Dace walked in the corridors of his base. The interior had seen its better days. The stench of death still plagued the place. It was getting better, bit it was still a work in progress.
His garden looked worse. During his last walk he had confirmed that Riddle had killed all of his Petunias during the attack, and no amount of Martha's life magic had been able to bring it back. What the divine had against his Petunias he had no idea.
In difference from his last walk, the place looked a lot more ... furry. 350 wolves laying around in different states of alertness. Some looking at him expectantly, most of them dozing away in the sunlight. A couple of them tried to cuddle him for some reason.
What did look out of the place was the corpse currently being chewed on. Or what he thought was a corpse until he heard the nonchalant voice of Urie Blake complaining about life and his wish for it to end.
Well, good thing the choice wasn't up to him. He already had far to few people of his ability at his disposal to let one of them die due to his own lunacy. The fact he was the only thing that spoke against the 100 % mortality rate of his profession was just one of many reasons to keep the man alive.
One short clap to make the wolves stop biting him, another to make them bring Blake to Martha. She would know what to him.
The wolves obeyed him as well as they would the powerful druid, if he had bothered to put up the effort to clap his hands.
It had been a long week of working so I took a quick detour at Mac's pub. Well, it was supposed to be a quick detour, but this time it wasn't even my fault; not that the missus believed me of course.
So there I was, sitting at the bar when a hooded stranger came up and sat down next to me. He called for a beer of his own and after it came he drank a bit and let out a deep, heart wrenching sigh as he set down his beer. It tugged at my heartstrings, that sigh did, so I did what any decent wizard would do and asked the stranger what troubled him.
For a while he just stared at his beer, but then he said, "My job."
So of course I told him about why I was at the bar and his response was to laugh. It was a short, wheezy thing like the poor fellow wasn't sure exactly how one laughed anymore.
"If only it were just a bad week! It's been terrible the past few years!"
We both mulled over our respective misfortunes, and before I could say anything my companion started up again.
"Have you ever heard of the phrase 'near-death experience?'" I replied that I had heard that figure of speech before, but my companion shook his head.
"It's not a figure of speech. If you, Tom McNab, have a near-death experience then that means Death has had a near-Tom McNab experience."
As he spoke, the stranger turned to face me, and I saw that inside the hood was a skull with blazing blue eyes. Death itself was talking to me! I reached for my mug with trembling hands, but given how startled I was it was no surprise that most of the beer ended up on my clothes instead of in my stomach.
I gaped at Death until he continued with his explanation, "Don't worry, I'm not offended. Most people react like that when I share that wisdom with them. But as for my troubles, you see Tom, there is this one wizard that keeps giving me no end of trouble: Dace Gwallawg. It all started a few years back when he was out exploring and ran into the Necromancer. The Necromancer should have killed him, but Dace somehow talked his way out of trouble. And every other time the Necromancer ought to have killed him, Dace always pulls some trick out of his posterior to escape. Whether he was visiting his old apprentice, attending a potions conference, or boating with ministry officials, it doesn't matter what the Necromancer does– Dace always escapes with his life!"
Death slammed his empty mug on the bar and gestured for another. As Mac slid it over Death continued,
"And that's not the worst of it! Just this week the Necromancer finally did the job right! And do you know that happened then?"
I shook my head.
"That jumped up witch with delusions of grandeur and –"
"Ahem"
I looked up to see Mac looming over us and pointing down to the end of the bar. A small cloaked figure with a glass of milk was staring at us. For some reason Death flinched and nodded to Mac in thanks. The bartender nodded back and moved on to another customer.
"Well, anyways, Dace was dead but some interested individuals intervened and made sure he was brought back to life. So now he's still out there causing me trouble."
Death quickly downed the rest of his beer and tossed a few coins on the counter.
"Been nice talking with you Tom, but I've got to get back on the job. Oh, and don't worry. You won't be seeing me again for another couple decades."
One of his blue eyes flickered and then with a swirl of his cloak, Death walked out of Mac's pub.
I looked down at my empty mug and then signaled for another. It's not every day you get to have a chat with Death and live to tell the tale after all.
Sorry for the delay, had to test run a thing or two. Because if I didn't do it now, well, things would be worse, I guess, and since you're still playing on the tutotial character, I still feel like I have to hold back~
Warning: Unbeta-ed because it would erase all of my pretty formatting and it was a pain in the butt to get it that way. And short because interrupt. Not really satisfied, but at this point, I down't want to see any numbers anymore.
September 10th 1985
[X] Restore the land: Yr Wyddfa has suffered a lot due to the presence of Death and Nature energies warring over the territory. It will take time and effort for it to go back to its former health.
Cost : 10 000 Galleons, 10 Stone.
The place was a complete and utter mess. Wilted vegetation, murkish green water, and corpses everywhere. At least Rufus was understanding enough.
"Whatever. We'll just tell the Prophet that a dark mage is running around." The lion-like man slouched on the plush chair of Dace's office, dark circles under his eyes.
"Speaking of dark mages..."Dace drawled, putting an encyclopedy against The Pile to keep it from falling onto the floor, again. " A little birdie sang a very interesting song about an auror, a minion, and the Golden Barrel's reserve of Firewhiskey."
The Head Auror glared at him.
"I will find your spies and I will have their hide, you hear me?"
Dace waved his threatening growl off. Let him run around like a headless chicken looking for theings that didn't exist. Now that he thought about it however, infiltrating the Ministry did seem like a good idea, if only to see the Scrimgeour's face when Dace starts telling him confidential information...
He shelved the thought for now, as he had more important things to do than reveling in the other man's exasperation. First, he needed to make it so it looked like the battle never happened, which wouldn't be cheap. Still, he had a contract with a few people specializing in body disposal, no questions asked to yours truly.
With the territory cleaned of impurities, the fountain regained its powers and Nature took back control over the land.
Nature's bounty: Active
Nature runs strong and wild, as it used to and should. The land remembers its rightful shape and will reject abnomalies.
- The magical ground protects owned land from both Chaos wave and Land of the dead effects. Will spread around owned territory up to one county away.
- + 10% Resources gain.
Who do you use the Fountain's powers on?
[]Write in
October 6th 1985
[X] Trade for resources ( free action )
-[X] 7 Stone for 14 000 galleons
[X] Develop the land (Free action):
-[X] Stone quarry:
Cost: 20 000 Galleons. Reward : 16 ore / turn, 1d6-3 Flawless Marble afterwards.
[X] Civilian infrastructure. (Requires Rampart step 1 to be complete to be built : One building of the kind may be built per turn.)
-[X]Market: 25 000G
Once the clearing was done, he could appreciate the damage that was done. They had to remove at least one meter of corrupted earth from the ground, and dig another bed for the river that had overflowed for some strange reason. Hey hey~Don't you knoooow? Swamp is the best defensive terrain ever!
The water still hadn't been evacuated and Dace was struck with a strange thought. Letting that place become a natural swamp could be a great Idea, if the preliminary reports from his hunter teams were correct, there were about half a dozen creatures native from that kind of terrain that had shown to be compatible with the Nature energy from this place... A N D! The Life-Death circle is muuuch more prominent than in your regular, silly plains and mountains~
Still, for that, he had to make sure he could access proper resources. He couldn't keep relying on importations, considering ihe wasn't certain those industries would still exist in a decade...
Also, those prices were outrageous, so he may need to do something about that too. In the end, he chose to do both, using the ages old method of throwing money at one's problems until they go away. He eyed his paperwork pile in consideration....
What does Dace do?
[] Change terrain to swamp. Good boy~Good boy~
[] Keep terrain as it is. Oh my~Perhaps you didn't understand me? I said, G E T T H E S W A M P
November 20th 1985
[X] Dwellings (Free action)(Requires Rampart step 1 to be complete to be built : One building of the kind may be built per turn.)
-[X] Druid's circle: Produces 2 Druids / turn. Costs 5 Wood, 5 Stones, 10 Gems, 6 000G
Still, despite Dace's best efforts, the information spread, probably from the mole in the Ministry, and soon, everybody knew that he'd been attacked at his hime by a dark wizard leading an army of inferi.
At the very least, that had the positive effect to make it so some people volunteered to train and becore druids without having to launch recruitment drives, which was just fine by him. They'd have to fill a form in case of death though, because sending letters to the families was a chore. I suppose they could have some uses, for squishy humans anyways. Though, in the long term, I expect something is done about them.
December 5th 1985
[X] Spend time with one of your SLs: +2 RP
-[X] Catch up with Oliver: ??? SL revealed ( take 2 ! ) Rolled 6 + 5 - 10 Nat1 = 1 Needed 60 (he's pretty annoyed) : Near negative Failure~
Oliver, when Dace decided to find him, was in his quarters, folding clothes in what seemed to be a camping bag. He was wearing heavy combat boots and had traded his cowboy attire for an almost miltaristic one. Maps on Dace's right attracted his attention and he looked for a bit. It seemed the younger man had found something worth investigating.
A hand clad in brown leather fingerless gloves grabbed the maps and he piled them up in the bag too, eliciting a mildly surprised reaction from Dace. Oliver finally stopped cramming items in his bag and turned towards his employer, arms crossed over his chest revealing new, blackened scars, remains of the curses that he suffered from.
"You wanted something?" He asked, his expression revealing nothing and his eyes fixed on Dace's face.
...He may not understand people, but even he could understand that the man in front of him was not in the best of moods. The reason, though... Empathy check :5 Required 50. Failure.
...Evaded him completely.
Still, there was no reason for him not to listen to his employees' grievances, right?
Oliver's foot was tapping the floor impatiently and he spoke as Dace was still thinking about what to say.
"I'll be taking a few months' vacation. Got something I need to check and the earlier the better, so if you don't have anything to say..." He looked emphatetically at the door, while strapping the bag on his back and visibly preparing himself to go out.
What does Dace do?
[]Talk to Oliver Dear me, your employee is so undisciplined, such a waste of good genetics ~
[] Don't
December 23rd 1985
[X] Never let it be said a wedding couldn't be an opportunity.
The maps and lists Martha had gathered were interesting enough, but when coupled with the knowledge from the archives, it revealed a whole new quantity of information, that Dace could turn to his advantage.
For example, the fact that one of the base elements required for the creation of a next anchor was under the Green Alley and ripe for the picking. Of course, he'd have to be an idiot to keep that laying around the place, especially since he didn't know if the other factions could use it too, which is why he went with Martha, to one of his potions shops, only to find it ablaze, minions rampaging in the streets
Wat do ? Well~ This is troubling, those energies... That whore!
[]Write in. 'That you Ceridwen? I knew I recognized that stench from somewhere! Still slobbering on your mistress' feet like the good little bitch you are?
I'll get you back for this Andraste ,even if I have to strangle you myself!
Heh. With the bozos you allied yourself to, I'd be surprised if you would fight your way out of a paperbag.
If you havent noticed it yet, that was a [Martial interrupt] ! Why am I even... Andraste, please keep her occupied for a sec. I have a plan.
You're the arbiter! You're not supposed to take sides!
I told you didn't I? Not anymore. Since people refused to behave, neither shall I. I will now cleave a Path to Victory for my chosen one, and not sorry, darling, but you're in my way.
Do you feel it ? that leash loosening?
Good news, things didn't catch fire in Summer!
Bad news, they just did now Aaaand someone got the Andraste patronage. She can be a massive bitch huh
Will update info section tomorrow~
Edit: Forgot to take off some of the checks. Oh well. They can stay.
-10 to all Rampart related rolls until the situation is resolved (aka, the paperwork is organized again). Riddle gains awareness of your base's layout. Riddle gains awareness of the zone map. Riddle gains a +10 roll against your faction.
Aaand we should have taken 2 survey actions. Darn.
Bolded letters spell out 'getheswamoby' Ceridwen really, really wants us to get the swamp. For the Grail I really want Dace to drink it. Each category he gets up to 25 gives us an extra action. I think talking with Oliver isn't going to work well.
Anyone have any better ideas for the write-in besides sic Martha on the enemies?
Once the clearing was done, he could appreciate the damage that was done. They had to remove at least one meter of corrupted earth from the ground, and dig another bed for the river that had overflowed for some strange reason. Hey hey~Don't you knoooow? Swamp is the best defensive terrain ever!
The water still hadn't been evacuated and Dace was struck with a strange thought. Letting that place become a natural swamp could be a great Idea, if the preliminary reports from his hunter teams were correct, there were about half a dozen creatures native from that kind of terrain that had shown to be compatible with the Nature energy from this place... A N D! The Life-Death circle is muuuch more prominent than in your regular, silly plains and mountains~
Still, for that, he had to make sure he could access proper resources. He couldn't keep relying on importations, considering ihe wasn't certain those industries would still exist in a decade...
Also, those prices were outrageous, so he may need to do something about that too. In the end, he chose to do both, using the ages old method of throwing money at one's problems until they go away. He eyed his paperwork pile in consideration....
What does Dace do?
[] Change terrain to swamp. Good boy~Good boy~
[] Keep terrain as it is. Oh my~Perhaps you didn't understand me? I said, G E T T H E S W A M P They'd have to fill a form in case of death though, because sending letters to the families was a chore. I suppose they could have some uses, for squishy humans anyways. Though, in the long term, I expect something is done about them.
...He may not understand people, but even he could understand that the man in front of him was not in the best of moods. The reason, though... Empathy check :5 Required 50. Failure.
...Evaded him completely.
[]Talk to Oliver Dear me, your employee is so undisciplined, such a waste of good genetics ~
Wat do ? Well~ This is troubling, those energies... That whore!
[]Write in. 'That you Ceridwen? I knew I recognized that stench from somewhere! Still slobbering on your mistress' feet like the good little bitch you are? I'll get you back for this Andraste ,even if I have to strangle you myself! Heh. With the bozos you allied yourself to, I'd be surprised if you would fight your way out of a paperbag.
If you havent noticed it yet, that was a [Martial interrupt] ! Why am I even... Andraste, please keep her occupied for a sec. I have a plan. You're the arbiter! You're not supposed to take sides! I told you didn't I? Not anymore. Since people refused to behave, neither shall I. I will now cleave a Path to Victory for my chosen one, and not sorry, darling, but you're in my way.
Plan: We done diddly goofed.
[X] Change terrain to swamp.
[X]Talk to Oliver
-[X] apologize for the near constant risk his life has been in during our employ.
--[X] apologize for the deaths of his human friends too...admit we fucked up horrendously.
---[X] dont forget to Express how sorry we are his dragon friends were injured and driven off.
----[X] ask if he could forgive us? What must we do?
-----[X] Inquire as to him having an idea of reclaiming the dragons (or at least hatching their left over eggs).
[X] pick up Martha (bridal style preferable)
-[X] "LOL, nope!" The shit out of that entire scenario
--[X] telaport out.
I thought Oliver didn't die? He was just injured right?
[X] Change terrain to swamp.
[X] Fountain's powers on chibi
[X]Talk to Oliver
-[X] apologize for the near constant risk his life has been in during our employ.
--[x] also apologize for...you know...him almost dieing
---[X] apologize for the deaths of his human friends too...admit we fucked up horrendously.
----[X] dont for get to Express how sorry we are his dragon friends were injured and driven off.
-----[X] ask if he could forgive us? What must we do?
------[X] Inquire as to him having an idea of reclaiming the dragons (or at least hatching their left over eggs).
[X] Bonding time with the wife
-[X] rally the wizards defences
--[X] unleash the beast (wife again)
---[X] cover Martha with spell fire, both normal and druidic as the situation calls for it.
Martha said he broke his arm falling from the dragon. But yeah, talking right now isn't going to work. Changing my vote.
[X] Plan: Give Dace more actions
-[X] Change terrain to swamp.
-[X] Fountain's powers on Dace
-[X] Don't
-[X] Bonding time with the wife
--[X] rally the wizards defences
---[X] unleash the beast (wife again)
----[X] cover Martha with spell fire, both normal and druidic as the situation calls for it.
Plan: We still done diddly goofed but were committed, damn it!
[X] Change terrain to swamp.
[X]Talk to Oliver
-[X] apologize for the near constant risk his life has been in during our employ.
--[X] apologize for the deaths of his human friends too...admit we fucked up horrendously.
---[X] dont forget to Express how sorry we are his dragon friends were injured and driven off.
----[X] ask if he could forgive us? What must we do?
-----[X] Inquire as to him having an idea of reclaiming the dragons (or at least hatching their left over eggs).
[X] this do: rally the wizards defences
-[X] make extensive use of tranfiguration to turn rubble, couple dozen tigers lions and bears each.
--[X] have our minions assist Martha (keep a few with us just in case)
---[X] cover Martha from a distance, keep her from being flanked, surrounded, sniped, that sort of thing.
[X] Plan: Muddy relationships.
[X] Change terrain to swamp.
[X] Fountain's powers on Martha
[X] Don't
[X] If I can't have it, you can't have it.
-[X] Wipe out the area with the targets with the most effective spells.
--[X] unleash the beast (wife again)
---[X] cover Martha with spell fire, both normal and druidic as the situation calls for it.
End the threat before the divine can escalate it.
Oliver got a curse mark, making him the chosen one???. Which is good. I think. Unless it gives us more enemies, which is almost as given at this point.
Martha said he broke his arm falling from the dragon. But yeah, talking right now isn't going to work. Changing my vote.
[X] Plan: Give Dace more actions
-[X] Change terrain to swamp.
-[X] Fountain's powers on Dace
-[X] Don't
-[X] Bonding time with the wife
--[X] rally the wizards defences
---[X] unleash the beast (wife again)
----[X] cover Martha with spell fire, both normal and druidic as the situation calls for it.
Just letting you know that it'll take like 5ish years to get Dace extra actions by using the fountain on him. Don't know if you'll find that a worthwhile investment.
It might be better to start investing in Chibi earlier so you can have a super unit ready to go later on. She's already managed to hit one of the base caps and is only like 5. Dace is still technically the tutorial character.