>>5654776
You are True Neutral. The humility of Good repulses you like none other, yes, but the cruelty of Evil disgusts you and no temptation could lead you to drink from that fount. To your balanced mind, the boundaries of Law are stifling but the freedoms of Chaos are foolhardy and you can tolerate neither in abundance. You are a rare sort. Men like you who can claim true POWER are vanishingly rare. Even so, it has its advantages. Few are those who would fight for a Neutral lord but even fewer are those who would oppose them. This will be a challenge but you think you're up for the task.

You are...

>A Black Knight: Named because you've renounced your family for its excesses and fled to foreign lands. You are an unstoppable juggernaut in combat and an inspiration to your men. Your choice will be your method of battle.
>A Kindly Poacher: The hunt started to feed your family and continued for fun, but unlike most, you have respect. You are an unerring marksman and incredibly sneaky. Your choice will be your philosophy of the wood.
>A Strange Wizard: From a poor family, you are self-taught and your magic is odd, but you are a prodigy and make it work. You are likely the best living magician of your narrow specialty. Your choice will be of which crackpot hodge-podge.

>A Black Knight: Named because you've renounced your family for its excesses and fled to foreign lands. You are an unstoppable juggernaut in combat and an inspiration to your men. Your choice will be your method of battle.

>>5654778
>A Strange Wizard: From a poor family, you are self-taught and your magic is odd, but you are a prodigy and make it work. You are likely the best living magician of your narrow specialty. Your choice will be of which crackpot hodge-podge.

>>5654778
>A Strange Wizard: From a poor family, you are self-taught and your magic is odd, but you are a prodigy and make it work. You are likely the best living magician of your narrow specialty. Your choice will be of which crackpot hodge-podge.

>>5654778
>A Strange Wizard: From a poor family, you are self-taught and your magic is odd, but you are a prodigy and make it work. You are likely the best living magician of your narrow specialty. Your choice will be of which crackpot hodge-podge.

>>5654778

>An Arrogant Druid: From the beginning, you loved the woods, the wilds, and the many creatures found therein. The power of the natural world - crashing waves, raging firestorms, crackling lightning has been your obsession. Other people - they do not see what you see, do not respect what you respect. You will show them their proper place - creatures in an ecosystem of your design.

>>5654778
>>A Black Knight: Named because you've renounced your family for its excesses and fled to foreign lands. You are an unstoppable juggernaut in combat and an inspiration to your men. Your choice will be your method of battle.

>>5654778
>>5654778
>>A Strange Wizard: From a poor family, you are self-taught and your magic is odd, but you are a prodigy and make it work. You are likely the best living magician of your narrow specialty. Your choice will be of which crackpot hodge-podge.
Honorable and pragmatic Lord Knight very gud.
Crackpot wizzerd who doesn't give a shit about anything or anyone and obsesses about his weird, most-likely autism-powered pathway to power better.
I could go for either, really. Or all three, but again, the first two would veer Good at one point, though probably not Lawful.

>>5654778
>A kindly Poacher

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>>5654778
>>A Strange Wizard: From a poor family, you are self-taught and your magic is odd, but you are a prodigy and make it work. You are likely the best living magician of your narrow specialty. Your choice will be of which crackpot hodge-podge.
Asocial autism wizard in his tower, disregard hoes and use our dick only for charging JO crystals

>>5654778
>A Strange Wizard: From a poor family, you are self-taught and your magic is odd, but you are a prodigy and make it work. You are likely the best living magician of your narrow specialty. Your choice will be of which crackpot hodge-podge.

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>>5654780
>>5654781
>>5654789
>>5654790
>>5654794
>>5654795
>>5654827
>>5654830
>>5654857
>>5654934
You are a Strange Wizard. Perhaps "strange" isn't the proper word to use, because to a certain extent, all wizards are "strange" and you are no different in that respect. To the masses of mundane men who lack an understanding of the arcane arts, you are an oddity, a wizard whose magic works differently, but a wizard, nonetheless. They put you into the same box of mystics and magi and other marvelous things that they don't understand and call it a day. To your peers, the wizards who've learned the proper way of doing things, you are mindshatteringly bizarre, a freak enigma, and it is a terrifying thing that your magic works at all.

When a wizard looks at you, he sees something vastly worse than a hedge mage. They at least reach for the principles of proper arcana, even if they do not understand them properly. You, on the other hand, are a raving madman screaming obscenities in the hall of higher learning. Many centuries of theories, study, and contemplation form the sacred foundation upon which all wizardry is built. Even the most reckless of spellwrights only dare to tweak the boundaries of the rules, to interpret them in playful ways, for they are absolutely fundamental and to stray from them is to invite disaster. It has happened time and time again, without fail. Every magician knows that there are certain truths of wizardry which encompass all magic, that they are as flexible as they are immutable, and that there is no escaping them.

>cont

>>5654948
That's what they claim in their scrolls. As the illiterate son of a swamp fisherman, that meant nothing to you and you never heard the cautionary tales. From the moment you were first aware of it, you were filled with an immense urge to feed the spark of magic inside of you into a flame and with nobody to tell you no, you did. You didn't know what was possible, so you tried everything and suffered the consequences. There were many, many pitfalls and accidents in your early years. Your village was destroyed, your brain was scrambled as your body was warped, and your family had no choice but to disown you, but you didn't stop. You continued your mad, reckless experimentation.

Without an education, you made your own alphabet to keep track of your findings. Without any funding, you dove through dumpsters and stole from vendors to supply new specimens. Without any reason left to hope, you turned to blind obsession. Then, something happened. After decades of futile struggle and misery, you began to piece it all together. All of your mistakes, all of your triumphs, they began to make a strange kind of sense. You found a pattern in the madness. You seized it and took the first steps toward mastery.

It has been many, many years since your eureka. At some point, your hairs turned gray, your beard grew long, and you forgot your own name, but the magic, the magic, you remembered. You painstakingly carved out your own testament to the arcane legacy, and you spit on the concept. Your magic is magic and that's all there is to it. When a wizard looks at you, he sees something that shouldn't be, a man who calls himself a wizard but ignores all practice, all technique, all common sense defined by countless generations of knowing what not to do, for suicidal lunacy, and somehow it works. The deranged babbling and manic gesticulation that by all rights should see you choking on frogs, being sucked to the lowest circle of hell, or spontaneously combusting where you stand, somehow works and does things that simply should not be possible.

>cont

>>5654949
Your existence is proof that everything wizards think they know about wizardry is a lie, and there is no recovering from that. In ages to come, you may inspire untold treatises and turn the world of structured arcana on its head but you could not care less. Your motives are simple. You need money to continue your studies and the easiest way to get that is to conquer Edalia. Your magic is something wonderful and if it dies with you it will be forgotten. That cannot be allowed. You need power, awesome power to continue on, and for that you must continue to learn your magic. At any cost. At every cost. You are Neutral in the same way a force of nature is neutral.

Your magic is far less intricate than true wizardry, indisputably far less versatile and arguably far less powerful, but it does one thing, and one thing exceptionally well.

Select your specialty.

>Eggs: Your magic relates to the creation and shaping of new life. The simplest creatures are the easiest and swiftest, but even sapients aren't beyond you.
>Tea: Your magic focuses on the brewing of teas with a variety of effects. No mere alchemy, you entirely exceed and redefine what its composite ingredients should be capable of.
>Clouds: Your magic orients itself around clusters of particulates, smoke, mist, fog, even the skies above. To do what you do alone is normally the provenance of a circle of wizards and magnitudes less accurate.
>Hues: Your magic emphasizes the texture of things, primarily the color and essences derived from it. This is no illusion, you physically alter the color and thus the thing's nature.
>Angles: Your magic fiddles with the rigidity of space-time and sidesteps the need for portals entirely. Far from tampering, distance is music and you are its maestro.
>Null: Your magic does nothing well. In particular, it does Nothing very well. Most of its applications are trivial but its nadir, erasure, is not to be done lightly.

>Hues: Your magic emphasizes the texture of things, primarily the color and essences derived from it. This is no illusion, you physically alter the color and thus the thing's nature.

We are discount Saruman of many-colours. I like it. It’s also the one I least understand, which is extra fun!

>>5654950
>Clouds: Your magic orients itself around clusters of particulates, smoke, mist, fog, even the skies above. To do what you do alone is normally the provenance of a circle of wizards and magnitudes less accurate.

>>5654950
>Hues: Your magic emphasizes the texture of things, primarily the color and essences derived from it. This is no illusion, you physically alter the color and thus the thing's nature.

>>5654950

> >Angles: Your magic fiddles with the rigidity of space-time and sidesteps the need for portals entirely. Far from tampering, distance is music and you are its maestro.

This one is easily most horrifying in the hands of an insane wizard.

>>5654950
>Hues: Your magic emphasizes the texture of things, primarily the color and essences derived from it. This is no illusion, you physically alter the color and thus the thing's nature.

>>5654950
>Eggs

>>5654950
>>Null: Your magic does nothing well. In particular, it does Nothing very well. Most of its applications are trivial but its nadir, erasure, is not to be done lightly.

>>5654950
>Eggs: Your magic relates to the creation and shaping of new life. The simplest creatures are the easiest and swiftest, but even sapients aren't beyond you.

>>5654950
>Eggs: Your magic relates to the creation and shaping of new life. The simplest creatures are the easiest and swiftest, but even sapients aren't beyond you.

any horrific combination of beasts we can think up we can create

>>5654950
>Clouds: Your magic orients itself around clusters of particulates, smoke, mist, fog, even the skies above. To do what you do alone is normally the provenance of a circle of wizards and magnitudes less accurate.
Eggs is a good second choice, magical beastmaster with a horde of indescribable chimeras sounds neat.

>>5654950
>>Angles: Your magic fiddles with the rigidity of space-time and sidesteps the need for portals entirely. Far from tampering, distance is music and you are its maestro.
I don't want to play wizzer pokemon, that's all. Also, an old wizard teleporting around randomly while giggling like a madman flexing on other portal mages makes for a great mental image.

>>5654950
>Angles: Your magic fiddles with the rigidity of space-time and sidesteps the need for portals entirely. Far from tampering, distance is music and you are its maestro.

>>5654857
...What the fuck?

>>5654950
>Hues
>>5655628
Did I stutter?

>>5655628
I meant the picrel you dumbfuck.

>>5654950
>>Angles: Your magic fiddles with the rigidity of space-time and sidesteps the need for portals entirely. Far from tampering, distance is music and you are its maestro.
Sorry, but two of my favourite powersets in anything is space manipulation and time manipulation. OP knows this is going to be my pick.

>>5655648
Why did you reply to yourself dumbfuck, and the pic was fully related to my wishes for the character, you dont have to steer him that way but given the chance thats where Im taking him

Rolled 4, 5 + 3 = 12 (2d6 + 3)

>>5654952
>>5654956
>>5654957
>>5654963
>>5654973
>>5655157
>>5655242
>>5655254
>>5655257
>>5655281
>>5655338
>>5655455
>>5655630
>>5655661
>it has been an entire day and there is still a tie
I'm going to Lock votes and say you are a Schismatic, a wizard of Hues and Angles extrapolating different effects from the same principles. You're no master of either but are more versatile and have the potential to learn. That will take effort and research that could have been spent on furthering your conquests or new arcana. I'll probably be updating in a few hours. In the meantime, I'm going to roll 2d6+3 and I'll need you to give me that many 3d10 for your starting army, although it might be more of a horde. You aren't just a strange wizard, you are a strange Wizard and spent several years gathering them. How you spent those years will depend on what minions you have and much of your challenge will be keeping them under a single banner.

The first 1d10 is for alignment:
>1) Lawful Good
>2) Neutral Good
>3) Chaotic Good
>4) Lawful Neutral
>5) True Neutral
>6) Chaotic Neutral
>7) Lawful Evil
>8) Neutral Evil
>9) Chaotic Evil
>10) Mixed
The second 1d10 is for type:
>1-4) Bestial: Savage or monstrous creatures of the corresponding alignment.
>5-8) Soldiery: Trained and disciplined (or ferocious) fighters of an intelligent race of the corresponding alignment.
>9) Mythical: One or a handful of extremely powerful creatures of a certain alignment.
>10) Henchman: One highly skilled individual that's chosen to follow you, guaranteed to be competent.
The third is for its advantage:
>1-2) Numerous
>3-4) Fanatical
>5-6) Veteran
>7-8) Local
>9) Rare Variant
>10) Impressive

Rolled 1, 3, 4 = 8 (3d10)

>>5655892

Rolled 6, 2, 1 = 9 (3d10)

>>5655892

Rolled 5, 6, 6 = 17 (3d6)

>>5655892

Rolled 8, 2, 4 = 14 (3d10)

>>5656001
Messed up, was suppose to be a 3d10

>Fanatical Lawful Good Beasts
>Numerous Neutral Good Beasts
>Veteran Neutral Evil Beasts
Two neutrals-aligned summons already, and all of them beastials of some kind. Interesting.

Rolled 3, 6, 4 = 13 (3d10)

>>5655892
Fuck I thought eggs had won and i come back and fucking angles won

File: Southeastern Edalia.png (596 KB, 980x829)

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This is the southeastern province of Edalia, one of ten like it. The kingdom was once prosperous and its inner territories still are, but of late, the crown has lost some of its grip on its outer holdings. This has left a vacuum for monsters thought extinct to return, ambitious nobles to stop paying their taxes, and for petty warbands (like your own) to carve out a claim for themselves. The kingdom is far from its dying breath and you will need to be careful if you don't want to be crushed by the several local lords and their men-at-arms in full harness. This map is fairly abstract and mostly I pieced it together so that we can keep track of places' locations and the distances between them. Unless magic is involved, 1 hex equals 1 week of travel on foot and half of that by horse if terrain permits. I'll post about your magic next so that you know what you're capable of and then, when they're rolled, on the details of your minions.

Rolled 2, 3, 5 = 10 (3d10)

>>5655892

You want twelve rolls for minions in total right?

>>5654952
>>5654956
>>5654957
>>5654963
>>5654973
>>5655157
>>5655242
>>5655254
>>5655257
>>5655281
>>5655338
>>5655455
>>5655630
Rather than the crude tricks and blunt spellcraft of true wizards, your arcana has a subtler touch. Wizardry is the study of fools fumbling in the dark. Oh, they speak so dearly of how their spells make and break the world but in their conceit they are blind to it. Power greater than they could ever comprehend sits in front of their eyes, just waiting to be taken! You saw in the swamps of your youth. So many blacks and browns and greens, such a variety of shades and patterns, of near and far. It was all too obvious. How is it that so many can fail to see and understand something so clear? It must be that they think themselves scholars. They approach magic from an academic mindset, sorting it into their rituals and recipes, when magic is so much more.

Magic is an art. Instead of forcing the world to meet your needs, you change the world and wait. You step in the right ways, in the right places, and coax the land to bring your destination to you. The notion of distance is meaningless. All of the same space is everywhere and if you treat it with tact and care, you can be too. Color is more powerful than anyone knows. It not only informs the nature of all things, it is what sets them apart. In your years of study, you have discovered two overarching disciplines. Anglemotus, focused on redefining the vague curvature of space, and Huemancy, focused on the textures separating things within that space. They share some of the core fundamentals but their applications are so distinct you've been forced to divide your attentions between them. In this way, you are a schismatic, a wizard with two incongruent specialties. This has limited your expertise within each but you have time to finish your studies and feel the added versatility is well worth the cost.

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>>5656393
>Anglemotus relates to the space of the world. This space is all-encompassing, there is nowhere without its influence. It can be thought of as a uniform field that assigns everything its position and distance as the subset that gives each position context in relation to each other.
>Distance doesn't exist in the strictest sense, only the separation of positions and maintenance of that separation, which is done by space. It is a measurement and abstraction that living things rely on to put their existence into context.
>Space is normally flat, static, and impartial. By focusing on your current and desired positions simultaneously, you can cause a brief localized distortion and make both positions, in a technical sense, the same. You can then ignore distance to displace yourself in an instant.
>If you go farther and exert your will onto space with a gentle touch, you can twist it to unnatural curvature. These curves can lengthen or shorten distance between positions dramatically, and unlike self displacement, lasts longer than an instant and can effect others.
>The applications of this are many, swerving arrows, striking at a distance, and speeding marches, among others, but there are certain risks. Over time, space will correct its curves to return to its baseline and if things are still within a curve, assign them a new semi-random position. If there are too many curves overlapping in too little distance, space will violently overcorrect and cause a scrambling.
>As you haven't mastered Anglemotus, only self displacement is instant and you require time for other things, corresponding with their weight. In seconds for near-weightless objects, a minute for the average man, and hours for buildings. You are still beholden to distance and need a day's focus for long-distance displacement, have a risk of appearing in the wrong position, and cannot reliably scramble things.
>Anglemotus is supremely excellent for movement and has some combat and logistical applications, but has little reliable direct killing power on its own.

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>>5656396
>Huemancy relates to the colors of the world. Each color informs the nature of that which it marks, be it physical, mental, and spiritual. Unlike most emanations of the arcane, the meaning of color is ultimately subjective and can be textured to a degree by its painter.
>Each color has its own distinct essence. Through magic, you can break color down into its composite essences and absorb them to leave behind an inert grayness. You can store these essences indefinitely in your soul with no (known) upper limit.
>Through magic, you can use essences to paint things with their related color and change the nature of the painted thing. You can target the body, mind, or soul of a living creature, and only changes to the body are visible to most.
>There are three primary essences: red, yellow, and blue, and two fundamental essences, black and white. By mixing primary essences, you can combine them into secondary essences, orange, green, and purple, which can be further mixed or broken down into simpler essences. >Fundamental essences can be created by destroying each primary essence, for black, and by combining each primary essence, for white. These can be used to darken or lighten colors, changing their association.
>As you haven't mastered Huemancy, absorbing, mixing, and painting with essences isn't instant and takes longer the more complex an essence or set of them are. Your efficiency in breaking down essences is imperfect and there is a chance of failure, and losing essences, during mixing or breaking them down.
>Huemancy is supremely excellent for social manipulation and enhancing or diminishing things, but is incapable of truly creating or destroying, only transforming what is already there.

Both are uniquely potent tools but haven't yet reached their true potential and will require some cleverness to leverage toward your conquest.

>>5656053
Eggs would've been fun but there's a lot of room for shenanigans with Hues and Angles too. This is only your starting point as well. As you conquer Edalia you'll study and unlock new types of magic and uses for the ones you have.

>>5656092
Yes. You have 5 so far, with some interesting results.

>>5656405
Can people roll multiple times? I feel this might take some time otherwise

>>5656431
Sure, go right ahead. I won't be able to post until later tonight. This is the last part of the setup, the actual quest will most likely be starting tomorrow and will be one part wargame, one part hexcrawl.

Rolled 1, 6, 3 = 10 (3d10)

>>5655892

Rolled 7, 5, 9 = 21 (3d10)

>>5656436

Rolled 3, 1, 3 = 7 (3d10)

>>5656436
>>5655892

>>5655761
I didn't reply to myself, dumbfuck. I replied to your shitpost picrel. You should have explained that it was related to your intentions for MC.

Rolled 2, 10, 10 = 22 (3d10)

>>5655892

Rolled 7, 1, 1 = 9 (3d10)

>>5655892

Rolled 2, 4, 2 = 8 (3d10)

>>5655892
>>5656436

You need one more roll. There is a very strong Good and bestial slant to your forces, which is interesting.

Rolled 3, 2, 1 = 6 (3d10)

>>5657449
The crazy old man will conquer the world with an army of unicorns

In the outermost wilderness of this land, you sit atop a stone outcropping and review your forces. They are unconventional but then, so are you and your methods. By their strength and numbers, you feel the greater difficulty will be in holding them together than in laying waste to the crumbling keeps and ragged banners of the bickering lords here. Even so, you cannot underestimate their forces. Pride is the path of folly. You do this in pursuit of power.

>>5655898
>Lawful Good, Bestial, Fanatical
First among your minions, hovering in the treetops, is a swarm of striped black and yellow Dire Bees. They are only some six-hundred but each is a match for a mastiff in size and far more tenacious. You rescued their queen from an unexpected wildfire long ago and this has been to your advantage, as while most have an animalistic intelligence, their royalty, the drones and egg-layers, have a certain cunning to them and are more than capable of gratitude.

Their desires are simple: help them take a place where they can build another hive and for so long as their queen insists, they will serve you in any capacity you require. They are excellent skirmishers and foragers but lack real staying power against massed infantry. Their nature is Lawful Good, with an innate respect for authority and a great kindness, especially for the small and weak.

>>5656000
>Chaotic Neutral, Bestial, Numerous
In a roiling mass off to one side is what can only be called a lake of acidic Slimes. There are in excess of one thousand but their “numbers” are vague, considering that they often merge into greater sizes and split again. You lured them to follow you through clever use of color, by temporarily staining your skin a rich, regal purple and their jelly brown like common mud, they instinctively came to obey you. There were only a few dozen at the time but they reproduce rapidly and your scent has imprinted on them in some deeper, heritable level.

Their only desire is to consume, melt things, and reproduce, in no particular pattern. They are simultaneously complex and simple to command, being too mindless for tactics and relying on trained commands, but their chief advantage lies in their versatility. Any scholar knows that slimes are defined by their color but as a Huemancer, you know it's the opposite, the color defines the slime. By changing their shade, you can give them different resistances and with some finesse, tint their acid with elemental fury. Their nature is Chaotic Neutral, they are incapable of thought besides hunger, spite, and desire to obey more important slimes, which you've tricked them into thinking you are.

>cont

>>5657743
>>5656002
>Neutral Evil, Bestial, Fanatical
Nearby, what looks like a patch of dark, near-crimson shrubs and tumbleweeds shakes with the wind. You know better, these are Blightlings, vegetation corrupted by outer darkness and they are shaking in rage. They would've been burned by an angry mob who recognized them for the scourge they were years ago but you saw an opportunity and deceived them into thinking they were harmless fey weeds. Now they serve you, not out of gratitude, but the dim awareness that you'll let them proliferate. There are roughly six-hundred, all thorns and fangs, dripping with hideous ichor that is agony to the touch.

Their desire is to spread their taint and torment the living, especially those who make a career out of cutting and carving wood. They are small and fragile, though tougher than they look, but fight with an unnatural ferocity, recover from even the worst of wounds over time, and terrify most. If they're in the wilderness, they can easily blend in with the surrounding vegetation. Their nature is Neutral Evil, what little intelligence they have is bent on indiscriminate malice to non-vegetable life.

>>5656053
>Chaotic Good, Soldiery, Fanatical
Just behind them stand a crowd of hard men in mottled green and ruddy browns, some smiling, some stern, all with strung bows and axes or daggers on their belts. They're a band of woodsmen brought together for vigilantism on enough of a scale it could be called a small war, and call themselves the Merry Men. After their home duchy fell into tyranny, they rebelled and with nothing better to do at the time, you decided to join them. If it wasn't for your magic they would've surely been killed and you were a pain to their foes, so when their war was lost and they fled, they chose to join you. There are five-hundred of them left.

Their desire is to help you carve out a new, decent land and they have a great admiration for your wisdom. They aren't formally trained but are decent archers, skilled at stealth, and scrappy when it comes to blows. Their nature is Chaotic Good, they can't stand being told what to do and have no qualms with killing, if the dead's someone they think the world would be better off without.

>cont

>>5657746
>>5656092
>Neutral Good, Bestial, Veteran
Loping among and around them are several packs of stark white and golden wolves. Each is massive and musclebound, not unnaturally so, and surprisingly docile, when they aren't snapping at your darker forces and foaming at the mouth in their presence. These are four-hundred Celestial Hounds from a holier land, and came soon after your ambitions of conquest became clear. You suspect they were sent by some higher being who thinks you'll bring balance to the region but haven't pried too deeply.

Their desire is to maim and devour the forces of Evil and those who enable them, but they will follow any commands that don't cross their moral boundaries without complaint. They are as dangerous as any wolves of their size, if much more discerning. Their nature is Neutral Good, their only priority is destroying Evil in its every form and they couldn't care less how whatever comes after is organized.

>>5656461
>Lawful Good, Soldiery, Fanatical
On horseback are a force of very out-of-place men in thick chain and blue tabard, long spears held high in their gauntlets. They are a highly trained and skilled force of Lancers hailing from the order of the Torch Exemplar, a crusading force of proven knights and horsemen. They rode to fight for you after a shared dream told them you would change the world, and though they only number two-hundred, they are competent and fierce in their devotion.

Their desire is to conquer the land of Edalia and institute a new, righteous order in its place. They aren't quite elite but are formidable shock cavalry and would be an asset to any army that would have them. Their nature is Lawful Good, they are disciplined and driven by an urge to protect the innocent masses that cannot protect themselves.

>cont

>>5657748
>>5656504
>Lawful Evil, Soldiery, Rare Variant
Far off to one side, in strict formation are heavily armed and armored soldiers. They aren't men but hobgoblins, formerly sworn to their empire's Legion, they fought under it until they happened to choose the wrong side of a civil war. Rather than face a tribunal, they fled and fell in with you after you convinced their primus that your conquest of Edalia would lead to plunder and glory. There are six-hundred survivors, in all.

Their desire is to atone for their unit's failure by proving their martial excellence remains. They have been trained from birth to wage war and are superb heavy infantry in every sense of the word, though it will be impossible to replace their fallen without a stable population of hobgoblins to draw from or reputation pulling in any of their peers in a similar situation. Their nature is Lawful Evil, they revere hierarchy and have an insatiable will to dominate the weak and punish those who resist.

>>5656536
>Chaotic Good, Bestial, Fanatical
In the air overhead, a herd of winged horses flies in circles because they can't stand to stay still. These three-hundred magnificent beasts are a rare example of a Pegasi herd and have seen cause to follow you after you saved a foal of theirs from a noble auction, at much risk to yourself. Even without their wings, they would be better than a normal horse in every way but one, they are incredibly stubborn and won't be ridden by anyone who hasn't earned their respect.

Their desire is to help you in your conquest because it seems like an excellent thing to do. They can be considered cavalry that doesn't need the ground to move and despite their lack of spoken language have an almost human intelligence that lends itself well to battle. Their nature is Chaotic Good, they are wild and free but disdain the arrogant and meanspirited.

>cont

>>5657749
>>5656807
>Neutral Good, Henchman, Impressive
Balanced on one leg next to you, unseen until two seconds ago, is your most powerful agent. His garb and customs are strange and he speaks a foreign language, but his sheer skill at the arts of subterfuge, sabotage, and assassination are undeniable. He calls himself a Ninja and while where he came from and how he knew your eventual plans when he came to you five years ago is a mystery, you can tell by the color of his soul that his loyalty is true. So far, he hasn't failed a single task you've given him and has finished most far ahead of time.

His desire is to regain his honor after bringing shame to himself during a past mistake he doesn’t wish to speak of. He is a match for any thief you've heard of and then some, almost point that you question if he's human. His nature is Neutral Good, he has no real care for society and devotes himself to helping the righteous by undercutting and backstabbing the dark wherever it can be found.

>>5656848
>Lawful Evil, Bestial, Numerous
Deeper in the trees and struggling to restrain their instincts to cut them down and process them into pulp are a swarm of Dire Termites. There are roughly one-thousand, all mastiff-sized and relentlessly industrious. They serve you because you took their queen hostage, convinced her your magic was too powerful to resist, and that you would only spare her if she assisted your ambitions. The insect agreed and you were left with a large force at your disposal.

Their desire is to build a nest and methodically deforest as much of the land as possible, but at their queen's command they submit to your will. They're no smarter than the bees and are less excellent skirmishers, but make up for it by being stronger and much sturdier in direct battle. Their nature is Lawful Evil, with an absolute obedience to their queen and a feral hatred that comes out during combat.

>cont

>>5657750
>>5657300
>Neutral Good, Bestial, Numerous
Perched on the cliff nearby and preening their feathers or watching your forces carefully is a vast flock of Giant Eagles. There are eight-hundred of them, their beaks and talons quite sharp, and they filtered in with the others over time. You suppose they assumed that a massing force of so many noble creatures could've only had the best of intentions, and so they fell in to follow suit.

Their desire is to advance the cause of righteousness by slaying those who threaten the innocents of the land, usually beasts but they have no fear of men. They are extremely strong birds but they are, in the end, only birds and very fragile if pinned. Their nature is Neutral Good, they don't acknowledge or disdain those who attest to rulership, only those who misuse it for their own selfish ends.

>>5657492
>Chaotic Good, Bestial, Numerous
Flitting everywhere are small, solid gusts of cloudstuff with a breeze that sounds like laughter if you listen closely. These are Aether Wisps, minor residents of another, less earthen dimension, and you won their appreciation when you freed a few dozen of them from a more conventional wizard's laboratory. Over time, they stirred the normal air into being like them, as friends, and now there are over a thousand of the little wind puffs.

Their desire is to have fun, as near as you can tell it, and they think obeying you will make for an entertaining few years. They have very little strength but are hard to hit, their gusts of wind wreak havoc on enemy arrows, and if a handful get together, they can throw a decent lightning bolt. Their nature is Chaotic Good, as they're impossible to organize and full of love for all creatures but aren't exactly militant.

>cont

File: Conquest of Edalia (Turn 0).png (586 KB, 980x829)

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>>5657753
Al together... This is a force of extremes. That is to say, extremely strong and extremely bizarre. It is the kind of madness only a True Neutral warlord could marshal. It will be a struggle to keep them united in a single grand force, so much you might have to settle for keeping them pointed in the same direction. At the moment, their morale is high and they are eager to fight. That is the ideal state of things. Now you just have to find them something to fight and make some serious strategic plays.

You hold your hand out to the Ninja, who bows and lays a scroll in your palm. You unfurl it and pinch the bridge of your nose. This map isn't even colored. Nonetheless, it is a map and you have a handful of targets. Right now, your entire force is in the southernmost forest (marked by the gray circle) with 70 abstract supplies. One advantage of having so many beasts is that they can fend for themselves in the wilderness, so only your soldiers, the Merry Men, Lancers, and Hobgoblin Legionnaires are eating them, at a rate of 1 supply per 100 men, or hobgoblins. As it is, that’s about enough for about four weeks of marching without resupply.

You lack any local volunteers so your knowledge of the area is lacking outside of a vague idea that it's in decline and not stable. At the same time, the locals have a complete lack of warning about you, your minions, or the impending invasion. The advantage is yours. All you need is to seize the momentum. Three weeks to the northwest is a small town you know must have a garrison and may have a hardy population. To the northeast is a ruin of some kind, if the map is to be believed, but the details are scarce and there could be anything there. Five weeks to the east, out of the forest and along the coastal mountain range is a fortress, guaranteed to have many troops behind heavy fortifications, and almost certainly a large civilian population to support it.

Seven weeks to the east, two weeks beyond the keep, is a large port city which may be a great asset if you could take and hold it, but might not be worth a prolonged siege before you've put down or taken control of possible reinforcements. Beyond that are several more opportunities but your supplies are limited and it would be a terrible mistake to let them sit while your forces turn against each other. You made a plan long ago and with your grasp of Anglemotus, coordinating your minions across the province will be a cinch. All that's left is to put it into action.

>What are your orders, Wizard?

>>5657755
I'll give this some more thought after I get home from work, but this is my rough suggestion right now.

If I understand Angelmotus correctly, we have the ability to transport ourselves and others across distances, irrelevant of obstacles, but not too many and not too often or else we'll suffer catastrophic feedback. This power, combined with our fairly large contingent of fliers, means we can take keeps and castles with extreme ease, and we could easily intercept any couriers that try to call for help (the wolves and eagles are perfect for this). Basically if we can get close enough to a fort we can take it immediately without the Crown being none the wiser.
So that's probably a good start before we get noticed, we can aim for the keep in the hills, which is closer and is surrounded by rough terrain that lets us approach undetected, or the central one on the ricer, guarding what I assume is a bridge over the river, which gives us the strategic advantage in the region.
Travel to either keep would be too long for our current supplies though and would require us to forage along the path.

>>5657755
Off to the ruins we go.
We could send out more scouts along the way, the bees and the merry men could help.
We probably should use the termites and blightlings as cannon fodder, they seem to be the one that are the most incompatible with the rest of our forces, and with each other. Besides the hobgoblins and knights, but those two seem to be too valuable and skilled to waste.

>>5657807
Right, so I fell asleep when I got home instead of elaborating on this phone post so I'll just expand on it now.

Due to the unstable nature of this region, we're currently free to move about without much fear of discovery or organzied resistance. The longer we move about, the higher the chance of us being discovered. To maximize this advantage we should march on a fortified location and sieze it while the defenders have their guards down.
Laying siege to a stronghold immediately, and having our Giant Eagles and Celestial Hounds form hunting packs to encircle it so no messengers can be sent for aid would be the optimal choice here.

However with the power of Anglemotus, we have removed the need for siege equipment, at least for the first few sieges we conduct. We can simply move ourselves and a select unit of elite infantry (which we have in droves, the Hobgoblins would do excellently here) through the walls on the first night of a siege, secure the Gatehouse and open the gate for the rest of our forces to enter. The fortress would fall without much damage to the fortifications and with extreme speed, giving us a strong location to declare ourselves from and fight off any arriving relief-force (who will be weeks out, if they arrive at all). We would also score some subjects in the form of whatever civilians live in the town surrounding the Castle.

With that I suggest we head East, towards the Castle in the mountains. The rough terrain will allow us to close in furthest without being spotted by it's garrison, and when taken would most likely be easier to hold than the Castle along the river. Taking this Castle also opens the way for us to march on the Port city and secure it's trade wealth, and to investigate what seems to be a mine of some sorts that lay just north of it. Afterwards we can solidify our hold of the South, securing the costal fort and then massing to head up the river and securing the final fort which basically gives us free access to this entire region.

There are nine alignments any minion can have, ten, counting Unaligned for mindless automatons with no will of their own. Each alignment has its own worldview, priorities, and opinion on each other alignment. The farther any two minion's alignment is from each other, the harder a time they will have working together, the more disagreements they'll have, and the more likely they'll be to infight or break ranks over time.

There are four degrees of opinion: like, dislike, detest, and hate. Each alignment likes its own, dislikes those that are one step separate from them, detests those that are two steps separate, and hate any that are three steps separate or are their opposite. True Neutral is the only alignment that does not hate and isn't hated by any alignment, they dislike every alignment and are disliked in response.

Forces that only have a single alignment have rare disagreements, if ever, a better cohesion in combat and a higher loyalty to each other. Forces of alignments that dislike each other are able to work together without penalty, though disagreements are likely to arise over time. Forces of alignments that detest each other suffer a penalty to their cohesion and lower loyalty, as they are too different to easily cooperate, and will have regular disagreements and a small likelihood of infighting that increases over time. Forces of alignments that hate each other will refuse to work together if given the choice, and if forced, will suffer a severe loss of cohesion and no loyalty, frequent arguments, and a high likelihood of infighting. If a force has an extremely high loyalty to you, their opinion counts as one step higher for combat purposes, so that disliked alignments are liked, detested alignments are disliked, and hated alignments are detested. This allows greater flexibility in force composition but it's difficult to get minions that loyal and they shouldn't be risked lightly.

>cont

>>5658506
Keeping minions of radically different alignments together has the key advantage of combining their strengths into one side of the battlefield. This can be devastating and is more than worth the risk if they can be kept together long enough, but is terrible for long-term stability. If you divide your minions into separate forces of similar alignment, you'll negate the penalties from them traveling and fighting together but they won't be able to fight on the same battlefield. The alignment of some minions can be changed but this is usually a slow, gradual process and may meet some resistance. From a strategic standpoint, every force requires an exceptional commander. Normally, you could only command one force but as a user of Anglemotus, you can coordinate three across the province. You also have a henchman, the Ninja, who is skilled enough to handle a force on his own but can be sent on missions alone, which for his skills as a thief usually consist of gathering intel, sabotaging enemy forces, or assassinating enemy leaders. You can also build a fortified camp (or fortress, with time) and leave minions there, but they will continue to drain supplies and many would be frustrated by a lack of action.

This is a list of alignments, what minions with them usually want, and their perspective on other alignments.

Lawful Good: Minions of the LG alignment believe that disorder brings on a decline of morals, and that a defined hierarchy with righteous leadership is the best way to ensure the livelihood of as many people as possible. LG minions usually desire the consolidation of conquests, and subtle, sustainable measures, such as initiatives to feed peasants and root out corruption in offices. LG dislikes NG, LN, and TN, detests LE and CG, and hates CN, NE, and CE.

Neutral Good: Minions of the NG alignment believe that the shape of society is arbitrary as long as it made up of good people, and that the righteous should better the lives of those around them when and where they can. NG minions usually desire to help the masses and better the circumstances of conquered lands in some way, and is not picky about the specifics. NG dislikes LG, CG, and TN, detests LN and CN, and hates LE, NE, and CE.

Chaotic Good: Minions of the CG alignment believe that order leads to tyranny and that the righteous should act independently to dismantle despotic institutions, such as slavery and fractional reserve banking. CG minions usually desire to tear down legal systems, prioritizing those that are overtly cruel, and random acts of altruism, such as giving gold to beggars and holding lavish feasts for the hungry. CG dislikes NG, CN, and TN, detests LG and CE, and hates LN, NE, and LE.

>cont

>>5658508
Lawful Neutral: Minions of the LN alignment believe that meaning is defined by structure and consistent, firm rule of law is necessary to avoid collapse into anarchy, even if a few troublemakers must be crushed under heel. LN minions usually desire an increase of order, generally through expansion of the state's authority, codification of its law, and punishment of its lawbreakers. LN dislikes LG, LE, and TN, detests NG and NE, and hates CG, CN, and CE.

True Neutral: Minions of the TN alignment believe that there must be a balance of perspectives, alternatively, their widely varying actions cause them to avoid falling into a specific alignment. TN minions are too varied to have usual desires and must be approached on a case-by-case basis, but almost all appreciate a multi-faceted approach. TN dislikes LG, NG, CG, LN, CN, LE, NE, and CE.

Chaotic Neutral: Minions of the CN alignment believe that meaning is defined by lone individuals and any attempt to impose a rigid code must be struck down, even if a few simpletons aren't able to think for themselves. CN minions usually desire a breakdown of civilization and the onset of anarchy, though this is often more out of a hunger for freedom than any hostility to those who are protected by it. CN dislikes CG, CE, and TN, detests NG and NE, and hates LG, LN, and LE.

Lawful Evil: Minions of the LE alignment believe that defined hierarchy is an end unto itself and must be ruthlessly enforced, so that the whims of the masses does not stifle the potential of their betters. LE minions usually desire tyranny, preferably though not necessarily with themselves on top, and displays of cruelty, again preferably though not necessarily, with a legal justification behind them. LE dislikes LN, NE, and TN, detests LG and CE, and hates NG, CN, and CG.

Neutral Evil: Minions of the NE alignment believe that there is no meaning outside of self-satisfaction and that any actions to that end are acceptable, as long as they can avoid the consequences. NE minions usually desire to satisfy their inner hunger, most often for pleasure, wealth, or cruelty, and unlike most alignments have no care for society beyond that. NE dislikes LE, CE, and TN, detests LN and CN, and hates LG, NG, and CG.

Chaotic Evil: Minions of the CE alignment believe that personal power is the only meaningful metric of authority, that the strong should take what they will, and the weak should suffer what they must. CE minions usually desire to destroy, to kill and maim and burn, and ravage and pillage and massacre, even if society gets in the way of that. CE dislikes NE, CN, and TN, detests LE and CG, and hates LN, NG, and LG.

>>5658509
Maybe you should make a google doc or something with our units and their alignment interactions

>>5658509

So far this quest looks cool, but a Google doc or some sort of file of our military assets & manpower would be nice.

also, checking out the ruins sounds like a good idea.

>>5658508
>>5658509
corner alignments don't extra hate the opposite corner?
and there's no troops that like each other?

>>5658577
>>5658619
That's a very good idea. I'll make one when I get home from work and you can travel to the ruin, or not, if you change your minds in the meantime.

>>5658730
Alignments hate their opposite and its straight adjacent alignments, detest the alignments adjacent to those alignments, and dislike the alignments adjacent to themselves. Dislike doesn't mean hostile, only that they have disagreements and aren't predisposed to ally outside of mutual need or convenience. Detest means they hold each other in contempt, are hostile by default, and won't ally unless the situation is dire but they're willing to consider it. For example, a LG and LE kingdom would be willing to ally against a CE barbarian invasion because they're both Lawful and can understand each other, even if they despise their views on what is and isn't acceptable within the Law. Hate is more or less kill-on-sight unless something is preventing that, like being heavily outnumbered or part of the same wizard's army.

Looking at your units:
The Dire Bees and Lancers like each other as they're Lawful Good.
The Celestial Wolves, Giant Eagles, and Ninja like each other as they're Neutral Good.
The Merry Men, Pegasi, and Aether Wisps all like each other as they're Chaotic Good.
The Hobgoblin Legionaires and Dire Termites like each other as they're Lawful Evil.

Everyone else is the only example of their alignment but aren't necessarily hated for it either. The CG Pegasi are fine with the CN Slimes as long as they aren't threatening innocents, for example, but the NG Giant Eagles detest them as too reckless and uncaring to be trusted, and the LE Hobgoblin Legionaires hate them for their unpredictable and to them insane reasoning behind their actions. Most soldiers are more willing to tolerate natural, nonsapient animals that are of a different alignment but will still have disagreements with them over time.

>>5658861
If two units with adjacent alignments work together for long enough, they can come to like each other. The like, dislike, detest, and hate opinions between alignments are initial impressions.

I got in much later than normal and have to sleep so you won't be able to travel to and search the ruins right away. I made a doc of your forces and their opinions of each other, then made a PDF for ease of reading. I'll probably post another one like it every turn. It's not very sophisticated but this is the first time I've ever done or seen a focus on tardwrangling separate alignments towards a single campaign. I'm sorry the setup for this has taken so long.

File: The Wizard's Forces.pdf (38 KB, PDF)

38 KB PDF

>>5659200
So sleepy I didn't even post the damn thing.

>>5657755
>Explore Ruins
>>Dire Bees
>>Lancers of the Torch Exemplar
>> Celestial Wolves

The dire bees will act as scouts while the Lancers and Wolves will act as a fighting force should we encounter resistance in the ruins. I choose mainly good minions because we may encounter some ancient evil or undead in the ruins. So they would be cool with killing them.

>>5659252
+1
and
>Attack Northwest Town with hobgoblins and fire termites and blightling lead by the ninja

I’m kind of confused who is voting for what. Can we use arrows to vote for actions and then type the paragraphs explaining shit .

>>5658861
Thanks for the in depth explanation.
>Alignments hate their opposite and its straight adjacent alignments
Still think it's a bit weird that they don't hate their opposite even more than the straight adjacent alignments since there's one more degree of separation, but it is what it is.

File: Conquest of Edalia (Turn 1).png (585 KB, 980x829)

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>>5657807
>>5657825
>>5658504
>>5658619
>>5659252
>>5659391
The ruin seems as if it may be useful to your ambitions. There may be heaps of treasure there, forgotten secrets hidden, or potential minions willing to march under your banner. Your forces are many but your supplies are few, so you send your Lawful Good minions (and the Celestial Wolves) ahead of the main horde. All of them are faster than a man’s pace and should arrive long ahead of time. This divides your strength somewhat but you don’t think that’s a problem. Your strength is in your division. Your careful balance of powers. It’s unlike anything Edalia has ever seen. It shall be the doom of its nobles and the renewal of its sons and daughters. Or their doom, too. As any paladin knows, those True Neutrality aren’t pigeonholed into righteousness, nor are they torn away from it.

In a way, perhaps your kind are the least predictable of all. You choose to have your non-Lawful Good forces moving at a man’s pace, in case whatever lies in the ruin is too strong to crush or you feel the need to subjugate, or liberate, the small town that should be somewhere nearby. You consult the map. Your mostly Lawful Good detachment (marked by the blue circle) has reached the ruins and the rest of your forces are one week of travel to the south. It’s likely separating most of the Lawful minions defused some of the tensions, as the rest have gotten along fairly well and there haven’t been any open arguments in the two weeks of traveling. You should probably indicate the time elapsed since your conquest.

>It is Week 2.

After all, they say time and space are two sides of the same coin. If that’s true, then it’s been glued to the cosmos, space-side up, and it would take a great amount of effort to make a breakthrough in the magic of time.

>cont

>>5659499
You use Anglemotus to take yourself and the Ninja, as he might be useful, to the site of the ruin where your Good, mostly Lawful forces are gathered. Your immediate impression of them is that they are heroic and despite their constant movement, highly coordinated. A dangerous foe for any blackhearted men. You can see the ruin very clearly at this distance. It is a crumbling five-story stone tower with several outcroppings on the ground and some rotted, visibly abandoned wooden houses nearby. Looking closer, you can see some seepage that seems to vary between muddy brown and a sickly pink has flooded through a couple of the entrances and over part of the surrounding space. The grass is growing in strange shapes and the wood that it’s touching doesn’t appear to have decayed as much as the rest. Its composition doesn’t appear slimy but you doubt it is orderly.

You are self-taught and don’t put any stock in the way “true” wizards do things but you know enough of the way they do things to be certain that this is, or was, a wizard’s tower. You are also clever enough to know that something went terribly wrong and this seepage has something to do with it. You have no way of knowing what exactly is within the ruin but it’s likely that the remains of their “experiments” or some beasts have moved in since it was abandoned.

>Who should scout?

>Yourself: Through clever use of angles, you should be able to search the place at little risk to your life.
>The Ninja: He is extremely competent at stealth and parkour and more than capable of fending for himself in a pinch.
>The Dire Bees: They’ll buzz in through the top, search some of the upper floors, and report back. They won’t be able to tell you much but you’ll know if it’s dangerous or not.
>Nobody: The entire force will attack the tower. Lancers will dismount and storm the bottom with the Celestial Wolves while the Dire Bees hit them from the top. The Lancers are less effective on their feet but they're still heavily armed, trained, and zealous warriors.
>You think you'll wait for the rest of your forces to arrive before proceeding further.

>>5659502
>The Ninja: He is extremely competent at stealth and parkour and more than capable of fending for himself in a pinch.

>>5659391
If you want to attack the town you can next turn, most of your forces are moving at a human pace and are right next to the town itself. It doesn't cost you anything to teleport yourself or a handful of your agents to different places. It's teleporting units of minions that's difficult and even then, it needs some prep time and has a chance of dropping them off in the wrong place. Using
>arrows
Is a good idea for voting.

From now on, please greentext strategic movements.

>>5659440
Alignments do HATE their opposite and will go out of their way to hunt them down, where they'll hunt adjacent to opposite alignments when there aren't any other foes or they pose a threat. A LE state would move hell and earth to crush some plucky CG rebels but it would also pursue NG troublemakers and CN drifters with the same resources. Hate is about as bad as it gets, and there are degrees of hate, but it's a little abstracted because they have the same odds of having a problem on a strategic level. You guys rolled a 98 on the hidden cohesion check for your main force to avoid any disagreements which is extremely good, as there's a 60% chance of a minor argument and a 20% chance of a major argument with alignments as they are. Minor arguments are generally bickering, stealing from, or annoying each other, and major arguments are generally much worse, internal skirmishes and open hostility.

Different alignments are at different risks for doing terrible things to each other. Lawful minions usually don't start things unless they're in an overwhelmingly Chaotic force or have been severely antagonized. When Lawful minions do get angry, they tend to go straight for violence while Chaotic minions are likelier to start things, but it's less likely to be severe when they do.

>>5659502
>The Ninja: He is extremely competent at stealth and parkour and more than capable of fending for himself in a pinch.

File: The Ninja.jpg (38 KB, 500x410)

38 KB JPG

Rolled 49 - 20 (1d100 - 20)

>>5659504
>>5659623
The choice is obvious. You'll send in the Ninja. He gives you a gracious bow and swears it will be done come the next rising of the sun. Your agent rushes to the ruin at a speed that would be reckless if he weren't so light on his feet, and when he reaches the outer buildings he's practically a blur. You would need magical assistance or superhuman senses to reliably detect him like this. You hope that the dilapidated tower has neither.

>Bo3 1d100+40 to scout, the higher the better. He's incredibly skilled and subterfuge like this is his specialty.

Rolled 15 + 40 (1d100 + 40)

>>5659745

Rolled 13 + 40 (1d100 + 40)

>>5659745

Rolled 84 + 40 (1d100 + 40)

>>5659745

>>5660018
Not bad

File: e693a681c6ea25525bea00251(...).jpg (38 KB, 480x678)

38 KB JPG

>>5659766
>>5659801
>>5660018
You wait for two hours, changing grass into strange and wonderful colors and tying them into knots before the Ninja returns. His normally stark white soul is tinted by violent red. Despite this, he remains composed and there's not a trace of anger in his voice as he gives his report.

>Most of the floors and some of the walls are covered with the seepage. It took some parkour to get by safely, which was trivial for him. The air in the tower felt strange and he noticed a couple of tiny, unstable rifts scattered throughout leaking different fluids. A majority prismatic and bizarre but a few what looks like mundane mud. He has no idea where these led to and didn't dare to find out firsthand.
>These mixing together are what caused the seepage and the liquid itself has several negative effects. Almost all of the books and scrolls in the lower floors have been ruined but this wasn't the worst part. There are hundreds of hideously deformed freaks, obviously once human but twisted by the seepage's influence. A majority are trapped in the tower's very flooded basement, with large piles of soaked silver and gold, or in separate sections by magically locked stone doors. There are numerous packs roaming the tower at random and attacking everything in sight. The Ninja wasn't. A few unfortunates were fused into the walls and can no longer be called strictly human.
>Besides these mutants, the lower four stories have little else of interest. There are a few isolated rooms that are intact and full of books, but they're written in wizardly script. There were several documents that seem to be part of a greater whole but they're written in a cipher and most are too damaged to be legible. In the higher floors, mutants become less common and dark, mostly intangible spirits start to appear. The Ninja says that when he came close to them, he felt a coldness in his bones and a sense of dread. These shades, you recognize them from the swamps, seem to be pooling in the uppermost part of tower.

>cont

>>5660537
>The top floor was intact and lacked any rifts but the air felt stranger and thicker, somehow. There was a dense, intact library that might be of interest to you but the Ninja had no time to search its contents. In the center, the density of the shades became impenetrable and a lesser rogue would've stopped there, but he pressed on and distracted them by reflecting light from a hand mirror. In their midst, he found a glowing blue crystal the size of his skull that the shades were pooling around. He suspects they were somehow feeding on its energies and that it's involved with the research the wizards were formerly doing. His instincts told him that removing the crystal would destabilize the tower and it would begin to fall apart shortly after.

The Ninja bows as he finishes his report, and speaks with the first trace of emotion you've heard since it began. "There is a sickness in this place, my daimyo. In this humble shinobi's opinion, it must be cleansed." You stroke your beard and ponder the situation. That crystal is doubtlessly powerful and could fuel your magic, but the library could lend insights into what they were researching. If the shades were cleansed or coopted into your service, that is. Judging by the rifts, it was likely extradimensional studies that went wrong. The treasure is an afterthought but these mutants are feral and likely beyond the grasp of reason. Then again, so were the Blightlings and Acidic Slimes.

>What are your orders, Wizard?

>>5660539
>Nab the crystal

Sounds like a huge mess and a ton of work to clean up, better to loot and go

>>5660539
>>5660542
+1

>>5660542
+1

>>5660539
>>5660711
On second though, I'll change my vote to:
>Purify the wizard tower and salvage anything that might be of use

>>5660539
>Nab the crystal
>>Purge the mutants and shades.
>>>Get Research

Nah I want the research. We're a fucking wizard we should never pass on knowledge.

I would try to tame the shades or mutants but we have our Good forces with us so they probably wouldn't like it.

>>5660867
+1

Basically what I said anyways

>>5660539
>Get the research

GLORIOUS KNOWLEDGE

Hol up, men-at-arms, in FULL HARNESS? Is this the same QM that ran the peasant mudcore bandit qst, and what happened to that anyway?

dead?

Man, this had so much potential.