Definitely going for Hazy Existence. Way more useful than the horses, they are just a petty distraction to a powerful mage. But they could be very useful for demanding the tribe's loyalty. I am confident Hated can control the tribe either way however.

Add another vote for Hazy Existence here.

Would this ability block Sticks from being able to detect when you're lying? That could prove rather entertaining and more importantly any one else who had that ability would hopefully be blocked as well.

Hazy Existence chosen.

>>320821
It does exactly what it says on the box. It blocks mind and soul affecting/probing magic, and drains sparks from whomever tries it.
-------------------

Gah. My head feels like I've just woken up after drinking myself into oblivion. What the hell just happened... First thing I notice is the lack of daylight. I've apparently been out for the entire day. I find myself tied to a pole, a torch set next to me to provide some light. There's a guard shaped blob that seems to be watching me from a few feet away. As soon as it's noticed I'm stirring, the blob disappears, and by the time a small group of people show up, I've adjusted to the lighting, the throbbing in my head and the haziness that seems to be wrapped around my mind like a blanket. Makes it a little hard to concentrate really.

Which might explain why I react a bit more violently to the men attempting to question me right after I've woken up strapped to a pole.

"You have been unconsciousness all day."

"Thank you very much for pointing out the obvious."

"We have question for you. We have lost contact with the Horse god. Some of our men were watching your battle, and say you did something to our chieftain, in whom our god lived. What did you do?"

"Fuck you, asshole. My head is killing me slowly, and I have no interest in answering stupid questions from people who tied me to a pole. Or those who are to be following me."

"You are not our chieftain, we refuse to follow some that bastard of a god who-"

"Quiet, Ralthis." The leader strides forward and kneels in front of me, staring me right in the eyes. "He is right though. We will not follow Tirfuldin. We are loyal to the Horse god. Why then do you sound so confident that we will follow you?"

"Because I said so. Because your 'god' wasn't a god, it was some freaky spirit thing, and because I'm not going to return to where I came from until you submit to me. But mostly because if you don't I'll rip out your insides and feed them to your damned horses for my amusement."

Oh... they didn't seem to take that well. They look a bit annoyed, in fact... Can I kill them all now, or do any of you voices, who I hope to whatever god or being that first sent you to me is still there, have some words of advice for getting what I want?

explain that your fine with them not worshiping Tirfuldin, but you can not leave them behind you as you conquer the city dwellers. you will have there loyalty or there death. tell them that you have tamed there horse god and made its powers you own, it may be difficult to demonstrate this since they have no mages and you did'nt chose the external manifestation, but if all else fails kill them all and steal there horses.

Well first off, break your bounds, and make somesort of flashy effect, see if you can get your voice thundering and echoing.

Offer that if they don't want to serve Mr. T they can serve you. Say that you have defeated their "God"

But the key is be intimidating. Also crown.
Make them aware that you could just smite them all down.

Don't kill them all yet, but do release yourself from the pole. Either shadow stepping or just tearing it apart with magic enhanced strength.

Activate your tongue enchantment that lends power to your speeches.
"You worship the spirit of the horse, do you not realize that a spirit is not a god? I defeated and absorbed the spirit you worshiped, it's powers are now mine to command as I see fit; and if I die it dies. I am no priest seeking converts, I have not come to demand you convert to following tirfuldin. I am war-chief and a conqueror, I have started with the barbarian tribes who followed tirfuldin, I now continue to you the worshipers of the spirit of the horse, and after you I will conquer the next in line. Your only choice is whether to submit or fall before me. For your own sake I recommend submitting."

Now this is very important, if someone asks "what gives you the right..." you kill him and say "my might, next question?".
If someone says "we shall never submit / we shall stand united / we shall sooner die?" then kill him quickly and then say "there are always foolish would be heroes that don't know when they are beaten, come at me now all who are foolish enough to still fight" kill only those who do fight you at that point.
If they do something else, well we'll advice depending on what it is.

If they DO submit have the women bring the children to town immediately with a small escort of 1/5th of the men and yourself (to ensure they don't try something foolish like escape or an attack), the rest of the men have the job of packing everything and catching up with you once they are done.

>>320837
First, hit yourself with some healing. There's no reason to have a headache if you don't have to. Second, break free of this pole with superior strength and/or just blowing it up. I mean, seriously, how can you properly intimidate and impress if you're tied up?

After that, talking time.

"Your god, the horse spirit, tried to drain my magic to strengthen itself. It got more than it bargained for; I drained it in turn. Its strength is now mine, and no others'. No matter how devoted your worship, it will not return to you.

"But it is not matters of faith you should be considering, but those of might. I plan to lead the tribes to war, to conquest, to forge a new nation they will speak of with envy for centuries to come- and I cannot afford a single tribe resisting my rule for that to happen. There are only two paths for you now: To follow and be part of something great, or to be ruthlessly crushed and left behind as I and mine move into legend. Even without my followers behind me, with your guardian spirit defeated I am quite capable of personally crushing your entire tribe into dust and ash."

"You need not bow to Tirfuldin- I lead due to my own strength, not the blessing of any god, though I have it. But you must bow to me."

They should have killed you in your sleep. .... wait, can they even kill you in your sleep? This seems an awful weakness.

Anyway, shadow-step away from the bindings or just rip them off.
Tell them that you have consumed the damn spirit and if they follow people who have the horse spirit in them they better follow you.

>>320953
They don't have a shred of magic due to their spirit god being a magic eater. And you have maxed out durability enchantment. Trying to slit your throat will simply result in the knife loosing its edge.

Although it might be possible to drown you, block your breathing holes, or smoke you. Maybe even throw you in a fire.
There is a chance they bother to kill you because they assumed you passed out from losing to their god and their god left you alive for a reason.
There is a chance they tried to slit your throat and when it failed just tied you up, not having considered suffocation or fire or poison because they lack imagination.
There is a chance that they DID set you on fire and suffocate you and you survived because you are wearing a magic enchanted ring of regeneration which they failed to recognize as such.

Yeah, first order of business is definitely your aching head.

Next do some kind of check to see if that horse spirit thing has stolen any of your magic away as one last fuck you as you consumed it. It would be very bad to get into an even tighter spot than this and be caught by surprise.

Finally I'm guessing shadow stepping out of the ropes and using other fancy magical effects would be more impressive to these people than shows of brute force. Also the speech enchantment is good no matter what route you take.

Alright, head hurts. Quick healing and the throbbing deadens slightly. That helps a little. That hazy feeling in my thoughts hasn't gone away, and you voices sound a little quieter than usual, but your still clear enough, so that goods. Spark check reveals nothing wrong there, everything is in order and exactly the way it was, minus the sparks I used just now.

Spark Count: 3856

>>320953
Of course I can die in my sleep. Most things can die in their sleep, unless they don't sleep. Personally, I see no reason to worry about it though, because I've been sleeping as long as I can remember and I haven't died yet. Which is nice.

>>320972
What Ring of Regeneration? I left those back at the camp to help all those warriors who were training get over their injuries. That's why we made the damn things, wasn't it?

Alright, now to get out of these ropes. I rip my way free of the things, just because I can, and I add a sort of flame affect rising from the ground with me as I stand, just for the extra flair. The entire group of men all stumble back at the sight, and I key my speech enchantment as I begin my little speech.

" "Your god, the horse spirit, tried to drain my magic to strengthen itself. It got more than it bargained for; I drained it in turn. Its strength is now mine, and no others'. No matter how devoted your worship, it will not return to you.

"But it is not matters of faith you should be considering, but those of might. I plan to lead the tribes to war, to conquest, to forge a new nation they will speak of with envy for centuries to come- and I cannot afford a single tribe resisting my rule for that to happen. There are only two paths for you now: To follow and be part of something great, or to be ruthlessly crushed and left behind as I and mine move into legend. Even without my followers behind me, with your guardian spirit defeated I am quite capable of personally crushing your entire tribe into dust and ash."

"You need not bow to Tirfuldin- I lead due to my own strength, not the blessing of any god, though I have it. But you must bow to me."

A few do so immediately. Others hesitate. One man opens his mouth, anger on his face and threats already streaming out.

"I refuse to be bullies into submitting to anyone, even someone who supposedly gain power ov-"

The man's head bursts into flames and starts him screaming, his fellows looking on in horror as he collapses to the floor and begins writhing in agony. I ignore him.

"There's always someone who thinks them self the hero. Anyone else care to try fighting, or can we get to the swearing of your loyalty?"

After that, everyone is bowing to me. Within minutes the words spread that the tribe now follows me, and there are very few exceptions. Those that do mouth off are put down instantly and without mercy. Luckily, it seems that all those were the younger, more hotheaded warriors who hadn't gotten families yet. Unluckily, the first man I killed, the chieftain, did have a family. More bad news, the traditions of this particular tribe dictates the dead chieftains family is now... mine. I'm to take care of them, and because of their laws, I'm to marry his wife as a substitute for him. After a brief introduction to the girl, made rather hurridly I think, so I couldn't think of a way to wiggle out of it, I'm left standing in front of a woman and a child, the woman perhaps near her 30th season, and the child less than 10. Oh damn, I'm starting to sound like the barbarians...

Voice enchantment.
"Seeing as I have killed your beloved, it would be unnecessarily cruel to force you into such a marriage, and I am only vicious to those who stand against me as enemies. I also already have a wife. I will provide for you and the child as long as you need it, but you are free to find a new husband of your choice."

offer to take care of her until she finds someone she can marry, But mention that if she truly wants to marry you that would be her choice. explain to her in private that you are not like normal humans, part of that means being your wife would be very difficult. (basically try to encourage her to find someone else)

Gah

Those are their traditions. Not yours.
They are following you. You have already messed up their traditions by killing their spiritgod-thing so why the hell should you even follow them?

You already have enough problems as it is with Nina, no way that you need another wife.

Just tell them that you will make sure to provide for them but that you are sure as hell not going to marry her.

>>321367
All right, looks like you've got things mostly locked down here. You'll want to order them to move to your city, if only so that everyone else can see that they're bowing to you; you won't be able to keep all the tribes there indefinitely since their lifestyle is dependent upon movement to exploit resources over a large area, but it's a decent enough plan for now.

It probably won't take more than a few days for them to make the trip. Stay with them for at least the first one, learning to recognize and name any important people in their tribe and generally walking around being in charge- remember that your helm will make them want to serve you better as long as they're your subordinates, so make sure you're a visible leader.

After a day or so, you should be able to dash off in the night and let everyone else know that the Horsehoof are yours and incoming. And let Nina know that you apparently have to look after some woman and her child since you killed the Horsehoof chieftain, which seems like something that she should be able to handle adequately. Doubtless one of these topics will prompt some sort of meaningful response.

>>321385
>>321423
We don't know that she actually loved or even cared for her first husband. The barbarians aren't into the modern romantic marriage paradigm; they're into the classic 'marry to benefit your family' one. Remember what choosing our bride was like?

Honestly, I suspect that from a practical standpoint she's not going to have better options than marrying us. I mean, the whole tribe might hold not marrying us against her for being a break in tradition, and she'd be assured of someone to look after her without needing to go searching for a new husband.

Still, if you don't want to be stuck with another wife, considering that you pretty much forced your way into the tribe's leadership position you can probably spurn their traditions in other ways too. Just make it clear that you'll see that she and the child are cared for regardless of what else happens and you should be fine.

>the woman perhaps near her 30th season, and the child less than 10
30th season? How many seasons to a year are we talking here? Those numbers seem wonky.

>>321458
wait... SEASON not year?... so she looks... 7.5 years old? don't you mean "30th summer" or some such?

>>321473
Come on, you don't honestly think she could be 7.5 years old, do you?
I mean she has a ten year old child with her.

By "season" they probably mean a "year"

>30th season? How many seasons to a year are we talking here? Those numbers seem wonky.
Yeah, Barbarians measure time in how many "seasons" you've seen. That roughly equates to a year, as mentioned, since they say you've seen a season for every time you lived through the season of travel the longest of three seasons the barbarians have. The other two the barbarians have are the raiding season, which matches up with harvest time in other places, and the rest season, which is basically whenever snow starts falling and continues until it stops being cold. So the woman is roughly 30 years old, give or take a few months depending on when each season started and ended.

As for this new family I'm supposed to take care of... well, we all know my opinion on how we should deal with this, but I already know you'd all tell me not to do it, so we're going to ignore my opinion for now. It seems you all want me to at least make sure she's taken care of, why that is I don't understand, but we're ignoring my opinion in this. Dumping the responsibility on Nina seems the best idea, it'll give her something to do other than nothing.

"I'm not marrying you, just so you know. I don't care to and I already have a wife.

My hand immediately shoots up to quiet the woman before she can say anything. I already know the barbarian opinion on multiple wives.

"You will, however, be taken care of. I'll see to the details of it personally. In the meantime, stay where you wish, care for your child and stay out of my way. The less I have to worry about you, the easier it will be for me to get everything done."

That done, I leave the human to tend to her child and go about my business, spreading the word of what will be happening. It's night already, so the camp can wait to move till morning, but move we will, and the men are already packing what isn't necessary for sleep and readying it for transport starting tomorrow. Thankfully, they have enough food and supplies to last them till they reach the city, as well as word of a herd of elk in the area they can use to supplement their supplies a little. After news that things are underway, I head back into a tent for more sleep, as the headache is still there, if muted, and my head still feels fuzzy.

---------------------

-nd the horses will need someplace to graze where the Horsehoof can still watch out for them. You shamans, advance warning. I don't want any incident between you and their shamans. I don't care how religiously wrong they are, if theirs a big deal, I'm blaming you, and punishment will be delivered personally. Urthan, how many tribes have arrived since I've been gone?"

"Given you've only been gone two days, only a few of the lesser tribes. We've got a lot more people. I had Milso count up the total, and we've got about 110 shamans, some 4,000 warriors, and at least 3,000 non-combatants, mostly woman, children and the elderly. We have recieved word that the Wolffang are on the way though, and adding their numbers brings us up to at least 9,000 warriors. With your word that the Horsehoof is already ours, we'll be able to add their men as well."

"Good, the voices will like that, I think..."

"Voices, my King?"

"Nothing to worry about. Just a term I use for my... thoughts."

"Of course, my King. I'll get back to my duties then."

"Chieftain, the elves are here to speak to you. Something about requiring your presence for a ceremony of some kind."

"Tell them I'll be there in a few minutes."

The maessenger bows and leaves, and I'm finally alone(mostly, Nina is in the corner preparing a meal and generally being a little unhappy about this new family of mine) for the first time since I got back. Please, voices, wherever the hell you went, just show up again so you can tell me what the hell to do.

if your wondering why we want you to take care of the horse chiefs family, its because if you don't the horse clan will be less loyal to you. The funny thing about loyalty is that its a two way street, you have to either have the best interests of those who follow you at heart or make them think you do. the fastest ways to lose someones loyalty is to let them feel you think of them only as a tool.

Comfort Nina. Tell her that this new "family" means nothing to you and was only part of a tradition, a formality. Nina is your wife, your ONLY wife.

>>321599
>110 shamans
So many delicious sparks! Set up a morning absorption ritual with all of them so that you can get literally thousands of sparks a day.

Also, point of curiosity: Do the barbarians have female shamans? If not, what do they do with the women who have magical talent?

>Something about requiring your presence for a ceremony of some kind.
This would be... what, their binding agreement spell? I wonder if that will still work on you, what with your new mental haze. Regardless, shouldn't be a problem to show up.

>Nina is in the corner preparing a meal and generally being a little unhappy about this new family of mine
What new family? You don't have a new family, you have a woman and a kid that you're going to take care of until you can offload them somewhere else. You put Nina in charge of them, meaning that she has seniority until such time as she manages to get some guy to marry the woman and thereby gets rid of the two of them. Why would she be unhappy, when as long as she asserts her authority she effectively gains a minion- hell, two minions, since the child is old enough to perform some tasks as it's being raised?

You did explain this to her, right?

One other thing about Nina: Don't interrupt her any more. She's quite dedicated and loyal, so if you want her to stop talking, you should be able to raise a hand slightly or make some other small gesture which will indicate to her that she should stop talking so you can speak. You interrupt people pretty much all the time, so my guess is that letting her stop on her own would mean a lot to her- perhaps more than you appreciate, since it shows more respect than you generally give others.

Things like cutting her off when she was telling you about her renewed convictions to be loyal and useful undermine our attempts at encouraging her loyalty. When there is an easy way to avoid that at minimal cost to yourself, you should take it.

I would also advise asking Nina what she's done in your absence, and listening to whatever she says rather than getting bored and wandering off. If she was serious about serving you well, I would bet that she didn't do nothing as you expected- and given how much subjective time she has available to think, I would guess that she's come up with surprisingly useful ways to spend her time. If I'm right about that, give her a smile and tell her that she's doing well before heading off to see the elves.

>>321849
My guess is that she doesn't need comfort, she needs to re-evaluate the situation after getting over her initial gut reaction. Unless there are some serious cultural twists that we didn't notice here, this should not be a huge problem for her.

Ok, it sounds to me as well like the elves are here to do that binding thing. This shouldn't be a problem. There is one thing I've been mildly concerned about however. If the elves take notice of how absurdly high your spark count is that might lead them to figuring out just who you really are. Unless you've inherited that total hiding of sparks that the horse spirit had I only see this problem becoming worse as time goes on. How bad would the cost be to mask your spark count?

Yes the numbers that your tribe is increasing by are quite good. One thing that seams odd to me though is the number of warriors being higher than the noncombatants. Are there a sizable number of female warriors?

It looks like you've already dealt with the mixing of the Horsehoof and the other tribes for the time being. I can't see anything more to be done there until they arrive.

Whatever you do with Nina don't take too long. It would be bad to keep the elves waiting for more than a few minutes.

>>321849
You realize who your talking to, right? I don't do comforting. It's not something I have experience with. I wouldn't know how to do it at all if I didn't occasionally wander into refugee camps and witness it before I slaughtered everybody.

>Do the barbarians have female shamans? If not, what do they do with the women who have magical talent?
Yes, they do. Woman who become shamans aren't allowed to marry though. Something about being brides to Tirfuldin. I admit I wasn't really paying attention when that was explained.

>You did explain this to her, right?
Um... no. I just told her to deal with it for me. I should probably get on that. I grab Nina's attention, and proceed to repeat everything you just told me regarding how she should treat the situation. She seems a little uncomfortable thinking of them in terms of servant/minion types, but the unhappy look goes away and she continues with her work, after asking me if she could speak with me before we go to bed. I nod my agreement then make my exit, almost bumping into Tongues going the other way. He still hasn't gotten the rock thing down, but his fireballs are starting to actually look like real fireballs, so he's making progress in some way. I make my way past him and head off the the small area the elves have set up for themselves, minus Sticks who's tent was set up right next to mine by the barbarians, as they still think she's my woman.

Anyway, all three of the elves are present, and they've drawn a pentagram on the ground. Vodthag and another shaman have also been called, so I'm guessing this is one of those rituals of theirs. Which reminds me, I finished translating that book last night. There's the catapault ritual from earlier, as well as a sort of battering ram type ritual and a wall explosion ritual. Siege rituals. Good stuff, since we're going to be having to assault the bigger cities. Will make my life easier.

Anyway, I'm greeted and told to stand in the center, and each of the other's present takes a position at each point on the pentagram.

"We, the elves of the great forest, hereby announce that the one before us will be allied to us for ten years, and during those ten years, is to refrain from any hostility, either direct or indirect, towards our forest or it's people. Do you accept this oath, King of the Barbarians?"

"Yeah, sure. Whatever makes you happy. But I expect the same oath from you."

"It will be done. I shall personally take the oath as representative of the elves."

The ambassador steps into the pentagram with me, then I smell the sparks as the other mages around us start infusing the pentagram with magic. This particular way to bind an oath is new to me, but I feel the weight of my new binding as it rests on me. Or tries to. For some reason, as the oath settles on me, it disintegrates and I feel sparks get pulled into me from somewhere. The others don't seem concerned, though, and everyone disperses after the ritual is done, the elves beginning to pack again to return to their home and bring news of the alliance(sans Sticks, who is staying as representative, from what I can gather) and Vodthag and his shaman to whatever duties they have in the morning.

... I'd like to ask, now that I've finally noticed, but what the hell are you people constantly referring to, when you say "mental haze"? And how the hell is that supposed to help me in any way? I mean, I can feel my mind is kinda fuzzy, but I don't see how that's supposed to be a good thing.

Oh, and any other plans for the day? Otherwise, I was thinking of going over to the new practice arena and watching a few people beat the hell out of each other.

huh, the fact that you don't know what we are talking about is kinda concerning. Basically when you ate the horse spirit and passed out there were to ways to incoprate it, the one we picked was called mental haze. basically if someone tries to mess with your soul or mind it sucks out there sparks.

Oh hell yes! We can attack the elves if we want and they can't do anything to us.

The Hazy Existence thing is what the previous voice described. Sorry about your fuzzy mind. We didn't know about that side affect.

There are a couple of things I'd like to discuss before you go. Do sparks radiate out energy that can be just passively read or does a person have to reach out and scan you to tell how many you have? If it's the latter then we should be covered by your new fuzzy mind. Other wise I'd really like to see you wearing an enchanted object that blocks your spark count from being read all the time. Am I just getting paranoid here or does anyone else agree?

What kind of defense does our camp have? If all these people converging on one spot attracts some unwanted attention are they set up to defend or will they suffer heavy losses? I was thinking a few seriously large and powerful stone golems would be good. This isn't a pressing matter until you need to leave the camp though.

Yeah definitely go get some entertainment after we're done here. All this diplomatic stuff is even grating on my nerves.

>Oh, and any other plans for the day?
Now that you've finished the book, you should pull some shamans together and start teaching them about the rituals inside it. You'll need at least a few shamans to learn each of the rites so that they can start demonstrating for and teaching the others, and better for that to happen sooner rather than later.

Other things... those new tribes that have been arriving- make sure that you learn the name of each, how many people were in them, anything they are particularly good at or known for, and the names and faces of their former chieftains. For all of them. It doesn't seem incredibly important, I know, but knowing the makeup of your barbarian horde and the prominent people within it is vital to effectively managing it. You should also personally meet with the chief and head shaman of each tribe that comes in to swear to you in order to accept their allegiance publicly. Say a few words about being glad of their coming and welcoming them to join in the glories ahead, mostly the same sort of thing that we've had you say before. This is both a morale thing for your new subjects- they'll get at least the nominal feeling that you know they exist and care about them somewhat- and so that they can be affected by the magics inside your helm which encourage them to serve more effectively.

>what the hell are you people constantly referring to, when you say "mental haze"? And how the hell is that supposed to help me in any way?
When you devoured the horse spirit, you somehow gained part of its strength. We were able to control how that manifested in you, a little, and we chose an ability that will block most mental attacks and absorb them as sparks. You were too weak against them before, but now your defenses should be excellent. The "mental haze" that we mentioned is a sign that it's working, and what just happened with the ritual is further proof.

>Oh hell yes! We can attack the elves if we want and they can't do anything to us.
This seems to be the case... but don't let on that it's so. As long as others think that such agreements can bind you, there's the possibility of suckering them into more such agreements in the future, which won't be binding on you but will be on them. Also, they'd probably take it as a betrayal that it didn't work on you and you didn't tell them right off.

>Am I just getting paranoid here or does anyone else agree?
I agree. Better to conceal your strength in this case than flaunt it- in a couple years you'll likely have upwards of a million sparks, and that's the sort of figure that people get really agitated and hostile about. Making it a bit harder for others to realize the scope of the threat that you pose to everyone is a good thing.

The reason you are caring for the wife and son of the dead chief is because you do not wish to appear harsh on your subjects.

If you are generous to your subjects, then being harsher on your enemies encourages loyalty in mortals (up to a point beyond which they start to view you as insane and dangerous), they fear betraying you and comfort themselves in the belief that as long as they remain loyal they are safe from your wrath and you are "good for them".

If you are cruel and merciless to your subjects, then being harsh on your enemies backfires, as your subjects view you as insane. They begin to feel that they are doomed no matter what and that its worth the risk to try to depose you.

You are taking care of her because it affirms that if they only bow down to you and obey they will be safe and treated well, it works excellently alongside the previous executions. You are also at least showing the minimal deference to their traditions, spit on their traditions too much and resentment will grow. You are not actually marrying her because you do not actually need to, considering how you conquered them by force and killed their god. With the followers of tirfuldin you didn't have the powerbase you had now, you benefit greatly from having loyal warriors, and it made great sense to engage in such a politically minded marriage. Speaking of, you might benefit from a few more such unions in the future.

Don't treat her and the son as servants, clarify to nina that they aren't a new family for you nor sevants. But that you accidentlly incurrent the obligation to see to their well-being. This means financial support, food, housing, reasonable property, at least until she remarries.

>What Ring of Regeneration? I left those back at the camp to help all those warriors who were training get over their injuries. That's why we made the damn things, wasn't it?
Yes, but it might be a good idea to also make enough that you could wear one at all time. Until you have that many such rings, make sure you take one with you to wear when going into combat and then return it to general use when you are done with it.

if we stick to the 3 times a day feeding how many sparks do we get with 110 shamans?

>if we stick to the 3 times a day feeding how many sparks do we get with 110 shamans?
3900 sparks a day, not counting Stick's contributions, which adds another 240 sparks.

>Yes, but it might be a good idea to also make enough that you could wear one at all time. Until you have that many such rings, make sure you take one with you to wear when going into combat and then return it to general use when you are done with it.
I get the idea behind keeping a ring of regeneration on me at all times, but they don't work fast enough to be of any use in actual combat. At the least it takes a few hours to regenerate significant damage, at least for the rings. If I just do it myself, with sparks on hand, it's a lot faster and more useful. I'll work on finding some way to get some regeneration on me though.

>Do sparks radiate out energy that can be just passively read or does a person have to reach out and scan you to tell how many you have?
I suppose they do radiate energy of some sort. Otherwise, how would I be able to smell them, no? But its not something most can read passively. In fact, scanning for sparks doesn't work out well either. Not reliable enough, since most such scanning will pick up on magic items and artifacts as well. I'm safe, I think, not to mention this mental haze thing you say I have in me. That should help a little bit.

>>322151
Right. Teach some shamans my newly acquired rituals, then start learning names and getting people's vows of loyalty. Let's get this over with. Then I'll spend some time memorizing people's names, and then get to the watching of the repeated beatings.

The teaching of the rituals goes fairly well, it only takes me all morning to finally drill the information into a few shamans. With that done, I finally get to see the magical catapult put into action, which results in the sudden explosion of a nearby hill side. I must say, it's rather spectacular. I can do better, but still, quite lovely to watch. The battering ram can't really be tested, as there really isn't any gates around to punch a hole through, nor is there any walls to blow up with the last ritual. Ah well, that can always be tested at some later date. In the meantime, I leave the shamans I've taught and go about securing the loyalty of all the tribes that have come in, each already integrating itself into the whole. Just after noon we receive word that the Wolffang are four days away, and the Horsehoof two days away. That's good I guess. The loyalty thing takes a good portion of the afternoon, mostly because every single chieftain found it necessary to offer me his daughters or his favorite horse or his prized weapon or other such nonsense, and it takes a little time to convince each that I really don't need what they are offering. I spend the rest of the day watching some of the training matche until nightfall, all of which are one on one, and a few even result in broken bones. Makes me a little proud, really, since it means the lot aren't afraid to get hurt in my name.

Anyway, once night hits, I return to my tent, Tongues already having located himself into a corner to continue with his levitating stone trick. What's surprises me is Sticks' presence within my tent, and she seems to be playing dress-up with Nina, who is currently in what appears to be a long, flowing dress. I cough to grab their attention, and Sticks immediately spins Nina around to face me as soon as she realizes I'm there.

"How's she look? Like an actual Queen? Probably not, I'm not done yet. We still need a few more adjustments here and there, change her hair style a little, maybe hunt down a necklace for her to wear. She's coming along nicely though. I'm gonna teach her how to act around noble types, since your probably going to have to deal with a lot of them by the time your done conquering Everfrost. Corrupts fuckers. Anyway, what do you think? Aren't my skills fucking awesome?"

Nina flinches visibly at Sticks' choice of profanity, and her cheeks are bright red as she stares at me, waiting my judgment on her appearance. If I compare her to some of the people I've met, she looks downright ugly. Then again, personally, I don't care, but your always telling me to treat her nicely and encourage and all that bullshit.

"You look nice." The girls blush deepens and she ducks her head to hide her face from my view. It's amazing how simple it is to make her happy. Anyway, after another few minutes Sticks leaves and Nina, after changing back to something she's more comfortable with, turns back to me.

"My king, I have a favor to ask of you."

"Let's here it then."

"I want to be in charge of something."

...This is a good thing, right? Or is it a bad thing. I don't know. Anyway, Nina seems pretty serious about this, got determination and everything. I suppose we might as well stick her in charge of something, since we want her to become useful, don't we? She's never going to get better if we don't give her chances to learn.

>"I want to be in charge of something."

Depends on what she wants.

Without knowing that, we can't really help you, so tell her to tell you what exactly she wants to be in charge of.

>3900 sparks a day, not counting Stick's contributions, which adds another 240 sparks.

Oh, that is pretty damn impressive. We now can start upgrading all the warriors without bothering to set up tournaments.

>Oh, that is pretty damn impressive. We now can start upgrading all the warriors without bothering to set up tournaments.

But we want to keep a good portion of the sparks for ourselves.

>>322426
It's a very good thing, she can manage and administer day to day stuff you can't be bothered with and need someone you can trust. It's just what we wanted... not we just need to think about what, specifically.

>Battering ram
Could you do it into a hillside? or just raise some earth/rock wall like section to test it on.

>You look nice
Good job

>ring of regen
Ah, if it takes that long its not as useful... we need to design something that covers ways of dying... something that makes it so you cannot drown or suffocate, immunity to poison, and most importantly ways to prevent loss of consciousness.
Maybe something that teleports you somewhere safe if you do lose consciousness.

this is a good thing. now we need something minor but important that she can be put in charge of. maybe we could put her in charge of putting together an overall policy on how to enhance our warriors? Bear claw has a working understanding of how to best use enchantments on themselves but the other tribes use different tactics so they might be better served by other enchantments. Put her in charge of talking the other tribes warriors and chiefs and coming up how to best spend the sparks enhancing them.

also i'm doing some work on logistics, how many days until we go to war? i'm trying to work out how many sparks we can spend on enhancing the men and still have some for you.

>>322414
You handled the bit with the dress quite well, I think.

Given that you're getting that many sparks per day, you might be able to magically create walls or gates for the shamans to practice blowing holes in.

>"I want to be in charge of something."
This is a good thing. It's a step on a path towards her becoming much more useful than she is now. Let's make this more interesting than just telling everyone else that we'll give her authority, though... and with any luck, it'll turn out better, too. Something given is rarely as good as something earned. This can be a real learning experience.

"Nina, a quick lesson in leadership. All you have to do to be in charge of something is convince enough other people that you're in charge of it that it becomes true, then defend your position from any who try to usurp it. That is the one and only qualification, and it is true from low levels to high.

"So if you want to be in charge of something, all you have to do is go out, pick something that you want to be in charge of, and start convincing people that you're in charge of it. Act like there's no question about the matter. If you're uncertain my advice would be to start small, either with people who know what you're doing or who you can easily convince of your authority, and then use their numbers and backing to get others to believe you the proper leader. Do nothing which would cause others to question your right to lead- like screwing up- and they generally won't. It's surprisingly easy, particularly if you choose something to be in charge of which no one powerful will immediately object to- and you can then use that power base to expand your authority later.

"If you really want me to simply declare you to be in charge of... something or other, I can. But I shouldn't need to. You can handle this on your own- you have intelligence, a useful mental enchantment, and at least a few friends to call upon for aid as long as you can keep control of them. And since you're my wife, you have my implied backing in whatever you're up to even if I don't actually have any idea what you're doing. It should be more than enough."

"I look forward to improvement in... whatever you take charge of. And in you."

>>322438
>Given that you're getting that many sparks per day, you might be able to magically create walls or gates for the shamans to practice blowing holes in.

It would be cheaper to give some craftsmen a short range but strong telekinesis enchantment and let them build stuff like that for you

>>322446
Perhaps we start giving out enchantments to the most talented tenth and not just warriors.

>>322428
I like this idea of a ring to teleport Hated away when he looses consciousness. In fact this could be good for a wide variety of situations. Hated, can you do long distance teleportation in any way? Even if it's necessary to cast some magic on the destination before hand or have shamans preforming a ritual it would still be incredibly useful.

>>322446
Does it take longer to enchant an item than a person? It would be even better to make some magic items that can be passed around from person to person if not.

Telling Nina to take the initiative sounds like the best idea to me. That should teach her to function in a more independent manner. Hopefully some day she will be capable of leading in your absence.

>how many days until we go to war?
If we stick to the plan as I remember it, to attack when spring comes around next year, then we have... 25 weeks, which translates into 175 days. Roughly. Why, what are you thinking about?

>Hated, can you do long distance teleportation in any way?
I know one spell for it. It eat up sparks insanely quickly though. I wouldn't suggest it. In case you still want to know about it, it basically bends reality to let me get where I want to go instantly. I'm not sure why I learned it, as I don't use it much.

>Does it take longer to enchant an item than a person?
Takes about the same amount of time, more or less, as long as you know what your doing.

"Nina, a quick lesson in leadership. All you have to do to be in charge of something is convince enough other people that you're in charge of it that it becomes true, then defend your position from any who try to usurp it. That is the one and only qualification, and it is true from low levels to high.

"So if you want to be in charge of something, all you have to do is go out, pick something that you want to be in charge of, and start convincing people that you're in charge of it. Act like there's no question about the matter. If you're uncertain my advice would be to start small, either with people who know what you're doing or who you can easily convince of your authority, and then use their numbers and backing to get others to believe you the proper leader. Do nothing which would cause others to question your right to lead- like screwing up- and they generally won't. It's surprisingly easy, particularly if you choose something to be in charge of which no one powerful will immediately object to- and you can then use that power base to expand your authority later.

"If you really want me to simply declare you to be in charge of... something or other, I can. But I shouldn't need to. You can handle this on your own- you have intelligence, a useful mental enchantment, and at least a few friends to call upon for aid as long as you can keep control of them. And since you're my wife, you have my implied backing in whatever you're up to even if I don't actually have any idea what you're doing. It should be more than enough."

"I look forward to improvement in... whatever you take charge of. And in you."

Nina considers this for a moment, then frowns. "You want me... to simply take charge of whatever I want?"

"That sums it up, yes. Just be aware, you want receive any direct help from me."

"To be a leader is to make others believe you are the leader..." Nina contemplates this for a moment, then goes to bed. Me, I stay up so I can keep talking to you lot. So, any other questions, comments or concerns I need to address.

I think we need more sparks. I did some math and even if you keep only one in four for yourself your only going to have enough sparks to give your current warriors about 80 sparks worth of enchantment. we are going to be out numbered by a more disciplined enemy who would be fighting on there home ground, that might not be enough. hmmm what if we talked to the elves? don't ask for them to send troops but even 30 or 50 "advisers" would give a massive boost in spark production assuming sticks is an average elf.

>Woman who become shamans aren't allowed to marry though. Something about being brides to Tirfuldin.
That... hrm. Is magical power at all carried through lineage? That is, are the children of a mage more likely to be mages in turn? Because if so, that kind of tradition could mean that the barbarians have literally been gradually breeding magic out of themselves for hundreds if not thousands of years. Unless the female shamans just have kids without marrying, which I doubt.

>>322574
Our number of shamans isn't static. As more tribes arrive, we'll have more people who can gain more sparks. Nor are their numbers of sparks necessarily static- if we teach them more magic that we know, they'll grow in power individually which means more sparks for us as well as better casters.

Anyway, the primary limiter on enchanting our warriors isn't sparks, it's time. Enchanting someone isn't an instantaneous process, and we're ending up with many thousands of warriors; spending the time required to enchant them all will be an overwhelmingly large task.

Our options are thus:
1. Delay an extra year, enchant everyone, spend some extra time working on industry and tactics, have ridiculously awesome army that can overrun all in its path when we actually attack.
2. Attack next year using smaller numbers of enchanted warriors, relying upon the enchantments of leaders, champions, and small elite units to give us enough strength that our army will still kick ass.
3. Do something I haven't thought of.

>So, any other questions, comments or concerns I need to address.
How well are the tribes integrating with one another? Any significant problems?

I have some concern that you're gathering everyone together here without really having them do anything. You have a huge amount of manpower here and time to educate the barbarians in whatever you feel they need to be educated in and subsequently put them to work.

Warriors can train in new tactics and to new levels of skill, shamans can learn new spells and battle tactics to support the warriors, anyone newly enchanted can learn to best exploit those enchantments, those you expect to be your primary subcommanders can learn about Everfrost's geography, economics, and military dispositions so that they'll be able to make better decisions, craftspeople can learn- or be enchanted to use- better methods and produce superior goods for your people to use.

Basically, we need to make sure that people aren't just sitting around being idle and marking time until next year. Everyone should be working for their own improvement and that of the clan somehow.

>>322545
>attack when spring comes around next year
I doubt this gives us enough time to forge weapons and armor for our troops. Perhaps we can steal some from the enemy when the war gets underway.

>>322574
>a more disciplined enemy
Don't forget about armor, good weapons and numbers. We need at least armored skin and strength on all our close combatants to be formidable.
>what if we talked to the elves
They might be hesitant to provide this but if we heavily enchanted some of our best warriors and sent then out to deal with the logging issue that might make them more agreeable. It would be good to make certain our enemies don't figure out who's kicking their asses just yet though.

>>322643
>As more tribes arrive, we'll have more people who can gain more sparks
>if we teach them more magic that we know, they'll grow in power
>the primary limiter on enchanting our warriors isn't sparks, it's time
Good points. We know that the shamans can do some impressive enchantments from the fight with Urthan. It would be good to put them to work enchanting for us. Considering that the elves view enchanting as intimate or something retarded like that I'd be surprised if they offered to do any.

Assuming the shamans are pouring all their sparks into enchanting and the elves refuse to donate a singe spark we can still probably talk Sticks into donating which will increase Hated's spark count nicely. There might be a more efficient usage for Hated's abilities and resources than enchanting people though. For example making some big monsters that can charge into crowds kicking both the enemies and the horses they're riding out of the way. Hated, what kind of time and spark drains are we looking at for such a creation? Also, how much time does it take to do an enchantment on a person to the full 100 spark limit?

>>322643
>make sure that people aren't just sitting around being idle and marking time until next year
We could use a fortified settlement to minimize the amount of forces that need to be left behind to guard noncombatants and a supply of durable foods would ensure our people don't starve at war time.

>Is magical power at all carried through lineage? That is, are the children of a mage more likely to be mages in turn?
No one is really sure. Magical ability seems to be somewhat erratic in where it shows up. Some farming family out in the middle of nowhere could suddenly have a child who's destined to be massively powerful. Magical families do tend to have children capable of magic. Hope that covers whatever you wanted to know.

>Hated, what kind of time and spark drains are we looking at for such a creation? Also, how much time does it take to do an enchantment on a person to the full 100 spark limit?
For the giant golem, with the proper materials and know how, maybe a week to construct the body, then a few minutes to infuse it with sparks. Everything also depends on the exact size and look of whatever you build to, as well as how "intelligent" you want the thing to be. Sparks are similarly affected. For a golem of very limited intelligence, maybe 10-20 sparks. As for the second question, same amount of time it takes any other enchantment. A few minutes at most. Maybe shorter, if the person involved is particularly easy to enchant for some reason.

>Our number of shamans isn't static. As more tribes arrive, we'll have more people who can gain more sparks.
I'd like to note that tribes will also be leaving to go do other things, things needed for survival. The barbarian society isn't built to stay in on place for long. I'm amazed the Bearclaw and Hawkeye have managed it. The elves have helped somewhat, having brought seeds for trees that bear fruit all year around, which should help with that, and we still have a good amount in our meat stores, but having everyone here is going to eat up avaliable food fast. And I'm fairly certain we want live warriors instead of dead ones. Although I could use dead warriors to. Make some flesh golems. Anyway, my point is that the shamans and such will be going down as well as up. More like a fluctuating thing than a steadily increasing thing.

>How well are the tribes integrating with one another? Any significant problems?
The lesser tribes aren't a problem at all. The Bearclaw and Hawkeye still have their rivalry thing going, but it isn't a "let's kill eachother" thing, more just extremely competitive when placed against each other in competitions and tournaments. Really entertaining to watch, really. Anyway, more problems are likely to occur when the Wolffang and Horsehoof get here. Then old rivalries between tribes will probably start popping up. Anything else... nope, got nothing. Everything running pretty smoothly for now, I suppose.

>>322545
Wow. Really?

Hathed, a word of advise, you might want to give less importance to the people who ask you to be overly nice and submissive to your wife(s) [or how we would call them waifus.]
I guess most of them have never seen a real woman before.

YOU DO NOT TELL YOUR WIFE/GIRLFRIEND TO DO WHATEVER THE FUCK SHE PLEASES. EVER.
As a man, that is the dumbest thing one can do in a relationship.
To put it into perspective: if your wife/girlfriend comes with a permission to buy something, you do not go into nice, long monologue then give her your credit card, bank information and access to all your money.
When in short time you find that every bit of your money has been spent, you have no one to blame but yourself.


So it was pretty retarded to let her off without finding out what she wanted to do. (I am not against letting her do things.)
I am almost certain that this will not backfire.... For now.
But you really should stop giving carte blanches like these. Otherwise people will get some ridiculous ideas that they can do your job better than you and that is when heads will start to roll. And no one likes that ... well, perhaps no one except Hated.

Anyway, being nice =/= stupid. There should be limits.
Nina is a nice, shy girl and all, probably wont do any harm but with this kind of attitude, you might shift her personality into something bad.

>>322981
Since we are getting tons of sparks, we will have no problem upgrading all of our warriors.

I suppose we should call the representatives of all the groups and have them devise which enchantments will be the best for them (archers, cavalry, warriors, etc.).
But everyone should get Shadow-step and somekind of nightvison as default. I think we will become a night-ops army that devastates enemies when they cannot see shit. It will he helluva demoralizing.

About the shamans.
You should at least have half of the shamans from each tribe to stay with you, to feed you sparks. After all, this was one of the main goals to get a tribe.

Do you know spells to make golems? You should try a pet-project: make a golem as high quality as possible for you. I mean there is still a lot of time till we start the war, you might as well get yourself busy with something.

I think we should eventually work out some plan on how we are going to upgrade our warriors. We should also ask the elves if they can spare a few dozen troops(or anyone else with a good number of sparks) to act as spark generators.

>>323011
I think you may have misinterpreted the point behind telling Nina what we did. It wasn't to be nice, and it certainly wasn't to be submissive. Nice was telling her she looked good in a dress. When she asked to be in charge of something, the nice thing to do would have been to assign her an easy task well within her capabilities that needed management to make her feel useful.

We told her to start managing things on her own not to be nice, but because we need her to grow into someone who aggressively takes the initiative to identify and solve problems. There are solid reasons for this, as follows.

Hated is basically sociopathic, personally powerful enough to smash his way through annoyances, and very independently minded. He is never going to be an insightful and meticulous administrator. Most of the necessary tasks bore the hell out of him and in all likelihood will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. He needs someone who can do that kind of job better than he can, and he needs them flawlessly loyal and working for him as of yesterday.

Enter Nina. She is being constantly pushed by social, personal, and magical pressures to be both exceedingly loyal to Hated and to competently serve him in ever better ways; the enchantment on his helm alone- which she is exposed to more than any other person in camp- should be able to drive her to success. Even better, I have trouble thinking of a scenario in which Hated would need to worry about her being overly ambitious and seizing power, because her status and power are inextricably tied to his own. She's got the intelligence, enchantment, and connections to start out strong and hit the ground running as long as she doesn't fuck up- and her mental enchantment and driving need to not fail us should ensure that she does not.

We are explicitly attempting to sculpt Nina's personality into someone who will handle huge amounts of stuff without ever giving Hated more than brief reports about it, because Hated genuinely doesn't give a shit about most of it. We are, as you say, on the path towards handing her the credit cards- because Hated has no head for money. If this works, Nina will be the queen who handles most of the running of the kingdom, freeing up Hated to focus on the stuff that interests him, like magical research and killing people.

Don't think of it as Nina being his wife/girlfriend, think of her as a minion. We are attempting to train our highest-loyalty minion in administration and leadership so that she can function as a steward for our realm while we're busy not caring.

I agree that we should not give others carte blanche to do whatever they want. However, Nina is about as low-risk as anyone could be in this scenario, and while I admit that we could have used slightly more finesse in handling things (as you say, asking her where she'd plan to start would have been prudent) I think this will turn out well.

Letting the woman take control of whatever she pleases isn't gonna be a fiasco. Get inside her head and think about HER, past the thoughts of "all women want to spend all the money they possibly can on purses and clothes". What Nina wants, what she strives for, is to be worthy of Hated and impress him. If he gives her authority to do what she wants, that's what she'll try to do!
And if she DOES fuck up, it'll probably be a small one. Any mistakes can be chastised, so she doesn't think she's infallible or beyond authority.

>Do you know spells to make golems? You should try a pet-project: make a golem as high quality as possible for you. I mean there is still a lot of time till we start the war, you might as well get yourself busy with something.
Sure, whatever you say. Can get started now I suppose, not really all that tired. Probably make it out of iron, gods know we have a bunch of the stuff underground. Mold it a little, maybe carve some things into, enchant it up some and then infuse it and viola, we have ourselves a golem. Shouldn't take me more than a few weeks to get a really crappy jury-rigged one up and running. Maybe I'll make a few. Seems a good way to stave off boredom... think I'll give one blades for arms... wonder if I can get those to turn in circles. Eh, something to play around with.

>>323108
I resent being called sociopathic. I prefer psychopath. Mostly because I can at least fake being nice to people. And my violence didn't result from how I grew up. Ha! Didn't think I knew psychology, did you voices! Hell, I surprised myself with that one!

Anyway, you lot got any other questions you want to ask, or shall I get on to other, more interesting things?

((If not, define how long or until what event you would like to time skip to.))

>>323323
Could you instruct others on how to build these things so we can get more of them made? What about simply enchanting something big that already exist to get up and follow orders? A tree for example.

Also what would you suggest as the best method of transporting our troops and supplys over large distances quickly? I'm hoping you know of a method that takes less enchantments and sparks than everyone having their own enchantment.

>>323011
Despite the official title of married Nina is closer to being our servant. >>323108 summarized it quite well.

>everyone should get Shadow-step and somekind of nightvison as default
For the time being I disagree with this approach as I can't see any way to take Everfrost without facing a lot of heavy resistance. However the shadow step might not be necessary even if we go this route. If we could find a more cost effective way to travel with great speed would this eliminate the need for the shadow step in your plan?

>>323021
>I think we should eventually work out some plan on how we are going to upgrade our warriors
I agree. As soon as these last questions are answered I plan to put a strategy out for discussion. Hopefully everyone else will do the same so we can decide what direction to go in.

we should see if the elves are willing to send a few of there own to act as spark generators. they might be leery of sending solders, but asking for doctors or other people they could pass off as being there on a mission of mercy they might be willing to send some peopel in. assuming sticks is average each elf would produce six times the sparks of one of your shamans.

>Could you instruct others on how to build these things so we can get more of them made?
Yes and no. Yes in that I could tell them how to do it, and even show them the methods. No, because it requires a fundamental knowledge of certain theories and methods that I can't teach, because that would require knowledge in certain languages that aren't used by most people. Furthermore, the runes inscribed on a golem can't be practiced, because if done wrong they could cause any number of magical problems. So I guess that's a no, actually.

>What about simply enchanting something big that already exist to get up and follow orders?
Technically possible, but not actually golem crafting. This is more along the lines of manifestation of a ghost or spirit using a tree or some such as a medium. I can't do that. I could also summon elementals, like treants or dryads, but they're useless a lot of the time unless you bind them to your will. Otherwise it's pointless.

>Also what would you suggest as the best method of transporting our troops and supplys over large distances quickly?
I could set up a gateway if you wanted. It's like a teleport, only I only have to do it once. Takes a massive amount of sparks, but it sticks around till I tell it to stop. Great for traveling between two places over and over again. Or getting a lot of people really far. Gate's are volatile though. If someone messes with it...

>I resent being called sociopathic. I prefer psychopath. Mostly because I can at least fake being nice to people.
Let's not quibble. Psychologists can argue over the exact definitions of this term and that term (in fact, I believe neither "sociopath" nor "psychopath" is a technically valid diagnosis these days), but for our purposes here they mean largely the same thing. You don't give a crap about others, all your empathy is faked, you feel neither remorse nor shame about your actions, you're aggressive and often irritable. Point is, you need quality minions to run things for you because you're ill suited to running them personally.

>golems
How easy would such things be for enemies to destroy or disrupt? It seems like you can take out golems laughably easily, but then you've got capabilities others do not. What are the ways that most warriors or mages use to take out combat golems? I'm thinking that the several weeks it would take to build a golem could probably let you enchant fifty or sixty warriors with twoish enchantments each, and thinking that may be a wiser investment of your time if golems aren't extremely formidable.

>gateway
This seems like an excellent trick, particularly with the spark boosting abilities of your helm. We'll keep it in mind for strategic use once the invasion starts.

>>323360
I don't see the elves going for this. They already seem pretty wary of our power level. Also they seem to have all kinds of magically based cultural hang-ups, so who knows what they'd think about feeding us sparks.

Still, I suppose we can ask. Might ask Sticks what their likely reaction would be, and avoid asking if she thinks there's no way in hell they would say yes.

>>323330
>strategy discussion
Right. I think we need to tackle this as one big plan with many aspects, rather than treating it as one bit of minutia at a time. Key questions here:

-Once the invasion begins, what are the key elements of our assault forces?
--How will we deploy our warriors?
--How will we deploy our shamans?
--How will we deploy any intelligence assets (elven spies/assassins, our own spies/assassins, etc.)?
--What magical assets (items, enchantments, golems, etc.) are most essential to our success?
--What other improvements (equipment, tactics, intelligence, etc.) do we require to ensure victory?

-To achieve that, how are we going to invest our available resources until the invasion?
--Hated's personal time and ridiculous numbers of sparks
--Shamans' time and modest numbers of sparks
--Warriors' time and effort
--Crafters' time and effort
--Elven assistance with whatever we can get

-How will our force makeup above allow us to handle the various major obstacles to our conquest? (>>304320 for reference on these)
--The elite army under Marcus Ristock?
--The second army under Mathew Kovak?
--The extremely powerful mage-guards running each major city?
--The large numbers of militia who can be called up quickly?
--The extremely well-defended capital?

-Will we attempt to take advantage of Everfrost's acknowledged problems in any fashion?
--The hatred of people outside the major cities for their current rulers?
--The ongoing conflict with the Islands of Seven Shadows?
--The apparent scarcity of reliable and competent military leadership?


I will attempt to figure something out for addressing most of this... later. It will take a while.

It is good that you will make a golem, but don not rush it and juryrig it. It is better that you take your time and try to make it as best as possible. I will leave the details to you.

About the teleport gates. How many sparks you need to make a waypoint?
We really should set up a network of teleports to permanent tribe settlements with the capital as a hub.
Also, maybe you could devise a ritual spell to make teleport gates which costs less sparks? I am sure you will have time to make one.

>How easy would such things be for enemies to destroy or disrupt?
The human hero was a master golem-crafter. To put that level of skill into perspective, I've seen one of his creation pluck a dragon out of the air and rip it in half. I've seen another of his decimate an army of 10,000 men on it's own. I am not a master golem-crafter. I'm mediocre at best. But even mediocre golems can deal lots of damage made right. At the very least, an iron golem will decimate normal armies. Mages could probably rip it to shreds fairly quickly, so we'll have to occupy them some other way, like having them focus on the sudden lack of a head.

>How many sparks you need to make a waypoint?
What's a waypoint? Gates only go between two places. I mean, I could probably mess with it a little if you wanted some other form of gateway transportation thing, but for the moment, the spell only opens a gate between two locations. As for the cost of opening the gateway, base cost for the gate itself is 1000 sparks. Then you add shit like making the gate wider so more people can go through at once, which increases it by increments for those additions. Basically, base cost 1000+ whatever spark costs there are from increasing size or whatever else you add on.

>Also, maybe you could devise a ritual spell to make teleport gates which costs less sparks?
I would, if I knew how to construct rituals. I do not. I can't even modify the rituals we do have. I'd need time, materials and books to figure out how to do it, all of which are conveniently in Everfrost, which we are going to conquer. I'll have to start such research, along with all the other things I need to research, once I own the nation.

So it looks like gollems would be very effective against the militia.

-Once the invasion begins, what are the key elements of our assault forces?
--How will we deploy our warriors?
--How will we deploy our shamans?
--How will we deploy any intelligence assets (elven spies/assassins, our own spies/assassins, etc.)?
--What magical assets (items, enchantments, golems, etc.) are most essential to our success?
--What other improvements (equipment, tactics, intelligence, etc.) do we require to ensure victory?

-To achieve that, how are we going to invest our available resources until the invasion?
--Hated's personal time and ridiculous numbers of sparks
--Shamans' time and modest numbers of sparks
--Warriors' time and effort
--Crafters' time and effort
--Elven assistance with whatever we can get

-How will our force makeup above allow us to handle the various major obstacles to our conquest? (>>304320 for reference on these)
--The elite army under Marcus Ristock?
--The second army under Mathew Kovak?
--The extremely powerful mage-guards running each major city?
--The large numbers of militia who can be called up quickly? >Gollems
--The extremely well-defended capital?

-Will we attempt to take advantage of Everfrost's acknowledged problems in any fashion?
--The hatred of people outside the major cities for their current rulers?
--The ongoing conflict with the Islands of Seven Shadows?
--The apparent scarcity of reliable and competent military leadership?

The next question would be how to kill mages. Experience suggests a heavily enchanted kill team (or you) shadow step and kill them all.

We need to set up a chain of command. I think the rule of ten would work (it was good enough for genghis khan). The rule of ten is: a sergeant is responsible for (about) ten grunts and follows his lieutenant, a lieutenant is responsible for (about) ten sergeants and follows his commander, extra... it should be simple enough for the barbarians but complex enough for you (or what ever generals you hire) to do some fancy tactics.

Also we should figure out a plan to rule once we have conquered. I sugest we do something like the Romea did. In lieu of roads we can set up those gate ways mentioned earlier and we can probably give you a cheat sheet for the more tech oriented stuff (E.G. hygiene, crop rotation, and the scientific method)

Hmm...
How many casters does that catapult ritual take, and how long does it take to launch?

About how many sparks would it take to make a flying platform that can hold several people?

Is there any chance we could replicate that stealth ability the horses had? (The one that hides your magic from magical detection)

With Gateways, can you deactivate them without destroying them?

If we can't do the horse's stealth, it is feasible do following:
Use an invisibility spell
Use a magic concealing spell (which gives off its own spell signature but hides all other spells/sparks)
Create a cloud of interference that gives off an identical signature as the spark hiding spell, and importantly is not centered around the user (otherwise enemies could just aim at the center of the cloud.)

>At the very least, an iron golem will decimate normal armies. Mages could probably rip it to shreds fairly quickly, so we'll have to occupy them some other way, like having them focus on the sudden lack of a head.
It sounds to me like we'll want to have dedicated units of enchanted warriors accompanying any golems that we make, given mobility boosts and possibly stealth and defensive ones as well. Have them headhunt any mages who might be in position to threaten the golem, while the golem itself takes care of most other threats. A full squad per golem probably would be best; considering the amount of effort that crafting these things will take it would be foolish to leave them poorly supported. If there are any specific spells that might be useful for mage-hunting, we should look into them. I'd give at least a couple of the squad members the ability to see or sense sparks (for mage identification), and if there are any kind of counterspell magics that you know some of them could use those, too.

Really, there are a myriad of uses for dedicated mage-hunter squads. Going over potentially useful spells you know for them would be good.

>So it looks like gollems would be very effective against the militia.
I don't think so. Golems are single points of concentrated force which are sharply limited in the number that we can construct; the threat the the militia is in their vast numbers and the fact that they can be called up all over the place. Golems' position in our invasion will have to be in support of our more conventional army, helping to make up for our disadvantage in equipment by pounding apart the stronger enemy units.

If you can think of a reason that they'd be an adequate counter for the militia feel free to argue it, but I don't see it. The appropriate counter for the militia is demoralization which makes them unwilling to mobilize, some kind of supply disruption which makes it impossible to mobilize, or communications disruption which prevents them from realizing that they need to mobilize and doing so in a coordinated fashion. That would likely need to be carried out by a careful PR coup probably supported by elvish infiltrators and rumormongers, extensively enchanted raiders, or crazy magic implemented after we capture and interrogate someone who knows how their communication system works, respectively.

>Gateways
>Basically, base cost 1000+ whatever spark costs there are from increasing size or whatever else you add on.
That is low enough to be practical for relatively common use on your part during the invasion, I think. No one else could pull it off, but you certainly can. Moving large segments of our army hundreds of miles at a stroke could be a priceless advantage in strategic mobility. It could also, potentially, allow us to strike at the enemy's strong points and bastions of support- their major cities- without spending much time raiding through the lesser villages that hate their current rulers anyway, which could grant us a PR victory which could potentially, if we manage to somehow spin things correctly, even convince the people in the farming villages to defect to our side. As long as we look successful and don't get a rep for slaughtering them, it could work.

That could be supported by adopting the classic Mongol policy towards assault- before attacking, make sure the enemy knows you're there and you intend to win regardless, and offer them one chance to surrender. If they do, be a gracious victor; if they don't, brutally sack the town badly enough that the next place will think of surrender as a better option. But that working is dependent upon the rulers of the individual towns not being magically bound to the king even if that means getting all their people slaughtered; if they literally cannot surrender there's not a lot of point in the policy.

Anyway, the big concern with the gateways is that they're easy to disrupt as you said- how easy are we talking, can you harden them against that kind of thing with additional sparks, and what would be the negative effects of disruption? Just destroying the gateway, or is there a risk of, say, a giant explosion if the gate is poked in just the wrong way?

>We need to set up a chain of command. I think the rule of ten would work
That seems reasonable as a basic rule, although it doesn't really handle the more complex matters of force organization. Are enchanted types set as leaders, or in squads of their own? Shamans are presumably in squads of their own for ritual magic; are they kept back or deployed directly alongside warriors?

>Also we should figure out a plan to rule once we have conquered.
Honestly, I think this is getting ahead of ourselves. Planning the hows of our conquest and trying to make that as complete as possible is already a huge task that we've hardly started on.

>How many casters does that catapult ritual take, and how long does it take to launch?
Five casters, and 5-10 minutes to fire off a shot, depending on the relative skill of all the mages within the ritual and the complexity of whatever it is your launching.

>About how many sparks would it take to make a flying platform that can hold several people?
...You want a flying boat? Alright, first off, flight is very difficult in the best of cases, and is annoyingly difficult to use as an enchantment. Not saying it can't be done, just really hard. Next, where the hell am I supposed to get a boat? Third, what makes you think a flying boat is at all useful? It's a giant flying target for anyone with a ballista and half a brain.

>Is there any chance we could replicate that stealth ability the horses had?
I have no idea how they did that, and have no ways to do it myself. Your second idea, with the smoke and fog and stuff, that I can do. Simple fog spell, add some raw sparks to it to make it smell magical, and you have yourself magic disguise fog... I think. I'd have to test it first.

>With Gateways, can you deactivate them without destroying them?
Hypothetically, I think. I mean, you can shut it down completely without causing it to get destroyed, but you could certainly block it off from it's other side. Course, if you wanted to do that, you could just place a big rock in front of the entrance. No magic needed for that.

>hygiene, crop rotation, and the scientific method
Have the first, baths are created through the use of binding water spirits to bathing areas, then heating them using a bound fire spirit. Crop rotation... why the hell would you need to rotate crops? What possible good could that do? As for the last, what the hell is that and why should I care?

>Going over potentially useful spells you know for them would be good.
Um... there really isn't much that's good against human mages. They are the ones that have the most proficiency with warping reality as they see fit. Most things can be countered pretty easily. The best thing to do fighting them is catch them by surprise. So... invisibility, shadow-stepping, ethereal might be good, and illusion magic I can learn from Sticks I suppose, although we could just use her to hunt mages now that I think about it. Basically anything that will allow you to hit them without warning is best. That goes for most mages, now that I think about it.

>Anyway, the big concern with the gateways is that they're easy to disrupt as you said- how easy are we talking, can you harden them against that kind of thing with additional sparks, and what would be the negative effects of disruption? Just destroying the gateway, or is there a risk of, say, a giant explosion if the gate is poked in just the wrong way?
Eh, no real way to harden a gateway against getting disrupted. But if it's any consolation, you have to be at the spell focal point to do anything major. If all you do is hurl some disrupting spells at it the gates just deactivate and get destroyed. If you actually want a big flashy explosion, or worse, cause the gate to start pumping out ghosts, and demons and whatever else you happen to come across in the various dimensions, you actually need to mess with the spell holding the thing together, which is in a spell figure found in front of the gate. So, I guess I could safeguard that in some ways, stick magical traps on it and the like.

>>325343
Do ghosts and demons have any sparks inside. In which case, could you profit by deliberately destabilising a Gateway when you've finished using it and mopping up the creatures that come out?

>>325422
That would be plain stupid. Fighting demons isn't exactly a walk through town. First off, they don't have a body I can punch. Second, they have mastery over all three types of magic, or are at least good enough in all three to directly defeat well trained mages in combat. Third, I doubt that my own minions would be happy with me if I started setting demons on them. That hardly seems the kind of act that gets me liked by my underlings, and we are aiming for them to like me, right?

> what makes you think a flying boat is at all useful? It's a giant flying target for anyone with a ballista and half a brain.
That is what the cloud cloaking scheme is for. (Also, it would help to have a caster on the platform to deflect ballista bolts.)

(With the cloud cloaking scheme, can you see out of a cloud like that? If not, we will have to instead turn invisible than mask our presence with a cloud of transparent gas.)

Anyway, we don't need something the size of a ship. We would just need a platform large enough to hold seven people. (A pilot, 5 ritual mages, and a point defense mage) You could probably have it made out of iron plating.
How many sparks would that take?
(And how easy would it be for a mage to swat it down at catapult range if they do detect it?)

>>325722
hmmm, not a bad idea in essence, but making it flying means anything can shoot it. However a ground based platform with some sort of protective iron cage around the mages might be of use. if we could make it fast enough to keep them out of danger or give it some means of defending them. making our mages less squishy is always a good idea.

>How many sparks would that take?
Having a flying platform? Assuming you want that as an enchantment, and you want it to be controllable as to how high it goes, and you want to make it actually move in more directions than simply up and down, and you want it to be safe for human usage, and you want it to be usable on a battlefield, so it has to be protected against magical attack and death by well aimed ballista... a few thousand spark per. 1-2 thousand depending on how much protection you want. If you want simply flight, and damn whether it's safe to use, 3-4 hundred sparks.

>>325806
This is the cheaper idea. Simply having it hover above the ground is much easier, and you wouldn't have to make it go up and down. You'd still need to make something for propulsion, maybe strap a sail to it and have a mage blow wind into it... but anyway, it would cost less than an actual flying platform.

Even more questions:
To move a hovering platform, couldn't you make the force keeping the platform up be able to tilt so that it pushes the platform diagonally up and sideways? (Or have a second enchantment of the same type rotated sideways)

With rituals that charge up (like the catapult ritual), can you keep them charged before battle? (Ex, have your ritualists start charging 20 minutes before battle and hold the charge until enemies appear.)

What kind of things is a normal mage capable from at the range of the catapult-ritual? (Specifically, what could they do to smash one of the proposed ritual platforms?)

For comparison, approximately how many sparks would it take to make an explosion the size of the catapult ritual's from a single spell (and about how large of a radius is that anyway?)

Can you replicate the spell-amplifying enchantment on your helm (on a smaller scale, or course)? If not, is it because you do not know the enchantment, or because the effect is only possible in special cases like that artifact?

I wish we would stop with the damn questions already and just move on. There is a discussion thread for a reason.

This really hampers the flow of the quest I'll tell you.

>To move a hovering platform, couldn't you make the force keeping the platform up be able to tilt so that it pushes the platform diagonally up and sideways?
Why would you tilt the platform? People would fall off of it, wouldn't they? Well, whatever, I suppose you could try it. As for the second idea, I suppose that might work, if said spell to do it wouldn't make it keep moving in a direction. I've never tried making a toggle for this particular spell, so... although I suppose I could try.

>With rituals that charge up (like the catapult ritual), can you keep them charged before battle?
I believe so. I'll have the shamans try it out tomorrow. The book didn't talk about delaying it or anything. We'll figure something out.

>What kind of things is a normal mage capable from at the range of the catapult-ritual?
Um, kill one of the mages in the ritual? I can't really tell you what mages could possibly do, because they use soul magic. If you recall, a good mage using soul generally tells the rules imposed by reality to go fuck themselves. It's a little annoying, fighting human mages for that specific reason. So, instead of listing stuff out, it's easier just to expect them to pull random crap out of a hat and be surprised when they don't.

>For comparison, approximately how many sparks would it take to make an explosion the size of the catapult ritual's from a single spell (and about how large of a radius is that anyway?)
As always, everything depends on what things are put into the spell and how many sparks are contributed. Max, I think, would be about 150 foot radius. I can match that with about 750 sparks. Make it twice that for 1500 sparks. Hah! I still win. Childish of me, I know, but I don't give a damn.

>Can you replicate the spell-amplifying enchantment on your helm (on a smaller scale, or course)? If not, is it because you do not know the enchantment, or because the effect is only possible in special cases like that artifact?
You want me to replicate an artifact, which I might mention was made by a god, and which uses a bunch of runes on it I've never even seen before. Yeah, I'll replicate that, within the next four to five thousand years it takes me to learn how to speak the language of the gods.

>>326344
This one makes a good point, your questions now are getting tiresome. I'm going to start working on that golem now. You people do whatever it is you do whenever your not watching me constantly or something.

-------------------------

Hum dee dum. Let's see, this bit attaches to this bit... this bit attaches to this bit... no, wait, that one goes there, maybe? Gah, you'd think this would be easier if all you had to do was put the damn pieces together and fuse them in place. Let's try this again. This piece goes here, this piece goes here, this piece goes... what the hell is this thing?

"Chieftain... we have acquired what you asked for..."

"Hm? Oh, hello Falshis. How's the weather outside?"

"Cold, chieftain, as it always is this time of year. Now, the information you requested. Nina has been doing well, it seems, in managing your new encampment. Almost better than you would yourself, chieftain."

"Hm. That's good. Voices will be happy, I'm sure. You still keeping your clan separate, as instructed?"

"The Snaketongue are still camped a good five miles away from the city, and have made no attempts at making contact, as you have said."

"Good. You may go Falshis."

"As it pleases you, Chieftain."

really got to stop mentioning the voices, it makes you sound crazy. but if someone asks you about it, tell them its a spell that puts you in touch with spirit advisers or something.

>>326490
Agreed. It may also bring up some weakness Hated has in the future. Maybe we are a curse. Either way, no good reason to mention us at any time.

I'm supposed to care if they think I'm crazy? Screw their opinions, they don't matter. Besides, I don't think these barbarians care whether I'm nuts or not, as long as I bring them glory or whatever it is they crave most. Oh, welcome back, by the way. It's been about a month since you've disappeared, we're halfway through the raiding season, from what I can understand. I figured I'd let the barbarians do as they please, get their raiding done and all that. It's part of how they survive the winter, take a bunch of food from Everfrost.

Moving on, time to report the latest news. I've gathered a bunch more of the tribes. The Horsehoof came along a few days after you guys went silent, and the Wolffang came along as well. Over the next few weeks dozens of more tribes have come in, including the two big ones still left over. Bisonhorn arrived a week after you guys left, and they've used some of the iron we managed to dig up using that stone-molding staff technique someone mentioned way back when, and they've been working on constructing weapons. Thanks to them we've also gotten some contact with the dwarves. Bloody bastards are arguing with us constantly about payment for more metal and works, want lots of gold. Figured we knew about that gold deposit, so I sent some people over. Nina went along, I haven't heard much back from them other than the fact that they arrived and are starting to dig up some gold, oh, and that Nina some how managed to become the unofficial leader of said encampment. Snaketongue showed up about a few days ago, woke me up when I was asleep. Seems they don't like interacting with others much. Suits them fine, but it's really annoying for me, getting woke up at random times every night. Sucks like hell. Haven't done much more than send them running here and there, but hey, whatever works. What else...

Ah, we have huge amounts of growth in the number of people around here. I don't think we've finished tallying everyone yet. Not like many in the barbarians can count, you know. We're at least 3 times in size, maybe 4. Sure that'll make you happy. But from what I understand, this is pretty much it. We don't have many more tribes that haven't joined already.

Golem is... sorta coming along. It's been giving me some trouble, but whatever. I'll have it ready by the time we start our invasion. Anyway, I'm ready to take your advice now, whatever it may happen to be.

super. hmmm we have more guys than I thought. we might not be able to enchant the bulk of our forces even if we had the sparks. by the way how many shamans? oh and appearing crazy is bad idea, it creates an opening that an enemy could use to weaken the loyalty of your forces. granted you could quite easily explode anyone who tried this but if they are sneaky about it they could cause some major headaches before you tracked them down and made them go boom.

How many sparks do you have now?

[Also, you need to learn better to summarize and report. Also, make sure you incorporate the suggestions in the update, saying "I did what you asked me to do" without actually saying what was done us confuzing as hell. You must always take into consideration that sometimes one cant read all sugvestions (doesnt have time or just doesnt want to).
I am saying this because I am pretty lost on what to suggest now]

Spark Count: 24400

We have 350 shamans total, although that isn't the amount that currently here. Like I said, a bunch of the tribes are off raiding and such. Oh, yeah, and I get the crazy thing, no more mentioning voices, on and on. You guys love to lecture. Ah well, moving on. Since you guys are back, which is a good thing I assure you, I'm there's a few outstanding issues. Biggest one in my opinion is what we want to do with the Snaketongue. At the moment, they're just sitting out there. Now that I think about it, every tribe that's with me is just sitting around, training and not much else. A lot of you were talking about organizing them into giant clans or houses or something awhile back based on their outstanding skills within each tribe. There's also the matter of how much time I should spend on enchanting warriors, making golems(or golem) or whatever other activities you think needs doing.


((I apologize for not making clear which idea was used. I'll try to remember to do that for the next time. I do not apologize for the lack of a better summary/report. That is simply how Hated works. If he isn't interested in it, he isn't going to pay much attention to it, thus you lot are going to lack the information he would otherwise have. You want details, ask him about it and get him to go find out more.))

Well
there is not much known about Snaketongue, so we need to meet with their leader and talk to them. See what they can do.

About the Great Houses/Guilds: you need to call a meeting with the leaders of the tribes and organize it.
Nina seems to be doing pretty well with organizing and general peacetime duties. Which is good, since you suck at that. Perhaps she could help when establiahing the Houses.

Also, we need to plan the construction of the capital. I know that you are not a builder or an architect, but you need to make a team of the brightest minds and best builders, so that they can at least have some guidelines how and where to build. This will be just the first step, after we cinquer Everfrost and steal their tech/knowledge and specialists we can start making a truly magnificent city.

Have you enchanted more warriors?
This should also be touched in the meeting. Let the leaders decide what the best enchantments for their warriors will be but the shadowstep and nightvision should be standard for everybody since we are planning to make attack at darkest night.

Visit Snaketongue, call meeting, get Nina to help set up houses instead of tribes, start construction on a real city, get opinions on enchantments. All right, that's a good list for the day. First on said list is the Snaketongue. Falshis is the leader of that particular tribe, and he visits every single night. Bastard scared the hell out of me first time he did it. Now it's simply routine. Anyway, we'll pop over and visit him as soon as I get this piece in its place... right... there! All right, off we go.

A quick shadow jump or two and we find ourselves in the middle of a camp that smells very strongly of poisons. These guys shamans are pretty interesting, always trying to come up with new poisons to use and how much does what and on and on. They get just as old just as quickly as the normal shamans. Anyway, within minutes of my arrival Falshis is before me, dropping to one knee and bowing his head. "How might we serve you, my King?"

"Yeah. Tell me everything about your methods of fighting. As much as you can."

"As it pleases you. We prefer to... not be caught, as it were. I have heard of men among the city-dwellers, called assassins, who sneak through the night and kill their prey without being seen doing it. I suppose we resemble them, although our tactics are of more use in hunting entire tribes than a single man. But we can adapt, if that is your desire. Poisons, traps and ambushes are our tribes preferred methods, and even more so if those poisons and traps don't kill you right away. Why would we desire your instant death when you could lead us to greater prizes. I believe that is a brief summary of our strengths. Our weaknesses, of course, lie in more... direct... confrontation. Do you require anything else?"

Well, they'll be fun to use, now won't they. Poisons were never my thing though. Knew an immortal who loved them some millennium past. Killed himself by drinking one of the more deadly varieties by mistake. Anyway, got any specific questions or tasks you want me to relay to these ones? Besides that big meeting thing, since obviously Falshis will have to attend that.

I think we have our scouts. they also might be useful in raiding enemy supply lines as well as assassinating key targets. I think the tribes could very easily be organized into an effective army. hmmmm there god may be smarter than he looks.

>>328613
I think we need to have this guy get a fairly complete briefing about what we know about Everfrost's geography and their distribution of forces. Earlier we were looking at a fairly comprehensive way of analyzing their forces and our counters; the Snaketongue could potentially be a counter to one or both of their armies, at least in terms of reducing combat effectiveness, and if they've got the numbers and coordination could be a hard counter to any attempted muster of the Everfrost militia forces.

So pull up a map, cite the locations and numbers we know about for those troops, and ask how Falshis would need to deploy his forces to weaken, disrupt, and eliminate as much of the combat capabilities of those three target units as possible in support of the main invasion. We're looking at a deployment of most of his tribe in advance of most of our troops- sending them deep into enemy territory as raiders. Available for his tribe's use in this hypothetical are a limited number of magical gates which could immediately put his forces basically anywhere in Everfrost in large numbers, and a limited number of enchantments for his forces- but those can be customized as we have plenty of time. If he wants shadow steps, ethereality, throwing fireballs, speed, or something else, they're all on the table as long as he knows that we'll only have the time and sparks to enchant a few dozen of his guys, since we've got a lot of more standard warriors to enchant. He knows his tribe's capabilities quite well- what deployment and magical enhancements would aid them most in accomplishing this mission? What methods would he prefer to use? How far in advance of the invasion would he want to be deployed, and what information would he want us to call upon the existing elven infiltrators to provide?

Since he knows what his tribe can and can't do quite well, hopefully he'll be able to give you a workable plan which we can then modify in response to our own thought and available resources. Specialists can usually be relied upon to handle the details of their own specialty fairly well.

Obviously there's some overlap between this and the matters to be discussed at the later meeting, but an individual look at what the Snaketongue need can't hurt- they're likely to be rather essential to your invasion force.

Ask them what kind of enchantments they will prwfer.

>>328876
Wait, perhaps we should leave this to the meeting where we give the task to every chief to come up with a package of enchantments for their warriors.

>Default shadow-step and night vision enchantment
Does anybody actually agree with this? I have been talking about this since we have gotten the tribe but do not know what others think of it.

> Knew an immortal who loved them some millennium past. Killed himself by drinking one of the more deadly varieties by mistake.
This sounds ..... ominous. A poison potent enough to kill an immortal? An immortal who specializes in poisons nonetheless?


Anyway.
Tell him that they could make excellent assassins, special operatives and spies. Ask him if their tribe is anyway inclined towards more .... diplomatic skills? It would be great to have envoy/assassin/spy mixture.

>Falshis is the leader of that particular tribe, and he visits every single night.
Why would he need to meet you so often? What did you talk about?

Anyway, we don't really have anything else to do here right now. Tell him you just wanted to visit the tribe and see it with your eyes.
Then walk around and observe the happenings in the camp and go back.
Oh, and you might want to tell him about the meeting we are planning.

>There's also the matter of how much time I should spend on enchanting warriors, making golems(or golem)
Well, we need all of our warriors enchanted if we want to curb-stomp our enemies.
The golem needs to be in tip-top condition. I want you to make a single golem as best as possible. Use the best materials you can get and spend more time making sure it is a powerful as you could possibly make it.
Not only will you get a great addition to your army, but you will have experience in golem-crafting for any future endeavors of similar kind.

Also, if you haven't already, order your shamans to practice and refine those siege rituals. Conjure a piece of wall for the battle ram.
Actually, you might want to experiment and use that helmet for what you have asked it to do. I mean, making yourself a focus to channel more powerful spells. Channel the catapult spell and train for a while till you are comfortable with it.


>Spark Count: 24400
Hey, Hated... you must admit that being patient with all these people is paying off.
I mean, it was not long ago when we were ecstatic to break 100 spark threshold. Noe you can get tens of thousands in relatively short time. And that is not even from all the shamans.

>>329021
>Does anybody actually agree with this? I have been talking about this since we have gotten the tribe but do not know what others think of it.
Actually no, I don't agree with it. Hated doesn't have enough personal time to dispense thousands of night-vision and shadow-step enchantments. Not if we're going to invade next year, anyway. It takes what, half an hour to apply a single enchantment? Assume he spends an interminably boring eight hours a day enchanting people, that's still only sixteen enchantments per day, which is only a few hundred enchantments total by the time we need to attack. Now, we have have our more powerful shamans apply lesser enchantments to people, but they won't be anywhere near as good as Hated's.

Because of this enchantments need to be doled out carefully, where they'll do the most good. Every one that we apply has the opportunity cost of not being able to apply another one somewhere else. We can only afford to enchant the most elite people, and even then we should have a specific application for the enchantments in mind whenever possible.

Honestly, because of these limitations telling the chiefs to come up with enchantments for their warriors at all strikes me as a bad plan- because we're not going to be able to follow through on it. We simply don't have enough time. If we delay the invasion another 3-5 years we can have a massive super-enchanted army, but with a single winter in which to make preparations that's simply impractical.

>Tell him that they could make excellent assassins, special operatives and spies. Ask him if their tribe is anyway inclined towards more .... diplomatic skills? It would be great to have envoy/assassin/spy mixture.
The Snaketongue would make shitty spies. A good spy can blend in with people, infiltrate target societies, get others to share information with them freely- the Snaketongue can do none of this. They can function as assassins, commandos, and scouts, but not as spies and certainly not as diplomats unless they've got skillsets they have yet to show us. That's not to say that they can't do anything as far as espionage or diplomacy goes, but they'll be as much at a disadvantage as any other barbarian.

>This sounds ..... ominous. A poison potent enough to kill an immortal? An immortal who specializes in poisons nonetheless?
I think it is less sinister and more a sign of how immortals tend to get careless after a while.

I second having groups of shamans practice the siege rituals (the catapult one in particular), and you should also make a test version of one of those hovering platforms, so the shamans can maneuver (or be maneuvered, at least) at the same time as casting.

About building a city, if you haven't already done so you should find some people to receive stone shaping enchantments or staffs and get training on actual masonry from the dwarfs. (That is a large part of why we hired them.) We should also be sure to acquire the knowledge of making catapults from the dwarfs if we don't have those, as we can't rely just on shamans for catapulting.

>>328852
I basically just relay information to Falshis, pulling out a map, the whole deal, and after I'm finished he stays quiet for nearly 10 minutes, just considering everything I've said. Then he opens his mouth, pauses again, and finally speaks.

"I would suggest this... shadow-stepping, was it? I've heard you use it often. I would suggest that as a standard among all of the Snaketongue, and leave the rest to us. We have never relied heavily on enchantment, such things are sometimes... unreliable. We have other means of accomplishing the tasks set before us, and if we do require some sort of magic, you will be informed. For the matter of disrupting the enemy in any and all forms, I would suggest acting like there is a separate force in the north. Have the Snaketongue, accompanied by a few other tribes for use as warriors, and let us harass the enemy, raze towns, poison water supplies, burn fields and cause problems. This should draw attention away from the main horde that you'll lead in through the south. A month of time should be enough to cause enough problems to make the southern end vulnerable. As for information from the elves, it isn't required. We barbarians, even the Snaketongue, prefer more spontaneous attacks. Information from beforehand is unnecessary."

>Why would he need to meet you so often? What did you talk about?
He just brings reports mostly. Falshis mostly just talks about what's going on among the tribes. I've been focusing on my golem mostly, so he's been keeping an eye on the tribes for me. Mostly just stuff about who's been trying to kill who, who doesn't like who, who's been trying to get who's daughter. Most of it is stuff I haven't been paying attention to honestly, although Falshis keeps trying to get me involved and interested. Fat chance for that, politics, even barbarian politics, is so dull and uninteresting.

>About building a city, if you haven't already done so you should find some people to receive stone shaping enchantments or staffs and get training on actual masonry from the dwarfs. (That is a large part of why we hired them.)
But we haven't hired the dwarves as of yet. We need gold for that, and at the moment, Nina and her lot is getting it. So I think I'll hold off on actually building something till we figure out how to build worth building. I'd hate to go through all that trouble for no reason at all.

I'll have the shamans get to work on practicing, not that they haven't already. The shamans actually seem to take a great amount of joy in firing off the siege rituals at targets they set up. Tongues has been joining in on the rituals now that I think about it. He hasn't gotten any stronger, though not for lack of trying. I think he's still hung up on the whole 'I can bend space and time to my will' thing.

>>329267
> I would suggest that as a standard among all of the Snaketongue, and leave the rest to us. We have never relied heavily on enchantment, such things are sometimes... unreliable.

"If you think it would be the best. But perhaps a trigger-based night vision enchantment on the eyes? I feel like your men will find themselves working in dark places very often."

Hmmm...

I just had a though. What about communication rings/earrings/necklaces/tiaras/etc? Could we make those. I am sure they will help greatly when coordinating the troops and will be great for Snaketongue spy-assassins as being able to communicate freely is a must for spec-ops.

>We barbarians, even the Snaketongue, prefer more spontaneous attacks. Information from beforehand is unnecessary.
"While I agree on that, and in fact I personally prefer it that way, some claim that having vital intel before any operation is crucial in determining the victor. And having up-to-date information can always play a great role when making.
But if you can manage with raiding without any information, do as you see fit. Just make sure that the casualties on our side are kept to bare minimum.

Anyway, I will give you the task to make the raiding squad before we start the invasion. I think I will give you the permission to choose the warriors from other tribes on your own."

Then tell him about the meeting we are planning. Give him very brief summary of what we are going to discuss.

>He just brings reports mostly. Falshis mostly just talks about what's going on among the tribes. I've been focusing on my golem mostly, so he's been keeping an eye on the tribes for me. Mostly just stuff about who's been trying to kill who, who doesn't like who, who's been trying to get who's daughter. Most of it is stuff I haven't been paying attention to honestly, although Falshis keeps trying to get me involved and interested. Fat chance for that, politics, even barbarian politics, is so dull and uninteresting.
What? This is great!
While it might be boring, you should at least try to keep whatever he says in mind. Also it is good that he is doing that on his own, having a master spy network bringing you reports is very good.

>we need gold for that, and at the moment, Nina and her lot is getting it.
Hmm...
You did make sure that they have sufficient protection, right? I mean, it is a gold mine after all.
Tell Flashis to send one or two of the best of his operatives so that they keep the eye out on the Nina and her team and make sure no nasty things attack them unwarned. Make those communication jewelry I talked before and give it to them, also enchant them with shadow-step and whatever else they might desire.

>>329267
>I would suggest this... shadow-stepping, was it? I've heard you use it often. I would suggest that as a standard among all of the Snaketongue, and leave the rest to us.
Standard amongst all of them? Aren't they a major tribe with thousands of warriors? Making that standard would require years and rob us of the ability to enchant others in that timeframe- that's time we don't have. I could have sworn that we told him he would be limited to having a few dozen of his men enchanted since we have a lot of other people to enchant as well- he's anticipating drawing way more resources than we have available. Hated, correct me if I'm wrong on that.

>harass the enemy, raze towns, poison water supplies, burn fields and cause problems
Classic and highly entertaining, but that wasn't the objective that we gave him. We said to target the combat capabilities of their three units. While poisoning wells and harassing them could certainly accomplish that, razing towns, burning fields, and generally acting as raiders would only draw attention, not actually eliminate the enemy units that we told him to eliminate. Also, we want to be king here when this is over and that means that we'd be burning our own fields and razing our own towns, not to mention squandering a golden opportunity to turn the agricultural towns who hate the royal family to our side.

Perhaps we need to be more clear here: The Snaketongue's objective is not to distract the enemy forces, it is to eliminate or weaken the enemy forces as a unit capable of resisting our invasion. That could be by assassinating commanders and mages, ambushing them, cutting off their supplies, slaughtering their horses, killing their messengers to eliminate communication, or poisoning their food and water. If they're only distracted it just means that we'll have to fight them later rather than sooner. Now, slaughtering the occasional village to draw the armies into a position where we can ambush them is certainly reasonable, but it's a means to help damage the armies proper more effectively- drawing attention is not an end in itself.

>As for information from the elves, it isn't required. We barbarians, even the Snaketongue, prefer more spontaneous attacks. Information from beforehand is unnecessary
And that's just dumb. More information is always required- you need to know where the enemy is strong and where they are weak to ensure that you can avoid facing them in the former spots and can strike in the latter. In particular, we're looking at sending his whole tribe deep into enemy territory- no way in hell should we be dropping him in blind.

I suspect that this guy is thinking of this whole invasion in terms of large-scale raiding rather than a concerted national-scale attempt at conquest. The strategic objective here is to take and hold, not pillage and burn; that means killing those who would be willing to stand against us or forcing them to surrender and making everyone else kneel and acknowledge us as their boss.

I'd like a couple other people to review my reaction to this if possible, but my initial assessment is that the Snaketongue guy is totally off base.

>Falshis mostly just talks about what's going on among the tribes. I've been focusing on my golem mostly, so he's been keeping an eye on the tribes for me. Mostly just stuff about who's been trying to kill who, who doesn't like who, who's been trying to get who's daughter.
I can see why that's boring... but at the same time, internal intelligence can be priceless when manipulating the morale and desires of your population, and attempting to detect dissent. But... Hated will probably never be good at this. Eventually we'll hopefully be able to delegate analyzing and acting on this sort of thing to Nina, but she hasn't really developed the kind of authority and savvy needed to handle it all yet. For now, Hated, please try to at least listen with half an ear so that you'll have a better idea of how your forces' leaders are likely to act. You'll generally want to put people who dislike each other on opposite ends of your army and people who like each other next to each other, come invasion time.

>>329489
>communication rings/earrings/necklaces/tiaras/etc
Maintaining communications with detached forces is essential. Good call. We'll need a double handful of these.

>>329963
Enchanting lots of guys would take lots of sparks, but we could cut down on time by teaching a few shamans to enchant and then having those teach more shamans to enchant.

>>329965
They already know how to enchant or they wouldn't have been able to put enchantments on their guys before we came- they just don't have the requisite spark capacity. Enchanting someone requires 30 sparks at once to get started, does it not? My understanding was that virtually no shamans are that strong- meaning we've got only a handful of shamans who can do enchanting. And each of those shamans only regenerates their sparks once every couple hours, so there's no way they'll be enchanting more than five or six people a day each. Certainly nowhere near enough to start casually enchanting entire tribes.

If this is inaccurate I would appreciate the heads-up, as it has extremely significant effects on our potential war preparations. Although I really doubt that it's wrong, because if the barbarians had any significant number of shamans who could enchant people they'd have had tons of enchantments on their guys before we showed up so that they could gain edges over the other tribes with superior enchanted warriors.

>Standard amongst all of them? Aren't they a major tribe with thousands of warriors?
Them being a major tribe does not mean they have thousands of warriors. The Wolffang do, somewhere in the range of five thousand I think. Bisonhorn have one thousand. Horsehoof have another two thousand. Bearclaw have one thousand and the Snaketongue have themselves another thousand. Anyone else... oh yeah, the Hawkeye, another two thousand. The rest of the numbers are made up of the dozens of lesser, unimportant tribes. The ones that have names but which nobody cares to remember.

>The Snaketongue's objective is not to distract the enemy forces, it is to eliminate or weaken the enemy forces as a unit capable of resisting our invasion.
How would you suggest the Snaketongue accomplish this? They aren't assassins. They don't have the ability to blend perfectly into crowds or sneak into secure castles. You seem to think them some sort of... I don't know what. But whatever it is, they probably aren't. They're just barbarians that happened to be better and ambushes. Think of them like skirmishers instead. What he plans does help by the way. One army is distracted already by that other human nation. Another force distracting the other one, the incompetent one, would basically give us an open door into Everfrost. Although you still make good points. Burning fields and poisoning wells probably won't endear us any to the local people. I'll have him restrict it to raiding and pillaging only. That should keep the people from hating us too much. And on your whole information is needed stick, barbarians seem to have been doing it fine without information for thousands of years. Hell, I've done it fine for thousands of years. And while your right, we are attempting to control, not just pillage, what Falshis will be doing is essentially raiding. I'm willing to let him do his thing, since you know, barbarians kinda do this sorta of thing for most of their lives.

>What about communication rings/earrings/necklaces/tiaras/etc? Could we make those.
We could, and I'll get on it as soon as possible. Maybe I can find some things to enchant when the raids get back. Or trade for them from the dwarves. Will probably have to get them from the dwarves... how many are we gonna need, exactly? A dozen? Two dozen?

>>329970
This is completely correct. Humans don't get strong enough in magic to generally have the power to enchant. Out of maybe a hundred mages, ten might be strong enough to actually enchant anything. Almost all elves can enchant, they just don't usually, and orc mages do nothing but enchant.

"Keep your attacks to pillaging and raiding. I want to rule the damn place, not raze it to the ground completely. Although that would be pretty entertaining. Anyway, there's a meeting later, I expect you to be there. I'm calling all the tribe chieftains together to start planning how everything going to work. Think over what tribe members you want to take along with you on your little attack, and you can report it to me then and argue it out with the others. Understood?"

"Always, my king."

I head out to my next task, setting up this meeting of the chieftains. The task is fairly simple actually, all that's required is heading back to the main city sight and telling some of my men to round up the chieftains and get them to the town square. That should do for a meeting place. I head there myself, mostly because I can't get anything else done in the time it takes for people to actually arrive. Within ten minutes of my arrival, everyone necessary has been gathered.

"Alright then. Let's get this little meeting started. As everyone may or may not know, when spring comes next year, we'll be having a war. A war with Everfrost." That sends a ripple of conversation through the small crowd of chieftains, mostly the lesser ones that I've never really spoken with directly. The major chieftains don't have anything to say at all, simply focusing on me. "That brings us to the reason for this little meeting..."

Alright, what is the exact reason for this little meeting. I know I'm supposed to ask about desired enchantments, but is there anything else I should bring up, ask about or say to these people?

[Gah! Where is everybody? It feels like I am the only one to post here, and I've been busy lately and couldn't post much]

Anyway.
The meeting.
Meetings like these are great to find out potential problems and suggestions that your underlings have so you could spend some time getting reports from each and every ex-chief. See how they like things and perhaps ask for some suggestions. But make it known that you wont tolerate any heated arguments and they should make their cases short.

As for other stuff.

Tell them that you are planning to build a city here and need the best builders, the most bright and smart people (even young ones) called which you will make into a team so that we can start the baseline construction and planning. After we conquer Everfrost, we will have tons of more knowlesdge and specialists to continue our glorious Capital (And it really should be something truly grandiose).

Also talk about the idea to categorize each tribe into a Great House or Great Guilds where each house will specialize in their field. While you hold the last say in any and all matters, this will give them a bit of power and at least make them feel important.
Tell them that you are not planning to do this right away but thought it would be good to let them know beforehand (we need for Nina to come back)

Talk to them about the matter of war. Ask for their input if they have any, ask if they are preparing the warriors.
Ask the chief who was from the blacksmith tribe how the production of weapons going and how the mining operation is (we are at the site where iron is, right?)

The tell them about the enchantments and ask them to come up with a standard for each of their tribe (or warrior class)

Around but largely lacking in enthusiasm.

>>330083
>How would you suggest the Snaketongue accomplish this? They aren't assassins. They don't have the ability to blend perfectly into crowds or sneak into secure castles.
I believe I already made several viable suggestions for how they could accomplish it, and with enchantment they can accomplish both of your cited tasks relatively simply. Also, didn't their chief specifically tell you that his tribe would be willing to adapt to acting as assassins if that was your desire?

What I wanted them to do was relentlessly strike at the enemy armies in a myriad of ways- attacking leadership, supplies, communications, the fringes, and whatever else they can reach- to the point that they cease to be a combat-viable unit. More men die from disease, starvation, and exposure in most wars than in battle, and those are things that can cause even the best army to slowly disintegrate. Willingness and ability to exploit and exacerbate that fact is the mark of a capable raiding force when operating behind enemy lines in coordination with a larger army.

>how many are we gonna need, exactly? A dozen? Two dozen?
I would go with at least twenty. Better to have and not need than to need and not have, after all, and proper communication is critical to effectively coordinating a large invasion force.

>anything else I should bring up, ask about or say to these people?
Bring up the fact that you're looking to conquer Everfrost for good and not just burn and raid it, since that doesn't seem to have been made clear.

This might be a good opportunity to lay out a basic plan for the organization of your armies. You're obviously not going to be able to lead everyone personally, and there are enough cities in Everfrost that leading around one giant horde and conquering them one after another would take a long time and be kind of impractical. So you'll need more armies than there are of you- meaning that those armies will need commanders for when you're not present. You might be able to use those posts as a lure for the chiefs by saying that you plan for command in your absence to be given to those who are of most use in planning out the invasion to come- in designing enchantments, allocating resources and tribes, choosing invasion routes, coming up with methods for rapidly conquering resisting cities or overcoming enemy armies, and ensuring that once conquered the cities and towns stay conquered and loyal. Set them a task with a reward, and they'll likely throw themselves at completing it. It's important to establish that we'll reward competence.

>>331715
>you could spend some time getting reports from each and every ex-chief
There are quite a few of them. That would take a really long time and I doubt they've got anything terribly interesting and new to say.

>Also talk about the idea to categorize each tribe into a Great House or Great Guilds where each house will specialize in their field.
I know that this idea has been thrown around for a while, but... what exactly is the point, aside from shaking up the existing barbarian power structure? We don't have a huge number of disparate fields for them to specialize in, and their current units of organization are quite functional. What's more, specialist units tend to need to work together constantly- meaning that after all the effort of breaking everyone into guilds we'd just need to shove them back together again. Unless we have a complete, cohesive societal plan- and preferably one worked out alongside someone who understands how barbarians think and is good with logistics so that we'll be able to account for the legions of problems that will pop up- we should not be attempting to completely rewire the social dynamics that the barbarians have lived with all their lives. It'll either accomplish little as the barbarians don't really understand or use the new system much, or cause too much chaos and disorganization in the short term unless we have capable administrators who understand what's going on helping to make it happen.

>The tell them about the enchantments and ask them to come up with a standard for each of their tribe (or warrior class)
And differentiating them by tribe like this will likely make reorganization later that much harder, since many warriors' very bodies will reflect and emphasize their origins.

Soooo... scratch talking about enchantments for now, the barbarians can kill people pretty well without them, and scratch the reorganization thing for now, simply because we don't have the time or knowledge to get it done to any worthwhile result. We'll focus on any problems between clans and possible ideas for the coming war. Let's see then...

"Alright, first order of business. Anyone have any complaints about another tribe?"

Almost instantly, the Wolffang chief steps forward. "I have a complaint. Why do we require the service of those heretics from the Horseho-"

"Not even going to let you finish that question, because it's stupid. They have horses. Horses run fast. Fast horses mean killing things that need to be killed fast. End of response. Anyone that has a legitamate complaint?"

Over the next hour I deal with some tribal issues, ending old rivalries, settling grudges, that sort of nonsense. After that's done, at least for now, I turn to the next thing.

"Alright, now that everyone's not hating each other, least for the moment, I'll get to the important bit. Now that you all know what's going to happen in spring, I have some other things we need to go over. Namely, who's going to lead the other armies." That seems to catch everyone by surprise. I think they thought we'd just go as a gigantic horde. Which isn't a really bad idea, if your going for the whole strike fear into the enemies heart's, instead of just conquering the lot of them. "We'll have at least three armies total, and while I'll be leading one of them, the one headed for the capital, the other two need to be lead as well, and both will focus on capturing the major cities. Now, I already know how one is going to get picked for leading an army. Your going to get picked based on merit. You prove you can lead, your leading. You don't, you don't. I don't care if your a major tribe, a lesser tribe, or some random wanderer who decided to drop in. More to the point, the ones who can prove to me that they will actually accomplish my goal, to conquer and not pillage, will be leading. If you can win battles, capture cities, sway those conquered to our side, then your more likely to get picked over someone who simply charges and hopes for the best. So then, let's hear it. Your idea on how we're going to pull this invasion off." I spread the map out on a nearby table, which has been marked to show army locations and other such things, then back off to let the chieftains examine them. All take turns, some muttering to themselves, others staring at it blankly, but none come over to present anything until the Wolffang Chieftain has taken his turn and strides up. His name was Curmas I think.

"We'll need four armies, not three. One will have to stay behind and defend our land from the encroachments of others, specifically the Goblins to the south. As for how the other armies are to function. Your own would obviously have you, there's no need for me to offer input. But I've heard that some other human nation has been attacking the eastern side of Everfrost. Is this true?"

"Yes, although I'm curious about how you came across that little bit of information."

"Rumors. It pays to listen to such things sometimes. I would suggest then that one of the two armies head along the east, taking cities as it goes until it encounters this other nation. More than likely fighting two groups at once will be difficult, so perhaps seeking peace would be more desirable. The easiest way to do that, in my opinion, is to make yourself the enemy of the enemy."

"Attack the army that's defending that region, you mean. The one that the Islands of Seven Shadows has been having trouble with."

"Yes. It would make us seem more friendly to aid the island people. Perhaps letting them keep the cities they might have taken as well. This will likely make it clear to them that you don't seek hostility." The man steps back finally, wandering off towards the map again. Another comes to take his place instantly.

"Greetings, my king. I am Kaldoth, of the Geckohide. I have a question for you." I simply stare at him, waiting for his question. "Yes... um... what does the blacked out area represent?"

"No ones sure. All anyone knows is that people go in, they don't come back out. We avoid it, no matter what."

"Understood, my king... Then, I'd like to suggest ignoring the west completely. There's only one city that way, and the elves, if they are our allies, should be able to take that city on their own. It would allow warriors to be used in other areas."

"I'll consider it."

"Thank you, my king." This one bows and leaves. By this point, everyone basically gotten into groups and are arguing out possible methods of attack. I listen in, and find that there are three main camps.

-The first is to stick to the traditional charge it till it dies that the barbarians tend to be known for. They modified the idea slightly though, leaving groups of warriors behind in major cities to maintain a presence and keep the populace under control. Power are way through, basically.

-Second group prefers a more hit and run type thing. Harass the hell out of the two armies till they're reduced to nothing, then wipe up the remainder. Then it's simply a matter of taking each city one by one at our leisure. That's the idea anyway.

-The last group prefers a straight shot all the way to the capital, ignoring everything else. Once that's taken, we turn back around and start conquering everything in reverse, the idea being that even if we fail to hold all the land we take, we'll end up back in our lands instead of trapped in theirs, letting us prepare for another attempt the next year.

i like the second idea. we have a size disadvantage so a straight fight would probably not end well for us.

The second Idea seems good if we don't piss off the peasants.

Second idea is good.
The plans that both of the chieftains laid out are also good.

But dont neglect the enchantments, the are great force multipliers, esoecially if we aim for night raids with nigtvision and shadowstep (among other myriad enchantments)

Also I think this is a good momwnt to give a small speech (using your tongue enchantmwnt and all), making sure that they understand that this is a conquer war and not burn and pillage. We will make those lands ours, their riches ours and their people ours, so we need to make sure to instill the idea that those things belong to us before we attack (you are unlikely to burn down the house you deem your own unlike the enemy's. Also tell that it is the task of these chieftains to pass the idea further.

And if the barbarians show the dissatisfaction the way we are radically reforminh the way they fight war, remind them that this is not a raid to neighbourhood tribe to steal their horses, who have similat warriors, culture and history. We are goinh against a big nation with much more advanced technology and better stalrategy and tactics, if we are to defeat them with minimal losses (whixh is important, we need to make casualties low) we need ti adapt

Second way it is then. A bit conservative and dull, but at least we won't get pummeled into submission. Although that leaves the cities to do what they want for awhile, not something I'm pleased about. They could muster their guards and hit us from behind or something. Something to think about anyway. I drag attention back to me and start up on some random speech the basically stresses the focus on conquering, not burning and destroying, and by the end I'm fairly certain they get it. I pause a moment, then grab the Curmas and that other guy, and have them come up, as well as a few others I think would make good leaders. We'll have to test them somehow, maybe some war games or something. Anyway, they seem the most inclined to thinking about something other than simply attack, so we'll have to get this over with. Anyway, we should see about dividing up these warriors into armies. I think it'll help them to know who's going to lead them from the beginning, let them get used to taking orders and all that. Someone said... what was it... organize them into groups of ten? Well, we can handle smaller scale later. We have boatloads of them to divide up large scale.

Let see... we have three armies needed, from what's been suggested so far. One to go east and aid the Islands against the decent army, one to shoot up the center and take out the incompetent bastard's army and hopefully him, and one to remain behind and guard my lands.

Oh yeah, someone also asked about the Bisonhorn's progress. They generally have just been repairing weapons and armor we already had, although I think they started melting down anything they couldn't fix and have been using that to begin production of better stuff for those... less fortunate... individuals. Anyway, most of the recent iron that's been dragged up I've taken for use on the golem. I've even got one of the smiths making me a big blade for it's arm. Figured just smashing things in the face wouldn't be enough. Figured I'd enchant the blade separately as well.

Anyway, we have, if one thinks about it, about 16,000 warriors for use. Um... let's see, if I do a bit of math... 10,000 of that are melee fighters of various kinds, 4,000 are archers and such, the remaining 2,000 are cavalry, completely made up of the Horsehoof. While most can ride horses, they can't exactly fight effectively on them. Something about the "horse's curse" or whatever it was. I've already checked and there never was a curse, just useless superstition. Anyway, the question I present to you, and to the tribesman I gathered with me, is to divide up the warriors into three groups. We'll see how that goes for now, and once we have our three groups we can try some war games over the next few months.

>>336060
Hmm... 3 armies, huh?

One army should be led by you. You will go against the competent army.
Wasn't Flashis (the snaketongue chieftain) going to lead another army, or he wasn't taken into consideration in your latests update? Anyway, if he was, then he is the one who will take the army to the East, right?
Then stays the question who will lead the 3rd army.
And don't forget that we will have to keep an army to defend our lands..... Hmm, we should properly make defensive structures of all kinds just in case.... Do you know of any spells that could help in that department? Or enchantments (like enchanting a city wall or something) .... And, ah, what happened to the idea of making interlocked portals? .... And the idea to have some "specialists" (or just the most skilled people in engineering and construction which we have at the moment) to design the rudimentary Capital plans?

To tell you the truth, I, personally, don't really know how to determine who will be the most efficient commander. I can only think of the trials that you had to go through when you were getting that artifact of yours.
Perhaps you could devise something similar? If you have trouble, you could ask the Elves for help, they seem more "intellectual" types than barbarians.
Speaking of elves, how are they doing? How is Sticks? Did you talk to her lately? You shouldn't ignore her (even if you don't like her).
How are the shamen doing for that matter? And their leader? Is he still antagonizing against you or has he come to terms with your undeniable power?
Tongues? How is his magical progress?

Also, did you go through my previous idea to make couple of communication rings (like 3 for now), give them to snaketongue chieftain and tell him to send a pair of his best men to watch over the Nina's group and report if something happens (also, protect them from ambushes, screen for enemy scouts)

How is Iron mining going?

The competent army. The one to the east. The one NOT defending the capital, or in anyway anywhere near said capital. Yeah, fuck that. I'm leading the one going up the central parts of Everfrost, so that I can be there to take the head of the king myself. Screw all that other bullshit, someone else can handle it.

As for Falshis, he was leading a strike force to harass the hell out of said armies. I suppose the only one we really need to harass though is the one to the east. There are a few who could lead some armies(four, actually, who might actually be worth the time to have them practice leading anything) and Falshis isn't one of them. There are only three armies. Originally there were four total, but we ditched the one heading west, because there's only one major city that way and no armies, so we can leave that to our elvish allies to sack. One army will be heading east and then north along the coast, to both strike at the competent army, lead by General Marcus Ristock, and make contact with the kingdom that seems to be battling it out with said competent army, preferably in a friendly manner so we don't immediately have to go to war. The second army is going to march its way straight up the center, taking towns and smashing its way through the less than competent army lead by the Crown Prince, who I'm happily planning on stringing up on a pole for dear old dad to see. The third army will be staying behind to ward off attacks from other groups, namely the goblin tribes to the south-west and the orcs to the east.

To sum up the four possible leaders we have for the two other armies:
>Curmas, ex-chieftain of the Wolffang. He's got the most experience in leading something larger than the usual tribe amount. From what I've seen, both now and from things I've heard about him, he tends to be conservative and cautions, relatively speaking. He's still one to charge right in if things look favorable for him.

>Urthan, ex-chieftain of the Bearclaw. Probably the most trustworthy person I have. He's been loads of help, and is the least likely to defy or reinterpret orders. He's also has no experience commanding anything larger than 1000 men.

Kaldoth, Geckohide ex-chieftain. Don't really no much about this one. He's from one of the lesser tribes, and from what I have gathered, the tribe as a whole tended to keep to itself. Probably not a lot of experience leading anyone, but tends to have good ideas if you give him some time to think. He was the leader of the whole "hit and run over and over again" on the armies idea we decided to use.

Falshis could lead an army as well, but... he wouldn't be able to do his early raiding then. Too much hassle having to organize both and be prepared to lead come spring. I'll leave it up to you lot to decide where you'd prefer he go. He'd probably use a lot of ambush tactics if he did end up leading an army. Maybe a good choice for the defensive army getting left behind.

>Hmm, we should properly make defensive structures of all kinds just in case.... Do you know of any spells that could help in that department? Or enchantments (like enchanting a city wall or something) .... And, ah, what happened to the idea of making interlocked portals? .... And the idea to have some "specialists" (or just the most skilled people in engineering and construction which we have at the moment) to design the rudimentary Capital plans?
The portals are a marvelous idea, but I don't think I want to open them quite yet, as I believe the idea was to use them to quickly get from one place in Everfrost to another. I suppose I could just open one between the gold-mine and here, if we really wanted to. As for enchantments to aid in defense, I could make the walls extremely sturdy, if we wanted to gold or silver plate the entire wall. Simple rock doesn't hold enchantments well. As for defensive structures, or even beginning the plans for the capital, as I've said, barbarians aren't exactly known for building shit. Even the Bisonhorn still use tents and such. So unless you suddenly have a way to grant them knowledge of stone working, I don't think we'll get very far with the whole "building structures" thing.

>Speaking of elves, how are they doing? How is Sticks? Did you talk to her lately? You shouldn't ignore her (even if you don't like her).
They come and go. They usually bring food and wood along with them, and sometimes some more reports. Which reminds me, since we're on the subject, they think they've located all of the possible descendants of the human hero. They can't be certain, since they can't make it into the capital to search there, but I can do that once we make it inside. Sticks I've talked to whenever she came wandering over half-drunk, which she spends half her time doing, and she's generally completely useless. She does, however, maintain a good amount of contact with Nina, who seems to have taken a liking for the elf ever since Sticks stuck her in that dress and showed her off to me.

>How are the shamen doing for that matter? And their leader? Is he still antagonizing against you or has he come to terms with your undeniable power?
Annoying head shaman man keeps to himself. I don't think he'd openly defy me anymore, although he still doesn't like me. Sucks for him. All the other shamans(minus the few that follow whats his name) are always helpful, and all of them can usually be found practicing those rituals or doing whatever shamans normally do in their spare time.

>Tongues? How is his magical progress?
Tongues is still working on the words I told him awhile back. Not surprising he doesn't really get it, but that's the point. Once he can figure out what they mean, he'll probably start amassing large amounts of sparks and start growing a bit more rapidly. Until then, he remains utterly useless as he tries to get that rock he carries around with him to move. I personally find it utterly hilarious to watch him glare at a rock for five hours straight. He's determined at least, I'll give him that much. He went with Nina, who still despises him but will put up with him for my sake. I think Tongues wanted to go to see if he might learn faster by practicing on a lump of gold. Might actually work, gold reacts to magic better after all.

The communication rings I haven't gotten around to making, you suggested them two hours ago, give me some time. Besides, I was thinking of using mirrors instead, the reflective surface will make it a little easier to focus the magic. Simple to simply tell the reflections to appear on another mirror when triggered and such. Will have to work on how to target specific mirrors though... and how to tell someone a person is trying to contact them... Iron mining is also going well, I have a bunch of the children doing it. They love it, since I keyed the mining-staves to activate when you tap them against the ground and say a specific chant. The children think it's a game, and they sing the chant whenever they tap the ground with the staff. I don't see the point of the singing, but whatever makes them happy. It was Nina's idea, actually, to make it into a game and have the children do it. Something about never having idle hands about the camp.

>I'm leading the one going up the central parts of Everfrost, so that I can be there to take the head of the king myself. Screw all that other bullshit, someone else can handle it.

Alright, not gonna argue with that.

>As for Falshis, he was leading a strike force to harass the hell out of said armies.
Strike force. Not army. Alright, got that.
>Falshis could lead an army as well, but... he wouldn't be able to do his early raiding then. Too much hassle having to organize both and be prepared to lead come spring. I'll leave it up to you lot to decide where you'd prefer he go
Yeah, no need for him to lead armies. Let him do his harassing raids.

So that leaves 3 leaders for 2 armies. To tell you the truth I do not know what kind of tests we should make them go through to determine which ones are the best. So, I dunno, ask someone for advice: the Elves, Sticks or whatever. Someone ought to get a good idea.

Urthan and Curmas seem to be good choices for defending the homestead.
Kaldoth is good for leading an army because of his "smarts". The battle against an army of another country is not going to be the same as petty raids. Others will stick with what they know but this one seems to be able to adapt for the situation at hand.
The problem is that he needs training to lead massive army and making decisions faster. He would DEFINITELY make use of mental enchantment. But before granting him that, he needs to train in leadership and tactics so ask the Elves to help with that and/or set up some lessons.

>The portals are a marvelous idea, but I don't think I want to open them quite yet, as I believe the idea was to use them to quickly get from one place in Everfrost to another.
Alright, we will keep this postponed till later.
>I suppose I could just open one between the gold-mine and here, if we really wanted to.
Unless we really have to, I do not see the need for it.

>As for defensive structures,
Not even basics? Like moats, spike traps ... or at least a wooden wall with towers?

>Sticks I've talked to whenever she came wandering over half-drunk, which she spends half her time doing, and she's generally completely useless.
HAHA
She is a bow user. Compare her with our bow-using clan (forgot their name) and see if she can teach them anything.
Ask her why she is slacking so much and what she wants to do in future.
>She does, however, maintain a good amount of contact with Nina, who seems to have taken a liking for the elf ever since Sticks stuck her in that dress and showed her off to me.
I guess that is good.

>Annoying head shaman man keeps to himself. I don't think he'd openly defy me anymore, although he still doesn't like me. Sucks for him.
Hehe.

>All the other shamans(minus the few that follow whats his name) are always helpful, and all of them can usually be found practicing those rituals or doing whatever shamans normally do in their spare time.
That is good. You should join them once in a while and try out the "focus" enchantment of your helmet. See how the siege rituals will do then.

>Besides, I was thinking of using mirrors instead, the reflective surface will make it a little easier to focus the magic.
This is a good idea .... if you are thinking of conversing at your leisure where there is no danger of being found out by the enemies. What I was suggesting was more "spy"-like tool.
Imagine a team of rogues/spies/assassins on a mission, wouldn't it be great if they could telepathically communicate with each other though the rings? If not telepathically, at least by whispering. When using a clumsy mirror they would need to spend more time finding better location for communicating.

>It was Nina's idea, actually, to make it into a game and have the children do it. Something about never having idle hands about the camp.
It seems Nina is doing pretty well with being a "Civil" ruler. Which is good because we suck at that.


Anyway, I am not sure what to suggest right now. We haven't yet broached the subject of Guilds/Houses but I guess it can wait. Maybe we should talk about it with Nina first.
Finalize the meeting. Come up with some way to chose the appropriate leader for the armies and then set them up learning leadership and tactics so that they are comfortable leading large armies.
The armies could make a great use of communication rings/mirrors too. The leader would have easier time relaying his orders to officers tasked with leading smaller groups of men. No need to shout or come up with some-kind of sign language.
Don't forget to ask your elf "allies" for help when choosing the leaders, teaching and training them.

So yeah, making those rings will help us great deal.

Also, we could do with a little time-skip till something interesting happens.

Hey
did you drop this quest? :(

((No, sorry, not dropping it. Just had to get the pieces of my life in order, as well as think up what exactly is going to change in the rather large time skip occurring. I apologize again to anyone waiting on me/this. I have, in fact, returned to subject the lot of you that care to my storytelling, which hopefully isn't too bad, and perhaps might even get around to fighting something that can provide a reasonable challenge to Hated and his massively overpowered body.))

Oh, thats great.
Make sure to notify when you are going to start again.

As to overpowered fights.... I suggest you read Golem Quest here in tgchan. It is the definition of extremely challenging and hugely ovepowered fights. Also, I am sure you will pick up some storytelling tricks from it too.