So how about that consensus?
I vote for tainting the harvest and food supply with mind altering fungus, then preaching to some of the lower lives in the city.
Plus some other stuff.
Ash- or what looks like ash- rains from the sky in the fields around Oegorda. The source turned out to be a cottage burning down, which everyone believed, even though there was way more ash than that would account for. Farmers were slightly worried that the ash might harm the crops somehow, but on the contrary, after rain washed away the remaining ash, the plants seemed healthier than ever. No one bothered to look closely at the 'ash', which suits you just fine.
You watch as the crops are harvested and loaded into a wagon, which you follow into the town. The wagon winds its way through the narrow streets to a market, where after some bartering the crops are bought by a variety of merchants, who in turn sell the crops to townsfolk who come to the market looking for dinner. There is perhaps more bartering than usual, as the double taxes have left most a little short on coin, but in the end, money and crops exchange owners. You follow a particularly poor and downtrodden looking character as she makes her way out of the market, carrying a basket not-so-full of food. As you expected, she leads you into a section of the town that looks especially dreary. Garbage litters the street, beggars sleep beneath the awnings of long-closed shops, and crumbling houses compete desperately for space.
As the woman enters her home, you stop her, and tell her that you will be joining them for supper. She looks confused for a moment, then nods her head and welcomes you inside. Several family members look at you sceptically. A wave of your hand convinces them that everything is fine. You observe the family's antics with disdain, until the mother announces that dinner is served, handing out wooden bowls full of... something that could, generously, be called an 'interesting' soup. You accept a bowl graciously, then immediately throw it away.
Almost immediately a change overcomes the family. Their once gloomy faces light up, and they complement the mother on the taste. As they wolf down the disgusting slop, they grow increasingly cheerful, until the pot is empty and the family is laughing uproariously at nothing. As they gasp for breath between bouts of laughter, you mention that such pleasures could be an everyday thing, if they were to worship a certain entity. Still giggling, they agree to worship you in exchange for pleasure.
"VERY WELL", you say,
"PROVE YOUR LOYALTY TO ME BY SACRIFICING YOUR YOUNGEST CHILD IN MY NAME"The grins fall off the family's faces. They look at the youngest child. It stares back at them, full of innocence. The father protests, calling you a monster. You let a wave of malevolent pleasure wash over the family, who immediately begin shaking with glee.
"SUCH PLEASURES. SUCH POWER. SO MANY REWARDS, IN EXCHANGE FOR THE LIFE OF A SINGLE CHILD"Still twitching in throes of rapture, they refuse you. You redouble the pleasure they feel. One of them passes out, a stupid grin plastered over their unconscious face. Moaning in ecstasy, the mother reluctantly takes a knife from the kitchen, and holds it before her child, who finds the whole situation absolutely hilarious.
"THE EYES. GIVE ME THE EYES"She shudders as your hypnotic voice compels her to action. She strokes the child's hair, the blade wobbling in front of its face.
"THEY WILL DIE KNOWING ONLY PLEASURE. DO IT."Sobbing through her helpless laughter, she holds the child still, lifts up the knife, and plunges it into the child's eye. It screams in pain, even as it still twitches with delight. Blood runs down its face as the mother pulls the pierced eye out of its socket. Still crying, she hands it to you.
It tastes delicious.
She extracts the other eye, the child still incapable of fighting back due to the overwhelming pleasure it feels. You then command her to cut its throat. She does so, and blood sprays all over the room, colouring the ecstatic family red with the life of their youngest member.
You soak in the suffering, and consume the child's corpse. It more than makes up for the energy spent giving these mortals a taste of pleasure.
In the morning the family awakens feeling not guilt, but an overwhelming hunger for pleasure. They try everything to sate it; women, wine, and song, but nothing works. Eventually they come before you and pledge their loyalty to you in exchange for pleasure. You indulge them, and they praise your name between fits of delight.
Later that week, missionaries arrive in town, with all you need to throw a decent party in tow. They find a town eager to receive these generous hedonists, as people with a hankering for greater pleasures than your spores provided them seek new ways to entertain themselves. Their first feast in the slums attracts six new converts, who get together with the four you converted earlier, quickly turning an abandoned warehouse into a feasting hall, complete with back room (makeshift) altar.
Meanwhile, Mischa curses as the latest cultist proves to be entirely without magical skill. She also curses as Kate, who has not only her Wordbearer status, but also a natural affinity for magic, conjures up a mote of light not three hours after she first started learning. It takes the average student a week to grasp the prerequisite skills of feeling and channelling mana. It had taken Mischa three days. And now Kate does it in three
hours.
It must be because Evil is so much easier to manipulate, she thinks. If we were in a college, it would probably take her three months to master. And in fairness, Kate is not alone in showing exceedingly fast progress. Though the others are not there yet, she can see them beginning to understand what they need to do.
As Kate boasts of her accomplishments to the cultists, who ooh and aah in all the right places like the obedient puppets they are, Mischa heads upstairs, through the maze (she only gets briefly lost once), and out into the fresh air. Well. Reasonably fresh. There is a distinct smell of fish, but she ignores it, and walks over to the lake.
Apparently there is something of interest to Nokluvgn in the lake. She wonders if she might gain his favour if she were to find out some more information about it, and decides to do a little scrying. She takes a handful of bones from a pocket and charges them with the appropriate magic, draws a circle on the ground with a stick, and throws the bones into the circle. They bounce around, occasionally hitting an invisible boundary at the circle's edge, before settling down into a distinct pattern.
Distinct though it may be, Mischa does not recognise it. In fact, it looks all wrong, even for a pattern she has never seen. She puzzles over it for a minute, skipping stones across the surface of the lake as she thinks. Could she have messed up the spell? No, of course not. Could the nature of whatever beast or artefact lurks beneath the waves be interfering with her magics? No, none of her other spells have gone awry today. Just to be sure, she summons a fireball and hurls it into the lake. A plume of steam erupts where the fireball impacts- the spell works as intended. Could the nature of the thing itself be resistant to scrying? A beast truly beyond mortal comprehension? Maybe. But she has a feeling that there is more to it than that, though she does not know what. Something about the jumbled up pattern, with no internal cohesion, bothers her.
Her train of thought is interrupted by the muffled sound of an underground explosion. She sighs and stands up, gathering up the bones and wiping away the circle. Break time is over. Time to teach eight new students how to
safely discharge a large buildup of magical energy. Ooh, she hopes it was Kate that fucked up. That'd wipe the self-satisfied smirk off her face for five minutes.
The next day, a spectre arrives with a message. Fortunately it does not deliver its message in an especially cryptic way. It tells her that Nokluvgn wishes to test her. She is to design a vessel for storing Evil. Finally! A chance to prove her worth to the master. She dismisses the trainees for the day, and gathers her tools and books. She considers several concepts, ranging from outlandish to conventional, before settling on a merely unusual one. An urn, containing the trapped souls of... as many victims as possible, in which Evil may be deposited and extracted from at will by means of an ingenious device using a handful of lenses and crystals. Or perhaps she should just go with the classics, and take a gemstone and corrupt it. She would definitely be able to make that work, even if it is kind of boring. Or maybe something completely different? Eventually she settles on
-The urn of trapped souls w/ Evil extractor/depositor.
-A cursed gemstone. Guaranteed to work.
-Something else, namely [blank]
-Whatever she feels like. Who cares what Nokluvgn may want, this is
her project.
Meanwhile meanwhile, 50 cultists are chosen by Malkus Rom, and 'volunteer' to join the army. The recruiters are suspicious at all these people applying at once, but they were told to turn no one (with all four limbs attached) away, so the cultists are duly enlisted. The lieutenant from the capital arrives a few days later, the last few 'voluntary' conscripts having been dragged away from their home. He surveys the thousand recruits before him and sighs. "I don't suppose any of you have any military experience?". At this, Malkus Rom
-Steps forward, offering his services as an officer, so that he may guide the cultists.
-Hangs back. There is no need for him to go with them, they know what to do.
Back in Oegorda, you recline on your makeshift throne as you survey the wreckage left behind after the latest feast. A hungover partygoer emerges from underneath a smashed table. You
-Eat him
-Recruit him
-Ignore him
Your cultists await your orders. They should
-Continue recruiting, focusing on the poor and downtrodden.
-Continue recruiting from the entire population.
-Continue recruiting, focusing on wealthy and influential people.
-Do something else.
And finally, you shall do
-Something evil
Additionally, good news! The first litter of Brutewolf pups have torn out their mother's throat and are ready to serve you.
Name: Nokluvgn
Age: 7.25 months (.75)
Physical might: 51 (+3 p/w: province-wide suffering)(-5: mind-altering evil spores)
Mental might: 51 (+3 p/w: province-wide suffering)(-10: mind-altering evil spores)
Followers:207 (123 cultists, 8 cultists (armed), 29 trained cultists (armed), 40 mercenaries (armed), 3 Wordbearers, 3 knights (heavily armed), 1 Duke)
Slaves: 12 (4 priests, 1 high priest, 7 guards (armed))
Servants: 46 (8 Brutewolves, two Smokewraiths, 15 spectres, 3 giant-rat-packs, 3 black imps, 8 skeletons, 4 Hollow Remnants, 3 fungal druids)
Cults:
The New Way: Low organization. 157 members (73 cultists, 8 cultists (armed), 29 Nails (armed), 40 mercenaries (armed), 3 Wordbearers, 3 knights (heavily armed), 1 Duke)
Slaves: 12 (4 priests, 1 high priest, 7 guards (armed))
Power level: 25 (22 used)
Of which: 4 spent improving the labyrinth in Fellshore, 4 spent building wall at Fellshore, 6 spent recruiting (with feasts), 2 spent recruiting in Oegorda, 6 spent training cultists (6/30).
Secrecy estimate: Beginning to get riskier. (Fellshore's labyrinth helps)
Resources: 1088 (+40 p/week: Duke's income)(-6p/w: building labyrinth)(-2p/w: building wall in Fellshore)(-12p/w: recruitment feasts)(-4p/w: recruiting in Oegorda)
Locations: Fellshore: Fortress
Nuulyd: Merchant & town council connections.
Castle Brylib: Court connections.
Oegorda: No special features
Fözdoch Province (misc): No special features.
Other: Dismal failure! Content that the cult will provide them with free food regardless of membership, only two feasters can be convinced to join you this week. New policies are put in place to prevent this from happening again. Mischa begins training seven cultists and your Wordbearer/Childbearer Kate in the use of magic. With the exception of Kate, whose mutations and natural skill make her a prodigy, the rest struggle to learn in the limited time they have available. Assigning some cult power to magical training might help.
Champions:
Mischa Alwiz: The Duke's 'loyal' companion, now corrupted by the allure of evil.
Physical Might: 1
Mental Might: 7
Knowledge: Magic, adequate Necromancy.
Possessions: Grey imp (knowledge of human & demonic magic, disguised as a crow)
Other: Continues to sketch out ideas for a vessel. The Grey Imp has some useful suggestions, and she makes good progress.
Malkus Rom: The captain of the mercenaries in the Duke's employ, he proved an especially eager convert, requiring only the most minor of rewards before pledging his loyalty to you.
Physical Might: 9 (+2: Devil-horse)
Mental Might: 2
Knowledge: Competent Tactics.
Possessions: Devil-horse (A huge black horse with demonic strength and intellect; +2 physical strength, greatly increased mobility)
Other: Status pending.
"Kate": A female Wordbearer, trained in combat and provided with arms and armour, now the vessel for your demonic offspring.
Physical Might: 6
Mental Might: 4 (+1: increased understanding of magic)
Knowledge: Adequate Mesmerism, dabbling Magic.
Other: 0.75/9(?) months pregnant. Takes to magic like a fish to water. Her mental might has increased, and her heightened understanding of her powers improves her natural mesmerism.
Fortresses:
Fellshore: A small fishing village nestled between a small lake and a forest (with mountains not so far in the distance), now undermined with many tunnels and chambers forming a twisted maze, lit with smoky torches, where the shadows form strange shapes in the corner of your eyes.
Smallish labyrinth (10, increases secrecy)(being upgraded to Medium Labyrinth 15/200), Crude wall (under construction 32/100)
Small (hidden) altar: A suitable place to sacrifice to you and praise your dark name. 
Author
Topic: Demonhood 2 -Number of giant minions lost: between 0 and 3- (Read 143351 times)