hopefully the VM will offer some kinf of rebirth cycle similar to the ones of the bhudism and hinduism
you die,but your soul gets to be reborn in a new body with some core traits of your former lifes personality
so after each ''rebirth'' cycle,you gain more wisdom
so eventually you either ascend or choose to disolve your conciousness and give your wisdom to others
Alternatively those of our followers who die can become our subordinate daemons. Or not daemons, but sort of? Souls are a thing, but how we would interact with them isn't known yet. Same for making or otherwise nabbing daemons to work for us.
Alternatively those of our followers who die can become our subordinate daemons. Or not daemons, but sort of? Souls are a thing, but how we would interact with them isn't known yet. Same for making or otherwise nabbing daemons to work for us.
That being said we have this sustatable life/death/cycle thing going on, so such a thing, pulling someone out of that cycle would only be done if it was really important?
I kind of hope we can lay down some social/ideological doctrines sometime soon while our cult is still young. Best to have some core tenets/guidelines for our faith before we start spreading off world.
Her name was Leliana, and these last few weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions. She sat in meditation, in a particularly beautiful spot in the natural domain of her new Goddess. Flowers, trees, a gentle stream - she was surrounded by the grace of her goddess as she prayed. The great battle with the robotic flayers was still fresh in her mind. She reflected on the final assault, concentrating to keep the stress of combat distant, and her mind fell deep into memory.
Leliana was at the head of the van - she was the tip of the spear. The charge was glorious, tearing into the necron ranks with overwhelming force. Her Reapers scything through the clawed horrors as they threw themselves at her in a homicidal craze. Ironbark lances would spike through the gaps between her and the other Flower Knights holding the front line at her side, leaving massive holes through the skeletal torsos of the flayer menace.
A bolt of green slammed into her Belladonna's face, disintegrating all of its sensory organs, and for a heartbeat, Leliana was blind to the battle raging around her. Then the world came into focus, and she saw through her sister-knights eyes. A composite view from all of their perspectives gave her a clear view of her own actions. It was surreal, but effective. She redoubled her technique, refusing to be anything other than her best - gouging one of these metal monstrosities from eye socket to sternum, ripping its face in half as she sickled through its alien talisman before hooking another flayer with each of her Reapers as she pulled them apart, slicing it in half in a single shearing motion.
She felt invincible, her Belladonna's eyes were regenerating, and she knew no fear.
It was then that a second volley of green blasts roared from the flayer horde, wielded by other skeletal monsters. Pain, Leliana's world was pain - not the informative, useful sensations from the Belladonna's link, but from her own human body.
Leliana fell. The last thing she saw was her fellow knights leaping over her prone form, driving into the Necron line to prevent them from swarming over her.
...
She startled back into consciousness, at first seeing only the unusually faint bioluminescent interior of the Belladonna through the breathable liquid contained within the , before her connection snapped back into reality. Not to be found wanting, but with a clever idea quickly transmitted to a fellow knight who was dropped, they played dead, allowing their Belladonnas to recover fully before striking out into the turned back of some of the necron gunmen. It was a crush of twelve foot tall, five ton guardians of life, against the black metal monsters of death. They didn't stand a chance against them.
Symbolic.
If this battle was the portents of their future, Leliana could not be more at peace even in the midst of battle. The flower knights crushed their enemies, saw them driven before them, and bore witness to the lamentations of their twisted god as the howling of dying stars filled the dark cavern.
A miracle.
It was hard to build real faith at first, she didn't believe people would just help each other like this so freely. Freely. Not for no reason, they helped for many reasons. Good reasons. Kind reasons. It was so unlike the brutal workshops and warehouses she has known all her life. Leliana was almost overwhelmed how joyful everything was. She often found herself smiling - her actually smiling - at the antics of her fellow heretics. Heretic is such a mean word. Her fellow cultists? No that sounds sinister.
There wasn't a sinister bone in this whole movement. Spooky, yes, sinister no.
Coreligionist, she settled on for now. Two of her fellow knights even organized a "calendar shoot" to drive up recruitment. They asked her to join, it sounded interesting. Leliana was one of the winter months. Her fellow knights said it fit her white hair and icy personality. She wasn't offended; she knew she wasn't very emotive, or talkative. And it was a lot of fun having pictures taken in her fancy new uniform. It was a snug fit even on her slender frame, yet wonderfully comfortable, and best of all it smelled delightfully of flowers. A literal godsend. She was even able to cajole it to grow a long red "scarf". It had the look and texture of a flower petal, but was reasonably tough, and a distinctive white lily as a "brooch" to bring the whole look together. The Verdant Maiden was quite the fashionista.
That being said the subtle bioluminescence glow that brought attention to, and accentuated her womanly curves did lead Leliana to think that her Goddess might be a little lewd. It also led her to wonder what Tahm would think of her place in the recruitment calendar. A delightful thought - she would seek to ask his opinion on them later that day.
This magical, impossible wonderful life she found herself living was better than she thought life could ever be. Leliana loved being a Flower Knight, she loved being good at - certainly top five in her Maniple. She loved her new comrades. She loved the vision of her future she saw on the horizon. She prayed that she would never forget this moment. That she could protect this future. For herself. For everyone.
It was then that her Knight-Captain found her.
Her casually professional voice broke the natural quiet of the woodland paradise, "Leliana, the Governor has deployed the 3rd company to slaughter the people of Graycliff. We can only get six Belladonnas there in time to stop them. I want you to be in one of them. Can I count on you to fight?"
Leliana stood up quickly, saluted dramatically with a fearless smile on her face, "For as long as I shall live."
AN: I had a bit of trouble trying to catch Leliana up with current events. In all honesty I am hoping to build something a little like this for our cult, but very different. Going forward it would be neat for Leliana to get an ace custom Belladonna (The Simbelmynë if I could choose, but I am not so vain as to be picky) to suit the new role (which I know will be very hard to achieve) so she can be a char clone as well as a Rei clone. I'll get her through the battle of Graycliff next time and work hard to spend more time focusing on characterization and dialogue rather than summarizing multiple updates worth of events from her perspective. I am not super happy with how much of a summery this is, but I hope it brings a human angle to our girls in armor. I wanted to have a blurb of her helping people in her Belladonna per update note, they are accepted everywhere in the cult, and can help with things.
Have I collected enough death flags?
Anyway, it I apologize in advance that it is still a little rougher than I would like. I'll try and do better next time.
Joran of Danar's Resolve was a tired old man. He had seen, and done, much in his many long years of life, much of those things still haunt him to this day. He like many of his fellow guardsmen of Equinox didn't like to talk about their lives before they came to this world. Joran less so considering how he was doing everything in his power to distance himself from what he was. But as he sat next to his injured sleeping granddaughter's bed he felt the old stirrings start to rear their head again.
He wants to confront that girl prancing around putting all these ideas in peoples heads. Try and shake some sense into her, and make her see that what she is doing will doom them all. To at least try and stop her from going down this path that could see them all killed, but then he looks at his brave, stupid, Little One. His little Ollana the last piece of his daughter that he still had, and he also felt the need to shake Priestess Dana's hand in gratitude. Because if it wasn't for her one of the few lights in his life still remaining would have been snuffed out. A chuckle passes under his breathe as his grandson on the bed over is trying to make a grazing shot seem more impressive for the pretty nurses tending to him.
Boy's lucky that his suit took most of the blow, and that he was dealing with only decently armed militia. The scrapping sound of a chair being slid next to him makes him glance as Horatio takes his seat. Even after all these years Joran can still recognize him for his regulation style hair cut, and clean shaven face that did nothing to hide the small scar he gave him in their youth. An awkward silence descends between them as the two once friends try to find something to break the silence.
"The boy has his grandmother's aim," Horatio says nodding toward Jorah. "And the girl has her grandfather's stubborn fortitude."
"Yes, but they've become prettier now that they've joined that cult. Don't know where they got those looks from cause I sure as shit didn't look like that when I was his age."
At this the silence returned becoming a palatable presence in the room. The both of them could only sit through it one whose face was made of stone. While the Joran glared at the emerald rose medallion that was hanging from Horatio's neck.
"I'm going to ask you two questions Horatio, and depending on the answers you give. I'll either be taking what little remains of my family off this rock and running for an uncharted world. Or I'll just sock you in the jaw and go back to my farm." Horatio seems to consider this before nodding his head in acceptance. "Alright my questions are this, is this cult anything like that cult on Dallaran VII? And why did you join them, and drag my grand niece into it?"
Horatio seems to pause mulling his words over in his head. "Well I can assure you that this group is nothing like those damned Reaper Cults, more into life flourishing than seeing wither and die on the branch. As for my granddaughter joining the cult, if you can believe it she joined first." A small tired chuckle escaped from his mouth as a sad smile etched its way on his face. "Damned girl's to willful at times. I can only do my best to teach her and her friends what they need to know so they can hopefully live.
"As for why I decided to join... to put simply I lost my faith in the Emperor on the same day you did."
At those words a chill ran down his spine, at the edge of his hearing he could still hear the desperate screams. Clasping his hands together to stop the shaking took a few minutes to gather himself. Both men just sat in silence remembering the days they would both rather remain buried upon those ash strewn fields.
"Why are you here. It isn't just to dig up old ghosts, and reminisce about old ghosts."
Horatio sighs clearly not going to enjoy what he was going to say next. "Joran what I'm going to ask of you I want you to consider before you immediately turn it down. I'll give you till tomorrow to give me your answer. Just know that I won't hold it against you if you decide you never want to see me again." Joran felt his body tense in a way it hadn't done in years already dreading what he knew Horatio was going to ask him. "I would like you to train the next generation of Blood Hounds."
Joran couldn't speak, his mind seeing faces that he hadn't seen in decades appearing around him. He felt Horatio place his arm around his shoulder offering support. "I know this will be difficult, but if you won't do this for me then I ask you to do it for my sister. And the love you two had for your children."
At that Horatio stood up giving Joran one last pat on the shoulder before moving on to check on his Huntsmen. Joran himself could only sit in silence staring at his hands, now stained red with blood. Yet when he looked up at his grand-children he found that he couldn't immediately throw the words away. If it meant that they could have a shield of blades to protect them. Then he would bare his sins again, and he would bare them gladly.
AN: The idea for this was to give the option of a close quarters contingent to help protect the squishier units. In my head canon the Blood Hounds were meant to be a group of disposable shock troops that the generals would throw at the enemy to weaken the enemy while the rest bombarded them from range. The only problem was that they turned out to be to effective. Being able to deal massive casualties to normal human and regular xenos forces. This brought them into the eyes of an inquisitor who was having a bit of a Chaos problem in the flavor of Nurgle(just a bunch of regular mortals no Space Marines). So when the Blood Hounds took to the field they ended up being a bit too effective. Drawing the suspicion of others who then proceeded to do a purge in the form of decimation followed by a bit of interrogation. Joran here is one of the survivors so yeah he has some baggage.
Do you really need one, seems like a fine descriptor to me?
Also great story, I dont know much about 50k other than what was said back in White Dwarf in the early 90's so this will be interesting,
Although with even PDF having Powered Carapace and Fusion Drivers, I imagine things have gone right back around to 30k in terms of technology.
Your victory leads to a veritable tidal wave of support--it's one thing to talk big about protecting your neighbors in the face of a realm that would devour them at the slightest provocation (And at times, no provocation at all!) but it's another thing entirely to see a stolen hovercraft screaming into your hometown, pouring out a platoon of mysteriously cowled rangers and hulking sculptures of braided plant fiber moving with the grace of… Dancers would be a bit much you think, they're not quite at that point. But much more than you'd expect is the point.
Then they move off to the border, explosions and gunfire are heard, and the group march back with trophies of their victory. Victory against the Auxilla, the very instruments that see to it that the will of the Governor is done.
Oh sure, a cold blooded count would reveal that you didn't actually do much to impact their overall fighting ability. A crippled tank, a few transports, and a handful of mediocre junior officers? Very survivable from an institutional point of view. The point is that the Cult of Verdance stared down the instrument of Imperial Dominance and the Imperium Blinked First
That was no small thing.
So it's little surprise that the Cult of Verdance's numbers expand dramatically. First dozens, then hundreds, then thousands. Many throughout the Graycliff Clans in particular take up your banner--though it helps that you're not actually telling them to do anything they weren't inclined to do in the first place.
Your power swells with the tide of new followers, your knowledge and eyes expanding to new heights. You're actually getting a little bit giddy about it! You've never been feeling this validated before! Everything was going wonderfully!
[Cult of Verdance rises to Cult 2, +1 Manpower, +1 Favor]
It wasn't all just aggressive expansion into new fields of thought though--Horatio took one look at the impending withdrawal of the Government forces into the Capital City and decided that this was a great time to get some actual penetration into that edifice. He grabbed a few volunteers, drilled them in what they needed to know, aided by your own attention to help ensure the points were absorbed by his scratch-trained students.
Then he sent them out to the capital, where they joined with the refugees streaming into Lambent with their goods.
[Into the Capital: 50 + 10 (Horatio) + 10 (Domain)]
It's pure textbook--Horatio babbled some nonsense about passive informers and sleeper cells that you didn't understand, but what you do understand is the prayers that were tailored to inform you of what the sneaky people found out, which you passed on to your burgeoning little council. Being unbound by time and space has its perks after all!
The reports seem fairly clear that this was a prepared maneuver--probably the plan that Governor Magistrix was going to execute in response to the Flayers in the first place. Pull back with all the food and valuable material they could, house a core of expertise in the outer rings of the city protected under the city's Void Shields and weapon emplacements, and let the Problems outside burn themselves out prior to reconquest. You suppose you should be flattered that he considers you to be a colony-destroying disaster?
Not that you understand why…
[Sleeper Cells successfully emplaced within outer rings of Lambent, they will be able to provide you with information on events occurring within the capital city that aren't being strongly concealed. After the gates are closed later on and the city enters lockdown, they maintain contact with a set of clever prayers that inform you that there's a message that needs to be sent. Then you just glance over where they are and move along!]
With that business sorted, your turn your attention a good stretch of time into the future, drifting in on a conversation between Dana and Layla.
"No, seriously, why aren't we doing more with this?" The pirate-princess shouted, gesturing back at an opened Belladonna. "Those stabby things let people control a big walking blender, don't hurt anybody and they don't transmit pain back? How is is that none of you have decided to expand on this?"
"Because just getting people willing to get in the saddle of one of those was a huge trial?" Dana deadpanned. "Most people don't want to get impaled with sharpened stakes and then apparently drowned in a bath of god-knows-what"
"Oh, I like to call it vitae!" You spin off a small instance of yourself on Layla's head, apparently emerging from a fold in her hat. "It's pretty much just some filtered magic that I send in once they're all buttoned up to help smooth over some of the inconvenient mortal problems that would be getting in the way."
"Why are you small?" Dana asks--you point a tiny version of your pipe and step up a foot onto the crest of the hat. "Because I'm multitasking! I'm handling the big battle right now and I've only got so much left over I can spare!
"... That was months ago" Dana states, the revelation sitting poorly with her even as your image puffs out her cheeks. "Don't talk to me about that linear time thing, I barely even get what it is." You pop the pipe in your mouth again and take a puff.
"heeeeee…" Layla gushes, but you tap down on your foot to reboot her brain. "So, what were you all talking about?"
"Something about how she wants to see if we can use the construction techniques and control system of the Belladonnas to bypass the Capital when our equipment starts to wear down." Dana explains while Layla grabs your doll-sized self from the hat and starts nuzzling it. You allow it, because taking care of the morale of your followers is also the responsibility of a god! But you still had work to do.
"I don't see why not?" You answer. "I don't understand what it is you need, but if you just need me to make some designs possible, I can do my best?"
"I imagine you would…" Dana's expression is unreadable to the human-centric perspective. "But I don't think we'd be able to convince many people to buy in with getting stabbed all over the place to use it."
You take a moment to think about it, and slip out from Layla's group, hovering in the middle and ignoring her disappointed cry. "Well, that depends… The Belladonnas in a way are the limit of what I can do with my current power as a god" You explain, disregarding the grasps at you by becoming intangible. You raise a finger and begin to lecture. "You wanted something that could fight undying machine beasts, and wouldn't cause any serious side effects to the one using it. The best solution I could come up with was using the Floraplate as the target of my blessings, but letting the 'Rider' benefit by ways of a close empathetic connection. They're so complex though that the only solution I could think of was emulating the pre-natal conditions of someone yet to be born, still dependent on their progenitor. Even then, I needed multiple direct bindings to ensure that the power could flow in a stable fashion."
Layla's cute-frenzy seemed to fade at your speech. "That's pretty clinical for you" She observes, her enthusiasm seeming to be dampened. You titter and switch to your fan. "I have doctors following me now! I got their terminology!"
"In other words…" Dana says, chewing over your explanation. "The Belladonnas are operated the way they are is because they're ultimately war engines, right?" You nod. "... Does that mean that a simpler device that doesn't need to be used for war won't require such an invasive binding."
"Certainly not! If you just need to move something and have it operate, one binding is more than enough! It doesn't even need to pierce in that case" You elaborate.
"... I think we need to talk about designs" Dana seemed to be getting eager about it. You wonder what all that's about?
So you skip forward, and oh my that's a big expansion. You never thought people would embrace your design quite so enthusiastically! Apparently just having a 'Cord' that adhered to the back of the head that gave the 'Binder' control of the device was something that legends were told about--a secret that only some Machine Cult held.
And here you were just handing it out as part of farming equipment and vehicles.
Oh sure, the devices that you made kind of had a smooth, rounded finish over the old blocky bricks that people liked using before this was a bit of an odd moment, but if your tractor is made out of beetle shell and bone while controlled with your will alone--while being entirely powered off of solar emissions and resistant to rust and decay…
Apparently this idea may have set off something of a revolution! Plus, not needing to go to to the capital to get refined fuel or have all repairs done give your little burgeoning rebellion total independence from the center.
Great!
[Quality of Life: 79 + 10 (Dana) + 10 (Layla) + 10 (Manpower) + 10 (Domain) - 9 (Limits): 110]
[A Miracle! Through the guidance of the Maiden, the craft of her Council and the great works of the Weaver Sect, the Cult of Verdance has acquired the technology of 'Crude Biomechanics' This permits civilian-grade light equipment to be manufactured with organic materials and on a scale capable of meeting the Colony's needs. Operated through an Elementary Heart-Link, handling is easy and reliable, and between solar energy consumption supplemented by minor psychic draw, fossil fuels are not required to operate such equipment!]
Needless to say, access to cheap, locally sourced equipment and vehicles was a big help when the Cult began its major philanthropic project--the restoration of Graycliff from the mauling it took from the Publicani's punitive strike, and the subsequent choking out that they experienced in the aftermath.
Ranching is hard work apparently! Shooting varmints that'll eat your stock, fighting the local wildlife who think the terran-derived domesticated species are delicious and weak. Then you have the sheer scale that's needed to absorb demand and you've got a big headache if you have to do all of that on foot. They made use of small trucks and bikes to get around in the past, but ever since the embargo that was placed on them in the wake of the Publicani's assault, most of those started running out of fuel or wearing out with the lack of maintenance.
[Helping Others: 65 + 10 (Dana): 75]
So when Dana rolls in with the Cult's recent discovery, combined with the residual Good Feelings from the Cult standing with them, and fond memories of the Good Old Days where the First Governor made his initial pact with the clansmen, they embrace the new equipment, putting it through their paces.
And the general call? "Good enough!" Which is good enough for you and good enough for everyone. This particular injustice at least seems to have been solved.
In fact, things seemed to be going pretty good in general! You had the capital province encircled, they had drawn in--the Cult was growing in power and you had shown your strength and that you couldn't be pushed around. You held all the cards it seemed and victory was only a matter of time.
This had all been a great set of plans that nothing could possibly turn the situation around now!
The scream bowls you over in the Warp--you turn your gaze to the source--a brilliant golden pillar erupting from the Spire. You would call it rapturous if it wasn't for the sobbing you could sense within. You are close enough to hear--how could you not, here so close to the source?
+FLASH FLASH FLASH
COLONY OF EQUINOX WEST RIMWARD PACIFICUS NEAR OVERRUN BY CHAOS FORCES
SEND IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE+
In the heart of the galaxy, something shifts--a pitiless stare illuminates the source of the cry, taking in all of the events that had been unfolding with the cold calculus of an immortal machine.
It sees you.
A bolt of radiance is cast from the abyss, slamming into the Spire with force akin to that which began this crisis.
+FLASH FLASH FLASH
HELP IS ON THE WAY
FIFTH COMPANY OF AZURE DRAGOONS EN ROUTE
THE EMPEROR PROTECTS+
"The lunatic used the 'Forlorn Contingency' " Horatio spat, when you had gathered the council together. "We squeezed him too tight, gave him no room to move--and now he's killed us all."
"Sorry, I don't know anything about some 'Forlorn Contingency' " Layla raises her hand. "But I do know what that's saying--the Azure Dragoons… Those are Space Marines, aren't they?"
"Most likely" Dana slumps in her seat. "Damn it Father, you didn't used to be this way."
"He has to know the price of using it." Horatio went for a lho-stick. "An emergency astropathic data-burst directly to Imperial Strategic Command, to be executed only in the event of a planet's irretrievable loss to hostile forces. It's meant as a response to a Tyrannic Incursion or imminent Exterminatus by hostile powers--to use it for anything less is grounds for the immediate execution of the ruling Dynasty and imposition of martial law until a replacement can be sorted out."
"Whoa, whoa" Layla raises her hands. "Isn't that a good thing? If we just lie low, he gets shot, they don't see anything wrong, and they leave assuming he was some arsehole who pushed the big red button because he panicked?"
"Not an option" Horatio lit his smoke and gestured to the head of the table.
"I'm still on the books as part of the Dynasty…" She whispered, and Layla winced at the revelation. "So they'll be coming after you, and they'll see all the stuff in the meantime, huh?"
"I'd call it checkmate honestly." Horatio breathed deeply, the lho-stick burning faster with the added oxygen, and tapped the ash out. "We've got no solution to a Battle Company dropping in on us. Only thing we've got that I'd say have rough parity are the Belladonnas, but that's only as long as the fight's in close quarters. On an open field? No contest, the girls'll get torn to bits."
"Can we just run into the woods then? Or the sea? I'm sure we can make some cool sea-bases if we put our minds to it!" Layla offered, but the Marshal shook his head. "Won't work, they won't take failure for an option--if they need to scour the planet to the bedrock to confirm the job was done? They'll do it, we don't have the ability to run away forever, and I don't think we can get the ship ready in time by now.."
"We can't" You shook your head as you spoke up for the first time. "Not in the time we have now."
"... Then there's only one chance." Dana whispered, and everyone turned their attention to her.
"We seize the Spire before the Azure Dragoons arrive." She whispered. "It's host to the planetary defense system. If we can seize it and offer it to the Maiden…" She looks to you with expectations. You frown, concealing it behind your fan after a moment.
"... One of the defenses was a Void Shield, correct?" You asked. Dana nodded. "It's not… Impossible for me to empower it to the point of resisting bombardment from most weapons."
"And their heavy transports can be stopped by the defense batteries" Horatio mused. "Which forces them to deploy by drop pod--they can't bring their heavy gear that way, and we might be able to split them up."
"And if we can get some way of moving everyone around fast…" Layla adds. "We can take them one group at a time with all of our strength."
"So, in the end, it's come to this" Dana melts into her chair. "We are only a colony of ten million, it would be easier for them to start the colony from scratch than it would be to ensure that they got all of us."
The High Priestess of the Cult of Verdance takes a deep breath, and steadies herself.
"So be it then Father, if this is the choice you've made, then let it be done."
[CRISIS]
--The Fifth Company of the Azure Dragoons is en-route to Equinox! Upon arrival, they will assuredly realize the Cult is patronized by a Warp Entity, and will wipe you out. In a straight fight, they will likely succeed regardless of your preparations.
--You have between 3 and 5 turns before they arrive. You must take the Capital Province of Lambent before their arrival, or you will surely be crushed under the full strength of a Battle Company given a safe beachhead to land their troops!
--Gather every resource you can, this will be the true test of your Cult's resilience!
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 5 Tokens of Favor
You have 3 Heroic Cultists
You have a Rank 2 Cult, giving you 3 Manpower Tokens
Preaching Actions
[ ] Expanding Further (DC 40+)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Connection) Oh my, you're actually a statistically noticeable percentage of the planet's populace! You should keep pushing and see who else you can entice in--the more the merrier after all!
[ ] Murmurs of Dissent (DC 60)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Connection) Governor Magistrix has deployed the 'Forlorn Contingency', a scenario that will at best result in the careful screening of most of the surviving populace, and more likely will result in some Inquisitor rolling in and purging the survivors out of an abundance of caution. The people don't know about it yet--make sure they do, if you can even secure their non-involvement in the final Siege, you'll be golden.
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?
[ ] Sapping the Walls (DC 80)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Connection) Taking the walls of Lambent is going to be a monstrously difficult task conventionally, if you can somehow introduce a few weaknesses though... It'll get a lot easier! This is risky for your agents though and might not have good gains.
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!
[ ] Explore the Flayer Vessel (DC ???)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Death, Harvest) It's probably too late to get it to work, but there might be something you can learn by poking the big scary alien death chariot you've been sitting on for a while. Beggars can't be choosers and you'll admit to being pretty much a beggar right now!
[ ] Prepare for War (DC 50)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Weaving, Connection, Harvest) You will soon find yourself invaded by a foe beyond the strength of just about any living being. The collateral damage will be enormous even if everything goes right--and if anything goes wrong, it'll be catastrophic. Make sure that the noncombatants have someplace safe to take cover when the sky rains iron.
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?
[ ] Training the Troops: Vanguard Doctrine (Requires 1 Manpower + Horatio Mills) (DC 60)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Endurance, Weaving, Death) The second option that Marshal Mills suggests is a 'Vanguard' Doctrine. Humans don't normally like getting stuck in for all that we've made a big point of doing it he says, mostly because everyone else in the galaxy is better at it mostly. Your blessings and what are derived from them change that calculus--with performance augmenting armor and some form of heavy duty ranged weapon, your soldiers can execute a slow, grinding advance while hosing down the targets with fire. This strategy will be vulnerable to supply shock, but extremely effective against anything that can't stand indefinitely under heavy pressure, like most human formations.
[ ] Training the Troops: Rifle Doctrine (Requires 1 Manpower + Horatio Mills) (DC 60)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Weaving, Endurance, Harvest) The final option Marshal Mills thinks could work would be a variation on the typical strategy employed by the Imperial Guard--an advancing gunline that doesn't do anything fancy, but just projects power steadily and reliably, with enough agility to pivot to changes if need be. Not exciting and does tend to fall apart if the enemy is too resistant to your weapons--but it's a well tested, reliable tactic that works against most enemies. The only thing you need to bring to the table is gear and blessings to augment this.
The dice gods have blessed us someone prepare a sacrifice as thanks!!!
Edit: Nevermind the dice giveth and taketh.
Why would Emps try to kill us when he has bigger problems?
Okay, who's the golden asshole that gave the Panic roll an additional 47 beyond Limits? Did Daddy Dumbest suddenly get himself plugged into Yellow Emotional Spectrum from DC Universe?
Okay, who's the golden asshole that gave the Panic roll an additional 47 beyond Limits? Did Daddy Dumbest suddenly get himself plugged into Yellow Emotional Spectrum from DC Universe?
Okay, who's the golden asshole that gave the Panic roll an additional 47 beyond Limits? Did Daddy Dumbest suddenly get himself plugged into Yellow Emotional Spectrum from DC Universe?
So, at minimum Preparing for War and Building on What Works seems just about necessary now. Murmurs of Dissent should definitely be done this turn and Sapping the Walls the next. Split Your Lungs With Blood and Thunder might be useful on the third turn depending on how things look.
Also, we should probably run Expanding Further each and every single turn we have from now on to grow the cult as much as possible.
Well, then. I suspect something like this was inevitable, but it happening right now is quite bad. At least we have some manner of tech base, a large Cult, and a plan.
My thoughts:
We should try to do both Split Your Lungs and Building On What Works, if we can.
Murmurs of Dissent seems important.
We need to poke the mystery boxes at some point. If there's something on the planet that will complicate our ability to deal with the Space Marines, we need to know about it.
The Emperor Tyrannizes would be more exact. Well time to make him eat his words.
On that note it occurs to me that his precious space marines are bio-tech, maybe we could make our own once we kill this company and dissect the remains.
On that note it occurs to me that his precious space marines are bio-tech, maybe we could make our own once we kill this company and dissect the remains.
Bio-Warp tech more or less. Most of its good, but none of it works without the Geneseed, and that's not just biological its also straight up psychological and warp-tech. Without a primarch of our own trying to copy it seems nigh impossible, and trying to use an active one would probably require corruption.
Additionally, for all that space marines are powerful they're hideously wasteful of human lives, not something we can or would really be willing to do IC.
i remember that in the discord i suggested we should have gone void nomads route and left that planet as soon as we could
people said it was a bad idea,it seems time gives me retribution on the form of having all our assets in a single planet while the emperor is sending an strike force
Bio-Warp tech more or less. Most of its good, but none of it works without the Geneseed, and that's not just biological its also straight up psychological and warp-tech. Without a primarch of our own trying to copy it seems nigh impossible, and trying to use an active one would probably require corruption.
Additionally, for all that space marines are powerful they're hideously wasteful of human lives, not something we can or would really be willing to do IC.
Chaos had ways to getting around poor and degraded geneseed back in the day. I'm betting we can to with some effort. As for the loss of human life, well we are a goddess of healing. I bet we can make it more humane if we try hard enough
Mind I'm not wedded to the idea, it just feels like and appropriate amount of insult to hurl back at the Golden Tyrant.
Definitely more than we have. Remember the reason the VM exists as opposed to Nurgle Two Electric Bugaloo is because the Warp is calm. Conjuring a warp storm under current conditions is going to be hard even for a major god.
So... We might have succeeded too well, and too fast.
Not yet completely sure about how my plan will look in the end, but "Split Your Lungs With Blood and Thunder!", "Building What Works" and "Murmurs of dissent" will probably have priority for me.
Well shit. So, Astartes inbound. We may be fucked. Time to build up, fast. Agree with the post above, those three seem to be necessary if we want to survive the Angels Of Death.
