even the best cannot be perfect and chance plays a role in every fight. Some even amongst the crews proved matches for their opponents.
It was not enough to turn the tide.
As the crew of the largest pirate vessel was pressed into ever lesser confines, Huatza-Botl at last took the field. Soon the leader, assuming they had not perished in the initial bombardment, would be forced out into the open. Then perhaps they could be defeated and subdued, for Lord Wik'keer'mal desired that they should be delivered to him for interrogation.
Stalking forward across the shattered deck of the vessel - Leviathan-Bone Harpoon in one hand and Mirror-Shield of Quetzl in the other - the Oldblood approached the backline of skinks currently disassembling a knot of sailors near the front quarter of the starboard railings. They could smell the stink of fear upon them.
That was a possibility.
"Surrender," Huatza-Botl growled out, fixing their eyes upon the nearest of the elves.
But that seemed only to stiffen their - his? Warmblood body morphology was always so confusing - resolve as they yelled and charged into the line of spears, committing effective suicide. The ones behind him hesitated, wavered.
"Surrender, or die."
They glanced down at the still twitching corpse. Two near the back dropped their weapons and collapsed. That seemed to be it for the rest. Good.
Huatza-Botl gestured the leader of the skinks over to them, "Secure them as prisoners. Search them for weapons, evidence. Pass along word, offer surrender opportunity."
A quick nod. Good. Then the Oldblood was on their way again.
In a few more moments they were at the aftcastle of the vessel, where the pilot would normally be, and found the fighting fierce but indeterminate. Here it was not skinks but mainly saurus facing off against elves in fine armor - mail and leather jerkins with longs blades and one or two mages - around a pair of figures and a chest.
Streaks of blood littered the floor, along with a few elven corpses near the perimeter and five skink corpses clustered at the top of the stairs.
One of the two elves at the center of the cluster spied Huatza-Botl immediately and, after puffing themselves up in the way that so many warmbloods who thought themselves imported did, fixed their eyes firmly upon the saurus.
"Ho! Creature! Tullarian the Dread speaks to you. Leave now and you will not know the terrors and pains my master will rain down upon you, stay and your torment will be as long as it is delicious."
Boastful, prideful. A tremor in his right arm. Posturing.
"Surrender," they said simply, "Or die."
Those were in fact the choices.
"Really? Are you so simple that you cannot understand my words? Or your mind so crude it cannot conceive of loss? What I have lost are nothing but baubles, I promise."
Huatza-Botl waited. It was not quite an answer in either direction.
A long moment passed, and the elf's breathing hitched upwards as it did, the tremble grew. His hands clenched and his jaw worked. But then it all went out, replaced by a certain manic joy.
"Fine," he kicked back, unseating the lid of the chest. "I think I'll enjoy this."
A pink, squirming, giggling light pulsed out of the chest. Something wriggled up towards Tullarian even as the other elves around him twitched and looked uncertainly between their master and the Lizardmen.
*
*
Gif'a-Gahb felt the unnatural presence immediately, like the pungent odor of rotting flesh and fermenting fruit and a pernicious laughter at the back of the mind, whipping around the priest quickly pinpointed the source as the aftcastle of one of the larger two pirate vessels. There was a dangerous glow emerging.
The Enemy at last had shown their hand.
Too late to undo the battle, but perhaps not too late to wreak untold havoc on the servants of the Old Ones.
But not if Gif'a-Gahb stopped them. Reaching out with their will the priest grasped hold of the magic, beginning to weave it.
*
*
Huatza-Botl smelled ozone and the joy of fervent copulation on the wind. The second was not something the saurus had ever experienced before, and it greatly disturbed them.
Still they recognized this immediately for what it was, the presence of the Enemy.
"Death then," they growled.
The pink glow grew and out of it emerged a long sinuous body like that of an enormous worm mixed with an elf - blinkings eyes stared at the Oldblood from one side - undulating in time with a music none but it could hear.
Tullarian reached back toward it and touching it with a single finger there was a great laugh and the sharp crack of pink lightning. Then briefly the wavering form of a glyph hover briefly in the thin sliver of air between Tullarian's finger and the pink creature's body, shining like a beacon that purified and cleansed the world.
For a moment the worm smoked and screamed in pain.
Seconds later the glyph shattered, the sky boomed and from a sudden roil of rosy clouds a single purple streak of lightning crashed down on a nearby frigate, caving in part of its upper deck.
At the same time the worm struck out, flashing across the length of Tullarian's arm in a looping coil to wrap itself around his head, burrowing through flesh and cloth and armor alike in a spray of gore and agony. No more two creatures - daemon and elf - they were one in an instant, worm-flesh melded to elf-flesh in a grotesque display of unearthly power. Fine hawkish features twisted and contorted, wrenched by equal measures of indescribable pleasure and unimaginable agony into a monstrous rictus.
He-they-it laughed, rippling flesh blistering with whorling scars of fiendish runes, and swayed before turning with a whipsaw motion that sent several of the closest elves sprawling with twisted broken limbs and long gashes. Then, maddening laugh echoing through the air like thunder, they-it-he vaulted overboard.
Pink streaked off beneath the dark waves. Back to shore and the fortress.
*
*
In an instant the warding-spelled had slipped from Gif'a-Gahb's grasp, wrenched by the unholy power of the daemon which had been unleashed across the water. For a moment the priest might have saved the disaster, but even as they attempted to disperse the gathered energy safely the daemon joined its mind to another and twisted the magic into its own spell.
Following back the path of their intent they flung back.
Before the priest could think to react, they were lifted bodily off their feed and carried clear across the deck of the frigate, crashing heavily against the railing just as a bolt of pink lightning crashed down in the spot they had been standing.
Wood briefly turned into twisted, otherworldly flesh, then turned back into wood and a good eighth of the deck exploded into scything fragments that decapitated one skink and maimed two others.
Then all was quiet again.
Much of the fight went out of the remaining crews with the flight of their leader, as if the strings which had held them up were cut. Over a half of those that remained - which was, admittedly very few - simply surrendered immediately while the other half seemed to lose itself to madness; throwing themselves on the nearest blade, or slitting their own throats, or turning on their surrendering companions. It was a bloody few minutes that followed.
Out of crews that would have numbered well over two thousand taken all together, less than a hundred survived.
Some of those might yet die, their minds broken beyond all hope of life, or their injuries too severe even for magic to preserve, or else simply too dangerous to let live. But that would not come until after the threat was dealt with for there was still Tullarian - now possessed - and the fortress to contend with.
What meagre defences had been prepared ashore could not save what remained of the raiders, they would be easily overrun by pure force of arms. Not that Huatza-Botl intended to do so.
The solution to fixed defences, even weak ones, was bombardment.
A pair of volleys from the Solar Engines mounted on the cruiser savaged the simple dirt berm and weak wooden palisades which had been erected, sending the small forces of defenders running for further shelter in the fort further up the shore. But that was hardly much protection at all and another volley turned it into a rapidly deteriorating trap rather than a safe haven.
Only then did the Oldblood land their forces, going in amongst the first way.
It was a decidedly one-sided battle, the defenders were too few and too outclassed to effectively contest the servants of the Old Ones but just the same they were either too desperate or too enthralled to surrender.
A steady march brought Huatza-Botl to the smoking ruins of the former fortress, where Tullarian - either too foolish, too stupid, or without a choice - awaited them. No longer even recognizably an elf, it-he-they's flesh had taken on a sickening pink pallor and he-they-it's eyes glowed malevolently with purple fire. Limbs elongated they stood taller even than the Oldblood, with one arm ending in a swooping claw-fingered hand that dragged across the ground while the other had simply become a flailing tentacle. Another eye blinked owlishly from their clavicle, wild and searching.
"I am going to enjoy k-k-killing you."
They-he-it stalked forward, faced still twisted into a mockery of expression. It-they-he lifted their-his-it's deformed hand and point at Huatza-Botl.
"First, I will flay you for your s-skin. Then I will-ll-ll tear out your tongue. And while you d-drown in your own blood I will slaughter your… c-c-creatures and make you choke on them!"
On and on the abomination came, which each step the flesh of its twisted and threatened to tear itself apart as it let out a burbling giggle. He-it-they was almost close enough for Huatza-Botl to smell the stench of its corrupted flesh and unnatural persistence.
Just a few steps more.
"The last thing you ever hear-r-r will be my laughter– " one more " –and the last thing you ever see will be my-"
Enough of this. Quick as lightning, Huatza-Botl crossed the now tiny space between them, clawed feet sending sand and grass flying, hefting harpoon in one hand as they raised the shield in the other.
With unnaturally fast reflexes Tullarian lashed out, but the Oldblood tucked beneath the sloppy strikes - fast, but poorly aimed and even worse timed - and drove the point of the Leviathan-Bone Harpoon up and through the bottom of the abomination's skull. A shudder ran through the body of the thing, a quiet gurgling working its way out of the throat and then it stilled. Sickly, unnatural flesh fell limp to the ground below and the rippling skin stilled and began to sag off whatever bones lay beneath and then tear into slow swoops and curls.
Action Completed. Raider base located. 7 vessels, 1 fortress, 1 possessed raider leader destroyed. Small number of prisoners gained, in poor condition.
Moderate amount of loot recovered.
Peer to Peer: 1 Fourth Gen Slann Dice
520
1 Success!
Total: 1
The first attempt to introduce the practice of dueling amongst the skink priests of Zlatlan was… mixed.
Huaxi took to the task with gusto, gathering together some of his most trusted attendants and setting to work early on in the decade. Though each priest is an adept caster and magician, they balked at the risk of hurting another servant of the Old Ones for what they consider dubious benefits. Most of them had never encountered another wielder of the winds which was not either so far above them - in which case they called for slann or banded together - that they could not challenge it alone or so far below them that it was hardly a contest.
Even the fact that a slann was himself telling them to do so could not break through their instinctive revulsion, not immediately. Quite simply, in the beginning, they pulled their punches. Poked around the margins of each other's defenses and did the bare minimum to divert weak attacks.
It was only towards the end of the decade that they finally, finally, began to take the task seriously. Perhaps it was the news reported from the hunt of the raiders - the frightening power displayed by the sorcerer in charge and the challenge they presented to Gif'a-Gahb - or simply Huaxi's insistence which finally broke through to them, but the priests at last began to seriously challenge each other. Still, much work remained before the project could be called a success.
Action Incomplete - 5 Successes Remain
Arcane Insight Collation: 1 Fourth Gen Slann, Disc of Yuxa
42
1 Success!
Total: 1
By contrast it was much easier to begin the process of collecting and organizing the varied and diverse range of insights individual priests had gathered over the centuries and millennia. Much of it was as simple as sites in and around Zlatlan which improved certain routine, or semi-routine, spellwork by notable margins. Quirks of geography which funnels the Winds of magic in certains ways. Landmarks which absorbed and retained certain Winds in greater numbers.
Simple stuff. Helpful for either the normal maintenance of geomantic power structures, certain base enchanting, or in battle if one happened to find themselves in near proximity.
A few had found what appeared to be, at first glance, to be shortcuts to the normal casting of specific spells - truncated verbal or somatic elements, reduced material needs, optimized ritual configurations. All of it in need of more in depth study. For as much as the secrets of magic had been handed down by the Old Ones to the slann, who had then done much to improve them where improvement could be had, it had been done in a vastly different prevailing environment and for vastly different casters. Slann could hold the entirety of such a fantastically complex spell in the mind that it would have broken the mind of a skink priest, without the barest hint of effort.
Moreover as much as the slann and the Old Ones before them had made great strides in attempting to impose order upon the inherently chaotic energy of magic, it still resisted. Still escaped from the confines of bounded spells and sought a thousand different faults in the walls of reality. So it was possible for individual priests to develop personal understandings of specific spells which could not be easily translated into replicable mnemonics. Or for them to discover new unknown facets of the Winds.
Which was which had to be determined through rigorous testing. Even as yet much discoveries and insights were collated.
Action Incomplete - 7 Successes Remain
Refounding the Temple of Itzl: Awanabil'tat
Auto, Auto
2 Successes!
Total: 2
A site was chosen deep with the jungle to the southwest of the temple-city. Space was cleared and the foundations of the new Temple of Itzl were dug out, with the first foundations set in place.
Back in Zlatlan work was begun forging the great bronze gongs which would call Itzl's beasts to feed.
Action Incomplete - 6 Successes Remain
Hunting Grounds: Cuaqli
63
1 Success!
Total: 1
Cuaqli travelled deep into the jungle with a team of skink and kroxigor workers to begin verify acceptability of the valleys for the project, and to begin preliminary work on them. Clearing of heavy jungle growth in the surroundings and simple warding of the perimeter.
Those few natural caverns in the area were noted and explored, though only shallowly, in preparation. Feeding and nesting sites were chosen. Existing distributions of forested and grassland noted, optimal ratios calculated and adjustments marked out on maps. Water tables were tested, spring sites divined.
What remained was the work of actually building up the locations, connecting each valley with subterranean tunnels, finalizing physical and mystic protections around the perimeter, doing the work of preparing the environment - aforementioned adjustments to landcover classes, introduction of prey species, water reserves carved out - and then at last moving into the intended inhabitants.
Action Incomplete - 7 Successes Remain
Silk Farms: Tehe'Tenq
34, 78
2 Successes!
Total: 2
The room was dim. Lit only by light streaming in through openings in the ceiling broken up by wooden slats so that the dirt and mulch and rocks covering the floor were dappled with shadow and streaks of sunlight. Something moved. Several somethings in fact, moved in the dark recesses beneath rocks and logs as Tehe'Tenq followed the attendant in, the smell of fur and fresh blood mixing in their nostrils from the basket heaped with the various remains of vermin.
After upending the basket onto the floor the attendant took a step back and Tehe'Tenq followed them - or more accurately, preceded them as the scribe was behind the other skink - to wait for the inevitable flurry of activity.
Not ten seconds later, the shadows erupted with long hairy legs and bulbous bodies, as more than two dozen of juvenile lo'chulq rushed from their burrows for the bounty offered to them. When they converged, a couple of fights broke out amongst the stragglers, but for the most part the feeding was congenial; a few of the creatures even seemed content to share a particularly large morsel.
"How long until they produce?"
"Twelve days for most. Undersized specimens– " they pointed to a pair fighting, who were indeed noticeably smaller " –may take an additional day or two."
Tehe'Tenq nodded. Good. They already knew the expected maturation length, but it was good to verify that large scale production and domestication practices had not induced further mutations or adaptive changes in the meantime.
Unfortunately not all was going quite as expected. Designing the process and mechanisms by which silk was to be extracted had proven slightly more difficult than imagined and though the skinks in charge believed most of the major issues were resolved, some limited success had been had with the last prototype. Further refinements and adjustments were still needed, injuries had been noted on some of the lo'chulq after silk extraction.
Healthy specimens were vital to achieving peak efficiency, losses amongst production populations would pull averages down as the creatures devoted more energy to healing. Plus the risk of infection and disease.
Another decade of concerted effort should see a ramp up to full production, though quantities would be relatively small.
Action Incomplete - 2 Successes Remain
Customs Inspections: 2 dice
69, 72
2 Successes!
Total: 2
As the flow of years went on and more elven merchants sailed into the harbor of Zlatlan to offload timber, occasional silver, wine, and the occasional curiosity and take on other lumber, bronze knives, numa feathers, and animal pelts it became more and more common for them to be met at the mouth of the Bay of Stars by a frigate to be inspected. In years previous, when the experiment was first started, a few captains argued briefly and a few others refused - and thus were sent away - but as the decade neared its end every vessel to make the trip acquiesced without issue.
Elven sailors become more and more used to seeing the diminutive skinks scampering about their decks, peering at cargo manifests, chittering away at each other in their strange tongue, popping up suddenly to ask questions in accented eltharin. They are less sanguine, even after more than ten years, of the sight of the few kroxigors who loom amongst them but there are no incidents. Nor is there much in the way of news to report.
What little suspect material is found either bears the touch of taint so lightly it is more likely to be from poor technique and ignorance, or is claimed to have been found enroute amongst the wreckage of ships shattered against reefs or islands or from flotsam happened upon in the course of the journey. None is so dangerous as to require destruction, though all of it is required to be kept upon the vessels themselves.
As there is little call amongst the elves to disembark and wander about either the harbor, Zlatlan, or the surrounding jungle such strictures do not seem to pose much issue. Perhaps that will change in the future. For now, things are quiet.
But, as part of the process of the inspections, more detailed records can be kept. Precise notes on the exact courses of each vessel upon approach, the attitudes and dispositions and broad physical characteristics of their crews are recorded. Along with more detailed counts of each ship's complement.
Thousands of little details begin to emerge. Little of it truly telling or particularly illuminating, but still potentially useful. If not in the moment, then certainly in the future.
Action Completed. Inspections regularized, more frequent contact between elven sailors and lizardmen.
Fleet Expansion: Xehtzaihl
Auto, Auto
2 Successes!
Total: 2
Work continues. Several cruiser hulls now approach completion.
Action Incomplete - 2 Successes Remain
Further Afield: Zille'mi
46, 67
2 Successes!
Total: 2
Zille'mi watched Makim and Wosulo walked toward the small collection of huts down by the shore. From her perch in the dense treeline she could just about make out the figures of the Xiosha inhabitants amongst the rounded domes of their homes and the slim wedges of their dugout canoes.
This would be the third village they'd visited, though it only gained the term by virtue of comparison with the communities of their Foro guides. Perhaps a little over a hundred humans lived in the community, which was larger than most Imchi, Foro, and Keng bands but hardly a great settlement. Supposedly farther to the north, near Cuexotl - along the northern Red River - there were larger, perhaps Zille'mi would see them in the coming years.
It remained to be seen.
For the time being establishing a firm base for understanding with the local human populations was best, and maybe the Xiosha communities might even serve as examples for the Vohlu and proving the value of more sedentary lifestyles.
At least with a firm base amongst the settled humans and previous interactions with the migrator Foro, Imchi, and Keng word of peaceful interactions with the Lizardmen of Zlatlan should spread well and far with some modicum of trust. There are of course already tales, spread by the Foro who took in the Vohlu in the aftermath of their near extinction, but mysteriously saving a single tribe and being trusted to walk into one's home are different things.
Finally, Wosulo waves back at Zille'mi's position. Dropping out of the branches, she joins her waiting guards and begins to proceed slowly down the slope towards the village. Men and women alike emerge from their huts, weapons in hand, to watch her.
It will take time.
Action Incomplete - 2 Successes Remain
Troll Action: Poh'paloq, 2 Dice
68, 23, 37
1 Success!
Total: 1
A whole nest of trolls was uncovered and rooted out. Several newborn trolls killed before maturity. Airborne reconnaissance proved invaluable for tracking movements and signs of habitation to determine the nest location.
Action Incomplete.
Waaagh Remnants: Ittetuhlot, Khaxilitli
36, 66
2 Successes!
Total: 2
More overstrength patrols ventured out and returned having successfully curtailed greenskin activity. A number of tribes moving northward, likely to have encountered existing human populations inside the next decade, have been eliminated completely.
Reports from regular patrols to the south, southwest, southeast, and west - heaviest in the west and southwest directions - indicate transient populations of greenskins still persist in some number though precise distributions and concentrations are difficult to ascertain.
Action Incomplete - 5 Successes Remain
Scouting Dorzug: Hua'Ximni, 3 dice
29, 9, 69
1 Success!
Total: 1
While the greatest part of the greenskin populace had been either killed in warfare or scattered in its aftermath there still remained a great mass of them to the south. Nominally under the 'leadership' of Dorzug da Eye - though the closest the shaman had ever come to even the orcish version of that was to demand tribute and scatter those he perceived as in his way - there had been perhaps a hundred fifty or so thousand greenskins still active at the time Munta departed with his Waaagh for Zlatlan. By what degree the population might have grown in the intervening time was unknown, though with the Waaagh's defeat no further major movements of greenskins from that direction had been detected.
That did not mean all was well,so far as the slann were concerned nothing could be further from the truth. While orcs and goblins still cavorted in proximity to the works of the Old Ones - much less the outright interference Dorzug had been engaged in - nothing could be well.
Hua'Ximni, charged by Lord Wik'keer'mal himself with organizing and overseeing the gathering of information, settled into an unfamiliar role.
Rather than simply leading a small cadre of fellow chameleon skinks deep into unfamiliar terrain they were attempting to coordinate dozens of groups of regular skink scouts across nearly half a continent of space to infiltrate territory actively patrolled by hostile elements. Even next to the heroic efforts of the years spent working to assassinate Wurkazz it was a task several orders of magnitude more difficult.
And more out of the usual for the chameleon skink.
But it had been commanded and so Hua'Ximni obeyed.
The plan had three main prongs; two by sea and one overland. For the first two they would approach the general area by sea, one from the west and one from the south. Meanwhile the chameleon skink would lead the overland approach - coming from the north - personally as it was the one most in need of their specific skills.
Once each group had successfully infiltrated the region they would meet at predetermined locations - known to be avoided by the greenskins from previous excursions - to coordinate efforts. Should all three prongs manage it they would have an ability to quite thoroughly gather information. Even one failing would not be so dire an occurrence. Two would certainly curtail their efforts, but alone a single prong would still be able to accomplish the task.
Which was good, because as it happened only Hua'Ximni's own element made it.
Even that was at an agonizingly glacial pace of days and nights circling around intense spots of greenskin activity only to have to backtrack to avoid a new obstacle. Months and months it went on as the three hundred or so group of skinks edged its way deeper and deeper into greenskin territory, nearly a year in total - entirely discounting travel time from Zlatlan - until at last they arrived at the predetermined rendezvous spot.
Three months late.
At least for the first window. So Hua'Ximni and the rest of the three hundred wait for two month months in a high mountain valley. The other groups never showed up.
So the task was left to a bare three hundred skinks and a single chameleon skink given a task well outside of their comfort zone. By the thinnest of margins it succeeded.
Hua'Ximni dutifully organized patrols and sent out parties, carefully shepherding them along as they pressed at the edges of Dorzug's territory, trying to gather whatever scraps of information they could. It proved impossible to penetrate very deep reliably, but rumor and suggestion - fallen from the lips of unsuspecting and near-dead goblins and orcs - helped to build an image of the scene as it stood.
Action Completed. Southern Scouting Element prevented from landing, retreated to Zlatlan unmolested or observed. Western Scouting Element successfully achieved landing, encountered unexpected hostels and retreated after suffering casualties. Northern Scouting Element successfully infiltrated greenskin territory.
Current greenskin population hovers somewhere between 100~ to 140~ thousand, spread over a geographic area shrunk by at least 30% from height during Munta's Waaagh. Widely spread out and disunified, most of the population is scattered and engaged in frequent infighting with a relatively small core of somewhere between 30 and 40~ thousand elites around the Old One Obelisk. Dorzug remains firmly ensconced in his 'research facility' and additional construction has taken place, though to what extent and in what particulars is unknown.
Situation seems stable for the moment.
Plant Investigations (Ash-Growing Tree): 2 Personal Dice
Auto, Auto, Auto, Auto, 20, 6
4 Successes!
Total: 4
More than fifty years on nearly all signs of the volcanic eruption which first alerted Lord Wik'keer'mal to the curious species of tree have faded. Only from the air can the pattern of the flowing rivers of molten lava that rapidly gave rise to the furiously burning fires which swept across much of the countryside south of Cuexotl. Humans have begun moving back into the area over the last two decades as the spectre of so much death has faded.
Other, darker, things have followed them. But that has little bearing upon Zlatlan or its agents, who have trekked far to find living examples of trees that grew in the aftermath - amidst the fire and ash.
Samples were taken decades ago, when they were first noted, but time has sapped from those fragments much of the most valuable information. For proper investigation fresher examples are direly needed.
They are found.
Growing in isolated clearings where the undergrowth is patchy and sunbaked and ground steams after a rain, they rise at least half again as tall as a saurus with pale whitish bark -that gnarls into near black at knots and burls. Spreading out into two or three or four or sometimes five main branches that then spread out into dozens of smaller branches forming a dense smooth dome of thick needle-shaped leaves. Wood is warm to the touch - growing warmer the deeper into the tree, hot enough to be of discomfort at the heartwood - and bleeds a bright crimson sap when cut.
Sap and wood - colored a deep orange-tan - begin a process of cooling once removed; respectively slowly hardening into resin and quickly self rendering into scale-like leaf thin chips. Before this point wood refuses to ignite, and application of external heat does nothing to slow down decay either, though afterward it lights with ease and burns quite hot. Initial heat loss for wood takes approximately twenty-three days and forty for sap.
Roots are deep growing, tending towards straight and spiney distribution except for a single central root which windings and curls deep directly below the main trunk, with similar behavior to rest of wood.
Evidence of seasonal feeding by avian and treeborne mammals in surrounding soils suggests a fruit bearing though no evidence of flowering was observed at the time of harvest of any of the existing samples. From direct observations by priests the living plant attracts and absorbs heavy levels of Aqshy, as well as lighter levels of both Ghyran and Chamon.
Action Incomplete - 2 Successes Remain
Study the Carapace of Winds: 1 Fifth Gen Slann Dice
21
0 Successes!
Total: 0
In the midst of studying the Carapace of Winds, an unexpected malaise falls upon the slann assigned - Xholchi, who arrived in Zlatlan mere decades before the fall of the Polar Gates - and all hope of understanding was lost as they slipped intermittently between bare wakefulness and deep slumber. Unfortunate.
Action Incomplete - 2 Successes Remain
Review the Sequence: 5 Fifth Gen Slann Dice
63, 94, 70, 70, 28
1 Success!
Total: 1
Days stretch longer and warmer. Ice retreats, running in clear rivulets that building into steady torrents. Land that has not seen the light of star or sun or moon in ages uncounted finally peeks bare and barren until the thaw awakens slumbering seeds or the gentle tides of winds carry fresh ones to untouched soil.
Grasses sprout, sapling reach for the growing warmth of the sun. Birds circle above.
Storms gather over the horizon, crashing thunder and lightening and pouring water from the heavens. Fish dance in streams that run towards the sea where once only darkness and cold solitude dwelled. Ages and generations pass.
In forests, from mountain crevices, and over the flowing plains, eyes peer up towards the sky, huddled around sputtering fires where shivering bodies gather to ward against the long finders of night. Halting voices tell stories of fire and pain and blood.
Out of the night wanderers come, bearing stranger stories - filled with bountiful feasts, with safety and security, where the terrors that stalk their dreams break against them. Where even the unseen forces of the world answer to their commands.
Some listen. Some do not. Some do not even know how to listen and grasp with halting uncertainty at ever more meager lessons.
Action Incomplete.
Note: Here you are! Sorry it took so long, but well… Tuesday was not a day for writing and as it turned out neither was Wednesday all things considered. Comments and criticism, etc, etc.
With unnaturally fast reflexed Tullarian lashed out, but the Oldblood tucked beneath the sloppy strikes - fast, but poorly aimed and even worse timed - and drove the point of the Leviathan-Bone Harpoon up and through the bottom of the abomination's skull
Made up a list of stuff to send to Lustra, every little bit helps and even a minor improvements will pay major dividends for Lustra. Anything and everything could help secure the Lustra side, and get their temple cites rebuilding faster.
Improved Blowpipes
Javelins Throwers
Aziki/Coffee seeds for Plantation
Aziki/Coffee preparations for Slann
Everything we learned from Lord Thyrior about the vortex
Every trick of Chaos we have discovered
Nuum eggs and the rearing of.
Boats designs we have developed.
Bait Vine seeds for its sedative
Caxuatn's eggs for spider Venom, and silk farms
Leadwood seeds for Tree plantations.
The next ones are of vital importance
Ha'marentongz's designs for the Mirror-Shields of Quetzl and the making of the shields. Both the artifact and the mass produced version.
Lustra has the Slann power to equip their Old Bloods with the artifact version, and keep a core elites with the lesser version, in every city.
Obsinite Dragon eggs send them 27 of them. They may be able to hatch them permanently. And will at least prevent some Slann Deaths
Leviathan-Bone Harpoon, see if the greater collective Slann know how to unlock it secrets.
@CuttleFish2.0 could we possibly build a temple ship that can fly, and be designed to fly up to temple cites, and rebuild them. The ship would contain with all the facilitates needed, to clear out rubble, quarry up stuff, and haul in slabs from quarry's, cranes to lift stoneworks, and enchantment facilities to accelerate the cites reconstruction.
Yah flying anything seems like way too much of a step too far cause that would gives a massive advantage and durning height of lizardmen they didn't even have that, the black arks don't even do that
