Update will be up tomorrow. Just gotta do some proofreading and make sure my cats don't overheat and die in the ridiculous heat wave I'm going through at the moment.
Update will be up tomorrow. Just gotta do some proofreading and make sure my cats don't overheat and die in the ridiculous heat wave I'm going through at the moment.
Oh, @Simon_Jester, just a minor thing to clarify - I'm looking at the actual plan and you've got ... Tlaxtlan's assisting slann doing mobility spells instead of Itza's, when Itza's the legion that's zooming out to mop up the crash site of Gardakka and Tunzak. Should I assume that's just a typo?
I can't recall exactly, but I also think some of 40k's Black Crusades were also ran this way, with the Imperial players being remarkably well-coordinated with which battles they chose, ultimately resulting in Abbadon getting his ass beaten every time he tried. So in a sense, the whole Armless Failure meme actually came whole-cloth from the fans themselves.
Or maybe that was just the 13th one, I'm not entirely sure.
IIRC there was a broad divergence among the various imperial factions-the Dark Angels for instance, stacked their wins high upon The Rock, at the cost of tanking their stats everywhere else, but getting 94% control of The Rock. All for the low low cost of not actually having any impact on the rest of the campaign. The overall imperial campaign on the ground was actually a slow, but grindy loss, being worn away under the unrelenting storms of Chaos. But there was another game, a Specialist Game. Battlefleet Gothic matches determined who controlled the stars-and with mass torpedo spam, Nova Cannon guesswork and solid teamwork the Imperial Navy won the day over Cadia, leaving Abaddon cut off from resupply and reinforcements. Overall dominance in the navy game was something like 70-30 in the Cadia system, making it clear that the 13th Black Crusade was about to grind to a halt at the very first stepping stone. Sure, Abaddon held most of the surface of Cadia-but there were still landing zones in loyalist hands, and fresh troops being flown in daily while his forces were increasingly vulnerable to bombardments. That's where the first 13th Black Crusade campaign ended.
As the raging tidal wave of the orks pulled back from the lizardmen to gather up momentum once more, the servants of the Old Ones began a number of practices that had become almost routine over the past few decades and the tumultuous centuries preceding this latest war. The walls of two temple-cities had suffered minor damage, which would need repairs. Freshly spawned lizardmen arose from the spawning pools to replace those that had been slain during the conflict, and the various forges and armories throughout the network of cities were kept busy with the task of arming them, to say nothing of the need to manufacture sufficient Fireblood Plates to equip everyone with. Streams of workers coursed along the lizardmen's smooth stone roads like blood through veins, bringing materials, workers, and orders everywhere they needed to be.
And as the lizardmen travelled from city to city, a new god went with them.
The faith of Ayotzl was primarily taken up by two groups initially - the first was the populations of Xlanhuapec and Tekuanzi, both of which were cities that resonated strongly with the creed of the Mist Swimmer, to say nothing of the fact that the turtle-god's prophet had made his home in the City of Bones. These lizardmen helped to spread the faith in the lizardmen's heartlands, sending priests and builders through the network of relatively newly-established cities and the Eldest Four alike. Due to Tekuanzi's close positioning to Qotlpetl, the rising religion was even able to interface with the Cult of Sotek, coming to an agreement with the toothy war god. Under Krom'tli's theological guidance, the followers of Ayotzl built mausoleum temples of pale stone in every city they came to, converting many of the kroxigors that were tasked to aid them.
The second group of faithful did not originate from any one city, but rather had found Ayotzl in the crucible of battle. The saurus who had stood sentinel on the walls of Muukhexla and Tletl'notec, casting down wave after wave of orks with gunfire and magical weaponry as the greenskins assaulted the fortifications again and again, the teams of skinks sent out to tally the dead of ally and enemy alike, had experienced death in a manner quite unlike what the scriptures of Sotek preached. They had been able to appraise the conflict in a cool and collected fashion, at least compared to the frantic slaughter of their early campaigns against the orks. Their task had been to grind the enemy down, to preserve their lives as much as possible and to allow death to find its way to their foes.
Such actions naturally appealed to Ayotzl, and many of the lizardmen who had been on the warfront found themselves receiving visions from the Fog Guardian in the days afterwards. They formed a second avenue of conversion, spreading the message through the lizardmen military that Sotek was not the only divinity watching over the battlefield.
Thus did the Death Turtle find adherents amidst the eastern front, guarding the souls of those soon to face the orks once more. Curiously enough, the faith even found some reception in the infamously neutral Temple Guard breed, a thing that had never occurred with Sotek, despite the snake-cult's best efforts. While not a common sight by any means, it was no longer unknown to see a steely-eyed Temple Guardian with a bone turtle-shaped charm present on their person.
Faith in Ayotzl has increased by the following measurements: 15% Saurus, 5% Skinks, 15% Kroxigor. Front page totals updated to 20/10/30.
Repair Cities (2 Yagoqua city actions) - Muukhexla and Tletl'notec
Construct Sacred Sites (2 Muukhexla city actions)
As the business of repairing the damage to the Temple-Cities affected by the war continued, a large number of skink priest cabals, many featuring new Ulgu-attuned members, accompanied the build teams going to the City of Strength. It had been decided by the councils of elder skink administrators that ran the day-to-day business of the lizardmen that further reinforcement of the city was appropriate. Another Uax incursion was inevitable, and every sign from wizened saurus strategists and Azyr priest diviners pointed to Muukhexla as being their next target.
To that end, ancient records had been consulted, mystic diagrams laid over stone tablets of the city's infrastructure. Millennia-old skink priests debated with each other and consulted the attendants of occupied slann to determine the proper form of magical effect to plan for when creating a Sacred Site. It took time, discussion, and much analysis of campaigns and cities that had existed in past epochs, but with due diligence, a solution was found and crafted. It was tested in miniature a hundred times over, each aspect of its design poked and prodded to ensure nothing would go awry. And at length, approval was given.
A short distance to the west of Muukhexla, a great many loops and arches of stone blended with metal were hauled to a patch of clear-cut jungle. A smooth, glossy block of obsinite had been laid over the ground, and circuitous tracks were cut into its surface, forming a network of shallow channels in the stone that connected to each other in overlapping circles of many sizes.
The lizardmen brought out ten perfectly spherical diamonds that were each three meters in diameter. These were the product of extensive transmutation efforts by entire teams of Chamon skinks, and the cornerstone of this project. They had glossy, smooth surfaces, but within they sparkled and shone with thousands of facets that caught the light from every angle. They were each brought to a specific point upon the obsinite slab, and spells inlaid into the stone activated as the Web pumped power into them. The diamond orbs were suspended in midair, and varying numbers and sizes of stone loops were hung around them, held up by the same invisible power.
Ten great gyroscopes were thus assembled at equidistant points, their hoops hanging motionless around them like planetary orbital paths. Once everything had been triple-checked and all the lizardmen workers had retreated to a safe distance from the artifacts, a magical signal was passed back to the lizardmen in Muukhexla and the Sacred Site was fully powered on.
For a moment nothing visible happened, only a silent hum that sprung from the diamond orbs and permeated the clearing, setting scales bristling. Then, after several minutes, the stone loops suspended around the diamonds began to move. At first they simply rotated, each ring spinning in the opposite direction of the ones beside it. Then, as they picked up speed, they began to move upon other axes, rotating horizontally, vertically, diagonally. They picked up speed, spinning faster and faster, varying their pattern of movement in relation to each other until it looked as if each diamond was encased in a flowing, intersecting net of stone. And as the rings spun, the diamonds began to glow, their crystalline structure storing the accumulated kinetic energy within themselves as blazing light.
The gyroscopes began to move, each one following a different track that had been inscribed into the obsinite below. They moved with stately grace, tracing curves and arches and spirals that almost sent them crashing into their neighboring constructs, but always missed by a hair's breadth. Onward they went, faster and faster, spinning up to their full speed over the span of several days while the Site as a whole harvested the cast-off motion of Muukhexla's inhabitants. It was not long before the magical machine was running at full capacity, its gyroscopes carving blazing afterimages across the eyes of any who beheld them, and the construct began to dole out pieces of its accumulated force.
Lizardmen across Muukhexla began to have their actions augmented at fortuitous times. Kroxigors working to process waste stone saw their pickaxe strikes splitting rock with vastly increased ease, allowing them to complete their tasks in a fraction of the time. Saurus hunting parties could throw spears at impossible velocities, dash fast enough to crack the air, and rip full-grown trees out of the ground barehanded. Skinks tending to dinosaur herds found both their charges and themselves protected by invisible shields of force from biting insects, ambush predators, and opportunistic Ayacmanik, with attacks simply bouncing off their skin. As long as the Acceleration Capacitor continued its operation, there was nothing that could contest the lizardmen of Muukhexla, for each of their blows struck with the force of ten thousand steps.
Sacred Site built at Muukhexla! The Acceleration Capacitor is a device that siphons excess kinetic energy from within the surrounding area - from the wind, the movement of the lizardmen, the rotational force of the planet - and stores it in a set of whirling gyroscopes. It then redistributes that force back to the city's lizardmen at opportune moments, allowing an attack to land with several thousand more pounds of force than normal, passively enhancing the workforce of the city, and protecting its inhabitants by forming temporary shields of pure force around their bodies when attacked.
Kanyon Repair- Groundwater Extraction
-2 Tletl'notec and 1 Xlanhuapec city actions
-1 Third Spawning slann, 40 Fifth Spawning slann
Early in the decade, Isendral left her southern sanctum for the first time in many years. Her mind was still troubled by the absence of her husband, and a part of her longed to fixate upon that fact, to search and seek and obsess over the issue until it was done and he was found, but her self-control was greater than her base urges. He would return eventually, willing or not, and there were other things to do in the meantime. Older promises to keep.
She appeared near Tletl'notec without any indication that she had left her continent - instead she simply walked out of the jungle overlooking the Kanyon's meeting point with the sea, flanked by a retinue of things that were neither plant nor animal, but resembled a strange mix of the two. There were hexapod, predator-like things of woven vine and moss, with hardened wood in place of bones and claws and teeth. Some were humanoid, with leaf-covered skin and bundles of roots extending from their arms in place of grasping digits. Others resembled birds or insects of various sizes, with flower petal wings and soft bodies that puffed out clouds of spores and pollen with every wingbeat. Their forms were as varied as the life-webs of the Mochantian jungles, and they moved in Isendral's wake like soldiers following their general.
They coursed over the ridge they stood upon and down over a bomb-blasted incline, down a hill that had been scoured down to bare rock only a month ago, wiped clean by the pounding rush of orkish feet and lizardmen bullets and bombs. The jungle had wasted no time in reclaiming it; already there were tangled carpets of vines and rock-boring flowers extending from the jungle line, isolated patches of trees that had walked out to the unoccupied space it represented, patches of acidic lichen that ate away at the stone to produce nutrition. As Isendral and her constructs moved down the hillside, however, they left a trail of vitality in their wake. Seeds and spores dropped off the sides of her creatures, infused with energy that caused them to grow at stupendous rates. Patches of soil materialized wherever Isendral stepped, and each footprint left dozens of stems already poking up from the ground.
They reached the Kanyon in minutes, Isendral's creatures flowing smoothly over the cratered stone lip and descending into the chasm proper. Some sunk hooked, thorny appendages into the stone and clambered down the wall, some flexed thin, shimmering wings and dove into empty space, and others extended vinelike tendrils around outcroppings and into crevices, resembling emerald cephalopods as they made their descent. Isendral, for her part, stood on the edge of the Kanyon, a slowly-spreading patch of greenery blooming from her position, and watched with sharp eyes as the lizardmen city across the divide responded to her presence.
Obsidian gates opened, admitting teams of scaled giants bearing great pillars and slabs of stone upon their backs. Beside them marched four-legged lizards with wide bodies and long, swinging tails that hauled gigantic carts filled to the brim with piles of stone, metal, and multicolored gems. Smaller humanoid lizards scuttled about between groups, some chattering in the ears of their larger kin, some directing the larger dinosaurs with girdle and reins, and others, these wearing colorful headdresses, coordinating the whole lot. There were stone frameworks housing gargantuan crystals of green or yellow, and scattered here or there among the growing formation were gargantuan sarcophagus-like things that shimmered with invisible energies. Many members of the assembly were clad in black stone, cut through with gleaming lines of gold and bronze, and even those that did not were clad in equipment that was clearly enhanced in some fashion - stone helms, gleaming amulets, gauntlets of metal that faintly glowed as their wielders exerted themselves.
To Isendral's eyes, the lizardmen were a glaring mass of witch-lights, every single piece of them seeming to exude some form of psychic energy that stood out to her spirit-sight. From the smooth, unbroken road they laid down behind them to the jewels affixed to their crests, everything had aether imbued into it, everything glowed and pulsed and interfaced with each other in a mutually supporting symphony of light. It was, however, dwarfed entirely by the radiance of the being that emerged behind the procession, flanked by hundreds of guards and seated upon a floating disc of stone. Its material body was bloated and grey and rubbery, amphibian skin kept moist by a number of attendants that daubed thick ointment and gels upon it periodically. Its eyes were closed, and it was seated with its long, thin arms folded in meditative repose, but Isendral knew it was aware. It shone like a cold star in the Immaterium, its presence a many-limbed thing with dozens of eyes that was constantly looking, listening, thinking. Nodules of thought extended out from it, touching with delicate grace across every facet of its expedition, and its awareness blazed like searchlights, questing idly for anything of note. Its thoughts could be seen churning in a cube with far too many sides, twisting and turning at angles impossible for most to comprehend. It more resembled a god than a mortal, with the immensity of its soul only barely constrained by its flesh.
Isendral stood and watched as the lizardmen approached, as teams of saurus that had been waiting in concealed bunkers emerged and arrayed themselves in protective formation around the growing work site. They built quickly, assembling extending scaffolds and affixing them to the sides of the Kanyon, encasing teams of their workers in sealed armor with glyphs of Hysh and Ghyran to filter the air and sending them down below. More of them continued to course out from the city, forming a small train of lizardmen going back and forth, carrying bronze orbs, tubs of water, great coils of rope, and more.
In the depths of the chasm, it was hot and dark and suffocating. The lava called up by the breaking of the earth had sunk back into the mantle long ago, but in its wake it had left great streaks of heavy metal slicks across the rocky walls, broken open pockets of toxic gas that even now leaked out with low, growling hisses, and left deposits of coal and other flammable rock burning, choking the air with thick grey smoke. Into this abyss, water had slowly crept over the years, seeping out from aquifers and underground rivers, dropped down by rainfall, sluiced in by streams and small lakes that had emptied themselves into the chasm. All this, mixed with the decomposing bodies of unwary greenskins, as well as a hefty supply of orkish fuel, ammunition, and explosives, had mixed and congealed into a hostile quagmire, a burgeoning ecological nightmare that would doubtlessly slay any unprotected creature exposed to it.
The exception to this, of course, was the greenskin menace, which had grown a population even in this most hostile of locales. Rafts of mushrooms extended mycelia across ponds of slag, drinking in what little nutrition could be found. Eyeless squigs scampered about, their flesh a rubbery, pale green, punctuated only by their ravenous maws that snapped and tore at each other and the gretchin that attempted to corral them. And of course, there were orks, too stupid to acknowledge the precariousness of their existence. They had formed into a number of small tribes that made their homes in the glossy caverns and smog-choked rivers at the bottom of the chasm, warring with each other for space and making sport of assembling grappling hooks from sewn-together squig hide and attempting to climb as high as they could.
They were torn apart in short order by Isendral's constructs, their rusty, half-built scrap weapons not availing them in the slightest against the tree-beasts. They spread out across the chasm like a tide of algae, massacring greenskins wherever they were found and covering their bodies with acidic fluid. Some of the braver orks attempted to escape their extermination by climbing the Kanyon walls, and were promptly torn to bits upon encountering the descending lizardmen teams, who had come heavily armed as a precaution.
With the stretch of the first few hundred kilometers cleared of greenskins, the cooperating parties set to work. Isendral's automatons moulded their bodies to suit the task, extruding tendrils of themselves into pools of slag and tainted water, using their own bodies as filtering systems to extract toxic elements. Internal mechanisms broke the harmful substances down, transmuting them into water, which they then used as pressurized jets to clear out hard-to-reach areas. Isendral watched through their eyes when needed, coordinating them with her thoughts and voice.
The lizardmen busied themselves with setting up infrastructure. While there were plenty of skinks sent out to purify especially hazardous areas through the usage of Glyph Spheres, there were many more that scurried up and down the Kanyon walls alongside kroxigors, directing them to build great pipes that were anchored into the side of the chasm. Once they reached the bottom, flexible rubber hoses were attached like the heads of a hydra, allowing their workers to vacuum up whole puddles of slag in minutes. As the material was pulled into the central pipes, enchantments placed in them purified and transmuted the substances within, allowing the resultant flow of water to be redirected to nourish lizardmen crops or nearby patches of jungle.
As the project continued, starting from the great plug of volcanic stone separating the Kanyon from the northern ocean and going steadily south, more and more lizardmen arrived, escorting convoys of slann and materials. The mage-priests had had their attention drawn by Isendral's proclamation, and so they came, those who could be spared, desiring to learn more about the anomalous Eldar. Headed by Ahi-Mun of the Third Generation, they joined their powers and lifted great skeins of fluid from the depths of the Kanyon, purifying them and scattering them on wind currents as vapor that would form clouds elsewhere.
Isendral also took on portions of the work herself, channeling Isha's grace in great displays of power equal to that of a Fourth Generation slann. She would transport herself to the bottom of the Kanyon, standing barefoot in its mire of toxins unharmed, and channel her magic into the earth, growing trees of shimmering, crystalline wood that exuded cleansing energies into their surroundings. The work was soothing to her, a concrete thing in her garden to labor on and correct. Something that could be set right with effort, will, and diligence. Something simple.
As time passed and the project continued, the two sides slowly took the measure of one another. In the early years, lizardmen and plant-golem worked separately, parties of each making pains to avoid encountering each other. There were no incidents of outright violence, but many Saurus were assigned to proactively defensive positions in case of a betrayal, and the hackles of Isendral's constructs were quick to raise, something in their animating energies distrusting the presence of so many armed entities near their creator.
Eventually, however, increasing familiarity wore away at ingrained wariness, and although both sides retained a certain measure of independence, it was silently acknowledged that the work would proceed quicker in unison. Plant-golems utilized their bodies as improvised syphons to redirect hard-to-reach pools of groundwater into lizardmen pipes, and careful use of Glyph Spheres allowed for the creatures to collect their intake in centralized pools to be cleansed, rather than being transported out of the Kanyon entirely. Neither side fully set down their weapons, but the speed of work increased regardless as coordination became more widespread.
Lizardmen could labor in silence for decades if given sufficient directives beforehand, but all prior observations of elves from Mallus noted that they were an intensely socially-oriented species, one that required a certain level of communication with others to maintain psychological health. The slann assigned to the Kanyon had therefore been instructed to make themselves clearly open for social interaction, for any piece of insight into their current situation that Isendral could grant the Communion was valuable.
-----
"Why do you refuse to stand?"
Ahi-Mun turned, his palanquin rotating in the air to face Isendral, who was standing in the mud just outside of his protective circle of Temple Guard. She was barefoot, and the muck built up from the work of lizardmen and psychomatons alike was deep enough that it had begun to cling to the bottom of her robe. She seemed to take no heed of this, nor of the murderous gazes and halberds that Ahi-Mun's guardians leveled at her.
With a wave from the slann's flabby arm, the bristling circle of scales parted and a skink intermediary scurried to Ahi-Mun's side. Isendral strode through the gap in the Temple Guard, cocking her head to the side as Ahi-Mun rumbled deep in his throat and shifted his weight slightly, blinking as the sunlight shone upon his head. The skink assistant, having listened and watched intently, consulted a tablet filled with obscure heiroglyphs and pictograms, fluffed up their feathered headdress, turned to Isendral, and replied. "Lord Ahi-Mun, Nurturing Reservoir of Tranquility, would ask of you a question in return: What motivation drives this query? Surely you cannot have failed to observe the slann in your prior interactions with them."
Isendral wrinkled her brow, glancing back and forth between the slann, who seemed almost asleep, and the skink, who was standing with their feet together and yellow crest raised, awaiting her answer. She pursed her lips momentarily, blinked, and responded, addressing her question towards Ahi-Mun rather than his intermediary. "This is the first time I have been able to observe your subspecies on a properly appreciable timescale, and the issue only became apparent to me after some time. You have never once left that palanquin in the time you've been here, nor has it ever touched the ground - if your will does not hold it aloft, your servants do. You possess fully functional legs, even if I suspect they are severely underutilized, and you're clearly not averse to exerting yourself given the amount of energy you've been expending in the work thus far."
Her face took on a perplexed expression. "So my curiosity begs, once more - why do you avoid the earth?" The mud squelched underneath her feet as she clenched her toes for emphasis.
Ahi-Mun was silent for some time, his layered eyelids undulating slowly as his deep, dark eyes met Isendral's forceful green gaze. At length he heaved a great sigh from his gut, the stale air from his cavernous mouth rolling out like a wave, and closed his eyes fully, half-slouching against the stone back of his floating throne. The skink intermediary, body language pensive, pored over multiple tablets as they processed their lord's response, clearing their throat before they spoke. "The wise Ahi-Mun, Cleanser of 500 Rivers, deigns to leave his corporeal form untouched by the planet so as to avoid his mystic contemplations being disrupted by the magics of the earth. It has been this way for all our history, with all the Sublime Communion."
Isendral's brow furrowed. "But that doesn't make any sense! The ground doesn't disrupt your ability to channel the Othersea any more than the rest of material reality does. Your skink subordinates use psychic abilities while standing on their own two legs, whatever you're doing with your architecture is intimately connected with the planet, and I know for a fact that you wouldn't have been gifted legs if you didn't have the capacity to stand and walk. I have seen more species than can easily be recounted, and all of them understood the wordless truth that Isha bestowed upon us at our beginnings - this life, these bodies, are a blessing. To use them is thanks, even if you do not know Her name. So tell me, and tell me true - why do your kind not leave their thrones?"
The slann remained silent, and his attendant's crest lowered in nervousness as they glanced towards the impassive mage-priest for any sign of a response. When none was forthcoming, they turned back towards Isendral and straightened their spine, clasping their tablets with both hands in an attempt to seem official. "The revered Ahi-Mun, Serene Pools Shimmering With Hidden Light, did not miscommunicate. The arcane deliberations of the slann are more detailed than the minds of mortal creatures can easily fathom, and an errant disturbance could disrupt plans and enchantments centuries in the making. Furthermore -"
"Oh by Loec's twisted nose, that's not true and you know it!"
The ground at Isendral's feet buckled and writhed, columns of soil erupting beneath her and elevating her with shocking quickness. Ahi-Mun's Temple Guard reacted in an instant, arraying themselves around their master in a razor-edged ball of halberds and teeth before the skink intermediary could blink, others arraying themselves in combat formation around Isendral as her spell completed, forming an earthen throne that detached itself from the ground, floating across from Ahi-Mun. The halberds of the Temple Guard hummed quietly, hovering millimeters from the Eldar's flesh. For her part, Isendral disregarded them, eyes locked on the slann before her. "It is the greatest of wastes to lock yourself away from experiences that pose no threat to you. We both come from the world, you and I. We are incarnations of existence itself, put together in a shape that is pleasing to the universe. This is as true for me as it is for your guards, who can put their weapons down, thank you very much."
The Temple Guard pulled their halberds a few centimeters away from her limbs. Isendral sighed and carried on.
"There is nothing to fear from the earth. Why would Isha have given us feet if she did not wish us to feel its contours underneath our stride? Why give us physical form if we are not meant to live in them? The only thing you achieve by isolating yourself is inconvenience and degradation of your natural capabilities."
There was silence for a moment, and the skink drew in breath to speak. Whatever they would have said, however, was silenced as Ahi-Mun opened his eyes and spoke.
"Once, the world was not placid." A torrent of magic poured out of his mouth with the words, shaped in the cavity of his throat and given form by his vocal chords. It covered the immediate area, throwing the light from midday to the brink of sundown. Shadows stretched long in the fading illumination, twisting in strange ways. "In the past, we walked unhindered. Yet when the Catastrophe came, the earth was suffused with malign power. The world cannot forget the touch of the Warp, and so its remnants sought to disrupt us even where it had been banished." The shadows plunged into the earth, coming back up as twining tendrils of darkness with suggestions of cackling, salivating faces crawling up their stems.
Ahi-Mun inhaled long and deep, swallowing the stray magic and bringing the light level back to normal. "We have stayed as we are ever since," the slann rumbled, and the earth making up Isendral's seat turned a little more to stone with every word. "We cannot afford to act otherwise."
Isendral's expression had quickly lost its fire as Ahi-Mun spoke, replacing it with soft eyes and a face drawn in sympathetic melancholy. "I think I see," she murmured, lowering her throne to the ground and standing once more. The Temple Guard backed away at a gesture from the slann, and Isendral dropped to both knees, plunging her hands deep into the mud and murmuring a prayer to Isha. The attention of her goddess coursed out of her frame, permeating the earth and suffusing it with divine grace. All those present could feel it as easily as their own heartbeats - the attention of something vast, powerful, and caring was centered on the ground beneath their feet.
Isendral lifted her eyes from the ground and matched gazes with Ahi-Mun. "I am a keeper of this world, for it is precious to me and mine. By my oath as a scion of the Great Mother, I swear to you that this ground is warded from any malign influences. Please," she pronounced. "Trust me."
Ahi-Mun's palanquin floated downwards with languid slowness. His Temple Guard formed up underneath it, ready to bear its weight upon their shoulders, and stepped aside only at their master's gesture. The heavy stone slab touched down with a quiet squish, settling slightly into the muck. Ahi-Mun's legs, which had been crossed underneath his bulk for over eight millennia, unfolded with a litany of clicks, pops, and slow, jerking movements.
A moment passed, the palpable force of the slann's attention scanning the ground beneath him. Then Ahi-Mun extended his legs, resting his broad, webbed feet on the ground for the first time in an age. The muck crawled slightly over his skin as they sunk in, coating long-neglected skin with a layer of moisture.
Isendral bowed her head slightly, before standing and turning to look out over the Kanyon, regarding the many specks of movement down below with a contemplative expression. "Your people's work is commendable for a race lacking in higher technology," she allowed. "Perhaps you are suited for this world after all, if you can accept it for what it is."
-----
First stage of Kanyon repair completed in conjunction with Isendral! Both parties have familiarized themselves with the other, and found their worst expectations rendered moot. +1 Trust for both Isendral and the Lizardmen - new totals are 3/10 Isendral and 1/10 Lizardmen. Trust Levels will be added to the front page.
Trust is a simplified way of representing the, well, trust you have in another party, or they have in you. It primarily acts as a limiter on what sorts of knowledge or assistance you're willing to give the other party, or vice versa. Trust can be raised by taking actions beneficial to the other party, sharing important information, and generally by acting in a manner considered trustworthy. It can be lowered by doing the opposite of these things. Trust meters exist both for the lizardmen and for certain NPCs.
During the process of cleaning the groundwater buildup, there was opportunity for conversation and information to be exchanged. You may choose one topic, plus any choices labeled (Free), to tell Isendral about, and ask her about an equal number of topics in exchange - i.e. if you tell her about a total of 2 topics, you may ask about 2 things.
Some topics are too sensitive for the lizardmen to disclose at this time - these are crossed out and will require a higher Trust level to be attained before they can be shared. Similar topics exist for Isendral as well, but they are not labeled as such. A measure of discretion and deduction would be advised to avoid causing undue offense.
Or go ahead and do it anyway, who cares about what the warmbloods think?
Things To Tell (Choose One):
- The Enemy: Basic protocols for battling Chaos entities were something passed down to every species on Mallus at their origins. It would be beneficial to spread them. Trust Needed: 2/10 or Learn: The Enemy taken as part of the same plan.
- Origins of the Orks: The war-fungus was shaped by your makers. It is written in what passes for their souls. Trust Needed: 5/10
- Asur of Ulthuan: You know much of the early stages of elf history, with the slann having instructed much of them in magic. Isendral may be interested.
- Aspects of Mallus: There is much information about Mallus buried in the archives. Geological surveys, accounts of food webs, notes on species both sapient and not. Perhaps it is of interest.
- Our Time Here (Free): Detail what the lizardmen have done on Mochantia - sans sensitive information such as the Mind Fog. Includes collated lists of species encountered in the jungles, as well as accounts of the orkoid extermination efforts.
- The Times Before: Recount the most ancient records of the lizardmen, starting from their creation and moving until the end of the Great Catastrophe. Trust Needed: 6/10
- The Northern Hulk: The northern mountain contains not only empty ruin - there is an ancient vessel underneath the rock, likely dating back to when the mountain collapsed.
- The Old Ones: What you know of your creators - their names and affinities, the species they crafted and the reasons they departed. Trust Needed: 7/10
- Theory of Eight Winds: Detail the basic elements of Wind-based magical theory. Trust Needed: 2/10
- The Growing Storm: There is a burgeoning storm growing in the far-off reaches of the Warp of vast strength and size. A matter of concern in the coming centuries.
- Names of the Gods: Gods are stories that yearn to be told. Spread word of Sotek and Ayotzl. Trust Needed: 2/10
- The Great Plan: The purpose of your existence, the reason for your efforts. There is no knowledge that is more sacred. Trust Needed: 10/10 + Narrative Conditions
- The Stone: This amulet is made of the same material as Isendral's crystal. Its function is unknown, but it contains great power. Trust Needed: 8/10
Things To Learn:
- The Enemy: One thing must be determined: What does Isendral know of the Enemy? What are the experiences she and her people have had against Chaos? Does she pay heed to them?
- History of the Eldar: All that you know suggests the Eldar have existed for great lengths of time. What could be learned from their history?
- State of the Eldar: You do not know much of the Eldar, beyond that they reign over much of the galaxy. Insight into their current state could be beneficial.
- The Old Ones: Your long-lost makers. What does she know of them?
- Gods of the Eldar: Isendral's goddess Isha is much, much stronger than Sotek or Ayotzl at present. It would be beneficial to learn more of her, and any fellows she may have.
- Mochantia: What is the purpose of this planet? What compelled Isendral to make her home here?
- Psychic Golems: These constructs have hitherto been unseen, and little is known of their capabilities. Any information would be valuable.
- Ayacmanik: What is their purpose? How did Isendral create them? What does she intend for them? Despite your examinations of them, the Rangdan are still an enigma.
- The Missing Predator: Isendral was not the only Eldar on the planet. She had a mate, one that resided in the northern mountain and has evidently gone missing. Who was this Eldar? What was the oath the two of them shared?
- Interstellar Overview: Lizardmen expansion into the greater galactic landscape will be a necessary step towards finding the Old Ones. Information on Mochantia's nearby surroundings, as well as its position in the galaxy itself, would be beneficial.
- Her Purpose Here: Eldar do not live forever, and Isendral would not be spending so much time on a single planet if there were no reason behind it. Why has she made her home here?
--------------------
Prepare Geomantic Ritual (10 Fourth Spawning slann)
-Prepare one Magnitude 2 ritual. Teleport Gardakka's shipyard city on top of Tunzuk Bugstompa's amphibious expedition.
The Ork port settlement of BigBuildyBoatBuilding had been constructed quickly, efficiently, and most of all violently. In accordance with the orkoid economic principle of 'da boss gets da best and da boyz get da rest', Gardakka had taken a wide array of industrial supplies, sparking gadgets, and high-tech flame-expelling devices from his core territories and incorporated them into the structure of his newest stronghold, resulting in a remarkably high-quality set of fortifications and industrial machinery, all set up over a grand carpet of metal that stretched in a semi-contiguous sheet across the whole settlement. In the gaps between rusting or broken plates of steel, great growling collections of whirling gears and cogs could be seen, giving off both thick clouds of oily smoke and a constant low-pitched roar.
Dotting the perimeter of this chaotic establishment and scattered all around the interior were a series of bizarre devices that Gardakka's meks had put together at his insistence. They resembled gigantic lightbulbs, great orbs of glass that were taller than an average ork and filled with a jumbled collection of wires, fuses, and smaller lights. They were mounted upon miniature towers festooned with wide, metal signal dishes that constantly gave off a low hum and had a tendency to cause cancerous growths with too much exposure. The frequency of these devices steadily increased as one drew nearer to Gardakka's boss fortress, to the point where they stood in regular intervals atop the walls of his fortress like artificial crenellations.
The Warboss was in a fierce mood, urging his subordinates on and sending the industrial processes of BigBuildyBoatBuilding into overdrive. Gargantuan warehouses, half-submerged into the ocean alongside the tail ends of enormous clanking factories, assembled legions of chugging, puttering scrap vessels together with huge metal construction apparatuses. Arrays of docks stretched out into the sea like grasping fingers, crewing and arming ship after ship, sending them out into the northern ocean like genocidal pollen drifting off of a tree. The orks were moving, and if Gardakka had it his way it would be sooner rather than later.
Relatively early in the decade, however, what the Warboss had anticipated came to pass. First one, then another, then in multitudes, the Disasta Detektion Detekors, the great lightbulb-like contraptions scattered throughout the city, began to activate. The clustered arrays of repurposed speedometers and radio dishes and erratically grumpy squigs nailed to their bases began to detect a buildup of psychic energy centered on the city, quickly climbing from nothing more than background noise to terrifying heights. The jumbled coils of wire in the glass bulbs lit up with heat, shining brighter and brighter, setting off small explosions as grenades mixed in with their mass were ignited. Sirens began to sound across the city, distorted, ear-piercing bellowing echoing out from speakers placed on every building. Every greenskin in the city began to move faster upon hearing it, for they knew what the sound meant.
"So, da froggy boyz is at it again."
Gardakka stood at the peak of his boss fortress, watching BigBuildyBoatBuilding snap into action. He'd taken the most veteran examples of his boyz up here, drilled what to do in this exact scenario into them many times over, just because he knew that the lizardmen wouldn't be able to resist such a tempting target. "Scaleboyz fink I'm just gonna fall over an' die cos dey want me to," he snorted. He curled his lip and spat, then whirled about, stomping back into his command center, which was filled with light-up dials, half-working computer displays, and an array of goggle-clad mekboys manning the whole affair. "Get a move on, ladz," he bellowed, swinging his fist in a great arc and knocking out the closest ork. "Time's a wasting, and we'z got dakka ta give!
Time ta set sail!"
The massive arrays of engines and gear-powered contraptions hidden in the bowels of BigBuildyBoatBuilding began to spool up to full speed. Subterranean treads extended and ground away at the earth beneath the city, slowly beginning to gain traction. Teams of Nobz set off pre-placed explosives, cracking and displacing the ground outside the outpost, and brigades of mekboys in the city's bowels folded out gargantuan propellers and cranked up dials to their maximum outputs. Slowly, with a groan like an antediluvian titan awakening from beneath the earth, the city slowly began to move. Inch by inch it shifted, dipping part of its nose into the sea and drawing multitudes of gretchins, until enough friction had been removed from its base and it abruptly sprang forward. Engines fired up, gas bags inflated, great sails of squighide the size of city blocks were raised to catch the wind, and four-storey propellers began turning with increasing speed. BigBuildyBoatBuilding coasted out into the northern sea, an aquatic attack city fit to sail unstoppably wherever it wished.
---
Gardakka guffawed as he watched the coastline slowly recede. "Scaley gits fink dey've got all da tricks, eh? Dey ain't gonna be laughing now dat their weirdsquigs iz gonna smash da wrong place. Den I'ze gonna park dis city all across da wurld, claimin' ground fer da orks. Ain't no way dey kan smash us all before we gets too big ta be smashed, heh heh heh."
He frowned as something made its way to his ears. He worked a finger around in one, then shook his head - that was too loud to be a figment of imagination. He turned back around and barked at the closest ork. "Oi! Why's da sirens still going? We left da bombing place behind, dey should be off by now."
The Nob shrugged. "Dunno, boss. Da mekboys is saying dere's still a buildup on da meters even though dere shouldn't be."
Indeed, the sirens still wailed, and the bulbs still glowed. The Geomantic Ritual of the first junior slann to cast in thousands of years was not affixed to geographic coordinates, but to the position and architecture of the city itself. Indicators built and built, glass shattering and wires combusting as the degree of channeled psychic force crept higher than they could withstand.
Gardakka's expression narrowed, the cunning ork immediately understanding his predicament. "Clever gits," he muttered, acknowledging the foresight of his adversaries. An ork was nothing without proper enemies. "Get to da ships," he roared, his footsteps already pounding through the interior of his fortress. "Da weirdbomm followed us! Time ta abandon ship!"
The Warboss made fantastic time through the city as the evacuation order was given. His retinue of highly-armed nobz and his own prodigious strength ensured that he was easily able to fight his way through the tumultuous mobs of orks brawling for space and grots panicking at the all-encompassing noise. He blasted his way through his own city, his gatling rocket blaster leaving gaping holes in walls and buildings as he elected to make a straight path rather than taking any detours.
He stomped onto the branching docks of his sailing city and marched onto the biggest, bulkiest, most heavily-armed ship in the entire city, a contraption built specifically for him. It resembled nothing more than a gargantuan floating bucket that was absolutely bristling with guns and rocket launchers, some of which even had secondary uses as emergency propulsion. Donning the customary Kaptin's hat, Gardakka set off, hoping to outrun the impending blast in his smaller vessel. Whatever portion of his boyz managed to escape on their own ships would regroup on his position, given time. "This ain't over," he vowed. "I'ze gonna link back up wif Tunzak and get him ta build me an even bigger floating city, wif even more propellers, or my name isn't Gardakka Worldhamma!"
Gardakka's boat was approximately two hundred meters from the main bulk of BigBuildyBoatBuilding when the Ritual reached its apex. The city abruptly vanished with no further ado, taking with it several kilometer's worth of water in a half-sphere underneath the city, a miniature fleet of half-ready ork ships, and Gardakka Worldhamma.
----------
Tunzak Bugstompa's convoy ground its way through the hellish reaches of the Mochantian jungle with all the subtlety and swiftness of a glacier on fire. An army of millions had departed with the Big Mek, many of them eager to drive their floating tanks into the sea, or simply eager at the opportunity to blast their way through vast quantities of sameboyz. Whatever their motivations, on they came, a near-endless mass of tracked vehicles, war bikes, and planes soaring overhead. Their guns and flamethrowers blazed night and day, and whirring chain-choppas dug thirstily into screaming wood.
The Big Mek's army was bogged down with every step they took. Vines and roots tangled themselves in wheels and gears, requiring tedious minutes and hours to clear. Metal-eating fungi crept onto orkish gear and multiplied, causing the heavily-mechanized force to expend many resources on repeated repairs and maintenance of their equipment. Invisible biting insects bred on the plentiful supply of greenskin blood, forming into thick swarms that caused the air to shimmer like a heatwave. When they got the chance they would drain unlucky stragglers dry, but even when they didn't kill, they left behind potent fevers and flesh-eating bacteria that even the hardy systems of the orks had to work to fight off. The trees ahead of the expedition's path communicated with each other, sending messages and warnings through an extensive network of connected roots. They shifted position constantly, moving at times to hem in sections of the army that had strayed off course, hemming them in and tripping them up until the many symbiotic predators they housed in their bark could swarm the unfortunate orks and deliver their nutrients back to the trees.
There were other things hunting for ork flesh. The Mochantian biosphere raged at the intrusion they represented, and the Ayacmanik, Isendral's Rangdan, were present in staggering numbers of their own. The technology and raw strength of the orks had grown to the degree that the oversoul could no longer overcome the boyz in direct combat, but Tunzak was encroaching into some of their most heavily-populated territory, and the Ayacmanik were skilled ambush hunters.
The orks saw near-constant raids and infiltration attempts, the oversoul poking at their mass with a thousand tendrils. Bands of glue-spitting tree octopi with gelatin-like flesh gummed up the workings of guns and vehicles whenever the orks turned their backs. Gargantuan arachnids with spined legs that resembled dangling vines snatched up any ork that wandered off alone. Horn-covered, eight-limbed gorilla-things the size of small buildings overturned any vehicle that began to make too much headway. The orks fought back, killing many times their own number and leaving the corpses behind them like a gruesome highway of mulched flesh, but the ranks of the Ayacmanik were refilled from nests all across the great ring continent, and Tunzak's advance remained slow and laborious.
264 kilometers northeast of the great river that was their destination, something appeared that darkened the sky. Details were hard to discern at its height, but it resembled a solar eclipse in that it was a great dark disc that occluded a good portion of the sky, although somewhat larger, taking up a good fifth of the sky. It very rapidly began to grow larger, eating up more and more of the daylight like the maw of a hungry god. Within seconds, those of the orks with keener eyes could see a coat of foam wreathing the exterior of the object, the pressure of the air beginning to break apart the titanic mass of water that was falling through it.
Twenty-five seconds after it appeared in the sky, the half-sphere of water that was topped by BigBuildyBoatBuilding and a collection of ork watercraft smashed into the ground, compressing the air underneath it so much that the ground caught fire for a moment, before being smothered by several million tons of water. Tunzak's army was annihilated near-instantly, a great omnidirectional jet of water bursting forth from the impact site at supersonic velocities. Everything within three kilometers was scoured out of existence, and the surrounding fifty experienced a tidal wave comparable to the most fearsome storm surges on the southern coast. Many plants and animals were swept away, with only the strongest trees managing to retain their rooted positions - more mobile species were carried kilometers away by the floodwaters, quickly finding new ground afterwards.
BigBuildyBoatBuilding was in no way exempt to the titanic forces exerted by the water that buoyed it - after falling for several kilometers, the shock of impact had turned the water as hard as stone for a moment, and Gardakka's floating city smashed itself to pieces on it. Heaps of flaming wreckage were carried every which way, a great stain of oil and pollution spreading out from its corpse like clouds of squid ink.
It took nearly an hour for the water to fully drain off into what jungle had escaped the indiscriminate wrath of the Ritual, and for the orks that had survived the disaster to assemble once more under uncertain leadership. Having been some distance away from the floating city itself, Gardakka had survived the fall, albeit with many broken bones. He gathered what boyz he could from the wreckage, including the tail end of the army that had been far enough away to not be immediately vaporized. All told, he had perhaps three million boyz at his direct command - there would doubtlessly be more that would wander in from the outskirts if given a day or more, having ridden the wave to relative safety, even if half of them would then be eaten by the Ayacmanik.
There would be no such time, however - already his ears could pick up the faint edges of it, bleeding in from the outer reaches of jungle. The distinctive tromp of feet moving in unison, paired with hissing, ululating warcries, echoing out like the rattle of a snake's tail.
The lizardmen were here.
-[] Scatter the Barbarians (Kroq-Gar)
--[] Muster the Legion of Itza (1150k Saurus, 800k Skinks, 100k Kroxigor)
--[] March out to intercept Tunzuk's amphibious expedition, using slann support to cross terrain quickly.
--[] Time arrival very shortly after the geomantic ritual drops Gardakka's shipyard on the foe.
--[] Sweep in and destroy all survivors from both the expedition and the shipyard.
--[] Make special efforts to challenge and slay any surviving warbosses or other senior leaders.
-[] Break the Tide (Tiktaq'to, Teninhuan, Chakax)
--[] Chakax, leading the Legion of Xlanhuapec (450k Saurus, 315k Skinks, 50k Kroxigor), will dig in around Muukhexla to secure it against the foe.
--[] Teninhuan, leading the Legion of Hexoatl (640k Saurus, 464k Skinks, 74k Kroxigor), and Tiktaq'to, leading the Legion of Tlaxtlan (495k Saurus, 315k Skinks, 36k Kroxigor), will work to slow and attrite the advancing orkish invasion force.
--[] Holding territory east of Muukhexla is not a priority. The Legions of Hexoatl and Tlaxtlan are to prioritize achieving favorable rates of attritional exchange over delaying the foe, and delaying the foe over other factors within their operational area.
-[] Scry and Spy, the Worldhamma (25 Fifth Spawning slann)
--[] Scout various locations and monitor orkish/Ayacmanik activities via spirit projection
--[] 5 to watch Gardakka's shipyard
--[] 5 to watch Tunzak's amphibious expedition
--[] 5 to watch the ork core territories
--[] 5 to watch the advancing attack against Muukhexkla
--[] 5 to watch the northern territories between the current ork lands and the coast.
-[] Corral the Thunder (88 Fourth Spawning slann)
--[] Two to assist the Legion of Itza.
--[] Two held in reserve to assist Chakax in the defense of Muukhexla
--[] Three each to support the legions of Hexoatl and Tlaxtlan in the mobile defense east of Muukhexla.
--[] Twelve to inflict general devastation on the ork core territory, hemming them in from all directions.
-[] Slann Direct Army Support (4 Fourth Spawning and 178 Fifth Spawning slann)
--[] 1 Fourth Spawning and 60 Fifth Spawning with the Legion of Tlaxtlan (Mobility Assist)
--[] 1 Fourth Spawning and 40 Fifth Spawning with the Legion of Itza (Nuke/Counterspell)
--[] 1 Fourth Spawning and 18 Fifth Spawning with the Legion of Xlanhuapec (Nuke/Counterspell)
--[] 1 Fourth Spawning and 60 Fifth Spawning with the Legion of Hexoatl (Nuke/Counterspell)
Overall War Plan:
1) Withdraw forces from the northern territories (between Gardakka's former territory and the coast), abandoning them to the Ayacmanik to reduce the risk of lizardmen being infested.
2) Teleport Gardakka Worldhamma's shipyard city on top of Tunzak's amphibious expedition headed for the south coast.
3) Use the Legion of Itza to fall upon the entangled remnants of both orkish forces, destroying them.
4) Use the other three to defend the city of Muuxhexla.
5) Use Thunder Lizards to continue to exert pressure and do damage to the ork core territories and support offensives.
6) Stretch goal: if both prongs (2-3) and (4) of the war plan are successful, mount a counterinvasion of the orkish territories, while they are hopefully confused by the disasters that have befallen their leadership.
Lizardmen Legions:
Hexoatl:Teninhuan, 640,000 Saurus, 464,000 Skinks, 74,000 Kroxigor, 1 Fourth Gen Slann, 60 Fifth Gen Slann (Nuke/Counterspell), 3 Thunder Lizards
Gardakka Worldhamma's seaside city has been successfully teleported atop of Tunzak Bugstompa's expedition. Of the roughly 30 million orks that were present, 20 million were killed by the impact of the city, and the remaining 10 million are severely scattered and disorganized. Gardakka Worldhamma survived the impact, and has managed to rally approximately 3 million orks to his command by the time the Legion of Itza arrives at his location. The Ayacmanik are present in the millions, and are currently focusing on picking off the scattered ork boyz who have not made their way back to the main horde.
Muukhexla is being attacked by 31 million orks. The legion of Xlanhuapec is present and dug in, as well as approximately 60% of the garrison forces, which have pulled back from the Ayacmanik-infested northeast and concentrated in the more westward border territories. The remaining 40% is scattered throughout garrisoned territory. Hexoatl and Tlaxtlan's forces have been instructed to slow and whittle the attacking orks ahead of their arrival at Muukhexla. The city's Sacred Site is active.
12 Thunder Lizards have been instructed to attack Gardakka's territory, and the lizardmen legions will mount a counterattack should sufficient success be found in their primary objectives. This attack, if it occurs, will be auto-battled.
Needed Decisions:
The three defending legions (Hexoatl, Tlaxtlan, and Xlanhuapec) must choose a strategic goal to prioritize in their efforts. All goals will be pursued, with the one chosen taking priority: Destroy Enemy Forces: This army will attempt to destroy as many orks as possible, engaging concentrations of greenskins in force wherever they are found and burning their remains. Prevent Territorial Occupation: This army will operate in conjunction with existing defensive fortifications outside of the city, using harassment, preemptive strikes, and bombardment to slow the enemy's advance. Preserve Lizardmen Forces: This army will utilize the fortifications of the temple-city and outlying bunkers to preserve lizardmen lives, ceding some of the initiative but ensuring a bloodbath for anyone attempting to assault the defenses.
As the current plan stands, Xlanhuapec will be directed to Preserve, and Hexoatl and Tlaxtlan will focus on Prevent. These may be changed as per above.
Garrison forces may be assigned on a percentile basis to concentrate at Muukhexla or disperse through contested territory. 60% of the garrison is currently concentrated at Muukhexla.
The Legion of Itza, being outnumbered at a ratio of merely 3:2, has currently selected its priority as Elimination of High-Value Targets, with the death of Gardakka Worldhamma considered paramount. Other priorities, however, may be chosen: Destruction of Enemy Forces: This army will attempt to destroy as many orks as possible, engaging concentrations of greenskins in force wherever they are found and burning their remains. Conquest of Enemy Territory: This army will deploy its forces across wide swathes of land and secure as much as possible against greenskin incursion, cleansing the ground to prevent a resurgence. Elimination of High-Value Targets: This army will focus on destroying enemy assets of strategic importance - important factories, capital cities, and enemy leaders all qualify.
As there is a significant quantity of Ayacmanik on the battleground, engagement policies must be set for them: Engage Fully: The Legion will treat the Ayacmanik as enemy combatants and attack them at any opportunity. Engage When Necessary: The Legion will attack the Ayacmanik only when they threaten lizardmen troops or actively impede combat operations. Avoid Engagement: The Legion will attempt to avoid Ayacmanik concentrations of significant size, although they will defend themselves if necessary.
The slann assigned to each Legion have been automatically assigned tasks according to the war plan. If any alterations to those tasks are wished, they can be made. At least 20 Fifth Generation slann must be left on Mobility Assistance for Itza, however.
Each character must also be assigned an action.
Current Plan:
Itza: Eliminate Targets, Slann Priority: Mobility/General Battlefield Assistance, Ayacmanik Engagement: ???
Hexoatl: Prevent Territorial Occupation, Slann Priority: Nuke/Counterspell
Tlaxtlan: Prevent Territorial Occupation, Slann Priority: Nuke/Counterspell
Xlanhuapec: Preserve Lizardmen Forces, Slann Priority: Nuke/Counterspell
Garrison Forces: 60% at Muukhexla, 40% defending territory - may be shifted if desired
Needed Elements: Character Actions, Ayacmanik Engagement Policy
Optionally, a new plan may be written in, needing Defending Legion Priority, Attacking Legion Priority, Slann Priority, Character Actions, and Ayacmanik Engagement Policy.
[] Write-in war plan (either fill in needed elements of current plan, or write your own. Strategic reasoning/rationale is appreciated but not necessary.)
---
AN: Well, this is extensive! Hopefully it's not too much, I'm trying to get these out with an appropriate amount of hustle.
I'd like the plan for talking to Isendral and the war plan for the ork campaign to be two separate plans - that way people don't have to account for too many things. If you can think of anything you'd like to ask of or tell Isendral that isn't listed already, @ me and I'll vet it for possible inclusion - either way I'll let you know.
As usual, no moratorium but I won't be closing the vote for some time, so please don't feel rushed to get a plan out right away - take your time, think things over, discuss amongst each other, and @ me with any questions you might have.
Oh, @Simon_Jester, just a minor thing to clarify - I'm looking at the actual plan and you've got ... Tlaxtlan's assisting slann doing mobility spells instead of Itza's, when Itza's the legion that's zooming out to mop up the crash site of Gardakka and Tunzak. Should I assume that's just a typo?
I love how Isendral is constantly giving the Lizardmen veiled insults and they just straight up ignore it every time. Or not even ignoring it really, just hearing it and not really paying it any attention at all lol
[X] Plan: The Enemy and the Old Ones
Things To Tell (Choose One):
-[X] The Enemy: Basic protocols for battling Chaos entities were something passed down to every species on Mallus at their origins. It would be beneficial to spread them. Trust Needed: 2/10 or Learn: The Enemy taken as part of the same plan.
-[X] Our Time Here (Free): Detail what the lizardmen have done on Mochantia - sans sensitive information such as the Mind Fog. Includes collated lists of species encountered in the jungles, as well as accounts of the orkoid extermination efforts.
Things To Learn:
-[X] The Enemy: One thing must be determined: What does Isendral know of the Enemy? What are the experiences she and her people have had against Chaos? Does she pay heed to them?
-[X] The Old Ones: Your long-lost makers. What does she know of them?
Right... so, going to bed but some thoughts on what to ask and say to Isendral;
Things To Tell (Choose One):
- Our Time Here (Free): Detail what the lizardmen have done on Mochantia - sans sensitive information such as the Mind Fog. Includes collated lists of species encountered in the jungles, as well as accounts of the orkoid extermination efforts.
- The Growing Storm: There is a burgeoning storm growing in the far-off reaches of the Warp of vast strength and size. A matter of concern in the coming centuries.
Things To Learn:
- The Enemy: One thing must be determined: What does Isendral know of the Enemy? What are the experiences she and her people have had against Chaos? Does she pay heed to them?
- Gods of the Eldar: Isendral's goddess Isha is much, much stronger than Sotek or Ayotzl at present. It would be beneficial to learn more of her, and any fellows she may have.
Telling her about what we've done is a straightforward choice, she's going to learn about everything eventually, might as well be open about it aside form the stuff that's you know sensitive and as for telling her about the birth of Slaanesh (indirectly and without specifics, given the phrasing) also leads into the most pressing questions we have for her really... what. Exactly. The Fuck. Is. Going On. With Chaos? So far as the Slann are aware there have always been four major aspects of the Enemy. except you know, obviously that's not true right now, so let's get to the bottom of that.
But, I figure there's a decent chance she'll not feel entirely comfortable sharing such knowledge with us, after all we look insanely pwoerful, psychically speaking, to her so she might be wary of giving us 'dangerous knowledge' or something like that so our second question should be something we can be fairly certain she'll be willing to talk about. Given she's already made many mentions of Isha I find it difficult to imagine she'll balk at talking about the wider Eldar Pantheon, at least in general terms.
[X] Plan: History is Important
Things To Tell (Choose One):
-[X] The Enemy: Basic protocols for battling Chaos entities were something passed down to every species on Mallus at their origins. It would be beneficial to spread them. Trust Needed: 2/10 or Learn: The Enemy taken as part of the same plan.
-[X] Asur of Ulthuan: You know much of the early stages of elf history, with the slann having instructed much of them in magic. Isendral may be interested.
-[X] Our Time Here (Free): Detail what the lizardmen have done on Mochantia - sans sensitive information such as the Mind Fog. Includes collated lists of species encountered in the jungles, as well as accounts of the orkoid extermination efforts.
-[X] The Growing Storm: There is a burgeoning storm growing in the far-off reaches of the Warp of vast strength and size. A matter of concern in the coming centuries.
Things To Learn:
-[X] The Enemy: One thing must be determined: What does Isendral know of the Enemy? What are the experiences she and her people have had against Chaos? Does she pay heed to them?
-[X] History of the Eldar: All that you know suggests the Eldar have existed for great lengths of time. What could be learned from their history?
-[X] State of the Eldar: You do not know much of the Eldar, beyond that they reign over much of the galaxy. Insight into their current state could be beneficial.
-[X] The Old Ones: Your long-lost makers. What does she know of them?
I don't think we can actually tell her more than 2 things in total (including 'Our Time here'), I think Xan just wrote things so that the rules will stay consistent as we gain more trust with Isendral (or rather, I think, as we gain more trust in her) and tell her more things are once in future covnersations.
I love how Isendral is constantly giving the Lizardmen veiled insults and they just straight up ignore it every time. Or not even ignoring it really, just hearing it and not really paying it any attention at all lol
[X] Plan: History is Important
Things To Tell (Choose One):
-[X] The Enemy: Basic protocols for battling Chaos entities were something passed down to every species on Mallus at their origins. It would be beneficial to spread them. Trust Needed: 2/10 or Learn: The Enemy taken as part of the same plan.
-[X] Asur of Ulthuan: You know much of the early stages of elf history, with the slann having instructed much of them in magic. Isendral may be interested.
-[X] Our Time Here (Free): Detail what the lizardmen have done on Mochantia - sans sensitive information such as the Mind Fog. Includes collated lists of species encountered in the jungles, as well as accounts of the orkoid extermination efforts.
-[X] The Growing Storm: There is a burgeoning storm growing in the far-off reaches of the Warp of vast strength and size. A matter of concern in the coming centuries.
Things To Learn:
-[X] The Enemy: One thing must be determined: What does Isendral know of the Enemy? What are the experiences she and her people have had against Chaos? Does she pay heed to them?
-[X] History of the Eldar: All that you know suggests the Eldar have existed for great lengths of time. What could be learned from their history?
-[X] State of the Eldar: You do not know much of the Eldar, beyond that they reign over much of the galaxy. Insight into their current state could be beneficial.
-[X] The Old Ones: Your long-lost makers. What does she know of them?
I should note that this plan's not currently valid - you can choose a max of 2 things, one free and the (Free) option to tell, and up to 2 things to ask about, depending on how many you tell.
Slann Slim Shady? The mental image of a Slann with a Drip jacket was hilarious.
We should be really careful in what we want to know from Isendral. We've seen the trust points needed for some actions and she has probably a similar mechanic. Let's try and find out some equivalent pieces of information and go from there instead of just taking the most informative ones.
"Your people's work is commendable for a race lacking in higher technology," she allowed. "Perhaps you are suited for this world after all, if you can accept it for what it is."
I take this as an absolute win. An Eldar admitting, that someone else is fit for anything that belongs to them is probably the height of acknowledgments.
whelp, whenever the wonderful QM says tomorrow when he says the update is comming, its usually within 24 hours.
if he says in a few weeks, take that as a quater to half a year.
but god-damn the quality is good.
as it is, the war plan is fine so far for me.
heres what i want to talk with the eldar about:
Things To Tell (Choose One):
+ Aspects of Mallus: There is much information about Mallus buried in the archives. Geological surveys, accounts of food webs, notes on species both sapient and not. Perhaps it is of interest.
+ Our Time Here (Free): Detail what the lizardmen have done on Mochantia - sans sensitive information such as the Mind Fog. Includes collated lists of species encountered in the jungles, as well as accounts of the orkoid extermination efforts.
Things To Learn:
+ Mochantia: What is the purpose of this planet? What compelled Isendral to make her home here?
+ Her Purpose Here: Eldar do not live forever, and Isendral would not be spending so much time on a single planet if there were no reason behind it. Why has she made her home here?
this is generally a start up, figure out about her planet and why is she here. Also tell her of Mallus and our time here. Basically trading info, though i would ask the qm...is it possible for us to start talks with her so that we can build up enough trust so that shit doesnt hit the fan too badly?
Thus did the Death Turtle find adherents amidst the eastern front, guarding the souls of those soon to face the orks once more. Curiously enough, the faith even found some reception in the infamously neutral Temple Guard breed, a thing that had never occurred with Sotek, despite the snake-cult's best efforts. While not a common sight by any means, it was no longer unknown to see a steely-eyed Temple Guardian with a bone turtle-shaped charm present on their person.
Things To Tell (Choose One):
- The Enemy: Basic protocols for battling Chaos entities were something passed down to every species on Mallus at their origins. It would be beneficial to spread them. Trust Needed: 2/10 or Learn: The Enemy taken as part of the same plan.
- The Growing Storm: There is a burgeoning storm growing in the far-off reaches of the Warp of vast strength and size. A matter of concern in the coming centuries.
Considering we just told Isendral about an enemy of ours that we hate and hate us such that even the remnants of them lingering in dirt try to kill us, I think it would make the most sense to talk about them. Either one of the two, though the Gathering Storm is probably less condescending, given Isha's current dominance. (Though, possibly also starting a plot chain in which Isendral flips her shit, if her husband isn't here because he became a proto-Slaaneshi.)
Things To Learn:
- The Enemy: One thing must be determined: What does Isendral know of the Enemy? What are the experiences she and her people have had against Chaos? Does she pay heed to them?
- The Old Ones: Your long-lost makers. What does she know of them?
These are the ones I think she'll be amenable to talking about, and that we'll want know for the first topics we get.
Chaos, because as we just revealed, they're a principal danger to us, which Isendral should be sympathetic to given her Isha-influenced mindset of predator-prey relationships. She'll probably be willing to exert herself for such knowledge to give us than on something we have less sympathetic reason for wanting to know.
The Old Ones because that's knowledge foundational to our existence as a species and civilization. And, we have 4 Slann running around the galaxy searching for any hints of the Old Ones. Well, here's a source of such hints.
(All of the Broader Galactic history topics sound like topics Isendral would be ok with talking about, but I'd rather get the Reasons for Lizardmen Even Existing topics through first.)
- Mochantia: What is the purpose of this planet? What compelled Isendral to make her home here?
- Ayacmanik: What is their purpose? How did Isendral create them? What does she intend for them? Despite your examinations of them, the Rangdan are still an enigma.
- The Missing Predator: Isendral was not the only Eldar on the planet. She had a mate, one that resided in the northern mountain and has evidently gone missing. Who was this Eldar? What was the oath the two of them shared?
- Her Purpose Here: Eldar do not live forever, and Isendral would not be spending so much time on a single planet if there were no reason behind it. Why has she made her home here?
These look to be topics that are most likely to be Trust gated: anything related to her personal history probably requires the equivalent of at least 5 Trust, given her extreme reaction to learning about the absence of her husband. Rather not trigger any expressions of rage or hurt over that.
During the process of cleaning the groundwater buildup, there was opportunity for conversation and information to be exchanged. You may choose one topic, plus any choices labeled (Free), to tell Isendral about, and ask her about an equal number of topics in exchange - i.e. if you tell her about a total of 2 topics, you may ask about 2 things.
Some topics are too sensitive for the lizardmen to disclose at this time - these are crossed out and will require a higher Trust level to be attained before they can be shared. Similar topics exist for Isendral as well, but they are not labeled as such. A measure of discretion and deduction would be advised to avoid causing undue offense.
Or go ahead and do it anyway, who cares about what the warmbloods think?
@Xantalos was nice enough to provide us with a warning wrapped up in information. Just look at the trust level equivalents to some of your questions in the Lizardmen section.
We aim for a mutual cooperative relationship. Such a thing must start slowly.
Edit: the Old Ones might be of similar importance to Eldar mythology/society as they are to the Lizardmen. We cannot be certain, which is why the more "innocent" and less informative questions should be taken.
@Xantalos was nice enough to provide us with a warning wrapped up in information. Just look at the trust level equivalents to some of your questions in the Lizardmen section.
We aim for a mutual cooperative relationship. Such a thing must start slowly.
while our trust level requirements are definitely something to keep in mind, another thing to keep in mind is that Isendral is not one of the lizardmen. She does not think the way they do, she does not act the way they do, and she does not prioritize the way they do. Just because something is high or low trust on the lizardmen side is absolutely not evidence that it will be such on her side.
"Once, the world was not placid." A torrent of magic poured out of his mouth with the words, shaped in the cavity of his throat and given form by his vocal chords. It covered the immediate area, throwing the light from midday to the brink of sundown. Shadows stretched long in the fading illumination, twisting in strange ways. "In the past, we walked unhindered. Yet when the Catastrophe came, the earth was suffused with malign power. The world cannot forget the touch of the Warp, and so its remnants sought to disrupt us even where it had been banished." The shadows plunged into the earth, coming back up as twining tendrils of darkness with suggestions of cackling, salivating faces crawling up their stems.
Ahi-Mun inhaled long and deep, swallowing the stray magic and bringing the light level back to normal. "We have stayed as we are ever since," the slann rumbled, and the earth making up Isendral's seat turned a little more to stone with every word. "We cannot afford to act otherwise."
I have a quaint little headcanon that the Slann are the magical equivalent of Blobfish, and that the reason they're fat is because they're not in the high-magic environment they were designed to function in.
I have a quaint little headcanon that the Slann are the magical equivalent of Blobfish, and that the reason they're fat is because they're not in the high-magic environment they were designed to function in.
In the presence of the Old Ones the sheer epistemological pressure of their minds on the warp would crush any being unadapted to the sheer force of the immaterium upon them. That is to say, when they're next to an Old One Slann turn into bishounen
So, since we can tell her a maximum of two things, it would probably be best to mention the buried Necron ship (if this is potentially a Tombworld we need all the help we can get) and warn her about Slaanesh's looming birth (her getting nommed and losing control of the Rangdan would be catastrophic).
(Honestly, kinda weirded out that the plans I've seen thus far don't mention either of these things, despite them being the most important.)
I have a quaint little headcanon that the Slann are the magical equivalent of Blobfish, and that the reason they're fat is because they're not in the high-magic environment they were designed to function in.
So, since we can tell her a maximum of two things, it would probably be best to mention the buried Necron ship (if this is potentially a Tombworld we need all the help we can get) and warn her about Slaanesh's looming birth (her getting nommed and losing control of the Rangdan would be catastrophic).
(Honestly, kinda weirded out that the plans I've seen thus far don't mention either of these things, despite them being the most important.)
The ship likely isn't Necron. It looks like the thing the Orks came in on. We pretty much know at this point Mochantia looks the way it does due to her meddling.
Anyway, we can tell her more than two things so my suggestion is:
We tell her what we know of the Enemy and use that to Learn of the Enemy from her, since we can. Chaos is important, and needs to be clarified. Hiding it will probably just lead to misunderstandings latter, and it thrives on that. Plus its reciprocal, an equal exchange.
Safe topics for her beyond those seem to be Isha and give her the warning about the Growing Storm. Again, those are pretty relevant to the general thrust of shared major concerns. An alternate to ask her about would be an Interstellar Overview as she knows it. Its hard to be offensive when curious about generally non-personal topics.
Then we can give her our time on Mochantia for free. Share more than we ask for and be generous in order to garner trust and sound her out on what is and isn't acceptable to ask about.
