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>>44236285
>1.

If you wanted to get at the mages as quickly and easily as possible, that meant making a beeline for them while avoiding the heavy knights. You’d do what damage you could on the way in, but getting out would mostly be a matter of Malaine and his knights flying everybody out. The last thing you needed was to get boxed in.

With the moon scarcely a day short of full it would be hard to sneak up on the watch, so you decided to do this the fashionable way. Your archers fell the guards where they stand and then the onslaught begins. Fire ripples through the camp as you lead the charge, screams and shouts echoing from around you. Magical bolts ripple around you and you respond with magical lances with a wave of your hand at times. There are a series of tents trying to block your path forward, and you remember they had fences behind them too to try to funnel you away from the centre.

You spot a half-dozen flying mage knights swoop overhead and then a thunderous crack greets your ears. Dirt, gore, splinters and the blazing remains of the tent canvas ahead of you are flung into the air. Your ears ring at the closeness of the explosion but at the very least you have a way forward. Enemy mage-knights try to rally on the other side, caught unaware by the sudden explosions. You won’t have any of it and charge them head-on, your own mage-knights joining you with magically enhanced shouts.

[DC62 Combat]

Rolled 11 (1d100)

>>44236311
Oh god
They killed bob

>>44236311
>With the moon scarcely a day short of full it would be hard to sneak up on the watch
Shit, nightwalkers. I'm not sure how, but they have to have nightwalkers that they're planning to use tomorrow night.

Rolled 77 (1d100)

>>44236311

Rolled 40 (1d100)

>>44236311

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Rolled 55 (1d100)

>>44236311

>>44236353
Well, at least we got the one...

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>Target met

Accumulated successes: 0
Mana: 15

Steel meets steel for a moment, sparks flaring to life along the edges of the blades. Then the magic in your sword overcomes his and your foe screams as you slice open his chest from shoulder the hip. You step past him and through the enemy’s thin and hasty line of defense. You quickly take stock of the situation and plan your next move.

The mages’ tent is on the other side of this small clearing and you can see dozens of them scrabbling around, trying to gather their staves and reinforced robes. It figures that the mages would all be the least prepared. A few of them are already ready for combat, however. They weave spells like a novice mage but are dangerous nonetheless.

Through an opening in the tents to your right are a surprising number of heavy mage-knights, perhaps two dozen. Unlike the mages they must have already been suited up. Runes on their armour glow brightly, indicating the magic resistance of their armour. It’s unlikely to be of much help against your blade arts but might shrug off your ranged attacks. Behind them are more soldiers still rallying, if less well equipped.

Enemy archers are already finding purchase on the walls and towers around the camp and peppering you and your men with arrows. Malaine and his flying knights are doing their best to do some damage to them, but with so few of your knights against their archers they’re only so useful.

Immediately behind you are almost twenty mage-knights, the vanguard of your raiding party. They pull their weapons free from the corpses of the Seraphi knights and begin to line up behind you. You suppose that means it’s your lead.

>What’s the immediate plan of action? Feel free to suggest a combination of things to do as well as orders to give your men.

>>44236566
Hammer the mages into the ground, then pull back.

>>44236566
go in hit the mages hard then get the fuck out

>>44236566
Have the men charge the heavy knights. Fly up in the air and kill as many mages as possible before retreating. If your men seem to be in trouble then drop to the ground and go rage mode. Then run like hell.

>>44236566
attack the mages, set fire to their rations/food supply, then retreat.

>>44236566
If we unleash the dragon will we be able to use it for the siege

>>44236566
Pull back. They're more prepared than we anticipated, might as well not waste any of our troops.

>>44236724
We should unless they do a full on attack as soon as they get to the base.

Which would be stupid because they would be Tired as hell while we would be fine.

>>44236566
Have our men charge the enemy mage-knights and fly up and fuck up the archers, maybe using a few magic lances.

>>44236779
oh yeah, I forgot we had magic lances to use. Lets use them to snipe down the archers while we're raiding!

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VOTE
>1. Hit the mages as hard as you can while your men keep the enemy mage-knights busy, then pull back before things get too much worse.
>2. Go all-in, focus on helping your FMKs take out the enemy archers with magic lances while your knights hold off theirs. Go for the mages afterwards.
>3. Pull back, the enemy is too prepared.
>4. Custom

>>44236566
If we can fire on the move, target the meanist looking mage and blast him

>>44236566
Bypass the knights, beeline for the mages, strafe the archers as you pass by then pull out.

>>44236566
We have the mages pants down so a good magic barrage on them would be killer right now.

>>44236817
>1. Hit the mages as hard as you can while your men keep the enemy mage-knights busy, then pull back before things get too much worse.

>>44236817
>1. Hit the mages as hard as you can while your men keep the enemy mage-knights busy, then pull back before things get too much worse.

>>44236817
>>1. Hit the mages as hard as you can while your men keep the enemy mage-knights busy, then pull back before things get too much worse.

>>44236817
>>1. Hit the mages as hard as you can while your men keep the enemy mage-knights busy, then pull back before things get too much worse.

>>44236817
>>44236832
Like my post above
1. with a bit of 2.

>>44236817
>1. Hit the mages as hard as you can while your men keep the enemy mage-knights busy, then pull back before things get too much worse.

>>44236817
1

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>1. Hit the mages as hard as you can while your men keep the enemy mage-knights busy, then pull back before things get too much worse.

[DC73 Magical Barrage; DC62 Gank the Mages]

[DC57/82 Knights Holding off HMKs]

Roll 3d100 each.

Rolled 61, 75, 6 = 142 (3d100)

>>44237019

Rolled 96, 92, 24 = 212 (3d100)

>>44237019
Luckily I'm the god of all dice. So there is no way I could fail.

Rolled 75, 73, 72 = 220 (3d100)

>>44237019

>>44237040
dayum son. dem 90s

>>44237039
>>44237040
>>44237042
2 pass, 3 pass, 1 pass
Mages get wrecked.

>>44237039
>>44237040
>>44237042
What I'm seeing is we trade some FMKs
For a shit ton of mages

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Results, as you guys got a bunch of accumulated successes and I'm hoping to make things a bit clearer with the new system.

>Magical Barrage: Target met; 61, 96, 75

Accumulated Successes: 1 (the 96 gives you an extra degree of success instead of accumulating)

>Gank the Mages: Target met; 75, 92, 73

Accumulated Successes: 3

>Knights holding off HMKs: Target not met

However, you have 3 accumulated successes. Using all 3 gives you a higher target success, but I'll only use 2 so you still a spare to counter any critfails. So this roll succeeds.

Accumulated successes: 1

I'm not sure if I want voting for using accumulated successes, as it would slow things down a lot at times. Let me know how you feel about that.

Also, let me know if this makes any sense.

>>44237040
>24

Fuck. My dice god powers are waning. On the bright side I did get a crit.

>>44237132
I"d suggest only really voting for it during big boss battles. In general I trust your judgement on when would be a good time to burn them.

>>44237132
so the Knights holding off HMKs meets lower target met?

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>>44237165
Yes.

>>44237156
Generally I'm going to try to keep a spare accumulated success to counter a critfail (you need one to turn a critfail into a regular fail, and two to convert a regular fail to a success). But yeah, against big boss fights I might leave it to votes.

>>44237197
Wait, I though we met the lower target with this 72 >>44237042
Why would we need to spend two to make it not a fail?

>>44237197
anon does make a point here >>44237229

>>44237229
While I'd also like some clarification, I just want to say from experience that you can trust Asp in situations like this to have the players' best interests at heart.

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>>44237229
Yes, you're right. My bad.

>Magical Barrage: Exceptional Success; 61, 96, 75

Accumulated Successes: 1
Mana:13

Your feet are already moving by the time you’ve snapped off your orders to your men via sending. The clatter of armour behind you makes it clear that your knights know their orders even if you didn’t shout them at them, which will hopefully keep the enemy confused long enough to get a slight edge. Honestly, how did York command everybody without sendings?

You feel a slight impact on your chest as an arrow clatters against it, snapping against the magically reinforced steel. Several more whistle past you and you keep your head covered with your arm. Maybe you really should get a helmet? Or at least learn how to cast a decent barrier.

Feeling the snap of magic to your side you dive to the ground, a series of bright magical bolts searing the air where you last stood. The crackle of fire soon joins the cacophony around you as the tent opposite the Seraphi heavy mage-knights bursts into flame from their missed attack. In the meantime you’re nearly on top of the mages. You can feel their magic surging up, the ritual of these three rookie battlemages ready to launch its magical fury at you.

Holes appear in their chests as you rise to your feet, iridescent magical energy still shimmering around your gloves from where you launched the magical lances. With the only mages ready to stop you down you shower a few more lances into the tent for good measure. Their scrabbling about becomes even worse as their blood showers down inside the tent and many of them begin to try to flee.

>Gank the Mages: Target met; 75, 92, 73

Accumulated Successes: 3
Mana:13

You don’t give them the chance, surging inside the tent and going to work like a butcher on a fresh delivery of meat. You can’t let them rally and begin to fire back, so you furiously and desperately hack away at them.

>continued

last thread there was a ton of activity and voters due to chargen, and it was swarming with anons and samefags. This thread? so little activity and posting as side from updates and what not. It's a bit jarring.

>>44237453
I think most people lurk, but wanted to give their opinion one where the MC should go and who he should be. Now it can settle and we can see how the fight plays itself out.

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>>44237432
Suddenly the tent itself gives way as one of the mages blasts apart the central support beam they erected. You cut your way through the canvas as it falls on you but the mages remain trapped beneath it, panicking as they attempt to free themselves. Their fear will only amplify as the fire you start reaches them.

Knights holding off HMKs: Higher target met (use 1 acc. success)

Accumulated Successes: 2
Mana:11

You can’t spare any more time here, however. Catching a brief sending from Malaine warning you that your flank is about to be breached, you spin to see your men about to be overwhelmed by more than four dozen heavy mage-knights. They’re doing an amazing job at holding the chokepoint, but you can see several wounded as your own knight join the melee.

Taking to the air, you pepper the enemy knights with lances as Malaine’s men swoop overhead and strike with explosive spells. Dirt splashes on your face from the sheer power of the blasts but the Seraphi heavy armour keeps them in good standing. Your lances make a couple of holes but you’re going to need something heavier if you want to do more than just hold them off. At least you’re keeping casualties low.

The air sizzles as the RSK mage-knights respond with magical bolts and you wince as a couple strike your limbs as you hover in the air. You can also see a large amount of motion coming from the direction of the RSK general’s tent. That and a lot of magic, it tickles your mind as if from a distant memory of your youth up north in distant Balkarin.

Now is probably the best time to retreat, unless you want to push your luck.

>1. Push your luck, trying to do more damage to the enemy knights.
>2. Make a fighting exit on foot, by way of the mages tent so you can try to mop many of them up. You’ll likely take more losses and might get boxed in.
>3. Make a flying retreat to minimise losses.
>4. Custom

>>44237492

>1. Push your luck, trying to do more damage to the enemy knights.

>>44237492
>3. Make a flying retreat to minimise losses.

>>44237492
>>3. Make a flying retreat to minimise losses.

>>44237492
>>3. Make a flying retreat to minimise losses.
it tickles your mind as if from a distant memory of your youth up north in distant Balkarin.
Spiritual power?

>>44237492
>2. Make a fighting exit on foot, by way of the mages tent so you can try to mop many of them up. You’ll likely take more losses and might get boxed in.

>>44237492
>3. Make a flying retreat to minimise losses.

>>44237492
>>3. Make a flying retreat to minimise losses.

>>44237492
Note to self next time bring a few Black dragon knights. They would be useful at breaking though HMK armor.

>>44237492
>3. Make a flying retreat to minimise losses.
objective complete! now fall back! fall back!

>>44237492
>3. Make a flying retreat to minimise losses.

>>44237492
>3. Make a flying retreat to minimise losses.

So now that the quest has restarted we may have to rethink some of our choices of the last one. Tell me anon. What is you opinion on vampires

>>44237492
>3. Make a flying retreat to minimise losses.
Primary Objective completed.
Keeping our numbers is more important now as we will still be outnumbered come the siege.

they must burn.

>>44237492
3

>>44237610
I stand with letting the vampires live

>>44237610
Burn the vamps.

>>44237492
>>3. Make a flying retreat to minimise losses.

>>44237610
Keep'em I say. We need all the power we can get and they also make for excellent research material. On the soul and the astral. Which in years to come could help us Delve deeper into figuring out immortality and body enhancement.

>>44237690
shit remember how good daywalkers are at fighting demons

>>44237707
Nightwalkers.

In other words the mooks of the vampires are that powerful.

Talon at the end had 100 Fully powered daywalkers in one army. Good quality ones at that.

>>44237745
And the quest ended right before we got to use them. Honestly, the only thing scarier than daywalker knights would be Aefir.

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>3.

Malaine swoops in without hesitation, his flying knights only a second behind. You have no intention of losing more main than strictly necessary – with dozens of mages dead you should have the upper hand in magical warfare in the siege, but don’t want to risk your veterans for minimal gain.

Shortly the sky is filled with flying armour, as your men are rapidly airlifted out of the enemy camp. They respond with magical bolts, the air lighting up with their passage. Even where they strike your knights they have little impact, however. At this distance a magical bolt or two could scarcely penetrate mundane plate, let alone the magical variety.

Still, as you fly away under your own power you worry about that strange magical force you felt. It reminds you of memories you’d rather forget, which is in itself rather worrying.

“Ah, so you felt it to?” Malaine responds when you tell him about your feeling. “I’m no magical prodigy like you but I’ve undergone enough formal training to sense variations in magical energy. There’s something off about that general, or something accompanying him. I would say vampires, as the daywalkers that rule Taour are known to enthral mortals, but for them to use the Royal Seraphi Kingdom for this sort of thing is inviting their own doom.”

In the end, the mystery will need to remain unsolved until the siege. It might be best to prepare for vampires nonetheless.

“So, uh, you Darlesians have some trick against them, right?” you ask Malaine.

>continued

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>>44237808
“Not really. Only the paladins and noble knights of Darlesia could really do much against even the nightwalkers they deployed against us,” Malaine says, his gaze distant and face expressionless. “And their General Volante… he killed more knights and generals than I thought imaginable.”

So, no good then, you think to yourself. Luckily you’re no so tactless to say it out loud. With the speed of the flying mage-knights you make it back to Harrowmont only a couple of hours past dawn. Preparations are well underway against the siege and you can see many of the peasants that had moved into the ramshackle houses in the fortress out and about.

Sleep is your first order of business once you return – you’re not so capable that you can go for so long without rest and not feel tired. Once you awaken, you…

>1. Check with your dragon mentor, Lyria, for advice.
>2. See how Maloric is doing with his workshop in the one remaining tower of Harrowmont.
>3. Join Cormann in the great hall to get his opinion on the current state of affairs.
>4. Custom

>>44237745
That's one thing I hope we keep. Talons "I don't give a fuck just be useful to my empire and the grand order of things and It's all good."

Though I'm kind of hoping we get a chance to research some forbidden things now. Hoping we avoid most true alliances and instead get a bunch of trade deals and play everyone off each other for gains.

>>44237830
>>1. Check with your dragon mentor, Lyria, for advice.

>>44237830
>3. Join Cormann in the great hall to get his opinion on the current state of affairs.

>>44237788
Most are magic dead.

>>44237830
>2. See how Maloric is doing with his workshop in the one remaining tower of Harrowmont.

We are a spellblade. We can in general expect that the men know what they are doing. But a mage that will be interesting to see. Specifically one on Malorics tier.

>>44237830
>1. Check with your dragon mentor, Lyria, for advice.

>>44237830
>1. Check with your dragon mentor, Lyria, for advice.

>>44237830
>1. Check with your dragon mentor, Lyria, for advice.

>>44237830
>1. Check with your dragon mentor, Lyria, for advice.

>>44237830
>1. Check with your dragon mentor, Lyria, for advice.

>>44237883
>Most are magic dead.
And the Astral Adapts occasionally go insane and murder everyone. One of the downsides of being the continental superpower for 800+ years is when you fall you tend to fall hard.

>>44237830
>2.

See what kind of support Mal can provide during tomorrow's mess.

>>44237998
You know speaking of them. A thing we should look into is magically strengthening our men so we don't get ran over by them.

>>44237830
>>1. Check with your dragon mentor, Lyria, for advice.

Muh dragon

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>1.

You lay back on your bed and try to open your telepathic link with your dragon mentor, Lyria. Preferably she’d be your dragon familiar, but you simply didn’t have the power to bind her. One day you’ll make her yours.

“My, all about dominance today, are we?” echoes an amused female voice in your mind. “And you’re even lying on a bed, too. Such a naughty child.”

Well, at least you didn’t wake her up. She was incorrigible when you woke her up, which was most of the time. It was like dragons didn’t do anything except eat and sleep.

“If you’re just going to insult me I don’t have to waste my time on you,” Lyria says coldly and you wince as you forget that she can read your surface thoughts in this state. A shame it didn’t go both ways.

You fill her in on your recent activities, surprised to realise you haven’t spoken to her for a few months. Last she heard you and your company were taking a lengthy break.

“My, you are an ambitious one. Thinking to rule the world at such a tender age.”

“You did tell me to seek power.”

“And what you first thought of was becoming the ruler of a great empire? Such a dangerous child, you are.”

You sigh and roll over on the bed, pressing your face into the pillow. One day you would make her your familiar and then you could tell her to keep her taunts to herself.

“You’re not very good with relationships are you, Saul?” Lyria asks you, her laughter echoing in your head. “So, what are you after? You rarely contact me just to badger me.”

>Any particular questions for Lyria?

>>44238134
Ask her if she's ever dealt with vampires since we think we might be dealing with a very powerful one.

>>44238134
>What are you wearing right now?

>>44238134
Advice for fighting vampires. And no, turning it into a dragon and stomping it isn't the answer.

>>44238134
How to grow taller

>>44238134

If she can read our surface thoughts, could we think about the strange feeling we got from the enemy generals tent and ask her if she might know anything about what could cause it.

>>44238134
>Does she know anything about what that strange feeling you had was likely?

>>44238134
Where is she residing currently?

Hooked up to a PoP?

Any chance we should worry about the Great Wardragon making an appearance?

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>>44238174
>What are you wearing right now?

"My scales, just like the first time we met. Does that make you blush, child?"

Not particularly, you think. Mostly it just reminds you of how pretty her draconic form had been before she’d reared up and reminded you of how small you were compared to her.

“What about if you took on your human form? What would you be wearing then?” you ask.

“Whatever I wore last time when I transformed.” She pauses. “I honestly don’t know.”

Well, that’s no fun. You feel Lyria sigh in your head in response.

>>44238171
>Ask her if she's ever dealt with vampires since we think we might be dealing with a very powerful one.

“The vampires of Taour are famous enough that even I know well enough of them. If I were you I’d stay well enough away from them – fighting one of them by yourself is a fast way to get yourself killed,” Lyria warns you, her voice stern.

You protest against the idea of you being so weak, but she shuts you down.

“If you ever find yourself fighting a daywalker, I’d suggest you immediately call on my power. If they’re the physical type then you might have a decent chance,” she says. “If he’s wearing jet black armour with red resin on his helmet, then just run. He will kill you.”

Encouraging.

“Realistic,” she tells you. “I’d much rather you alive than dead, little one.”

>>44238209
>How to grow taller

“Drink your milk.”

>>44238241
>If she can read our surface thoughts, could we think about the strange feeling we got from the enemy generals tent and ask her if she might know anything about what could cause it.

“You know your history better than I, little one. Especially if you’re going to guard it so well even from my prying mind, Saul Waise,” she says, drawing out the syllables of your last name. “A false surname only gets you so far. Do you really expect to become an emperor with the name given to orphans in the south?”

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>Pic related is a relatively decent image of Lyria, in human form and dragon form.

>>44238252
>Where is she residing currently?
"Nearby, actually. There's a large network of caverns in the southern peaks of the Marnn mountains that I occassionally winter in. Pay me a visit if you care."

>Hooked up to a PoP?
"I'm an adult dragon of two hundred years, I have no need to rely on others power."

>Any chance we should worry about the Great Wardragon making an appearance?
"Why, do you have a deathwish? I sincerely doubt the battles you are waging are enough to rouse him from his slumber or inspire his bloodthirst, in any case."

>>44238286
Holy shit, you rolled with it. You are great.

>>44238286

So, we either know, or have encountered the person creating the unease.... Mem check time.

>>44238286
>Do you really expect to become an emperor with the name given to orphans in the south

Time to get a name change. I'm thinking the king of kings should work out.

>>44238134
Does she know of any other dragons about? For recruiting purposes, not replacing, we wouldn't dare.

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>>44238447
>Does she know of any other dragons about? For recruiting purposes, not replacing, we wouldn't dare.

“If I did, I wouldn’t tell you,” she says, a tad admonishing. “Such knowledge is dangerous given how few we are.”

>moving right along

“In any case, child, do be careful if you’re going to fight the vampires. They work in ways far beyond direct conflict,” she says, then you hear her hum in your mind. “If you prove yourself against them, perhaps I can grant you another blessing to help you in your… quest.

“Until then, I wish you the best of luck in your defense. And don’t be a stranger. Winter is a dreadfully boring time and there’s precious little to entertain me these days.”

You idly think that maybe she could just help you roast some vampires and it would all be good.

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish,” Lyria begins to say.

You cut the link, having had enough of her condescension for one day. Naturally she reopens it a second later just to laugh at you.

With your morning having been wasted on a dragon who views you as a particularly interesting pet, you join your officers in the great hall to plan for the siege.

“They’re moving slowly after your raid last night. They won’t be here before midnight, methinks, and only if they only march late into the night,” Cormann says, stroking his beard. “Malaine’s words on this general of theirs worries me. Think it’s a vampire?”

[DC94 Memories of your Childhood]

Rolled 27 (1d100)

>>44238494
Here's hoping a photographic memory

Rolled 83 (1d100)

>>44238494

Rolled 17 (1d100)

>>44238494

>>44238494
Fuck. Whatever the hell happened it can't be good.

Rolled 85 (1d100)

>>44238494
Fuck it

Rolled 22 (1d100)

>>44238494
>DC94

>>44238565
Maybe our family is slaughtered by vampires? Or at least we saw some vampires slaughtered by our family?

Rolled 66 (1d100)

>>44238494

mate

>>44238494
Could be an infernal, their sorcery is actually kinda similar.

inb4 it's reimagined daywalker Felix

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>Target not quite met

What Lyria told you about your memories makes you think a little harder. You remember the training you were put through shortly after discovering your magical talents when you were just 9 years old. Recognising the variety of threats and magic types was a major part – the most important part of the career you would have been forced into would have been sorting the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.

Unfortunately, you’d never made much use of that training, having favoured a career of up-front bloodshed. All you knew is that you were sensing some kind of monster and that it was sorcerous. Nothing else made much sense.

“Could be a vampire,” you say. “Would they really risk war with the Seraphs, though? That seems utterly insane.”

“They’re vampires. They’re insane by definition,” growls Captain Glynn of the Darlesians.

“I doubt they want to die,” Ser Lynn adds, tilting his head to one side. You like to imagine he’s frowning inside his helmet.

“The League is launching another assault within weeks, the Seraphs don’t have the time to be squashing vampires over a couple thousand soldiers. You might be on to something, Saul,” Cormann says, giving you more credit than you deserve. “Still, let’s finalise our plans. They’ll almost certainly attack tomorrow.”

You nod and pull everybody back into line to make plans.

>Again, pic related is Harrowmont as it currently stands.

You have 500 regular soldiers, 200 arcane archers, 200 Black Dragon Knights, 200 flying mage-knights and 560 battle mages. Losses from the raid were negligible.

Traps are mostly simple ones such as rolling logs from the walls, pouring pitch and activating barriers on the terraces and courtyard to funnel the enemy into chokepoints.

The enemy numbers 2200, including 400 heavy mage-knights and 50 battlemages.

Maloric specialises in disrupting magic and could single-handedly disable the enemy’s mages.

>Battle plans? Questions?

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>>44238737
Oh, and as it's not entirely clear:

The outer terraces of Harrowmont are a massive incline with large (and damaged) terraces spaced out along the incline. The outer courtyard is multi-level, with the area above the green line being 15m or so higher than the lower area. The residential area slopes up 15m to be at the level of the inner courtyard and the merchant district is at the level of the inner courtyard.

>>44238737
>You have 500 regular soldiers, 200 arcane archers, 200 Black Dragon Knights, 200 flying mage-knights and 560 battle mages. Losses from the raid were negligible.
>560 battle mages

Bombard them with battle mages and call it a day

More seriously, FMKs are the counter units against heavy mage-knights, right?

>>44238778

I would have thought it was the other way as HMKs have high magic resist while FMKs only do magic damage...

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>>44238778
>More seriously, FMKs are the counter units against heavy mage-knights, right?
Not by themselves. FMKs can use binding spells to greatly weaken HMKs but their explosive spells aren't tremendously effective. Especially not against the anti-magic HMK designs of the RSK.

In melee, the FMKs can do a bit of damage but they'd get mauled by the sheer power of the HMKs.

>>44238737
>560 battle mages.
And yeah, that should be 50 battle mages. Dunno where the extra 6 came from.

>>44238778
No. That would be LMKs.

About the only true counter we have is Lynn, Saul and the dragon knights

>>44238737
>Maloric specialises in disrupting magic and could single-handedly disable the enemy’s mages.

Excellent excellent. Our old buddy Mal is still just as useful in other timelines.

Anyway in this case focus all our battle mages to offense along with the arcane archers.

Mages target other mages. Arcane archers focus on general spraying within the main line. We'll let the HMKs get closer for a charge while we thin out the main parts of the army.

>>44238737
Standard strategy of holding the walls, using Maloric to disrupt the mages

Using traps to create chokepoints against their heavies, BDKs could hold the chokepoints, while FMKs use binding spells to weaken them

Got nussing else

>>44238737
are our soldiers MMK or just regular men at arms?

>>44238737
If we can do so we might want to get a few teams of mages to prepare rituals in order to cause mass damage.

>>44238737
Don't worry about the terraces as much, at most we need to harry them, then force them through a slog to the next choke point until they get tired of it enough to waste their mages on tearing down the barriers we've erected.

For the most part the outer wall is our greatest defense. Even with 2K+ soldiers they won't be able to cover the near 10mi stretch, so they'll need to cluster at some point and push. Forcing them towards the outer courtyard is likely preferable, but the bottom most corner of the residential district is another option if we want to force them up another hill.

We should make a strong stand on the outer wall regardless, it being tiered means they'll need to fight up, so we'll near constantly hold the advantage, with enchanted scorpions being our best answer to hmk. Shame no Siege Archers.

Sortie when general makes an appearance, likely among the mages, so being our Elites along to stomp them out.

>>44238737
Use the flying mage/AA combo we used in the old quest, have the teams placed on the outermost defenses, archers fire on the enemy then ferry them back to the next tier.

>>44238816
If we have a day to plan could we write out some enchantments on the traps. Or quickly build a small barricade around areas while leaving small gaps to try and build areas where they'll try and dodge and make choke points?

Oh neat. I remember seeing AEQ before and I never did get around to reading it. Is this a sequel of some sort or a reboot or what? Should I bother with reading the old one? I mean, I probably will anyway but I just wanted to know whether or not this one and the old one are linked in some way and if so how.

>>44238966
The danger with close range is HMKs are godly in close range and also tend be be pretty immune to magic.

>>44239010
Reboot.

The old one was a wild ride, read it for amusement and setting+OOC information.

>>44239010
Redux, and yes, but not needed for this quest from what I've seen.

>>44239014
How effective were AAs were against them in the last quest?

>>44238737
Ooo new Harrowmont looks so different, a lot sleeker. I like it.

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Major elements I'm seeing are whether to fight them on the terraces, the outer walls or whether to retreat back to the inner wall once the outer wall is approached (like in the original AEQ).

Seems everybody is happy with Mal to disable their mages, though he would be pretty powerful if he weren't tied up doing that.

Otherwise it looks mostly like a case of peppering them with ranged attacks until the appropriate opportunity comes to hit them hard, or else to use the Dragon Knights to hold them at various chokepoints while shooting them up.

>>44239059
Yeah, architectanon had a few changes he wanted to make. The fort has a different history now too.

>>44238928
A mixture. Regular soldiers are mostly filler - something I'm doing after seeing what happened to AEQ combat towards the end. What really turns the tide of a battle are your elite units and mages.

>>44239003
I'm happy if people want to spend longer planning. I was going to do an opening post for the siege then end for the day (as I'm resuming in about 17 hours).

It's really if people want the extra time to plan things (though I'll need to call a vote tonight on major elements).

>>44238737
Another trick I would like to note. With lower amounts of mages. If we can get our FMKs outside strafing our foes normal units we are in good shape.

We'll need to neutralize the mages utterly first but unless they get in a protracted battle with the HMKs they should dominate.

Saul can stay in the background and let Lynn handle a lot of the close range then just use flight and jump into combat when he spots a opportune moment.

>>44239014
We simply haven't the long range firepower to deal with them right now. We'll need to engage. Best to do it where we have some advantage. Saul, Lynn and the BDK are our best counter, with scorpion support I think we can manage

>>44239048
They weren't. At all. There is a reason we tended to drop Talon and his heavy as fuck knights on top of HMKs heads and why we later build the siege archers.

Arcane archers are best viewed as Archers that can shoot though mid range armor. Heavy mage knights and god-knights shrug them off.

>>44239086
>A mixture. Regular soldiers are mostly filler

Kind of hoping we'll still get a chance to upgrade them. Strength in numbers should still be a thing.

>I'm happy if people want to spend longer planning.

I'm mostly just figuring out how many ditches and spikes we can place on the wall and how fast.Anything that slows them down is advantageous to us.

>Seems everybody is happy with Mal to disable their mages, though he would be pretty powerful if he weren't tied up doing that.

The big thing I see is that if he ties them up then our 50 mages can barrage them like mad and if the mages+the AAs wipe enough out then Mal can switch to offensive.

>>44239086
>The fort has a different history now too.
Anything in that history that might be useful to us now?

>>44239086
Hey aspirational. Just as a random question if we where to find a PoP would Saul have the skills to bind the magic to himself for a mana increase?

FMK dropping barrels of oil and explosions?

>>44239222
If only we had a brew of sulfuric acid right now. A nice charge from behind dropping some acid and then using binding spells.

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>Battle-plan

Alright, so general gist of the plan is to blast them with as much ranged damage as possible (mages, AAs, scorpion ballistas), while using barriers to funnel them into chokepoints. Mal will be used to keep their mages tied up. Sortieing will probably be used to break them, but the question is at what point will you engage in melee and from where?

BATTLEFIELD VOTE
>1. Hold the terraces with your knights, falling back as necessary.
>2. Hold the outer wall with your knights and ranged units, sortieing as necessary.
>3. Hold the outer wall until they get close, then retreat to the inner wall (using FMKs to ferry the archers back), then bombard the enemy once they get into the outer courtyard.

KNIGHT VOTE
>1. Engage the enemy as much as you can with your knights in the chosen battlefield
>2. Hold major chokepoints with your knights until you sortie (e.g. gatehouses)
>3. Hold back your knights until you choose to sortie to crush the enemy elites and general.

>>44239276
>3. Hold the outer wall until they get close, then retreat to the inner wall (using FMKs to ferry the archers back), then bombard the enemy once they get into the outer courtyard.
>2. Hold major chokepoints with your knights until you sortie (e.g. gatehouses)

>>44239276
2
3

>>44239276
1
1

>>44239276
Abandon the city when they occupy blow it up

>>44239276
>2. Hold the outer wall with your knights and ranged units, sortieing as necessary.
>3. Hold back your knights until you choose to sortie to crush the enemy elites and general.

We need to thin them out early on then take their elites down when we can.

We have Lynn and 200 black dragon knights. They have 400 HMKs. I don't like these odds we need to weaken them and tire them out before they get anywhere near us.

>>44239276
>3
>3

>>44239276
>2. Hold the outer wall with your knights and ranged units, sortieing as necessary.
>3. Hold back your knights until you choose to sortie to crush the enemy elites and general.

>>44239276
>3.
>3.

>>44239276
>>2. Hold the outer wall with your knights and ranged units, sortieing as necessary
>3. Hold back your knights until you choose to sortie to crush the enemy elites and general.

Elites win the day, we just need to thin the herd enough to get on even footing, then break them with fresh units. Chop off the head, watch them break, call it a night.

>>44239276
>3. Hold the outer wall until they get close, then retreat to the inner wall (using FMKs to ferry the archers back), then bombard the enemy once they get into the outer courtyard.
>3. Hold back your knights until you choose to sortie to crush the enemy elites and general.

>>44239188
I think even Talon knew how to do that. But I don't recall if it was instinctual or not.

I would like to assume Saul can. And I think binding a PoP to ourselves would boost more than just mana stuff.

My memory on all that stuff is hazy.

>>44239462
Talon could bind one for creation of a domain. He couldn't bind one for Mana I"m pretty sure. When he got Gnome I"m fairly sure it required Mal+Undine using a hack.

>>44239486
A pretty interesting thing is assuming the PoPs still number in seven there isn't any reason not to Do something like Bind 4 to the Champion. Bind 1-2 to the domain then bind the rest to ourselves for Mana influx.

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Alright, so 2 and 3 are a tied vote. I think I'll assume the outer wall to be held unless things begin to go wrong (so there'll be a back-up plan to ferry everybody back a layer of walls).

This means it's 2 and 3.

>>44239188
I'm going to be modifying the PoP stuff a little bit, so there's not exactly a clear answer.

>I'm going to do a write-up of the beginning of the siege, call for some dice and then we'll resume in the next thread

>>44239531
>I'm going to be modifying the PoP stuff a little bit, so there's not exactly a clear answer.

Going to hope that being a Mage class even if we aren't a full mage will let us find some basic tricks other then the powering up deal.

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>2 and 3

The enemy acts much as Cormann expected, which would surprise you more if you didn’t already know of old Arms Master’s experience. You’d learnt a lot by paying attention to the things he said.

It’s almost noon by the time the enemy begins to march on the fortress. They’d rested a short distance from the fortress overnight and slowly marched to the base of the terraces, just out of range of your scorpion ballistae. Two thousand soldiers had sounded like a lot more earlier but compared to the sheer size of the clearing Harrowmont is in it looks like such a small number.

Then again, you’d have even fewer men yourself if you swapped places. You were going to need to start growing your numbers if you hoped to take on Taour.

You’d positioned yourself atop the gatehouse of the outer wall alongside Maloric and many other battlemages. Below and behind you were the Black Dragon Knights led by Ser Lynn, doing their usual pre-battle chants and speeches. It wasn’t really your thing so you just let them be. You might want to fix that sooner rather than later, you think to yourself. The power to inspire is convenient.

The enemy sends their weakest soldiers first, no doubt anticipating plenty of traps. Behind them come the mage-knights and behind even them are the heavy mage-knights. You don’t see any indication of a general whatsoever, which concerns you. They also seem surprisingly light on for archers. What are they planning?

>continued

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>>44239733
You feel Maloric casting his magic before you see him and you’re once again impressed by his talents. Your natural suspicion of mages had softened a bit around him, simply because he seemed considerably more genuine than almost every other mage you’ve ever met. Here he’s neatly keeping fifty enemy battlemages from doing anything beyond cough in your general direction and all you can see are his robes shuffling about slightly.

A roar rises from the Seraphi soldiers and you watch as two thousand armoured men begin charging up the incline, kicking up dirt and dust clouds as they charge. Their screams of pain as they collide with the barriers your mages set up are sweet, as is the sound of the first volley of your archers. You can feel the magic of the arrows as they impact and punch holes through plate. Still, there’s a hell of a lot of them. It’s going to take more than a few hundred arrows to end this.

With the sun overhead you raise your sword, catching the light on it. You like to think it’s an inspiring image. Then you lower it and hell itself descends on your foes as you do, at the will of your battlemages.

[DC57/80 Traps] (No critfails or accumulated successes)

[DC66 Archers]

[DC62/85 Battlemages]

Roll 3d100 please.

Rolled 2, 85, 14 = 101 (3d100)

>>44239745
gogogo!
and good night.

Rolled 52, 66, 66 = 184 (3d100)

>>44239745
For the gods above. And for myself! For the empire!!

Rolled 49, 95, 95 = 239 (3d100)

>>44239745

Rolled 91, 51, 82 = 224 (3d100)

>>44239745

>>44239779
Well Archers and Battlemages at least are going to do well for themselves

>>44239769
>>44239775
>>44239779

Well the traps did toss all. But look at those sweet 95s

>>44239769
>>44239775
>>44239779

AAs proving their worth, even in this world...

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>>44239769
Good fail you can't critfail on the traps.

>Traps: Target not met
>Archers: Target met
>Battlemages: Higher target met

Accumulated Successes: 3

>That's the thread for today. Siege truly begins next thread.

I'll be running again at 5:30pm EST Friday December 18th (so about 16.5 hours from now). I may start a little earlier if I wake up sooner. Thanks for everyone who participated today.

Next thread will involve fighting off the siege, picking a Champion and some strategic decisions. I'll post the Champion blurbs after this if people want to discuss who they want and why. I'm also happy to take any questions if people have them.

>>44239806
>>44239817
haha! those traps was a trap! to fool you into believing that our traps were so obvious that you didn't expect our men to be fully prepared in anticipation that you would avoid our obvious traps!

>>44239817
Really that's good enough. We need to do damage fast. The traps were mostly just there as a method for slowing them.

>>44239855
>Good fail you can't critfail on the traps.
>good fail
I uh....what?

yes. champs please. let us wank and bicker over them now.

>>44239855
As for champions I"m voting Taira. She is both an In into fox politics. A powerful spiritual magic user and pretty educated on how it works. Which we need and she is useful at clearing a field of foes at the highest levels. I also would love to see Rens reaction.

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>>44239878
That should be 'good thing', I just derped.

Here are the Champion blurbs, to be voted on tomorrow. For those unaware, the Source (huge magic channelling source) below Harrowmont enables you to summon a (formerly) dead warrior whose soul is tied to it. They'll start weaker than they were in life, but will gain power as you claim Places of Power that are connected to the Source.

Note that the Champions this time are mutually exclusive. The ones you don't choose will be meaningfully occupied and harder to obtain than in the original AEQ.

>Female Pure Earth Elemental, Gnome
Mage-killer and construction support. Pure elementals are the most powerful type of elemental and have a strong connection to the land, and Gnome is the oldest and most powerful of all elementals. She can manipulate earth and stone with ease, and also specialises in manipulating the flow of magical energies. This makes her ideal for fighting mages and constructing fortifications and grand projects.

>Female Pure Water Elemental, Undine
All-rounder. Although young, Undine is extremely capable and knowledgeable. On top of her immensely powerful control and summoning abilities relating to water, she can also imitate many human sorceries. Ideal at long-range support but also effective in melee. She also is adept at assisting in management and negotiations on the home front.

>Female Nine-tailed Mystic Fox, Taira
Heavy artillery and support caster. Mystic foxes are powerful spiritualists and extremely knowledgeable and Taira is the oldest and most powerful of them all. She is weak up-close but her powerful magicks allow her to easily obliterate entire armies or destroy otherwise lethal foes with anti-magic attacks. She also has teleportation. At home she is a promiscuous trouble-maker and will be more of a hindrance than an asset.

>continued

Going all in on Gnome, we have a city to rebuild

>>44239901
Also as another thing I've noticed. As a user of evocation Sauls lifespan is limited. About the only way around this I see is if we can get a domain and rejuvenate. That would require spending as much time in the domain as out once every hundred years though. Which is something to keep in mind for empire policy later on.

That is assuming that trick even still works.

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>>44239934
>Female Elven Champion, Esraveel
Super-heavy warrior. As both Daerfir, a subspecies of elf dedicated to combat, and their Champion, a magically modified killing machine, Esraveel specialises in dealing death. At her peak she is more than a match for the strongest of fighters and can demolish droves of enemies in melee, while also unleashing volleys of magical arrows. She lacks much in the way of social or leadership skills and as such would be little more than a bodyguard outside of combat.

>>44239860
Ah! But anon, that was the trap. You see, now that they think our traps is the trap, they will think those are the only traps. Once they let their guard down, we will spring the real trap, so they can fall into our trap while falling into our trap! Genius!

What is the upper limit of our power? If you could compare us to another being in the setting that is the closest power level wise who would that be?

>>44239992
>What is the upper limit of our power?

He did say that all the options where equal in the long term.

One of those options was "Be an infernal mage that can hand out Demon gifts out." So I"m guessing pretty damn high there anon.

>>44239939
As much as I love the elementals I gotta go with Esra or Taira

>>44239934
>Gnome: muh tunnels. muh fort defense. dark skin milf.
>Taira: touch fluffy tail. fox magic. stop touching tail. Teleportation. can't stop touching fluffy tail.
>Undine: pure water waifu material. Vanilla plain water.
>can only choose one
so hard to decide between picking Taira for fluffy tail shenanigans or Gnome because munchkin milf fort defense.
I choose Taira because fluffy tails

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>>44239934
Gonna go with the fox

Elf champion worst champion

>>44239934
Muh fluffy tails there is only one correct choice

>>44239934
likely gonna go for the elf

>>44239934
>>44239941
ugh, please no Taira. I don't want to have to deal with that bullshit from the start.

Gnome seems reasonably useful.

>>44239940
Pretty sure the domain was Talon exclusive, and that was only on the first run.

And what are you talking about our lifespan is limited, even Knights manage to halt aging to a degree, and they're beefed up this go around. We've all the tools to break that system pretty easily.

>>44240040
I'm thinking empire wise we should gently encourage mages to start mastering the arts of summoning and anything else that strikes their fancy so long as we don't judge it to be dangerous. We'll have to gain a metric boatload of knowledge to really build this empire up.

Also Taira is an amazing option just because her personality and Sauls would just be flat out the greatest thing I've ever seen.

>>44240092
The foxes won't know she is alive at all. So we'll have a heads up and can avoid most things with it.

>>44240095
Even the most powerful mages in existence are limited to 400 years or so last I checked. At that point your soul runs out and you need to power it yourself which is from what I know a very very bad idea.

The domain thing wasn't Talon exclusive I"m pretty sure. Random elves used it to fight off the God-knights in the Kushan wars.

From a meta standpoint I don't see why we'd take anyone other than Gnome. She provides the most, sure Taira is slayer of armies tier, but that's really all she's good for, everything else can be found in other ways, with half the hassle.

Calling it now. Sala is going to end up being our enemy this time

>>44239934
Poor Undine

>>44240142
Teleportation and destroying armies makes her a strong a 1B to Gnome's 1B or vice versa

Metawise Undine and the elf draw the short sticks

>>44240142
Off my head Gnomes biggest advantage is that she can build things really well and is decent at anti-magic though flow manipulation.

Taira's biggest advantage is she can teleport us across the world in a week including supplies and she can crush sorcery users (99 percent of magic users) Across her face like a bear can and she gives a In with the foxes in the long term.

Gnome helps with Alyce mostly.

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Dunno if anybody is interesting, but I'm going to throw the other character choices up in a pastebin so people can at least see the alternatives. That way it doesn't all go to waste.

>>44239992
Saul's a complicated one in regards to his power. Unlike Talon and three mage options who basically don't have a real upper limit (or at least, not one that can be feasibly reached), Saul has to use a number of tricks to get ridiculously strong.

He's an incredibly talented mage (or could be) but his focus is mostly on combat. As such he can easily grow quite rapidly in power, skill and strength but he'll hit a wall then. Lyria means he'll get a huge boost when she joins you, particularly as there'll come a time when you can do some shenanigans with your familiar so that both of you can get stronger.

So Saul is theoretically no worse than the others but his path is different because a lot of his power is tied up in his familiar.

>>44240060
>Elf champion worst champion
You make me sad.

>>44240136
>Even the most powerful mages in existence are limited to 400 years or so last I checked. At that point your soul runs out and you need to power it yourself which is from what I know a very very bad idea.
Lyria probably won't be too interested in her master dying any time soon. She's only 200, after all.

>>44240165
>Poor Undine
Well, she gets a master that will be more dedicated to her now.

>>44240136
>The domain thing wasn't Talon exclusive I"m pretty sure. Random elves used it to fight off the God-knights in the Kushan wars.
I mentioned in the one-shot that I was limiting the domain to the mage classes because it became a headache. If Saul gets to play with it, it will be in a minor sense.

>>44240187
>she gives a In with the foxes in the long term.
Just an FYI that Taira's history with the foxes is different this time around. Particularly because you don't know what killed her if you choose her, either.

Although I'm hoping we don't ally with the silver dragon this time. I'm wanting to start researching some of that magic that Maloric was interested in but she didn't want us to get involved into.

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All character choices are in this Google Drive document for those interested:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bS1WFqZ2EOFQnglB2PKHFpYBSAuq1TrEFI7WguRyNYg/edit?usp=sharing

>>44240234
Sylvian will treat Saul incredibly differently to Talon, due to both the reputation differences and the connection to Lyria.

>>44240217
>I mentioned in the one-shot that I was limiting the domain to the mage classes because it became a headache.

Welp shit. Going to need to get inventive. Maybe start figuring out how to build massive mana drainers and drain mana to expand our life?

>Just an FYI that Taira's history with the foxes is different this time around. Particularly because you don't know what killed her if you choose her, either.

Makes me want to go for it even harder.

>>44240217
hey I like the elf I really want to pick her more so she can have a healed body

>>44240234
This time I straight just want an Alyce alliance.

>>44240217
>dat spoiler
you really like rubbing salt in wounds Aspie. I guess that comes with having your toilet flush the wrong way.

>>44240266
he said that our dragon would help with the aging issue

>>44240266
Lyria probably won't be too interested in her master dying any time soon. She's only 200, after all.

>>44240217
>mentioned in the one-shot that I was limiting the domain to the mage classes because it became a headache.

;_; depressing me even more.

>No binding greater devils into our weaponry like that giant drill
>Not giving our allies powerful gifts.
>No summoning armies from hell itself behind the enemies lines like that one time with Talon.

>>44240265
>Sylvian will treat Saul incredibly differently to Talon

That's pretty obvious. Still I'm hoping we can avoid her and just build up our nation as we need too.

>>44240306
ya as we get bigger we are not going to be able to just avoid her

>>44240287
Yeah but I think it is best to have a counter measure just in case something goes terribly wrong.

Which it will. In all the ways possible and impossible.

>>44240217
>but his focus is mostly on combat.

I'm honestly kind of hope that in the long term we can branch out into more advanced things. If this empire does last for a 100 years I'd hope he would try to figure out how the dick most of this magic stuff works.

>>44240306
As long as we don't research magic that lives or start a dragonic empire we should be fine.

>>44240348
Maybe magical elf tattoos?

>>44240346
I'm kind of hoping we go defensive here. We lack a lot of the raw might Talon had.

So building line by line and digging in deeply is pretty wise here. Make our land a hellpit no one wants to traverse.

>>44240277
>want an Alyce alliance.

Honestly for me I want to play them all off each other. Declare our neutrality start a lot of trading agreements with all sides. Then let them bleed each other to death while we slowly gain strength over time.

>>44240217
if there's one thing that's more noticable, it's that the pacing of the quest feels more streamlined now that the number crunching of all the men of arms, conscripts and what not have been swept under the rug into background fluff. It's a good feeling. Will we still have slice of life opportunities to faff about with our future cabinet (an example being like trying to maintain a smooth RSK diplomacy meeting, but the fox kits that spawned keep interrupting with their adorable antics)

>>44239934
>>Female Nine-tailed Mystic Fox, Taira

>>44240364
>As long as we don't research magic that lives

That's the problem. With no silver dragon waifu there is no need to not go into this over time.

>>44240378
Those things have big big issues. Issues that without the Domain we don't have a easy fix for.

>>44240402
We're not voting anon. Thats next thread.

>>44240265
Looking at the character sheets, the Devil Summoner would have been cool too.

Also samurai phalanx and Talon(RIP)'s cavalry

>>44240429
Well, I know what to do next time.
Especially since I'll actually try to keep up with the Quest this time.

>>44240444
>grant yourself Gifts on par with the greatest demons and devils
>The greatest demon in existence has infinite mana.

Man this feels weird. I kind of wish we had gone with Talon again, it just doesn't feel right this way.

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I feel like ig we up our thousand cuts skill a couple times we could walk through a battalion of enemies and strike faster than the mooks could see, so all they perceive is a little dude walking through their forces as their men turn into dismembered piles of gore.

That's a long shower he's gonna need.

>>44240419
Except for the helldragon which can probably wipe out our armies, raid our castles and call upon the mage guard as the magic is most likely forbiddon to the highest degrees.

We don't need to get the same tattoos as the Daerfir, just a improvised version of it of it which buffs our life instead of strength.

>>44240419
living magic is bad

>>44240495
Honestly for me I"m having a blast. Talon had a grand run but I'd rather not alter him in a new game. I like to keep Talon where he was in my mind last. On the rise with a massively powerful army.

Since it is a reboot I wouldn't want to change my mental image of him by making his a sorcery user and shifting his story any. It would fill wrong after so many threads.

>>44240500
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34NfuVCrfok
Imagine Saul pulling off the 0:44 - 0:52 in video related

>>44240504
There was a point made last time by Mal that every time a mage thought about enchanting humans they only need look to the daefir to remember why they shouldn't.

Good luck finding anyone interested in doing this for some upstart kid in a rundown castle with no regard for one of the most powerful known entities on the continent.

>>44240541
The solution to all of our problems is simple.

We just go into Hell and drag Kushan's soul into a new body. I'm sure he'd be willing to magic all of our problems away!

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>>44240444
You guys very nearly got the mage as it won the first vote (with all the samefagging, naturally) - the main thing that worried me and decided the second vote was the number of people who didn't want to play a non-human PC or who didn't want a 'no diplomacy' character. It seemed like there'd be less problems with the Spellblade as the PC.

>>44240386
>I'm kind of hoping we go defensive here. We lack a lot of the raw might Talon had.
I'm hoping that a more detailed regional/world map makes alternate strategies considered a little more. To me, the old map didn't ever feel quite right due to the fact so much strategy had to get filtered through my view of how things were laid out.

Also, things definitely don't need to play out at all like the old AEQ. You'll already get a big surprise next thread once the siege is over in terms of major events.

>>44240504
She mostly hates magic that increases a races natural strength. Which is pretty damn useful as proved by things like the vampires and the Helldragons beating down Kushan.

Take volunteers or something. Make it a secret that it's being researched. As it is now that is pretty unused. Patterns are also unused but I'm not sure what the odds we'll have decent access to that is.

> just a improvised version of it of it which buffs our life instead of strength.

It works via sucking your soul out for magic juice to power itself. No way in hell it is going to be that easy. We'd need a method of powering it without using the soul at all.

>>44240541
>There was a point made last time by Mal that every time a mage thought about enchanting humans they only need look to the daefir to remember why they shouldn't.

Not quite. He said they would read about the enchantments then look it up and realize how flawed and damaging this method is and so look into another method that isn't.

Pretty big difference between that and just deciding not to do so.

>>44240559
So we can broaden our horizons into practical applications of magic, right? We won't need to force Mal to sit behind a desk and scribble research forever alone? We can actually participate in complex magic rituals?

>>44240559
>want to play a non-human PC

I kind of agreed there. I still liked the devil summoner though just because the mental imagine of bitch slapping hell for power sounds Hilarius.

Bind that demon lord with the Binary swords and send him off and shit like that. Saul looks good but like Talon he really kind of lacks the "I bitch slap reality because I can factor." A mage would have. Instead he just kind of blows people up.

Which is good but not all that interesting compared to say maloric who can build orcs in his basement within a few decades and Infernals who can break causality to always get a first strike. It's honestly just how good you write that makes Saul a interesting PC so far.

>>44240614
We're a spellblade.

Spellblades aren't well known for their skill at doing things other then blowing shit up.

Although I don't think he'll stop us from trying to learn some side magic or martial skills. Will likely take away from the entire blow shit up part though.

>>44240643
On one hand, yes, our character is not the most interesting on paper

On the other, putting reality-fuckery levels of power into the hands of players is -always- a bad idea.

>>44240581
She doesn't hate magic that buffs a races natural strength but engineering attempts which completely change their base like helldragons which are magic given life.

The tattoos don't suck your soul but your magic. Its due to it forcibly overdrawing your magic reserves that degrades your body which leads to deaths through things like heartattacks. It works for elfs due to their massive reserves.

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>>44240614
It's not where Saul's interests currently lie (as hinted at in the blurb about Maloric, his opinions of mages aren't that positive - those that worked out where he came from probably can guess why) but in the long-term you can build up his more generalised mage abilities. He'd probably never be able to become a truly powerful mage simply because he's never going to devote the time to doing it.

>>44240662
It's always a fun idea you mean. Especially in a you vs the world situation. Would kind of make it a breath of fresh air compared to the diplomance everything option people here normally go for. Massive power massive foes have always been my gaming motto. Unless it's low powered.

>>44240687
I just want to know if Saul can build robutts, mang, I'll be honest.

>>44240687
>his opinions of mages aren't that positive

Over time we really need to shift that. If we are to win we need to release the mages and prove to be a good patron to them.

>>44240685
Helldragons were more taking a dragon then genetic engineering it into a super dragon. Having a super dragon sounds damn nice.

>>44240696
The problem is that there are tons of differing opinions here and plenty of people will go full retard knowing they can blow up continents and shit. Any time you give players a lot of something they take it too far and be very divisive about it, like the smut focus in many quests with smut, or the lolrandumb stuff in others (Looking at you, BQ). It's all about what you let the players get away with, and it's not an easy balancing act, honestly.

>>44240718
We don't need to like mages to utilize them properly. Just tolerate them to a certain extent.

>>44240744
Honestly I've always loved that. Like in my games I've always been like "You blew up a continent. Now You've pissed off everything on the planet that threatens you. What now?"

>>44240748
>We don't need to like mages to utilize them properly.

It's a pretty good idea not to let the dislike show at least.

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>>44240704
No.

>>44240732
Don't let Sylvian hear you say that.

>>44240772
>Honestly I've always loved that. Like in my games I've always been like "You blew up a continent. Now You've pissed off everything on the planet that threatens you. What now?"
Except for a quest on /tg/, that usually means everything has gone tits up, anons are calling each other faggots and the quest is about to crash and burn.

>>44240772
You may like it, but to me it seems excessive and silly. There's really no way to justify it, and it just isn't interesting. Like "Here you go, everything that would be a challenge there is gone, so is all the loot, characters, interesting places, encounters etc." and it really isn't fair to whoever has to craft the world and all the stuff in it.

I'm not saying we should never blow up a continent, but you shouldn't do it just because. And attracting too many enemies at once just leads to death. See, we're of differing opinion and neither of us will think we are wrong which leads to arguing and dickswinging and that just leads to shitposting and whining for whichever side failed to samefag hard enough to win a vote.

>>44240826
Are we ever going to get a promiscuous, heavily-armored knight-mercenary who comforts children named Claw as one of our vassals?

>>44240826
>Don't let Sylvian hear you say that.

Yeah that's some good advice. Talon could get around this via the old fashioned method of sexing up a dragon till it spat out some helldragons.

Saul likely can't rely on that method in the long term so time to improvise!

>>44240826
>No.

I am honestly hoping that in the long term we can make him a god like destroyer of magic.

>>44240826
No robutts, me are sad.

Is there a sapient living armor character somewhere? Anything similar? The robo-griffon was cool and all, but he was a lazy bum, I swear.

>>44240842
That's kind of the idea. I like the idea that extreme power leads to extreme consequences if you mismanage it. Though Luckily for me if I run a quest like game it is limited in players anyway so that's unlikely to just happen just because.

>>44240841
Probably a difference in world building there. I tend to design my settings so there isn't really a true limit where doing one thing is a true game over. It always gets bigger in scale to match you.

>>44240922
The idea is to make the QM tear his hair out? For shame, anon!

Extreme power will lead to extreme consequences even if used properly. When someone sits on a nuke, no one gives a fuck if you used it for the perfect reason, everyone will want to kill you for it, same concept, we simply could never use the power at all unless we decided to just blow up everything, which I personally find wasteful, it limits your options into nearly a binary fashion of "blow up" or "not blow up", and why wouldn't you choose to blow it up, right?

I don't know, man, I'm just a fucking dog.

>>44240922
>Probably a difference in world building there.
No, actually it has to with the very nature of quests on an anonymous board, where every character decision has to go through an unreliable and easily-circumvented voting system. Alowing action with drastic consequences would split the playerbase so badly it would absolutely wreck the thread it happen on, resulting in diminished enthusiasm for both the QM and players, and the quest usually fizzles out soon after.

>>44236285
Catching up right now, just wanna say that I'm afraid this isn't actually a necessarily hostile army but a diplomatic one. Probably wrong, just providing live commentary, haven't read this OP yet. Big tent is scary is all, though the captain could've provided better description of what about the women entering the tent he didn't like.

>>44240950
Haha.

Though I doubt Aspirational would ever build something to this extreme case. In general though most of the players I've seen as been more of a "So I have extreme power now? Lets go invade a country and rule over it!" Type then a kill everything just because type. Which may color my viewpoint compared to someone who has seen more of the later then the former.

>>44240991
A diplomatic army wouldn't be sieging our walls.

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>>44241003
>tfw the only time someone ever tried to approach taking over the world in a reasonable fashion, he tore off the scrotum of the diplomat from a far larger kingdom and sent it back to their king

Literally his first interaction with another nation, and he picks a fight with the third largest monarchy in the setting, who are renowned for their warlike nature and standing armies being fucking brutal.

>>44241106
What happened next?

>>44241192
Come on, what do you think?

He got his shit pushed in because he held eight towns, two castles and one large city trying to wage a war against a nation spanning half a continent the size of planet Earth

It's not like he didn't know, either. He threw a bitchfit until I showed him the exact stats of the Kingdom, at which point he accused me of railroading. Like nigga damn, don't surrender, or run away, or go into hiding, or use your fucking brain or anything, I'm obviously the one at fault here.

>>44241106
>>44241192
>>44241260
Yeah I thought as much. What game were you playing?

>>44241295
Some shitty but wildly fun homebrew bastard child of D&D, GURPS and Lo5R

Not the words that I would use to describe it, but I was humoring one of my players who made it. It was really just D&D dressed up with a rule or two from a few other systems, it was cumbersome and horrible and it wasn't my setting. It was supposed to transfer over half-way from D&D heavy generic fantasy to Space Opera styled Rogue Trader but everything about it was jarring. It hurts to even recall all the hours I spent reading through a several hundred page notebook (he legit had it written down, thankfully his handwriting is superb) in order to get this all figured out.

I'll see if he still has it next game session and see if I can't convert it into a pdf to share so everyone else can see it. He called it "Dystopia: Cassidys". The guy who started all the shit was named "Cassidys" even though he never actually makes an appearance in-game or has any stats.

>>44241106
Hahah.

Yeah you can't save people from stupidity anon.

>>44238134
Wow, uh, she sounds fun.
Fun and like a snarky tessing ara ara
I suppose she wouldn't agree to be our mentor if she didn't like us somewhat

>>44238286
>“Drink your milk.”
Dragon milk?
>>44238494
Ah well, I'm too late, but I'd have asked if she has any idea why such a strange thing would occur; the Seraphi seemingly sending a relatively small army against us with a suspicious general.
You lads kinda missed this opportunity, we don't actually know if the enemy is vampires.

>>44241467
It's time for children?

Though to be honest personally I can't get over my first impression of her on the first quest. That is being a scrub dragon.

>>44238134
Isn't Lyria supposed to be a pretty big deal, like, on the global scale? Didn't she oppose the great wardragon?

>>44241467
She's 200, does that count as pedophilia for her? Ageplay, at the least?

Dragons, man.

>>44241526
Nah.

Lyria is far from Slyvian and her buddy helldragon.

She's just a normal upper class dragon. Which is what makes me feel weird because while she is vital to Sauls sucess Talon could probably murder her.

>>44241563
Also yes Aspirational I remember that she knows another helldragon that is an asshole and I'm waiting for him to show up at any time now. Anytime now.

>>44239086
Just adding, though I haven't caught up, presumably the raid plan isn't finalized yet, so just saying that if we do send the fmk after the their mages and they take them out then Mal can start fucking things up severely, provided their general doesn't appear with his own magic.
So might want to have him not be disrupting them at first to lure them out, thinking they are going to be useful, then send in the fmk and have Mal disable their magic to make them defenseless against the fmk.
Trick them into risking vulnerability for offensive power, disable their offensive power, and exploit the vulnerable position, so we won't have to worry about them anymore.

>>44240826
I feel like Saul is severally lacking in the department of... everything. He's a good fighter but lacks potential to become great. He has magic talent but never received proper formal training and will probably never be able to catch up and reach even magister rank, let alone grand magister. His magical affinity locks him out of using spiritual technics. He has only basic leadership skill and he has zero experience in managing things. I guess that's general spellblade problem - you can make quick and successful military career but not much else.

So, about the ways to make him stronger. I feel that getting formal training from Mal is required nonetheless. Basically, learning magic disruption and barriers is a must, besides that try to learn everything and see what sticks.

There is not much known ways to remove the level cap, so to speak. Astral uplifting, feldragon transformation and daywalker curse. Nothing from than seems to be fitting or available. Maybe we can pester our mentor on the matter of feldragons nature and try to apply it to ourselves? And adapt some ancient dragon magic as well?

>>44239934
>>44239941
Yeah I'm going to go with either Gnome or Undine.
Both the construction and administration/negotiation are going to be super useful to our young emperor.
Fox is too much trouble, we don't need a hindrance right now during the early stages especially, and I don't think our dragon would like her much.
Elf seems like she'd only be worth it later on, also with progressions of the champion's power as we become more powerful, she wouldn't be the overwhelming death machine that she's most useful for.
I'll take an elemental, as they are more balanced.
Plus, I'm pretty sure mages can learn teleportation as well.

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>>44241543
Age for dragons is a funny thing. WHen they actually lived to a decent age, 200 used to be considered proper adulthood because that was when a dragon's physical and magica growth greatly slowed (meaning it was very close to their peak ability in 99% of cases). However, even at 50 a dragon is pretty big and would be the considered age of majority nowadays.

So, in Lyria's eyes she'd definitely sees you as a young adult compared to her being in her 40s or so. Then again, you first met Lyria when you were 17, so depending on your point of view...

>>44241514
Yeah, I regret the way I displayed Lyria the first time. As a character she's changed a lot since I first imagined her and this is only her latest incarnation.

>>44241503
I don't think dragons can produce milk, at least not in their dragon form.

>>44241467
Taking on a draconic blessing is very impressive, as it is a step in making a familiar. It's essentially a way of making a familiar without greatly weakening them (such as what Taren Hand did when he summoned Gnome as a child). She's very much grooming Saul.

>>44241610
Matthias is a tricky character, because he's not actually that powerful. He's a trickster, like Loki. Oddly talented at convincing people despite being generally untrustworthy and with his fingers in all the pies.

>>44241563
Talon is stronger than Lyria after the demonic siege, but it'd be a harder fight before the power-up he received during it (though he'd still probably win). Although he could go toe-to-toe with her in terms of stats, its probably Flow Animation that gives him the best edge.

So yeah, Lyria is very powerful as she is. The idea is that you'd actually get her by your side well before you reach the stage of AEQ Talon was at.

>>44241771
Can we get a teaser on the next draconic ability we may pick up? Or on a potentially useful thing we can train?

I'm too hype to wait for things and stuff.

>>44240217
>He's an incredibly talented mage (or could be) but his focus is mostly on combat.
I get that his focus right now is combat, but can't we just change that later on? I assume as he grows into the role of emperor he'd see that other magics would be very useful even if they don't necessarily appeal to him as much.
Like, I personally would have use the time until the siege started to try and get the spark we need for barrier magic we couldn't during the march, as I feel he's the sort of (maybe small time) "prodigy" to be able to figure such things out in combat when it'd be immediately useful if he gets a basic understanding of it.
Like in a dramatic moment when he's on the ground and about to be run through with a sword, he could either dodge and then be surrounded and do it on instinct, or stop the sword on instinct in the first place.
I may be wrong about him though, obviously.

I forgot, was there a connection between Lairos and Lyria?

>>44241838
What we need is to learn how to enchant items. Then we learn how to apply that to our body without fucking ourselves us. If our skin is as hard as mageplate, while we wear mageplate, we'd be bretty fuggen tuff.

Or we could just go smithing with dwarves and get biceps as hard as iron and use them as a weapon. Like a big nutcracker.

I'm not sleep deprived, nor have I been drinking, what a silly thing to suggest.

>>44240495
I voted for Knight, but gonna try and make the best of Saul.

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>>44241766
Yeah, people really shouldn't devalue the support abilities. Things will be tougher this time around and not just because of Saul. I do have to accommodate for the fact that my players are generally more savvy this time around and one of the bigger failings last time (in my view) was that I pulled my punches and made things too easy for no justifiable reason.

>>44241683
>He has magic talent but never received proper formal training and will probably never be able to catch up and reach even magister rank, let alone grand magister.
You're udnerstating his ability here and it's probably my fault because I gimped martials last time for no particular reason. Basically, lacking formal training doesn't prevent you from becoming a magical death machine any more - it just prevents you from doing the research side of things. Knights can start throwing around with all but the most powerful mages (e.g. Alyce) but even then there's probably a way to best them.

Saul in particular is a bit of a savant - his real problem is that he hasn't particularly focused on any one part. That's why he's got such a wide array of skills, because he keeps chasing after different goals in his youth. By focusing on particular areas he could become far more powerful than he currently is.

>He has only basic leadership skill and he has zero experience in managing things
You need to learn before you can walk. I removed the Charisma stat because it was pointless - if you're a candidate to become emperor in this quest, you're a charismatic guy even if you are a young'un. Still, I do need to show that - Talon was obviously charismatic in his larger-than-life way whereas Saul is supposed to be a little more subtle (if I pull it off).

>Astral uplifting, feldragon transformation and daywalker curse.
The fact that you can name three possible ways to dodge the power cap should make it clear that there's going to be a way. And it does tie into the bond between Saul and his familiar.

>>44241886
Mageplate runes and personal buff does not stack. So your defense rune won't stack with your defense buff.

>>44241910
That's like saying putting an inch of steel over an inch of steel won't double the thickness.

If our body was as hard as steel, then wearing any armor, regardless of the interaction of the enhancements, would only increase our durability.

Also, where are you getting this from? What you're on about with non-stacking buffs? Cause I wasn't talking about a buff, I meant just flat our making our skin the same toughness as magical metal, not temporarily or anything, or even magically. I already said I haven't slept forever and am drunk, what more do you want from me? Coherent thought?

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Also, something that completely slipped my mind to mention is that I'm moving to an XP based system for upgrading, because the Oblivion-style one was pretty non-involving and unintuitive (and involved a lot of 'no, you can't do that to level up').

>>44241886
And yeah, ideas like this can be useful to buffing yourself, too.

>>44241875
Nope. Other than the fact that they're both big black dragons with a temper.

>>44241816
I'm still trying to work it out. I will say you'll only get two more draconic abilities before getting Lyria as your proper familiar. It's just a matter of what I offer you from the repertoire (and trying to make them all interesting when it's offered as a vote).

I can say that at least one of the abilities will be very destructive magic if you choose it.

As for things you should train, well look at the abilities. Note you can learn new abilities too.

>>44241910
Magically reinforced plate has always stacked with personal reinforcement (though the latter is limited to the Body abilities, particular Iron Body like Saareg has that makes his fur as hard as steel). It's the buffs that affect your body that don't stack.

>>44241958
Isn't it the runes or enchants that give the buffs? He was mentioning about enchanting the plate and then self-buffing to get a combo effect.

>>44241958
Would leveling up the "Thousand cuts" ability make it have more usefulness against non-scrub tier enemies?

Like if we were to fight someone like Talon, would having TC at level 3 or 4 make it do something when fighting him, or is it exclusively a mass battle type ability? Because if it's mass battle type only then goddamn that probably stacks the dice against mooks.

>>44241958
Can Saul do the magic the Knight would have started with, or at least easily learn it, since it's described as being instinctual?
Can he use bows?

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>>44242072
Saul can learn Magical Might but he'd be learning an entirely different school of abilities (rather than adding to his Combat Evocation or Blade Arts) and would be more expensive to learn. Saul's magic tree has more in common with a formally taught spellblade even though he's not formally taught himself (because's he's a savant).

>>44242011
Thousand Cuts is a mass-combat skill. You could learn a different subskill if you wanted to use your Speed stat in place of your Strength stat against regular foes. Saul doesn't have it because he typically uses magic when fighting individual enemies (such as Explosive Thrust and Magic Lance).

>>44242008
Multiple buffs that affect the same object for a similar effect don't stack. For instance, if your armour gives +1 Strength and you have a +2 Strength spell buff, you can't combine them for +3 strength as both targets must be your body. However, if they affect different objects then it's fine - so if your body has +1 armour due to Iron Body and your armour has +1 armour due to enchantments, you have +2 armour.

>>44242126
Well shit, we need more passive upgrades to help with general combat.

So far we have some nasty abilities in combat, but without our mana we'd get BTFO pretty hard by someone comparatively skilled.

>>44242126
If we learn disruption from Mal, is something like Strike as Water possible for Saul to come up with himself, or would we need to learn it from someone or at least get an idea for it from something?
Can we just roll to come up with primitive magic appropriate to the situation in combat with a high DC on the spot, being a savant and all, that could then be refined into a proper technique?
Hah, no way, that'd be way too good. Just a fun idea.

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>>44242167
That's the main difference between a knight and a spellblade, yes. Knights are all about consistency and endurance, spellblades are dps and speed.

>>44242186
If you think up effects then I'm happy to try to work out if it's possible, what school it would fall under and the cost. Keep in mind that sometimes the particular effect you're after might be an upgraded version of a skill.

Something like 'Strike as Water' wouldn't be taught by Mal, though. As a human, you'd be better off learning flow techniques (so that you can read the magic like Karrem was instinctively doing with his disruptive techniques) so earth elementals like Gnome and Laryya would be best.

And no, I don't have all the schools and skills mapped out. I do have a pretty decent idea of where things might sit however, and the whole thing is pretty flexible as I'm trying to reinvent the whole AEQ skill system to be easier to use in coming up with plans (by having defined abilities rather than abstract ideas).

I wonder how Mal is coping with loss of his sole friend.

>inbefore
> He limits his contacts with people secluding himself and dedicating all his time to research.
> No matter how good Saul performs Mal says bitterly what "Talon would do that better."
> He never hooks up with Neir because of the memories she gives him.
> All kind of strange manuscripts in his study, some on devilry, some on necromancy. He refuses to talk about this.

>>44242262
Robot Talon shall be Mal's husbando.

>>44242238
Hmm, I think I'll try not to mess with that before we deal with the siege, as presumably Saul would have to think and experiment and such in most cases anyway.
Did he come up with his current magic himself, or was he taught them, or did he copy what he saw others do? Being a savant I assume the latter is a possibility for him.
Is he willing to spend time trying to come up with/improve techniques though? Not sure how developing them works in the setting/for him.
I was thinking of increasing the density of our magic lances and making them spin, if they don't already, for better penetration. Considering they're described as "magic light" this might be nonsense though, feel free to tell me I'm being retarded.

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>>44242343
Magic lances do have mass, but it's relatively little compared to the amount of energy they're carrying. They're kind of violating the basis laws of physics by virtue of carrying a type of energy that doesn't exist in our world. My understanding of spin on projectiles is that it works mostly by ensuring they stay on course despite impacting something hard? If that's true, then adding spin to the lances won't help because they don't ricochet or bounce or anything (the magical energy just dissipates violently on impact).

Pumping more energy into the lances will make them more dangerous, of course.

>Did he come up with his current magic himself, or was he taught them, or did he copy what he saw others do? Being a savant I assume the latter is a possibility for him.
Likely a mixture of all of them.

>>44242262
Dark.

>>44242407
How does his Magic Lance technique compare to techniques of others? The cost seems fairly low compared to the effect, for a low tier simple spell, is it considered more advanced than what would be equivalent in difficulty to learn for normal spellblades? You get what I mean, is it a good technique?
Also, I assume it's possible to, through magic, summon/create physical projectiles as well, would it be possible to infuse one such projectile with the energy of the lances, making it possible for them to penetrate into the body/armor and have the energy "violently dissipate" there, thus causing more direct/concentrated damage?
Or maybe have the tip of the lances be solid/physical reaching a similar effect except dividing the energy to inside the penetrated object and outside of it like a normal lance, the tip would penetrate and explode and its tail of magical light would act as normal.
I may be trying too hard to upgrade an intentionally simplistic/easy spell though.
My magic technique autism/fetish is vast, you will soon learn.

>>44242407
For his whole arsenal, or even for single spells as well? What about Magic Lance specifically? Is it a standard spell people are taught, is it something made to resemble one such spell, or is it the former but adapted/changed/improved/unrefined?

I gotta ask. Why reboot? What happened? How will this not turn out the same? Will you place all the npcs in different locations? Different npcs? Different meta-plot? What the fuck?

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Have a snip of my current WIP, the new map of Gauron. Just finished shaping the land mass. You should be able to make out the local region towards the top-right.

>>44242449
>>44242461
Magic lances are a pretty typical spell for advanced mage combat. They showed up a few times in the original AEQ - I think the first time was when you fought the dragon in the underground lake. Magisters like Mal can fling them around, though Saul's better at it than most magisters are - it's one of his more practiced spells (which is why it's Lv2).

>The cost seems fairly low compared to the effect, for a low tier simple spell
It's not actually a low-tier spell, relatively speaking (though it's use in combat is in a way). In combat, battle-mages would normally use rituals to fling about magic lances.

Spellblades also tend to favour elemental spells, as they're typically easier to learn and cast on the fly, even if they're not as cost efficient as just tying a whole of magical energy to some hastily summoned matter and flinging it at the enemy.

>Also, I assume it's possible to, through magic, summon/create physical projectiles as well
Yeah, but then you end up with cost efficiency versus purpose. Summoning physical matter and replicating material effects (e.g. fire, lightning) are relatively expensive. Bringing magical energy into the material realm is cheap - the hard part is keeping it their, but that's a matter of skill. I can't think of a real-world analogy to explain it better, unfortunately.

Against anti-magic defenses (such as what the HMKs had) you're on the right track to combine physical with magical. It'd probably be a variation on the existing magical lance spell.

>My magic technique autism/fetish is vast, you will soon learn.
Honestly, I tried making the skills more clear cut in an attempt to get more of this sort of thing. I think it was too abstract previously.

>>44242582
I assume knowing how to do delayed magical activation would also help against anti.magic defenses, maybe.
Like in the Knight's arrow enhancing spell, instead of making it simply hit harder, have it explode when inside the body. Or something.
And then, how does learning magic work? Do we spend xp/skillpoints or whatever on it, or can we freely learn them by dedicating time to it? We have 50 mages, I'm sure we could get one of them to cast some simple elemental spells in our proximity to let us get a feel for it then use our savant brain to figure it out on our own, maybe.
Does coming up with new spells have a DC, and is the effective DC reduced by familiarity with the field of magic, a formal education, and for Saul being naturally talented?
Does Mal know something from most fields of magic? If yes we could have him keep casting some simple ones to let us learn what each type's "feel" is like so we can immediately tell in combat what the enemy is using and avoid scenarios like with the general, right?

>>44242582
Nice map, by the way.
Seems pretty fucking big, very promising.

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>>44242791
This was the original Gauron map for reference, including the regional map.

And yes, it is pretty big. The landmass is 1.76m sq. miles south of the mountains (which split the continent in two).

>>44242760
>I assume knowing how to do delayed magical activation would also help against anti.magic defenses, maybe.
Delayed magic doesn't really work like that. You've either cast the spell or you haven't - delayed magic just lets you do all the casting steps before the actual effect (e.g. a barrier that might take 30 minutes to set up can be cast in the middle of battle in a second) but you can't have a projectile remotely trigger its spell like that. At best you can make spells that trigger on contingency (e.g. striking something hard enough).

>And then, how does learning magic work? Do we spend xp/skillpoints or whatever on it, or can we freely learn them by dedicating time to it?
XP. XP costs change depending on time available, mentor available and the complexity of the spell. Learning new schools is more expensive and time intensive than polishing existing spells.

>Does coming up with new spells have a DC, and is the effective DC reduced by familiarity with the field of magic, a formal education, and for Saul being naturally talented?
Maybe in the case of some difficult concepts.

>Does Mal know something from most fields of magic?
Mal's specialities are Channelling (the name for generic casting and focusing of magical energy, really), Enchantment and Summoning.

>If yes we could have him keep casting some simple ones to let us learn what each type's "feel" is like
You can already do that. That's why Saul was commenting on how he could feel things like the FMKs taking off. You'll find that most casters and spell types will have different words used to describe them and they're based on the individual (e.g. Talon in the old AEQ would sometimes describe mystic fox casting as a 'warping sensation' but Saul will interpret this differently).

>>44242866
Is it possible to figure out elemental spells entirely on our own, without trying to copy/study under someone?
What with them being elemental, feels like doing so might have a positive if small special effect.
Like having figured it out as it was in its primal form before spells and techniques have been altered by men.
Might be a retarded idea, though, just feels like elemental magic would have been more powerful in its raw form than what I assume has been altered to be able to be taught to most people.

Also, is being able to fling around Magic Lances in combat without a ritual a mid to high tier thing?

>>44241898
What about hard work?
Sorry, but based on thread so far I can't help but imagine him as kinda anime-y character that runs into battle with no armour at all.

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>>44243026
My internal character model of him is based off young Vann from Spirit Circle so you're half accurate.

Saul does wear a full set of armour, though - just not a helmet and only his chest piece is plate. He's run low on mana too many times to risk not wearing the armour and not wearing the helmet is mostly due to dulling of the senses that cheap helmets cause.

>>44242933
You can work out most basic spells yourself, but it's far faster if you have something to work off. Mind you, elemental spells (as in, fire, air, water, wind etc) can be cast in so many different ways.

>Like having figured it out as it was in its primal form before spells and techniques have been altered by men.
That would be transmutation, which is a specific form of spellcasting you aren't physically capable of. You might eventually be able to evocate (the form of spellcasting you do) in a way that emulates transmutation effects, however.

You might benefit from the old lore doc, to be honest. There's a big section on magic that is largely unchanged. Consider it a primer.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11Yn2-h3hCOhWc-IXjc2M9595ttWvKB6DAuDhf4DfZp8/edit#heading=h.hl9vxalvki04

Be warned, it's huge.

Do tell if I'm bothering you and you want to concentrate on mapmaking or something else, though, I keep asking question mostly just because I can and I may have interpreted you saying "I tried making the skills more clear cut in an attempt to get more of this sort of thing" wrong to mean that you like dealing with this type of magic "discussion"/bullshit.

>>44242866
Forgot to ask, will we get XP for the battle in the beginning of the quest? And will having spent time messing with the rain lower the XP cost on learning barriers/fire(since Saul did manage to heat up his armor, that's related to fire magic, right?), and can things similar to do that be done any time, even if we have no XP points at the moment, just messing with magic and maybe arriving at a good hint/idea?
>>44243165
Strange, the doc says that transmutation itself is common in humans and all races that use sorcery, it's just that most humans don't have enough power to effectively use transmutation.
What do you mean we aren't "physically capable" of using it? Backstory stuff, or did this system get revamped?
Also the doc says that evocation can't be done on instinct, so it seems to me that transmutation would be closer to specialty of a savant, except if it's specifically being a savant when it comes to evocation and somehow being able to figure out the somatic components and such on one's own.

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Have an updated WIP of the world map, which still needs some landscape adjusting (mostly in terms of climates).

>>44243352
>Do tell if I'm bothering you and you want to concentrate on mapmaking or something else, though
I'm going to go to bed once I finish statting out the Champions (and finish this beer), so I probably won't be answering any more questions.

>Forgot to ask, will we get XP for the battle in the beginning of the quest?
Yes.

>can things similar to do that be done any time, even if we have no XP points at the moment, just messing with magic and maybe arriving at a good hint/idea?
Within reason, but the benefits would be relatively minor except in cases where the players come up with something interesting.

>What do you mean we aren't "physically capable" of using it? Backstory stuff, or did this system get revamped?
I just derped a bit. It's more that Saul isn't physically capable of transmutation at a usable level.

>Also the doc says that evocation can't be done on instinct, so it seems to me that transmutation would be closer to specialty of a savant
Saul's not doing his casting on instinct. He's self-taught for the most part but he was taught how to evocate in his childhood as part of his training, and has simply been running with it since (which is entirely possible - it's how new spells and such are discovered in evocation). It's more that learning how to evocate in the first place cannot be done on instinct and there are also some individuals who cannot evocate whatsoever but can transmute.

>>44243457
>Saul isn't physically capable of transmutation at a usable level.
Could this naturally change during the quest as he becomes more powerful, or is it a yes/no thing decided at birth?

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>>44243550
>or is it a yes/no thing decided at birth?
That.

>>44243581
When will the Dragon give us the secret to stop being 5'3 we must know for it is the most jealously guarded.

Also cool to see another one of these, I used to religiously follow your threads.

That and you wrote decent smut.

>>44244331
Drink your goddamn milk anon

>>44242760
Just woke up, maybe using barriers to coat a lance so it won't explode simply on contact and have a better chance at penetration?

Would defensive enchantments react strongly to a barrier? I would assume they would, but it might be worth a shot.

>>44243581
You ever thought about getting an Ask.fm account?
Using the leftover thread seems to work pretty well right now, but it's not like every will be far enough away from the bump limit to last another day or two and people will not always think of their questions during or shortly after sessions (especially not if they missed a thread and are catching up with the archives).

>>44243457
How is XP spending going to be handled?
I'm kind of hoping it's going to be streamlined at least somewhat because right now it seems like there's a ridiculous amount of ways we could spend it and like we have very little insurance that we won't bumble around with poorly thought out purchases for at least a while.

I'd probably prefer something along the lines of discussion with you sorting prominent ideas into roughly equally expensive package deals that are at least internally consistent.

>>44245178
It has been suggested before, but I believe he said he doesn't want one because it wouldn't have a huge use or something.
>>44244786
I wanted to refrain from coming up with spells involving magical fields we don't know(except I guess summoning physical components for the lances), I already have a barrier magic use I think would fit the MC thought out.

>>44244471
>Saul is almost always drinking milk
>Goes to great lengths to hide why