Darkness Rising

[The Colonel]

Fair enough, I lend it to him to start production.

[0beron]

...have we rendezvoused yet? I was under the impression that myself and Brick Wall were at Dis City, and the main party was still traveling back to it?

Edit: Whenever I get the staff, I will use it to craft a Fire Cloak for myself and a Strike Cloak for Brick, since we're the squishy ones who need protection at this point. Any objections?

[The Colonel]

No problem.

[Werebiscuit]

...have we rendezvoused yet? I was under the impression that myself and Brick Wall were at Dis City, and the main party was still traveling back to it?

Edit: Whenever I get the staff, I will use it to craft a Fire Cloak for myself and a Strike Cloak for Brick, since we're the squishy ones who need protection at this point. Any objections?

As far as I'm aware we've still to send the Balrug (its a flying carpet - not a fire demon) to our capital with the crown. I was assuming you were still there and that you can get on it for the return journey.

We'd be foolish to object to your schedule as we also want to obtain your services. I'd suggest though that you think about a Hiya/Hoboken negating cloak. though.
,,,,~Speaking of protection.... I'd like to offer my services...in return for yours , of course.

[0beron]

As far as I'm aware we've still to send the Balrug (its a flying carpet - not a fire demon) to our capital with the crown. I was assuming you were still there and that you can get on it for the return journey.

Ah that works too. I figured that the appearance of Brick and myself was slightly retconned so that we would have walked/ridden to Dis City in time to meet you all. The Balrug works just as well of course, whatever Marbit says.

I'd suggest though that you think about a Hiya/Hoboken negating cloak. though

Really? Is it that common to encounter enemy casters? I thought I would be more concerned about enemy Archers.

[MarbitChow]

...have we rendezvoused yet? I was under the impression that myself and Brick Wall were at Dis City, and the main party was still traveling back to it? Edit: Whenever I get the staff, I will use it to craft a Fire Cloak for myself and a Strike Cloak for Brick, since we're the squishy ones who need protection at this point. Any objections?

You will arrive this turn, at the same time as the players. Your leader sent you to walk to Dis City 4 turns ago, hoping that you'd encounter something and perhaps level up. No such luck. (The Balrug hadn't popped yet.) You can have crafted a total of 4 cloaks during that time. I'll assume two of the four are a fire and an attack/strike. Let me know what the other 2 are.

Really? Is it that common to encounter enemy casters? I thought I would be more concerned about enemy Archers.

The previous interlude hinted that 3 of Charlie's Archons are also heading your way...

Are there any other units I know about that the capital can pop and Dis city can't?

You don't know of any additional units yet, and unfortunately I'm bringing the nerf bat down to remove one you thought you had.
Now that mounts and Dollamancers have been introduced, the ability to pop Brickabats will be replaced by another special unit, but I'm not sure what that is yet. (Suggestions are welcome.)
(The brickabats were an obvious hack to create scenarios where the casters and leaders would not be immediately slain by arrow fire. More elegant solutions for that problem now exist.)
I'm not going to take away the ones you currently have, but the Brickabats on your side will be retconned to have been rare feral creatures that you found and tamed. Use them wisely, for they will not be replaced easily.
There are two more swarms of them at the Capital that the King is reserving for his personal protection.

I apologize for not bringing this up before. I've been concentrating mostly on the new rules and characters; I hadn't given cities the consideration they required yet.
Let the wailing and gnashing of teeth commence.

[Lord of Monies]

Being a bodyguard, I kinda doubt I'm gonna be coming up against casters too often considering I'll likely be kept back to defend our casters. I also must have missed where the different kinds of cloak are listed so I'm gonna find that list, see exactly what the strike cloak offers me and see if there's anything I may prefer instead. Gonna take a guess and say strike will be fine, though.

edit: Yeah, strike is fine.

[0beron]

You can have crafted a total of 4 cloaks during that time. I'll assume two of the four are a fire and an attack/strike. Let me know what the other 2 are.

I'll also craft a Magic (Hiya/ect) Cloak and another Attack(Strike) Cloak. I'm gonna keep the Magic one in my pack and wear the Fire one, in case we encounter those Archons. The second Attack Cloak is up for grabs, I'll let you decide who could benefit the most (though I would assume a Leadership unit)

[The Colonel]

I can, I think, I am a leader of the dead. Can someone explain to me the more elegant way of saving casters from arrow fire?

[MarbitChow]

I can, I think, I am a leader of the dead. Can someone explain to me the more elegant way of saving casters from arrow fire?

1) Bodyguards. They absorb the damage the caster would have taken.
2) Mounts. The mount takes the damage instead of the caster, if the caster is riding it.
3) Dollamancer cloak (one-shot for non-dollamancers) negates a Fire attack just like a Brickabat does. Dollamancers can burn Juice to keep the cloak, protecting them from Fire until they run out of Juice.
By elegant, I mean "something both the players and their enemies can logically use based on standard rules" vs. "requires an overpowered custom unit that grants significant advantage to the side that has them".

[The Colonel]

Ah, I think I'll be getting a lot of mounts shot out from under me. Does anyone here have any ideas about what field should I expand into?

[MarbitChow]

Ah, I think I'll be getting a lot of mounts shot out from under me. Does anyone here have any ideas about what field should I expand into?

FYI : I intend to update the Uncroak spell so that it explicitly states that, if you have a readied action waiting for it to happen, if a Beast mount dies, you can uncroak it so that the Rider remains seated and protected.
You'll also be able to immediately add any Uncroak you create to your Horde during creation, so that mount would immediately get your 'leadership' bonus.

[The Colonel]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA haha haha haha

So anyone, after croakamancy, which casting field should I expand into?

[ETheBoyce]

Well if you go into dollamancy you can maintain a cloak for yourself with all the juice you have on turns we don't want to raise corpses

[The Colonel]

Sounds cool, and I can give stuff to my zeds and also create, "elite" soldiers out of cloth golems. heyyyy I sound like a diablo necromancer

[MarbitChow]

Well if you go into dollamancy you can maintain a cloak for yourself with all the juice you have on turns we don't want to raise corpses

I'd actually advise against that. There would be no difference between a cloak that Bill made for himself and a cloak that Vinny made for him. If Bill takes Create Cloak, he doesn't get the special feature that Dollamancers get where he can use Juice instead of a charge, so his cloak is only good for one shot. You'd be wasting an AP, when you can just ask Vinny to hand you a cloak whenever you lose one.

Hiya might be a good choice, since the ability to do guaranteed damage is always nice.

I realize that the Croakamancy ladder is still weak. I'll be adding a Mass Uncroak that behaves like Pall Raiser for regular uncroaked units, and probably removing the level restriction from Uncroak and Pall Raiser, and change Thriller and Bone Warlord to require Uncroak. I'll still need decent spells to put into the 5th and 7th level slots, though.

[ETheBoyce]

Well if you go into dollamancy you can maintain a cloak for yourself with all the juice you have on turns we don't want to raise corpses

I'd actually advise against that. There would be no difference between a cloak that Bill made for himself and a cloak that Vinny made for him. If Bill takes Create Cloak, he doesn't get the special feature that Dollamancers get where he can use Juice instead of a charge, so his cloak is only good for one shot. You'd be wasting an AP, when you can just ask Vinny to hand you a cloak whenever you lose one.

Hiya might be a good choice, since the ability to do guaranteed damage is always nice.

I realize that the Croakamancy ladder is still weak. I'll be adding a Mass Uncroak that behaves like Pall Raiser for regular uncroaked units, and probably removing the level restriction from Uncroak and Pall Raiser, and change Thriller and Bone Warlord to require Uncroak. I'll still need decent spells to put into the 5th and 7th level slots, though.

While Hiya is certainly a viable choice I don't think we're going to want our Dollamancer spending all his turns making cloaks when he could be making Golems, Bill will however be able to mass produce cloaks on those turns we don't expect there to be fighting.

[Lord of Monies]

Cloakds are going to become the item that we have loads of to, yes, have a stockpile of hits we can negate, but I imagine putting on a new cloak after one goes will require a bit of time to get then put one on. Time we probably don't have in the heat of battle. Why not take a bit of foolamancy? We don't have any of that. Veil yourself amongst your uncroaked and you, the obvious target, are no longer a viable option.

[The Colonel]

Foolamancy works, I could hide myself in a group of elite skellies.

[Swodaems]

My current new level progression:

Code: Select all

Lvl 1: 3 Com / 1 Def / 4 Hits / 8 SM; 8 OHM / Fire / Special: Healomancer (Revitalize), 8 Juice
Lvl 2: 3 Com / 1 Def / 8 Hits / 8 SM; 8 OHM / Fire / Special: Healomancer (Revitalize; Renew), 16 Juice + 3 CS
Lvl 3: 3 Com / 1 Def / 12 Hits / 8 SM; 8 OHM / Fire / Special: Healomancer (Revitalize; Renew; Minor Ward), 24 Juice + 6 CS
Lvl 4: 3 Com / 1 Def / 16 Hits / 8 SM; 8 OHM / Fire; Quick-shot / Special: Healomancer (Revitalize; Renew; Minor Ward; Ward), 32 Juice + 9 CS

The big issue for me is how best to spend the combat stats. I could, for example, spend it all on Hits, giving me a whopping 43 Hits, but only 1 Def. Alternatively I could take all Combat and be a quick-acting quick-firing Healomancer... or I could put it all in Def. The issue is I'm not really sure what the context for stats will be (will Com 12 still be rather early? Will Def 9 be very tankish?) or what the best use would be (do I really NEED Com 12 as a healer?)

I would be spending alot of those combat stats on Def. A couple spent on hits wouldn't hurt. You are a decent target in the field and you could use the survivability.

Now that the items have been distributed and most of the rebuilds completed, it's time for the dungeon group to pick up the two remaining corpses, grab any miscellaneous things still lying around, and head home to Dis City.

I'm going to use the walking time to try out my new Bracer's thinkagram ability. I call King Creperum, "Hail, King Creperum." (If he can't tell who I am over the thinkagram, I add in, "This is Warlord Tod, calling from the front.") "I am calling you to inform you that we have had a windfall of good fortune. My men and I have discovered, entered, and cleared a ruins hex. In doing so, we have made a few useful aquisitions. We recovered a modest amount of potions and scrolls. We also received a total of ten magical items and one artifact. The items consist of 4 rings of varying ability, 3 caster weapons, one bow, one armor, and the very bracer I am using to call you. These items have been distributed to where they felt most useful. The artifact is a crown for you can wear that will allow us to pop more types of units in our cities. I will be sending this crown to you along with the prisoners we captured when we took of Sunshine Dale."
"Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, we were able to garner approximately 30 thousand in gems. I believe this change in our economic situation has opened up a few strategic options for our side that could prove useful."