Marines watched Chaos die, and IoM, which previously used Chaos infiltrators as an excuse for being totalitarian hellhole, did not stop being totalitarian hellhole. More tech, more shinies, but same oppressive shittery, just more efficient.
So anyone with a brain and passing knowledge of history considering rebellion is to be expected.
I mean yeah I agree with you. Even a 6 year old could tell you that it was going to end badly, but you know. The God Emperor of Mankind is not really human, no Perpetual really is other than Pius, because living that long makes you more than a human. Really, it makes you a god, no matter what the Emperor said he was a god in every sense that matters. And now he actually is a god by 40k, because Ascended gods like Khorne, Khaine and now himself are formed through prayer.
Its kind of a no win scenario, religion is as entrenched in the human Psyche as Reproduction, we have had both for as long as each other.
Even with the new shinies what can the Imperium do, its entire system is built on Oppression, to reduce that even slightly is to collapse the entire system from the foundations, so they took the easy path and kept on oppressing. Easy, no Right.
I mean yeah I agree with you. Even a 6 year old could tell you that it was going to end badly, but you know. The God Emperor of Mankind is not really human, no Perpetual really is other than Pius, because living that long makes you more than a human. Really, it makes you a god, no matter what the Emperor said he was a god in every sense that matters. And now he actually is a god by 40k, because Ascended gods like Khorne, Khaine and now himself are formed through prayer.
Its kind of a no win scenario, religion is as entrenched in the human Psyche as Reproduction, we have had both for as long as each other.
Even with the new shinies what can the Imperium do, its entire system is built on Oppression, to reduce that even slightly is to collapse the entire system from the foundations, so they took the easy path and kept on oppressing. Easy, no Right.
the imperium is a house of cards of political alliances,there is no reforming the imperium,because reforming it means breaking said system of political alliances and therefore collapsing the entire thing
there is no saving it
the best we can do is try to ease the disolution of the imperium as peaceful as possible
and fill the void with more humane polities
For some reason the Maiden gets really embarrassed by things relating to 'hanky-panky'. It probably has something to do with our initial/core 'imagery' relating to that of an sweet innocent maiden etc.
The newborn god rose from her shell, inherited memories and legacies of old shaping her form. The Maiden was of Life first, beyond all other considerations--memories of a caged deity granted thinly pointed ears and golden locks. The stereotypes of the humans who carried the loudest voice gave her a shapely frame, and innocent blue eyes. From the two did she don a garment of fine silks and flowers.
@armentho Sure, but prayers being tailored sounds like they come from church leadership. I'm curious how it looks when a lead preacher picks out a devoted few to become an infiltration cell and tells them "this is how you should preach so our resplendent Goddess knows what her merciless and destructive enemies are planning".
Beyond that I still struggle to jive everything I know about 40k style religiosity and how our cult functions in that context. Most of our cultists either believed in a near-omnipotent God-Emperor until they got disappointed or they still believe in Him and are convinced that we are one of his saints/agents sent by Him to fix things because the governor, his servants and anyone who claims that the Verdant Maiden is actually a lie or a demon have obviously lost the True Path.
I know we are playing a Nice Chaos God, but till now it feels more like we are playing a cool rebellion lead by a disembodied biomancer spirit. Except for those times where we see Dana preach stuff on screen.
Don't get me wrong. This quest is still awesome in its current style. It just creates a dissonance whenever I'm trying to imagine how things actually look and feel from a ground perspective set in Games Workshop's universe.
@armentho Sure, but prayers being tailored sounds like they come from church leadership. I'm curious how it looks when a lead preacher picks out a devoted few to become an infiltration cell and tells them "this is how you should preach so our resplendent Goddess knows what her merciless and destructive enemies are planning".
Beyond that I still struggle to jive everything I know about 40k style religiosity and how our cult functions in that context. Most of our cultists either believed in a near-omnipotent God-Emperor until they got disappointed or they still believe in Him and are convinced that we are one of his saints/agents sent by Him to fix things because the governor, his servants and anyone who claims that the Verdant Maiden is actually a lie or a demon have obviously lost the True Path.
I know we are playing a Nice Chaos God, but till now it feels more like we are playing a cool rebellion lead by a disembodied biomancer spirit. Except for those times where we see Dana preach stuff on screen.
Don't get me wrong. This quest is still awesome in its current style. It just creates a dissonance whenever I'm trying to imagine how things actually look and feel from a ground perspective set in Games Workshop's universe.
At least not all people in that tower are sociopaths so in their arse they see outside light. that being said Even with outside help and the right thing to do, we still have to deal with, well...
Yes, it's a meme. Yes, they're not so wasteful. YES, they are just as, if not more insane.
Right Now Imperium is cancer that does it's most to destroy freedom, self-determination, honesty, mercy, reason (aka life, and all qualities that make's humanity worth it, and similar concepts (alderaity, tauity, whatever equivalent they use) applies to other species as well).
All we can do is try our best. Though, we could try diplomacy against Astartes AFTER we got the Spire, y'know the thing that would guaranty our survival?
Hopefully by the time, they come our cult would increase just enough to make our job slightly more bearable
i think the discussion on whether an Agri World's void shields can hold against a strike cruiser or the planetary defenses hold it off miss the point. They would not on their own, but the VM would be directly pouring her power into them. They would become analogous to daemon engines, god engines if you will and that is why she is confident she can hold and force the Astartes to land in less than ideal circumstances and get killed.
For some reason the Maiden gets really embarrassed by things relating to 'hanky-panky'. It probably has something to do with our initial/core 'imagery' relating to that of an sweet innocent maiden etc.
That attitude might soften a bit as our cult grows even more with her taking on the mantle of 'mother' along with 'maiden' etc.
i kinda took it as also being borne out from the VM's Nurglite ancestry- its not like Nurgle and Slaanesh were Best Friends Forever (iirc re:40k cosmology), so a distaste for one of the hallmarks of another chaos god makes sense
i kinda took it as also being borne out from the VM's Nurglite ancestry- its not like Nurgle and Slaanesh were Best Friends Forever (iirc re:40k cosmology), so a distaste for one of the hallmarks of another chaos god makes sense
They were indeed not, although they also weren't directly antagonistic to each other. No Chaos God likes the others, but the two harshly opposed axis where Khorne-Slaanesh and Nurgle-Tzeentch.
They were indeed not, although they also weren't directly antagonistic to each other. No Chaos God likes the others, but the two harshly opposed axis where Khorne-Slaanesh and Nurgle-Tzeentch.
Because her core image was split between standard nature goddess memes and the incredible repression that pretty much 99% of the thoughts and feelings sent to form her experience.
So you get that funny bit where she's a goddess of life but finds the act of procreation to be incredibly awkward to think about, so she tries not to and gets flustered when it happens anyway (Which leads to the push back, which leads to people getting the wrong idea and getting more creative, and there you go)
(Also this is how I enforce a PG-13 theme because fucking hell if I give people an inch they'll take a mile)
[X] Plan The Plate-Spinning Act of DOOM!
-[X] Murmurs of Dissent (DC 60)
--[X] Heroic Unit: Dana (1 Use Left)
--[X] Domains: Connection
-[X] Planting the Seed (DC 60)
--[X] Heroic Unit: Dana (0 Uses Left)
--[X] Manpower Token (2 Uses Left)
-[X] Split Your Lungs With Blood and Thunder! (DC 70)
--[X] Heroic Unit: Layla (0 Uses Left)
--[X] Manpower Token (1 Use Left)
--[X] Domains: Weaving, Harvest
-[X] Building on what works (DC 75)
--[X] Heroic Unit: Horatio (0 Uses Left)
--[X] Manpower Token (0 Uses Left)
--[X] Domains: Weaving, Death
The revelation of incoming nigh-certain doom was troubling to your council, but in the end, life goes on--as is proper. The cult continues to expand at a ferocious rate, and your footing grows ever more solid--with any luck, it will continue to endure beyond this trial. You will admit to experiencing significant concern on this topic though. The Adeptus Astartes represent the apex of mortal might, every single one a tireless, nigh invincible engine forged to conquer a galaxy. They do not experience fear as most mortals do, they cannot be reasoned with when they have been called to battle.
Truthfully, you'd rather avoid coming into conflict with them--but you don't see how it can be avoided, your influence does not reach beyond the borders of the colony save for when your followers venture beyond it, by the time they were within your grasp, it would be too late to avert tragedy.
And so you turn your thoughts to war.
[Cult Recruitment: 1d12 (Base): 8. 13/100 to Cult 3]
"The first thing we've got to do" Horatio would mutter, staring at the great map of the Colony. "Is figure out how to crack that wall--ideally without blowing the thing up and killing everyone around it. If we can't do at least that much, anything else we think of is a joke in bad taste."
The first--and it could be argued most critical task in the scheme your Chosen (Yes, you think that's the proper term) have devised requires the Cult of Verdance to secure the capital city. This is a daunting task at the best of times--the prefabricated colony cores of modern settlements are fearsome things, citadels bristling with artillery batteries, sally points for defenders, and enough local manufacturing capacity to maintain a siege for years at need. Dana's Grandfather made a point of keeping the reserve supplies topped up, and her father maintained that tradition, which meant that you couldn't possibly hope they cracked before the Azure Dragoons could roll in.
In the end, two plans were devised, to be executed in parallel. To sap the walls from within--and to get a suitable battering ram to deliver the Cult's forces to battle.
The first of these is Dana's responsibility--she was born in Lambent, was raised there, and did no small amount of philanthropic work while growing up as a young and optimistic scion of a successful dynasty. With a little help from your previously inserted agents, you manage to slip her in.
It was a gamble of course--Dana's cassock was floofy enough that she could conceal her own raiment as a solution to stabs or small arms, but it wouldn't really help her against one of the Auxilla who recognized her and was actually informed that 'By the way the beloved third daughter needs to be shot on sight to save us all" So she was listened to when she got on the soapbox and spoke of the tale of the past little while--the ruinous taxes imposed on the frontier, the harsh punishments for those who cried foul. How the people of the frontier joined with each other to form a united front against the threats and dangers, putting their skills and talents together to protect their livelihoods.
And how in his fear, in his shame--he called upon the might of the Imperium to descend on their home, to burn it in fire because the people ceased worship of a God who never did a damn thing to protect them, in favor of one that was tirelessly supporting them.
Her words do not go unheard--tales are told in the street corners where she spoke, whispers of press gangs grabbing up the young and healthy to put them on the walls. Of triple shifts being pushed forward to 'Prepare for the monsters'. Always pushed forward by armed men in great coats and featureless masks.
The once prosperous city of Lambent was slowly spiraling down the drain, people were exhausted--and none of it made sense. "Where were the signs?" Some whispered when they thought the political officers weren't listening. "Everything was good, and then everything was bad, shouldn't we have heard sooner?"
The fact that an uncomfortable number of those people are arrested on charges of sedition just proves the truth of Dana's words.
By the time the patrols track down where she speaks, she and the crowds are gone. Drifting from district to district, always a few steps ahead of pursuit.
By the time Dana has made her final speech--this time in a major square--the officers have had enough. Arbites sporting riot shields storm the square, hurling gas and laying about with shock mauls. "Unlawful Gathering!" They would spit. "Sedition and Treachery!" They cite.
Some are hurt, some even die--and the rest watch, listen--and the sound of angry men begins to fill the streets of Lambent.
[Success: Populace of the outer districts of the Capital have been informed of the approaching doom brought on by the government, questions are being asked, and the answers received are not encouraging. Loyalty of capital province to Magistrix regime is fading]
With her work in the Capital completed, Dana was spirited safely out of the capital, content to allow your agents already in place to control the dissent and provide aid to those harmed in the growing protests. The more aggressive activities of your Cult were well in hand courtesy of Horatio and Layla, and there was one further dagger pointed to the heart of the frontier-folk that needed to be cast down.
In the end, what the Cult of Verdance lacked was not tools--not since the breakthrough of recent days. It was not manpower--that was steadily coming in as more people benefited from the work of the Weaver and Mender Sects. What the Cult lacked was resources, and thanks to your control of most of the Colony's available landmass, there was ample room to work with. Especially with a friendly God riding shotgun and providing transcendent advice and the occasional miracle on command!
You are thrilled at what the Weaver Cult came up with in those brainstorm sessions. Oh sure, there were the obvious solutions like 'What can we do to get greater yield out of the same amount of land', which lead to all kinds of developments on similar lines of the Corntatoes. Like multi-staged grains that could be harvested multiple times a season! Fruits that were sweet and delicious while also serving as a decent source of other essential nutrients! The potential of minds unleashed to bring out the true potential of the land is a wonderful thing.
Where you were surprised though is where they went from there. Apparently some of your discussions with Dana about how the stuff you make actually works sunk in--and she asked you plenty of questions as to how 'Psychic' energies actually worked. You're not exactly the biggest scholar in the field, but what it boils down to is that 'Life creates ripples on the Immaterial Realm, and those ripples carry power with it' .
"So does it have to be humans who can store it?" She would ask you at the end of one session.
"Anything big enough and smart enough would do, they just waste it all because they don't think important things" You say, and she grins.
You skip ahead. Oh, that's what she meant. That's a really good idea! Cattle and other big animals aren't smart enough to use psychic energy, but they're big enough to attract it! If you just engineer their horns and hides to serve as a sink for those energies, you can create valuable, thought-reactive materials on a useful scale!
Not great quality admittedly, but it could serve as a valuable component in copying some of your own work! Plus, stuff like the horns don't really lose their ability to serve as storage either, and with a little carving you can turn them into useful batteries!
Surf's got a good aquaculture setup going on too, which gives extra variety and delicious foods from the sea--more importantly though, the new kind of kelp manufactured is an excellent Prometheum Precursor, and it burns clean and sweet.
Altogether, you don't see Equinox running into any problems in the future, even if Lambent turns out to be a total loss one way or another! They've got everything they need to keep standards of living up even if the Colony Core is broken and the Mechanicus Enclave flees. No more do your people need fear the spectre of being cut off from the greater body of the Imperium! They can stand on their own two feet forever if need be!
[Success: Between Crude Biomechanics and Psi-Active Ecosystem, Equinox is--in theory--capable of maintaining current quality of life and population even in the face of a total loss of all expertise in the Capital. Primary Objective Complete]
While all of this is going on, Layla goes fishing.
"HAHAHAHA!" Your diminutive captain-princess laughs, currently standing in the Featherlight's Crow's Nest, hat held on with one hand while she holds a piece of the rigging with another. "There she blows! Target in sight!"
It's a ferociously stormy day, but the Finest Vessel on the Founder's Sea sails smoothly, gravity plates humming with power as it dips and bobs with the waves, always descending slowly enough to remain undamaged. In the distance was a breaching beast--a genuine Leviathan given form.
One of the draws of this planet apparently was the aquatic megafauna--good source of oils, meat, and apparently some aspects of the shells were considered valuable by agents of the Adeptus Terra. Hunting them though was always a heck of a trial--a great industry in the early days of the colony though! When civilians could strap lascannons and heavy bolters to their hull and meet these monsters in glorious naval combat!
Nowadays, that kind of thing is illegal, and the old sailors of the sea found themselves made illegal. So they shrugged, and just kept doing their own thing.
Right now, that 'Doing their own thing' is apparently complicating the hunt.
"Sorry Papa!" Layla spins around to face the pursuing fleet. "Still need your baby for a few more minutes!" She took her hat off and bowed using it. Cannons sounded and shells flew through the air, splashing down in and around the Featherlight, One actually lands into a porthole of all things!
+Agh! It's hot pink!+ One of the Knights inside complains over the Heart-Link. +I'm ruined! It smells like dead fish!+
+Pretty sure it is dead fish...+ Came the reply. Layla grinned at the challenge though. "Stern! Give Papa my reply!" She ordered, slamming her hat back on as the rear mortars fired off, arcing towards the approaching fleet with pinpoint accuracy before bursting in the air, dropping a blizzard of glitter down on the fleet. "Haha! That's how I want to see it done! Double grog for the stern gunners!" A cheer fills the deck, and Captain Layla Current whirls back to face the fore. The great beast was enraged by the noise--turning to face the approaching formation. A great dragon-turtley thing--except where the Terran strain was a shell wrapped around a funny lizard dude, this thing was an armored fortress, bristling with spines and with a sleek form capable of tearing through the seas with wild abandon despite its size and mass.
It was--in a word--perfect.
It used some of that vaunted speed accelerating, a great spiny island advancing to the Featherlight with disturbing speed. Layla watched it come with a growing smirk.
"Hard to Starboard!" She bellowed, and the crew obeyed, shifting the Featherlight to present its broadside to the advancing monster. "Girls! You're up!"
+It occurs to me to ask now…+ One of the Knights--apparently one of the more intellectual ones--muses. +Do Belladonnas float?+
+I guess we're about to find out! Launch!+
The broadside ports burst open, and the Flower Knights are launched at the beasts. Their customary lances replaced with a set of oversized harpoons which also fired on approach, burying into the Leviathan's head--a flicker of light reveals the chains connecting the harpoons to the wielders, and the Flower Knights descend in a wave of green (And one hot pink apparently, huh!) Crashing into the Leviathan with their Reapers already deploying.
"And there we have it!" Layla stretches out her arms and poses on the Crow's Nest. "The prize is mine!"
She turns back to the approaching fleet--now close enough that she can make out the figures aboard. "Remember this as the day you almost caught Captain Layla Current!" She boasts--and jumps off the crow's nest.
Not to die of course! Goodness! Her hand snaps out, and a thin wire unspools from a mechanism on her wrist, crossing the gap to latch onto one of the Belladonnas currently chopping at the moaning and quickly dying Leviathan, and pulling her in and over it. She turns back after landing with only a muffled +Hey!+ emerging from the Heart Link, and waves.
"Featherlight's yours again Papa!" She shouts as the Leviathan falls under your sway in death. "I've got a new ride in the works!"
[Split Your Lungs with Blood and Thunder!: 40 + 10 (Layla) + 10 (Warmaidens) + 20 (Domains) + 5 (Omake): 85]
This was one of the biggest jobs you've ever worked on! The Leviathan was huge when it was finally pulled to shore where the Weaver Sect had mobilized their forces. Layla continued to preen as she stood on the snout of the fallen beast, while the Flower Knights celebrated off to the side.
The best parts of the Leviathan were carved off by the teams that gathered, and served as a feast where Layla boasted about her deeds since signing on with the Cult, leading up to the defeat of a Leviathan without losses. Fun was had for all corners even as the rest of the carcass was stripped of what wasn't needed.
What you wanted was the shell and the bones.
The biggest bottleneck with your work is ultimately the skeleton. Biomass is hard to gather on the scale you need, and while your divine power lets you push the limits of what you can put together beyond what mortals would call sanity--you can't break the laws of physics without a corresponding price.
What you needed was a way to get the Cult into a fortified position safely, and that meant you needed to build big.
With the flesh stripped, you spend your power with abandon, using the Weaver Cult as your agents. As it was slain by your forces, so does its remains bend to your will. The skeleton is reshaped, psi-reactive bones twisting to form chambers and scaffolding, an internal circuit through which power can be channeled. Great dollops of plant matter are shipped in to the work site, woven and braided to serve as the hull material. The shell was reshaped to cover as much of the burgeoning vessel as possible--and where it could not be stretched further, salvaged plates of plasteel and adamantium are bolted on and covered to fill it out. The bottom of the structure was lined with all of the Grav-Plates the Cult could beg, borrow, or steal since the plan was hatched. "Nyehehehehe…"
"I don't have to get into some tight space and get some stuff jabbed in me if I want to move this, do I?" Layla asked. You popped a small manifestation of yourself in front of her gaze, hovering in place.
"Oh certainly not the same!" You happily explain. "We'll need at least forty-nine total binding points to provide full control of this"
Layla blanched at that. "You into bondage or something lady?"
"I don't have any idea what you're talking about!" You happily explain. Why's she talking silly stuff anyway, you'd need to distribute the load across seven people through a heart-link to achieve full control and stability of the construct.
You're sure she'll love it anyway! Especially when you can start strapping weapons to it!
[Success! Leviathan Landship unlocked for the Cult of Verdance--only one can be produced with current technology and equipment, but it serves as a heavy transport and linebreaker unit for your Cult's forces!]
The other main thrust of your military buildup--as opposed to your sneaky-sneaky one anyway--is a simple thing. Namely, the Belladonnas, currently the most complicated things you've made, virtually invincible to conventional attacks and capable of taking on just about anything in close combat.
'Close Combat' being the operative words--from what Horatio is telling you, you have a serious problem looming forward in the form of 'Jet powered supersoldiers capable of outrunning and outgunning anything that moves'
You… Don't see a path to matching that. So you have to fall back to the other prospect. "If you can't catch them, shoot them."
In other words, you need to figure out how to get the Belladonnas to shoot. You briefly consider a scaled up version of the Boltcasters you've already employed for the Huntsmen…
A few numbers run and yikes, enough drawn from the rider to power a shot is probably enough to stop their heart and shut down their blood flow. Not an option then, you need something a bit less fatal to the girls.
Hmmm…
[Building on what works: 79 +10 (Horatio), +10 (Weavers) + 20 (Domains) + 5 (Omake) - 4 (Limits): 120]
The answer? Plasma. Plasma is a funny thing that happens if you take something that burns and make it burn so hot that it starts turning kinda liquidy. Now normally you would be asking "Why would I possibly do that?" But people are forgetting that you're a god and plants draw power from the sun. It's just a little bit of work to find a good way to do it--but then you look at the little skirt that you built into them and realize that it's not doing anything special yet.
So now it's a conduit of stored solar energy, pulling in atmospheric gasses and exciting them with the power until they turn to plasma, from there, it's just a matter of channeling that force into integrated weapons, and presto! You can spit bolts of burning sunfire at your enemies at a distance and you get a neat light effect through the veins you've introduced where the power is drawn from the skirt-type solar collectors and transmitted to where it shoots stuff out--a set of raised sections on the 'Shoulders' where the plasma is transferred up to and fired on the targets. It even can switch from a little 'Pew pew!' to suppress targets to a 'FZHAP!' against something tougher!
Honestly, this alone would have been enough to call it done--but Horatio brought all kinds of ideas to this. "They've got hands don't they?" He pointed out, and they do. "Why not give some hand weapons that take advantage of this?"
So the Weaver Sect got involved, and you compared notes, and before you knew it you had two new hand weapons for the Belladonnas on top of the ones you already possessed! One that fires a big goopy blob of Plasma that holds together for a while and then lands in a bang, and one that shoots a whole lot out really fast.
Having the Sun--boiler of worlds--on your side is very reassuring in light of the recent troubles! You're glad you took up this project!
[Miracle! Belladonnas now include Sunfire Projectors as standard issue! Sunfire Launchers and Sunfire Blasters are added as specialist weapons which can replace the Lances!]
All together, it looks like--as much as you'd rather avoid it, you're going to be well prepared for the oncoming storm. You had a way to enter town, you had the populace of the outer city listening to you--and with any luck, you should be able to capture the inner city and the Spire before the Space Marines arrive.
Except…
You feel like you're missing something here…
You step back from time, looking everything over, what was nagging you so much…
Wait
You slide your perspective closer to Layla's expedition, while the first Leviathan was being worked on. What was that nasaly chuckle for? You pivot an instance of your attention behind the clouds, and there you have it.
A figure wrapped in the night sky, curled up on a cloud. You couldn't make out much of their features, save for the ruler that they were currently measuring the dimensions of the burgeoning Leviathan with.
"Nyehehehehe…" They chuckle as you creep up on them. "This is good stuff here, good stuff… Needs to be at least this good if it's spooked the fuzz…" The ruler shifts, and becomes a pen with a notebook. "Got to take notes… Sea monsters have psi-active bones…" They scribble it down. "It'll be great to loot this place once the marines are done… how am I gonna get here first though…"
They seem awfully distracted at the moment. You do the warpy equivalent of a cough--and it freezes like a deer caught in the middle of an oncoming train. It turns to face you, their blue cowl concealing a field of stars as it gazes you.
You gaze back
It locks its stare.
But you're not going to lose~~
"AHHHHH!!!!!" They point at you and scream, climbing up their cloud all the while. Is this the game? "Ahhhhhhhh!!!" You scream back, matching the gesture. It reaches into its pouch and starts throwing stuff at you. Gears, tools, and trinkets bounce off your face as it scurries away--diving into its cloak and fwooping out, now nowhere to be found.
You find yourself lost, surrounded in a pile of knickknacks, and holding a stray cog in one hand that had embedded itself in your head.
What was that about?
And what are you even supposed to do with this thing?
[Gained 1 Artifice Token, may be used instead of or in addition to Favor tokens on suitably tagged topics. Will disappear by next turn if unused]
Gain Control of the Planet of Equinox (PRIMARY)
Form a Military Force capable of holding the Planet of Equinox against aggressors (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, additionally, you may invoke Artifice once this turn only
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!
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 65)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Connection, Artifice) 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
[ ] Explore the Flayer Vessel (DC ???)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: Death, Harvest, Artifice) 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
[ ] 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.
[ ] Here we Stand (Requires 2 Manpower, Dana)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: ALL) You are as prepared as you'll ever be, your people are at your back, and the city's defenses are reduced. Seize the final bastion of Imperial Control and prepare for the oncoming storm. Begins Decisive Battle: Lambent Spire
So Azure Magus thinks we'll lose and is hoping to loot the leftovers. I hope we can get past this misunderstanding and form a healthy working relationship.
We might also need to work on another doctrine for when the Space Marine's come. We're going to lose that battle of attrition with the way we operate now.
It's a toss up between reducing casualties or learning new tech, both secondary objectives mind you. The tech might be a better pay off in the longer run but we don't know the DC for the action to succeed. I'd usually lean toward's studying the ship but the SM are coming in as early as 2 turns from now.
WE HAVE NO INFENTRY TO TAKE IT WITH. we have tanks and guarilla troops we need an actual infentry force to secure and hold places before we attack the capitol or we get fucking wrecked
"AHHHHH!!!!!" They point at you and scream, climbing up their cloud all the while. Is this the game? "Ahhhhhhhh!!!" You scream back, matching the gesture.
[ ] Here we Stand (Requires 2 Manpower, Dana)
-[ ] (Attached Cult Tokens)
-[ ] (Available Domains: ALL) You are as prepared as you'll ever be, your people are at your back, and the city's defenses are reduced. Seize the final bastion of Imperial Control and prepare for the oncoming storm. Begins Decisive Battle: Lambent Spire
