Eh, his opinion of that is not what matters. What matters is what the Imperium thinks, and I can easily see them thinking that long term investment is a waste on fringe planets.
If it's the same as it is in 40k, then the Imperium flat-out doesn't invest in its worlds. Quite the contrary, tithes are often pushed so high that they strangle economic development, and every last drop goes to supplying and reinforcing the military.
Seems less that, and more he told them of what his precursor done, which bumped the tax by an absurd 'destroy you for the crime of not dedicating everything to make ourselves richer', and then negotiating it down from 100% to 70%( edit:by using the fact he revealed it personally), hoping he and the colony could ride it out, then be much more secure without the risk of them outright blowing them up for the crime of duplicity.....
Edit:
The plan, while very bad was not likely to end up as a colony extinction event.....
To the contrary it literally would
A lot of this is information you can't see due to discord granted, but his plan was always doomed to failure even if we didn't interfere
He panicked see, he didn't need to cut a deal with the Publicani, but he was so paranoid he did it anyway, planning to let the Flayers cull the planet down to Lambent then repopulate the aftermath
In the process he completely forgot the natural reaction of an entire planet's worth of people when they realized they've been left to starve and get horribly flayed by metal zombies, and that the Capital is the only place left with food and resources, to say nothing about how even Lambent sees the whole situation as incredibly sketchy
Once word eventually got out that the planet was in open rebellion laying siege to its own capital he would have brought down the very thing he was so afraid of, Imperial attention, who would have suppressed the revolt (if any of it's even left at that point) and executed the Governor for failing to manage the planet properly (assuming everyone isn't already dead)
He was doomed, no if and or buts about it, and entirely from his own pigheadedness
To the contrary it literally would
A lot of this is information you can't see due to discord granted, but his plan was always doomed to failure even if we didn't interfere
He panicked see, he didn't need to cut a deal with the Publicani, but he was so paranoid he did it anyway, planning to let the Flayers cull the planet down to Lambent then repopulate the aftermath
In the process he completely forgot the natural reaction of an entire planet's worth of people when they realized they've been left to starve and get horribly flayed by metal zombies, and that the Capital is the only place left with food and resources, to say nothing about how even Lambent sees the whole situation as incredibly sketchy
Once word eventually got out that the planet was in open rebellion laying siege to it's own capital he would have brought down the very thing he was so afraid of, Imperial attention, who would have suppressed the revolt (if any of it's even left at that point) and executed the Governor for failing to manage the planet properly (assuming everyone isn't already dead)
He was doomed, no if and or buts about it, and entirely from his own pigheadedness
Yep... as things are he only made the planet a starting ground for the next group of Chaos Gods... no as bad as the OG of course but I don't the Imperium is gunna see it that way.
Yep... as things are he only made the planet a starting ground for the next group of Chaos Gods... no as bad as the OG of course but I don't the Imperium is gunna see it that way.
The Imperium seems like its solidly the next ones who are going to *splat* and implode in the cycle of Ages going on here.
And that's really the only way we'll survive in the long-term too. Imperium is way too big and entrenched to ever really make headway against in any meaningful way, which is a problem when they'll be hunting us down.
Of course the next problem is what will they take with them in their death throes.
And what will come out of the corpse that gets fed on.
The Imperium seems like its solidly the next ones who are going to *splat* and implode in the cycle of Ages going on here.
And that's really the only way we'll survive in the long-term too. Imperium is way too big and entrenched to ever really make headway against in any meaningful way, which is a problem when they'll be hunting us down.
Of course the next problem is what will they take with them in their death throes.
And what will come out of the corpse that gets fed on.
Well the Mechanicus is already looking like its about to try and split off, which is vastly going to take up the IOM's attention, especially since said Mechanicus is also the main soruce of leverage they have over the Space Marines that displeased with how things are going.
Well the Mechanicus is already looking like its about to try and split off, which is vastly going to take up the IOM's attention, especially since said Mechanicus is also the main soruce of leverage they have over the Space Marines that displeased with how things are going.
Oh yeah, our "siblings" are also going to be around too.
I wonder if my idea on doing the "tall" playstyle and putting habitats and terraforming worlds with/for things to grow on would help? I mean... narrative quest, so I'm not sure how much freedom in that sense we have.
Also we got doctors without borders, so they'll probably end up going out at some point anyway.
Oh yeah, our "siblings" are also going to be around too.
I wonder if my idea on doing the "tall" playstyle and putting habitats and terraforming worlds with/for things to grow on would help? I mean... narrative quest, so I'm not sure how much freedom in that sense we have.
Also we got doctors without borders, so they'll probably end up going out at some point anyway.
Considering our spheres/domains; it should be relatively easy to whip up 'genesis seeds' that we could plant on barren rocks in the Goldilocks zone that produce human-compatible biospheres in a few decades.
Considering our shperes/domains; it should be relatively easy to whip up 'genesis seeds' that we could plant on barren rocks in the Goldilocks zone that produce human-compatible biospheres in a few decades.
I figure we could do farther too? Mars range, maybe even farther. The super crop we made already gets and stores more energy from the sun than it should rightly be able to.
Or maybe it was move?
Hmm... Either way it seems like we can improve the amount of solar energy we actually are able to use exceeds the usual. That probably falls off fairly quickly with distance, but... Hmm... Dyson sphere it?
Err, get the heat and energy from a closer plant and tightbeam it to another distant one that can then disperse it.
Could run into issues of course, mostly point of failure issues.
There's also supplemental geothermal to consider. Again, not much in terms of the distance and the energy lost in there though.
And further my main point was would it matter with the overall narrative arcs Alectai would be having us face.
I figure we could do farther too? Mars range, maybe even farther. The super crop we made already gets and stores more energy from the sun than it should rightly be able to.
[X] Plan Welcome To The Mountains -[X] Fast Reaction: You'll be outnumbered and fighting capable soldiers with armor that can resist your weapons and weapons that can hurt even your heaviest forces. More importantly, they have Chimeras, which add a nasty wrinkle in the matter. Your forces will however have time to set up and make suitable preparations for battle, which might limit the pain.
-[X] Communal Heart-Link (+1 Reliability) -[X] Undying Heart Stance (+1 Toughness)
-[X] Scythe of the Maiden (+ Lifebane)
This was a tricky situation--you could let people who had accepted you into their community die in the flailing strikes of a man who is steadily losing control of the situation and doesn't understand how to compromise with reality so that you could ensure that your own people would be safe…
Because you trusted Horatio, his take on things is that the full strength of the Cult of Verdance should easily put the pin in a company of the Auxilla--though attacking the capital city and all the defenses with them manning the walls would be a fool's game.
But you can't get the full strength of the Cult there in time.
Which isn't to say you're lacking options of course.
"I think it would be best if I committed as much of my strength to this as I can" You declare, fan tapping against your image's chin as you lounged in the command room. "I will ensure the Heart-link can keep everyone coordinated, and empower our weapons and arms to ward off harm."
"It's a start" Horatio nodded. "Still going to be tight--they're not amateurs, but it should keep us from having to suffer any fatalities."
"But people are going to get fucked up" Layla adds, leaning back on her seat and putting her feet up on the table. "No getting around that."
"Agreed, we have some healers already present in Graycliff as part of our humanitarian efforts" Dana nodded, hands on the table as she studied the map. "How should we proceed if we send the Featherlight in?"
"Don't get suckered into trying to lay traps for them" Horatio immediately replied. "We don't have the materials to make good explosives, and they'll be screening their advance with Chimeras and the Leman Russ they'll have access to here. All it'll do is tip 'em off that we're in the area. We need to compel them to withdraw from the area and fall back to someplace that they can't cross the border again before the rest of our strength rolls in."
"It seems you have the matter in hand!" You smile, as all of this begins leaning into material you really can't wrap yourself around. "If you'll excuse me then, I must turn my attention forward--call on me again if you need me."
WIth that, you withdraw your attention from that moment, grinning privately at Layla's mutterings of 'Spooky God Lady'.
You spin yourself off into the future--glancing briefly at the Featherlight's departure with a team of the Knights aboard accompanied by some of the more skilled of the Huntsmen. The pleasure-yacht turned landship sailed across the grasslands of Goldsheaf, dustcloud left in its wake as the militant orders of your cult mingle for the first time since training.
Nothing untoward though! Well, nothing serious anyway, it seemed like everyone was just too nervous to consider doing anything you're far too embarassed to look into!
… Maybe just the fact you made their uniforms really hard to just slip out of in a moment of ill advised impulse, what with the thorns rooting inside and anchoring the symbiotes in place until they got back home where they'd be stored when not in use. Your machinations will lay undetected for years!
Content that this part of time isn't going to make you something all blushy to review later on, you turn your attention forward still. The Featherlight drifting into one of the trade hubs of the province to the blustering surprise of the locals--a quick explaination by loudspeaker though got everyone digging for their guns and sending the dependents to the caves in advance. They were certainly eager to join your advance…
But it wasn't really needed, the plan from what you can tell is going to be what's called a 'Rabbit Punch' apparently--what a silly name because rabbits can't punch things--a sudden shocking strike to something sensitive from out of nowhere as the attacker runs giggling away in the aftermath.
Turn the clock forward--and already you can feel the instance of yourself from later on concentrating her blessings here. The darkness of night, where shadows loom high and man is at their most guarded. Which was the point, because the first phase was to scare the overloving hell out of them.
+This actually kinda tickles!+ One of the girls giggled quietly in her Belladonna as the Chimera rolled past and over her.
+That's ridiculous, the Maiden never made these to transmit touch to us+ The leader of this formation sent back.
+No it's easy you just need to lean forward a bit in the saddle and smoosh yourself against the front, ticklish!+ Came the response from the overexcitable Knight.
+Hey, she's right!+ one of the other girls added as her own suit was rolled over. There's a sense of exasperation from the command link and an unmatched feeling of awkwardness from the Huntsmen who were part of the network for the first time getting their illusions shattered one by one.
Well, as long as it's not anything inappropriate.
+This is ridicul… Okay, there's the tank+ One of the senior Huntsmen tries to reassert some level of gravitas in the situation. +Down to business, everyone in position?+
The chatter stops, and the empathetic acknowledgements propagate throughout the Heart-link.
+You know the drill then ladies, let's put on a show for the Governor.+ came the thoughts of the knight-captain.
You step back from the heart-link to get a better view of the ambush site. The Belladonnas emerge from their hiding spots as the column advanced over them--literally buried into the dirt packed road the Third Company was advancing over. There's cries of 'Contact!' within the column and pulse-rifles are leveled forward.
But the ambush was a success--the four Belladonnas deployed their Reapers and lashed at the tank's treads, severing them with the force-reactive blades and leaping back. To their credit, the Auxilla concentrate their fire by the numbers, raining down plasma shards on your Knights with respectable accuracy--not that you needed to be a surgeon to hit a nearly twelve foot tall biomechanical construct that was danger-close. The Belladonnas made for the tree line, scorch marks building up while sap and fluid leaked from the battered suits, but they were into cover before enough burned through to threaten the riders.
Just in case though, you listen into the chatter… Yep! Just superficial damage, nothing that won't recover given time!
The Auxilla react as professionally as could be expected, setting up gunlines and circling the wagons (Chimeras you supposed), creating a fortified base to repel any subsequent attacks. When none seem to be coming, the hatch on the Leman Russ opens, and a much better dressed officer steps out, bellowing orders to the Company while calling out for repairs to be conducted.
+Phase two then boys, let's show the girls what we've been up to the past few months!+
The prior attack's purpose was to establish that the Belladonnas were still present, that you were capable of hiding them in the path--and to launch a bruising but not frightening blow in that opening gambit. Patrols go through the forests, but when nobody gets eaten by monsters and no further attacks come, people relax. Camp is made, people start leaving the vehicles, and while a very strong watch rotation is set in place, people seem to be relaxing.
When the bolt of witchfire hits the face of the enemy Captain, blowing him back five or six feet and leaving his face a smoking ruin even as the usual post-fatal twitching never happens, the Auxilla react with predictable discipline, tracing the attack back and opening fire. More bolts fire into the formation from the places your Huntsmen had secreted themselves, carefully targetting anyone who seemed to be organizing this mess, each going down in frankly horrible ways.
You might have been a little overzealous empowering their weapons for this…
The ambush is a success--oh sure you're overhearing the occasional curse as the multilasers on the Chimeras are manned and start pouring fire back into the woods, and you do sense the Huntsmen pulling back at that point.
You're a little worried actually--you listen up to their chatter…
Yuck.
Auxilla were really good shots, and the multilasers caught a couple out too… Nobody died of course, your blessings and their symbiotes ensured that much from the occasional hits that landed--but a good number of the Huntsmen had to be carried off the field by their partners, and would be a while on the mend before they could fight again.
Well, as long as nobody died or got hurt beyond your ability to fix--you guess you could call this a success?
[Engagement 1 Morale Shock: 72 vs DC 60]
The fact that the tank is abandoned and the Chimeras quickly loaded and turned around? Yeah! That seemed like it was a success! They lost their nerve to keep pushing in!
Some of your Huntsmen are left behind to tend the wounded, and the remainder catch lifts with the Flower Knights as they move in pursuit of the force, just to make sure that they were going far enough to not be a problem.
The fact that they just end up running back to a prefabbed fort with some mortars really sticks in your craw though. Apparently you were still doing this thing!
Your Huntsmen shift a ways, using their hooks to latch onto the back side of the Belladonnas, using them as mobile cover for your advance. There were a few inappropriate remarks across the Heart-link that came from this but you'll call it an acceptable outlet for the stressors of combat.
The Flower Knights charged the fort--lances raised and concealing the presence of the grappled Huntsmen behind them with their own mighty frames. Mortar fire from the fort landed in front of them, shockwaves and explosions rocking but not deterring your fist as they closed across the killing ground The damage wasn't entirely superficial this time, you hear a yelp of pain as a direct hit manages to penetrate the central cavity of one of the Belladonnas and send shrapnel into the rider within, it staggers in place--but by this time, the range has closed greatly, and the Huntsmen being shielded rose from their sisters-in-arms and fired a barrage at the artillery positions, dropping the soldiers manning them. The injured Knight recovers as the breach to her mount closes, and the charge regains its momentum, slamming into the gate just long enough for the Huntsmen to hurl satchel charges into the remaining Chimera tracks, detonating them and leaving the mechanized cavalry crippled.
Pulse fire began to rain out, a few stray shots managed to catch your Huntsmen and were rapidly ablating at your Knights before the call is made to fall back. Which they do--and without any mortars firing at full speed and the Huntsmen shifting over to the front of their 'Rides', the damage doesn't add up to anything worth nothing.
That should have been enough? That really better have been enough, because you can already tell most of your Huntsmen are walking wounded, and at least one of the Flower Knights is a bit lightheaded from blood loss--even if the serum she was suspended in closed the wound while her symbiote pulled the shrapnel out.
The Auxilla abandon the fort and flee to the safety of Lambent Province, taking with them only what they could carry, between the damage done to their vehicles and the hit to their artillery.
In other words, even if they can be rallied at this point, they won't get here in time to do any real damage before the main force of the Cult arrives--and at that point, you're just throwing good money after bad.
Does this mean you won?
[Battle of Graycliff: Victory!]
[Casualties: 20 Huntsmen (Healed in 2 weeks), 1 Belladonna Rider (Healed by the next day)]
[Fatalities: None]
[+1 Favor from newly emboldened Followers for upcoming turn only]
The Cult of Verdance's forces arrive roughly on schedule, and when the Third Company returns with new vehicles and officers--having realized from the AAR that much of your infantry force was spent by the time you attacked the fort--they found themselves faced with the full strength of the Cult of Verdance.
And considering how even a tithe of it was enough to drive them off, not even the nastiest and most bloodthirsty replacement captain was going to throw good money in after bad--after all, the losses you already dealt to them? Not really a big deal, no real heroes went down.
In the end, the Governor wasn't willing to throw a Company away against a hard target and risk exposing an opening in the center of his power.
Which doesn't mean he's just going to take this lying down--but you should have time to work out an adequate solution before things all get out of hand!
So, yay! You win!
Now you just need to figure out what comes next...
Gain Control of the Planet of Equinox (PRIMARY)
Form a Military Force capable of holding the Planet of Equinox against aggressors (PRIMARY)
Form an Economic Base capable of supporting your people in the days to come (PRIMARY)
Ensure the Cult of Verdance is the dominant faith on Equinox (PRIMARY)
Help restore Dana's relationship with her family (SECONDARY)
Study the captured vessel (SECONDARY)
Gain Access to Space (SECONDARY)
Achieve all goals with less than one million fatalities (SECONDARY)
You are a Scope 2 God
You currently have 2 Tokens of Favor
You have 3 Heroic Cultists
You have a Rank 1 Cult, giving you 2 Manpower Tokens
Preaching Actions
[ ] Expanding Further (DC 20+)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Connection) You've gone from a few hundred to more than a thousand people who believe in you! It's great! You should push this further!
[ ] Spread the Word (Variable DC)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Connection) Most of your efforts are focused on Goldsheaf Province, you've got a pretty good idea of what's going on here and it's the foundation of your power base… But there's three more provinces on the planet, and you don't have any real influence over them. Maybe it's time to change that. The ranching province of Graycliff, the fishing province of Surf, and the capital province of Lambent. If you're going to conduct operations in those areas, you'll need to get the cult initiated there and reporting in.
-[ ] Lambent (DC 80)
Infiltration Actions
[ ] Anything else we miss? (Unknown DC)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Connection, Harvest) The Flayers are gone, but that doesn't mean that every possible threat is off the table except internal ones, maybe see if you can get some of the woodsmen in your cult to take a look around past the settled regions of the planet and make sure there's no surprises waiting?
[ ] Into the Capital (DC 50)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Connection) It's official, Lambent is pulling into a siege posture, pulling in their neighouring settlements before you can get your foot in the door. While penetrating the Spires themselves is probably beyond what you can do, you should be able to slip some agents inside in the confusion, who might be able to keep you up to date on how things are going.
Charity Actions
[ ] Planting the Seed (DC 60)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Weaving, Harvest) There's only a small handful of farms and ranches that you could say are completely held by your cultists, but that number's more than zero now! You've got plenty of people really eager to see what your teachings can pull out of the ground with a little work. You're going to need a lot of stuff to feed any possible refugees or other crises!
[ ] Quality of Life (DC 60)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Weaving) Sure this place isn't as bad as some imperial worlds can get from what you're pulling out of Dana's memories, but things could be better still. Apparently some of your initiates are interested in seeing if they can learn something from the techniques you used to form the Belladonnas, why not see if they can learn something else that can be spread around that isn't about breaking things?
[ ] Helping Others is helping yourself! (DC 50)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Weaving) You have the support of Graycliff--doubly so after your Cult's defense from a potential purge, but that doesn't mean things are going great for them. Spend some time and resources helping them get their herds back up to strength--you don't really like paying attention to the fine details at all but *surely* you can do something to help make this work? Or just delegate it to your followers you're not picky.
Kinetic Actions
[ ] Split Your Lungs With Blood and Thunder! (DC 70)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Weaving, Death, Harvest) Layla had a great idea, a capital one! "We've got some real whoppers out in the seas, flipping our ships and generally making a mess of things. Is there anything we can do about these? It'll be a real good show of force and help clean up the seas a bit!" You're more interested in securing some new assets--and the husk of a great beast brought down by your followers could have a lot of potential for you to reshape into something interesting
[ ] Building on what works (DC 75)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Weaving, Death) The Belladonnas are great, and your Flower Knights are doing surprisingly well at this whole 'Being a knightly order' thing. Still, just a lance and the Reapers doesn't seem like it'd be the best choice in the long run, especially when people start bringing guns with more firepower than old lasguns and hunting rifles. Maybe see if you can figure out some more tricks for them so they can play to their specialties?
[Battle of Graycliff: Victory!]
[Casualties: 20 Huntsmen (Healed in 2 weeks), 1 Belladonna Rider (Healed by the next day)]
[Fatalities: None]
[+1 Favor from newly emboldened Followers for upcoming turn only]
Looks like we might have gone a bit overboard on the blessings. But, better overkill then getting killed.
Gotta run soon but for this turn I think we should focus on expanding our forces etc and not trying to get into Lambent. Not until we have a full get of favor tokens to burn.
Looks like we might have gone a bit overboard on the blessings. But, better overkill then getting killed.
Gotta run soon but for this turn I think we should focus on expanding our forces etc and not trying to get into Lambent. Not until we have a full get of favor tokens to burn.
Mmm, you failed to really capitalize on the initial rout because the lack of lifedrain meant that your Huntsmen didn't get regen from their initial shots, and so you had to spend time detaching a group to mind the wounded and they had time to get to their fort instead of being peppered with firepower until they ran all the way home.
Grabbing the Toughness though kept you from losing a Flower Knight in the second engagement when she took an AP shell to the control cavity though, so mixed bag.
so here is something to know in the future. Lifedrain will act like a health buffer if you are alreaddy in good condition. so unlike other regens you can use it to get over healed
Mmm, you failed to really capitalize on the initial rout because the lack of lifedrain meant that your Huntsmen didn't regen from their initial shots, and so you had to spend time detaching a group to mind the wounded and they had time to get to their fort.
So, live and learn, next time grab both the lifedrain and the toughness so that every single unit can just keep going till met with superior force or the enemy is dead.
So here goes. We really should get into the Capital while we still can. That is Horatio and a token VS DC 50.
We should get something for our combat. So Layla, Manpower and another token go to sea monster hunting, it's less DC than doing science to Belladonnas.
I also want to help Graycliffs. Dana and Manpower can both help here.
And another option is to try and look around, but with Horatio busy we can only spare Manpower to this, so I will abstain. Plan will posted as soon as I write it up.
