Remove ads

Respect Your Elders v2 - Galactic Boogaloo [Warhammer Lizardmen Quest]

Reader mode
Fezzes said:
Someone else played that game!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I think I've mentioned it before in this thread, but it was actually one of the many subconscious sources of inspiration for this quest, along with the Elder Things from Lovecraft's works, the pseudo-aztec vibe the Yajuta temple in Alien vs Predator gave off, and various other precursor races in fiction. I forgot it was even a thing until a little while ago.
 
One of the slan spoke.

"I spoke in favor of turning the mind fog into a seed so that we might use it against chaos, setting up a narrative of their tools turning against their masters, in the hopes that one day we might be able to more easily reverse their corruption, and free their champions from their control. The last time we removed a champion from their hands, it took so much of our effort, in no small part because we have not often done such a thing...[there was a quick burst of info, roughly summarized as "flip enough coins, and odds are at least one will come up heads, lets flip as many coins as we can"]

"To use it against chaos in this particular way, however...we would be giving ourselves to the worst possible interpretation of that narrative. We would be becoming like Chaos. We did not spend years of effort studying and fighting the fog just so we could enslave another with it. I am in favor of using it to keep the ayacmanic from falling to chaos, yes...but not like this..."

"Perhaps if the need were truly dire. Perhaps if the Plan itself commanded it... but our need is not dire. The Plan does not command this, and if it did I would search for another interpretation. We would be condemning them to the same torment we endured for so long...for a small bit of convenience. I find this option...monstrous. Yes. That is the word..."
 
Remove ads
Oh'Bee One Knee-Noble - Always Late
  • Sidestory
    • Oh'Bee One Kee-Noble​

    Among the first few generations of Saurus who found renown in the new world after the departure of Mallus, many defined themselves as great generals and warlords. But few defined themselves as duelists. And only one did so while taking a step unseen in over a thousand years by becoming something akin to a warrior-monk. Kee-Noble was that Saurus.

    Spawned as a Temple Guard with the blessing of sky-blue head and shoulders, the sign of the sky-messenger Uxmac, Oh'Bee One was chosen to inherit one of a matched set of Relic helmets, six helms forged from a mother Carnosaur and Stegaton that had battle each other along with their whelps for a full three days and nights before locking themselves together in death. From the mother Stegadon was forged The Helm Of The Bright Lord, or more simply The Bright Helm. When he placed the helm upon his head, Oh'Bee displayed something disconcerting and unusual for a Temple Guard in that he stopped his task of picking up his weapons. Instead, he looked around. He beheld the ancient carvings and glyphs around him with a focused analysis and searching curiosity. Increased intelligence and cunning had always been a hallmark of the Bright Helm, but to act as such was unprecedented. His Spawned Sergeant barked a command to obey and moved to administer a likley lethal punishment. But the Slann in attendance, Master of the Second Generation Yuu'Dai, bid him to stay his blade with but a thought. Creating a lesser form of the psychic Communion between himself and the Temple Guard, Kee-Noble was convinced that his purpose was best suited by gaining the experience of the Temple Guard ranks before moving on to the destiny The Old Ones had written in the stars for him.

    To guard a ruin or relic undeserving of a Slann's attention is considered the most basic duty of a Temple Guard, the main test of each spawning's discipline and prowess. For Kee-Noble, it was more. A chance to meditate on the knowledge he possessed through his Helm. A chance to truly study the Relics he was tasked with guarding. But above all, to commune with the world around him. While others of his spawning moved on to guarding cities or important heroes and lords, Kee-Noble politely declined all appointments. He was content looking after those that had the least. Relics touched by the Old Ones, but not worth the effort of full Temple Guard units due to its inactive of enigmatic nature. Popular paths for treasure-hunters that ran afoul of things not meant for Warmblood eyes. Small outposts and villages of skinks possessing little to no Kroxigor laborers. It was this latter category that brought Kee-Noble to the first step on the path of destiny on the final days of Mallus.

    In the Skaven's opening moves to take Lustria, a small village was considered a key staging ground for a Skryre subterranean assault on a Temple City. Knee-Noble was alerted by a Skink forager, but knew his plea for help would not get the force needed in time. So he asked the local Skink Priest Quii-yatl, a confidant and pseudo-teacher to the Temple Guard, to send a communion message to the Mage Priest Yuu'Dai:

    I can hold with only five of my kin.

    Yuu'dai did not misunderstand the message or delay in honoring it, as in the village center arcane energy of the geomantic web crackled before revealing not only a small detatchment of Saurus Warriors, but the leaders of those who had been dispatched to protect the village: The other five members of the Helm-Bearers. En-Sid Aou, the Dominator. Tlacochcalcatl Tlahuelli, the Warlord. Katan Dagran, the Duelist. Quetz-Quin Ilhuicac, the General. Tlahui-Xalli, The Channeler.

    Under the cosmic gaze of Yuu'Dai, these six would defy the odds and enter legend. Despite the short time before the Skaven struck, Oh'Bee One Knee-Noble would lead the six in training the villagers in the use of spear and shield. How to stand, strike, and fade away from the enemy. When the onslaught arrived, he stand between the Skink Priest and Skryre's attempts to assassinate the village defenders' command structure. Warplock Jezzail teams attempting to shoot Skink Chiefs or Saurus Scar-Veterans in the back found their bullets ricocheting back through their glass lenses. Eventually, a line of Ratling Gunners was brought up and given orders to simply level the main building of the village's Priest. Yet, amidst the storm of baleful green energy, the Skryre Warplock Engineers watched in astonishment as their shots started returning back to them with ever more lethal accuracy and number. Upon giving the order to cease fire, the clearing of smoke from the target showed the structure had indeed been shredded by the foul industrialized firearms. But behind the perfectly hale Temple Guard who commanded the defense, the Skink Priest and his retinue stood unharmed. Enraged, one of the commanding Engineers grabbed a DoomRocket from one of his fellows and fired it at the dauntless Guard in a fit of rage. Calmly, Oh'Bee One let his shield fall to the ground and gripped his relic sword with both hands. As the unpredictably zipping rocket reached its destination, Knee-Noble struck like a diving bird of prey. The rocket cleanly snapped around and arced back towards its masters. The Commanders of Skyre only watched in blank astonishment as the rocket completed its return journey, obliterating them all.

    The battle would yet rage on, but Oh'Bee One Knee'Noble had carved his mark in the destiny of the Lizardmen tribe. And the enemies of the Old Ones would know naught but defeat.

    Traits:
    Blessing of Swiftness: While the Temple Guard are often deployed against the flanks of an enemy in the traditional role of elite infantry, they do not do so with the same speed as Cold One Riders or other cavalry, for theirs is to be living battering rams of unyielding might and will. While this is just as true for Oh'Bee One Knee'Noble, he does not do so with the weight of armor and cold blood in his veins. Not only his charging speed, but reaction time and swiftness of striking has been blessed by the sky-winging messenger of the Old Ones.

    Soul of Serenity: Having spent many centuries meditating in the jungles of Lustria on the Slann and the teachings of the Old Ones, Oh'Bee One has garnered a reputation for a level, rational demeanor even among other Saurus. He has spoken to the occasional supplicant on his observations, but never claims to be any substitute for a Skink or Slann, as the Old Ones designed them so. In addition to moderating the occasional dispute between Lizardmen, he can fully channel his entire attention without distraction to a single task in the heat of battle.


    Equipment:
    Helm Of The Bright Lord: A massive Temple Guard helmet made from the skull of a dead mother Stegadon and carved with glyphs of anchoring souls. It's known for granting the wearer increased knowledge and initiative, but in Oh'Bee's possession it has led to something more similar to mortal self-awareness and determination.

    3rd Arm of Polarity: A set of vambrace and cuirass armor enchanted to conceptually enhance the concept of 'polarity'. That is, the ability to be pushed or pulled based on its relation to two points in space. Any action that Oh'Bee One takes that calls on this principle can be enhanced or altered based on his concentration. He can throw his sword or shield in such a manner that it decapitates the target then arcs back to him. Projectiles ricochet off metal to fly back to the sender. Opponents in heavy metal find their footing drawn forward or forced back to make them stumble or slow at a critical moment.

    A/N: @Xantalos, one of seven down, six to go. Hope this gave you something to work with.
     
  • Sidestory
    • [X] Tiktaq'to/Chakax Purging Parasites
    [X] Consult Relic Priests - Technology
    [X] Exotic Dinosaur Spawning
    [X] Ghyran Skink Priests
     
    Remove ads
    Consult 30 5th Gen Relic Priests on Technology: 1 4th Gen, 10 5th Gen

    Time flowed differently in the Relic Vaults.

    Many skinks had ventured down into them in recent years at the command of the slann. The mages had communed with their dead brethren and been shown the location of a relic - a weapon from times past that had been resting in the vaults for thousands of years. But though the slann had been shown where it was, the dimensions of the vaults were bizarre and convoluted even to their minds, and for them alone to search for the correct path would eat up too much time that could be used for divining the artifact's purpose.

    So it was that hundreds of lizardmen had been sent into the Vaults of the four cities that had come from Mallus, and made to search their winding halls for what the Relic Priests had spoken of.

    They wandered, and the deeper into the vaults they delved, the stranger they became. The vaults were a dark, confined mass of hallways that went on for indeterminable lengths, turning into and out of themselves at angles that should intersect each other but did not. It was possible to walk for a year down one stretch of hallway and wind up at the same intersection as another path which took but a few minutes to traverse.

    Thus it was that when the last of the skinks that had been sent down to find the artifact emerged in Tlaxtlan (though they had entered in Itza), they had been within the Vaults for merely two years, but had aged more than a century.

    The device they carried with them was taken by the oldest azyr and chamon skink priests in the city and borne into the largest of the city's newly designed spellforges, where it was pored over by specialists of every field and subjected to careful testing with methods both material and magical until its purpose was at last divined.

    It was a humble sphere of bronze, marked all over with glyphs that had had several varieties of magically receptive gemstones ground up and sprinkled into the grooves. The glyphs were divided into eight distinct sections, which were quickly recognized as being characteristic of a certain wind of magic, and around the middle was a band of unadorned gold.

    The artifact's function was not derived until some years after it had been found, when it was cautiously infused with an equal amount of all eight winds of magic. Upon infusion, the symbols on the sphere lit up with their wind's color, and began to bleed gently through into the gold band around the middle. A chamon skink priest was made to take hold of it and attempt to access the thing's reserve of the golden wind, with his slann master X'romjekn standing by in case a dangerous effect was triggered.

    Fortunately, X'romjekn was able to disable the artifact when he sensed what it was doing - the skink priest's interaction with it had triggered what was in effect a pre-made spell, one that would induce potential fault lines in any material nearby it to explosively materialize through the use of chamon, essentially shattering everything in its radius.

    Further testing with different subjects, ranging from all four varieties of skink priest to saurus warriors to the slann themselves, revealed the truth of the artifact. It was a bomb of sorts, a sphere capable of absorbing magic and channeling it in an area around itself in accordance with the input of its user, mostly in a bluntly destructive manner. It could blind those in its radius with hysh, incinerate them with aqshy, blast them with celestial lightning or steal the life from its targets with shyish. It was even possible to blend multiple winds together if the input was correctly modulated, allowing for a more varied range of effects.

    Artifact Found - Glyph Sphere! This bronze orb, ringed by gold and carved with gem-laden glyphs, can store moderate amounts of magical energy and release it around itself in various pre-configured, destructive ways - essentially functioning like a magical grenade. It is possible to conjure a large variety of effects with correct input and sufficient charge to the device, which will require extensive training but render it a potent, versatile weapon of war. Options unlocked!

    -----

    [] Reconstitution
    [] Chasing the Storm
    [] Assign Slann Rulers
    [] Found New City - SW of Chalkaro
    [] Tiktaq'to/Chakax Purging Parasites
    [] Exotic Dinosaur Spawning
    [X] Ghyran Skink Priests
    [] Scry and Spy Both Orks
    [] Scry and Spy North Continent
    [] Scry and Spy South Continent
     
    Last edited:
    Xantalos said:
    It was even possible to blend multiple winds together if the input was correctly modulated, allowing for a more varied range of effects.

    Artifact Found - Glyph Sphere! This bronze orb, ringed by gold and carved with gem-laden glyphs, can store moderate amounts of magical energy and release it around itself in various pre-configured, destructive ways - essentially functioning like a magical grenade. It is possible to conjure a large variety of effects with correct input and sufficient charge to the device, which will require extensive training but render it a potent, versatile weapon of war. Options unlocked!
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Is it just me or is this weapon of war basically an invaluable tool for discerning how multiple winds interact and combine?
    I mean, if we can precisely adjust percentages, this tool is incredibly useful for that sort of research
    Who knows, if we study the sphere and skink priestcspawning mechanisms enough, we might be able to create skink priests of wind combinations
     
    Xantalos said:
    Many skinks had ventured down into them in recent years at the command of the slann. The mages had communed with their dead brethren and been shown the location of a relic - a weapon from times past that had been resting in the vaults for thousands of years. But though the slann had been shown where it was, the dimensions of the vaults were bizarre and convoluted even to their minds, and for them alone to search for the correct path would eat up too much time that could be used for divining the artifact's purpose.

    So it was that hundreds of lizardmen had been sent into the Vaults of the four cities that had come from Mallus, and made to search their winding halls for what the Relic Priests had spoken of.

    They wandered, and the deeper into the vaults they delved, the stranger they became. The vaults were a dark, confined mass of hallways that went on for indeterminable lengths, turning into and out of themselves at angles that should intersect each other but did not. It was possible to walk for a year down one stretch of hallway and wind up at the same intersection as another path which took but a few minutes to traverse.

    Thus it was that when the last of the skinks that had been sent down to find the artifact emerged in Tlaxtlan (though they had entered in Itza), they had been within the Vaults for merely two years, but had aged more than a century.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    So it's a combination of Mars' vaults with Warpcraft dimensional fuckery. It'll take potent sorcerers decades if not centuries working in concert to unlock.
    Xantalos said:
    It was a humble sphere of bronze, marked all over with glyphs that had had several varieties of magically receptive gemstones ground up and sprinkled into the grooves. The glyphs were divided into eight distinct sections, which were quickly recognized as being characteristic of a certain wind of magic, and around the middle was a band of unadorned gold.

    The artifact's function was not derived until some years after it had been found, when it was cautiously infused with an equal amount of all eight winds of magic. Upon infusion, the symbols on the sphere lit up with their wind's color, and began to bleed gently through into the gold band around the middle. A chamon skink priest was made to take hold of it and attempt to access the thing's reserve of the golden wind, with his slann master X'romjekn standing by in case a dangerous effect was triggered.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Huh. A Magic Grenade. That's neat. If we can reverse engineer it it'll make a nice surprise for any magic-heavy duels.

    Xantalos said:
    Didn't catch whatever name references there were, but I like it regardless!

    Also this means darth maul is a skaven.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Probably. He's not one of the Sith I put on the Temple Guard, that being Palpatine, Grievous, and Dooku.
     
    Xantalos said:
    Artifact Found - Glyph Sphere! This bronze orb, ringed by gold and carved with gem-laden glyphs, can store moderate amounts of magical energy and release it around itself in various pre-configured, destructive ways - essentially functioning like a magical grenade. It is possible to conjure a large variety of effects with correct input and sufficient charge to the device, which will require extensive training but render it a potent, versatile weapon of war. Options unlocked!
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I wonder if the Skaven once looted one of these, maybe a defect one, and reverse-engineered the Brass Orb from it.
     
    Ah, multiple use Magical Grenade, even. Because why not recycle your magical artifact of limited destruction?
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top