Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Message from Tiberio to the rulers of Gatavia

Greetings,

I am sure that you have been observing the rise of a beastmen nation within Gatavia with great trepidation.  Even more so when that nation is led by the vile Wormpriest.  In recent days the Wormpriest and his armies have assaulted the peace and prosperity of the land, including the heinous invasion of the Elfwood and the slaughter of beautiful Queen Khyosee and her people.

I am writing to you now with joyous news.  The Skull Collectors have taken it upon themselves to dispense justice upon the Wormpriest.  By our spells and steel he was brought low.  His shattered body lies dead within the heart of his stronghold while his soul answers to the gods for his crimes against the Elven people.  Queen Khyosee has been avenged. 

The destruction of a powerful entity leaves behind a power vacuum.  In the absence of a strong leader to unify the beastmen there is danger of them scattering upon the winds.  I am sure that none of the citizens of Gatavia want beastmen running uncontrolled, raiding and pillaging in small bands.  Just as terrible would be the rise of one of the Wormpriest’s lieutenants and continued war.   To prevent this I, Tiberius Serenius Valdarus, have agreed to don the mantle of Prefect and rule over the beastmen. 

Let it be known that the Realm shall hereby be known as Valdar, and shall include the lands formerly known as the Wormcult and the lands of Fort Hydra.  Valdar shall be a full member in good standing of the Skull Coalition.  The capital city of the Realm shall hereby be known as Hamatar, and trading posts will be established to open it to trade.  Any that obstruct the safe passage of merchants to these trading posts shall face my wrath.

Where there once dwelt a threat to humans, elves, dwarves, and all other civilized races, I will forge a sword with which to defend the good people of the land.  The beastmen will submit to my might and the will of the neutral gods.  They shall march in the armies of the Skull Coalition against all threats.

Signed,

Prefect Tiberius Serenius Valdarus of Valdar, Lord of Hamatar, Commander of the Hydra Legion


Now that Tiberio rules over not just the tiny settlement of Fort Hydra, but an entire realm of thousands of beings he has cast off his Ardean commoner name and adopted one more fitting to nobility. He is renaming the wormcult domain and capital, as well as granting domains to both of his henchmen.   Fort Hydra and a section of the wormcult lands will become vassal domains.

Assuming no one has any objections, I plan to send this message throughout the province.  Copies will be sent to Orchester, Badaxe Jack, Dwarfhall, Cavano, Seatun, and maybe Pulchester.    Basically all the people that don't actively hate the Skull Collectors enough to kill the messenger, 

Sidenote - I stole stuff from my favorite fantasy series and added appropriate endings to make the names sound more like the Ardean ones listed in the document on the site.  The place names I'm going to use will inspired by the same series.

16 comments:

  1. dont worry about the stealing of names and stuff like that
    i plagiarised a little bit for the dwarf history that i wrote up

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  2. When I say that they will submit to my will, it is because I want to research a spell that will alter the beastmen's alignment to neutral. I don't remember seeing anything with that actual effect on the tables, so I started looking at the enchantment table. Command is a value of 60, but I'm not trying for total domination. Charm and feeblemind are both value 30. To my mind they are a closer fit to what I am trying to do. feeblemind causes drastic mental changes, while charm makes someone really like you. Neither effect is what I want but I would say the effect I want isn't really more powerful than those. Assuming an initial cost of 30 I could make the spell described below.

    What do people think about this spell? Does it sound reasonable? Should an alignment change effect be more? It seems less powerful to me than just charming someone, but leads to the next question. I also want to ask, if this spell saw widespread use could I change the culture of bugbears and goblins? would a baby bugbear raised by magically neutral parents have a decent chance to grow up as neutral himself?


    Word of Minerva Arcane: 2 Range: 0’ Duration: Indefinite
    This spell spreads the message of the neutral gods. It changes the targets’ alignment to neutral indefinitely. The change in alignment can be removed with a dispel magic spell. The creature will not seek to remove the spell, but those it interacts with may notice the change in actions and react accordingly.
    Alignment change (30), target 1d4 creatures of any HD (x1.5), range touch/0' (x0.4), only target humanoids (x0.5), duration indefinite (x2.2), no save (x1), arcane (x1), total cost 19.8

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    1. >> Does it sound reasonable?

      It seems reasonable to me. I'm of the opinion that charming your top guys and just ruling with an iron fist might be the best option, though. At least with a charm they are willing to die for you! Also be aware that all it takes is some dispel magic and your "bodyguards" could turn on you.

      >> could I change the culture of bugbears and goblins?

      Unfortunately, goblins and orcs are initially created from demonic souls incarnate. Even their progeny are tainted by the pits of hell and so their alignment is as much nature as nurture.

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  3. Hypothetically what about Giants trolls and ogres? Would those be nurture as well?

    Yeah if there is no chance of future generations growing up as neutral I would be better off charming them. As for losing them to dispel that is a chance I'd have to take. Honestly there are a lot of 3rd level spells that could kill or turn them anyway. I'll have to think on my options a little more.

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    1. You'll have to appeal to Dave about giants and ogres. I believe in Baldgarth canon they are actually a race of man. Trolls are also demonspawn and would never be turnable.

      BTW, the giants and trolls you guys saw last game were members of a domain the the South of the Wormcult in the Wastelands region. There you'll find a whole lot of various populations enslaved by a heirarchy of giants not unlike the "Against the Giants" series of adventures of yore.

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  4. you could lead them all to the brain of bran in skull mountain
    where they would either convert to neutral or die
    thats how rinaldo went from lawfull to neutral

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    1. Since they are born of demons I'm guessing they would just die. Could be worth trying though

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  5. another thought could be this,
    a high level cleric, like some sort of exorcist (cough cough)
    could drive the demon soul out of the troll or orc through turn undead which also turns demons
    and then tiberio could summon bezerkers right on the location of said troll or orc
    and the bezerkers being summoned inside a troll or orc just inhabit said body

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    1. I really like this idea. If it would work I would definitely spend time researching the new spell or whatever that I needed. Probably an indefinite duration summon at the very least

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    2. we would just have to get dave to say either yay or nay to it

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  6. although i roll a 13+ on turning a demon and amicus is at a 10+
    if you fail at the exorcism then the demon can't be kicked out of said troll or orc
    would allow you to keep probably half of the high level liutenants

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  7. They are born of demons, and not actually demons themselves. You really couldn't "turn" them and drive them back to hell any more than you could "turn" a paladin.

    I suppose any magic that could remove a *mortal* soul would work, though. Then you could have the body possessed by any sort of creature from the otherworld.

    I would rule that if Tiberio took control of a troll using "Magic Jar" (core rules p.81) he could summon a berserker to then replace his soul in the troll's body. However, I would also say that the troll's body would die irrevocably once the berserker's soul left once the summon spell's duration ended.

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  8. the other option of course is
    you can use a transmogrification spell to just turn something say a light infantry
    into an ogre liutenant and just kill the real ogre Lt.

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  9. Unfortunately when you polymorph something it takes on the outlook and mindset of the monster. It wouldn't do much good.

    Maybe disguise ones self as an ogre?

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  10. Unfortunately when you polymorph something it takes on the outlook and mindset of the monster. It wouldn't do much good.

    Maybe disguise ones self as an ogre?

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  11. thats the polymorph spell
    you can always research a new spell without taking on the mindset of the monster

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