The demon lord has been enslaving your people to dig in the obsidian mines for who knows how long. Something about gaining one soul for all eternity, and then multiplying it somehow.
One day you discovered quite by accident that the laws of hell allow your people to have a representative.
You voiced to the demon that was whipping you that you wished to become your people's representative.
He just laughed and continued whipping you.
However, a few days later, a dark wagon showed up in the mines. Those usually came full of fresh prisoners, who would be ravaged and then put to work.
It came empty.
The dark knights within singled you out and brought you into the wagon. You were took to a torture chamber.

That night, your eyes were plucked out.

You were taught to read with your hands. Ancient clay tablets. Thousands upon thousands of them. You were whipped every time you recited them wrong.

Somehow, you stopped aging. Took centuries of torture, but eventually you memorize all of Hell's Laws and Customs.

Then you were taken to the presence of the Demon Lord.

"Speak now. What is it that your people crave?"

"We crave to be Free!"

Now was the turn of the demon lord to laugh. It started as a minor chuckle. And then it became a booming laughter. And then all the demons started laughing as well.

"Very well. You owe me two souls for everyone I am freeing. The souls cannot be taken, they must be willing sacrifices. I will simply employ them in the same fashion as I've employed your people. If you cannot repay within a thousand years, I will reclaim all your people as slaves again, and also the entire plane in which I will release you. You will have to serve me for ten thousand years without complaint before you can strike a new bargain."

All his terms were in accordance to Hell's Laws and Customs. You couldn't help but agree.

He formed an island in the middle of the ocean in one of the myriad human planes. He then opened a chasm portal all the way from Hell into that island, somehow.

"Go forth and conquer this world for yourselves. Spread and remember to sacrifice the required amount. Once you pay your debt, we'll trade sacrifices for magical boons."

According to Hell's Law, a Representative must know all of Hell's Law. Merely by knowing it, he becomes Immortal. You don't understand how it works, but this is the sort of magical forbidden knowledge that changes your very being. There can be only one Representative, however. Being immortal doesn't mean you can't be destroyed. If you are destroyed, someone else Could take your place, but the spot could also be vacant for many millennia.

You have around Two Million People, unskilled, starving, who have known nothing all their lives but toiling in the obsidian mines. The island is huge, but the grimm reality sets in. Many will starve to death before you can figure out a way to eke out a living. You owe the Demon Lord Two Million Souls, give or take.

>>6259503 (OP)

Year 1

Food 0/10
Morale 0/10
Resources 0/10
Magic 0/10

Hero: The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 2,000 thousand

What will you do?

> Cannibalism. Eat the weak to sustain yourselves while you figure out how to get another food source.
> Bury the dead. A huge waste of energy, which will cause even more casualties. But now you're free men, and shall act as such.
> Plead for a Miracle with the Demon Lord. May he feed your people for a decade in exchange for another two million souls.
> Write in

>>6259503 (OP)

*You owe the Demon Lord Four Million Souls, give or take.

>>6259506
> Cannibalism. Eat the weak to sustain yourselves while you figure out how to get another food source.

>>6259521

Over the course of the next year, you begin to eat the weakest while you search for more food sources. Turns out a single dead person can feed over a hundred people.

However, the numbers quickly added up, as day after day the weakest were sacrificed to be eaten by the stronger.

After about a year, your people got enough food sources to avoid total starvation.

But the doors of cannibalism been swung open, and you can't go back anymore. Whenever you're starving, your people will remember that cannibalism is a choice.


Year 2

Food 1/10
Morale 0/10
Resources 0/10
Magic 0/10

Hero: The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 1,500 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism

What will you do?

> Figure out agriculture so you can start feeding yourselves more reliably
> Make some crude tools and begin building a shacktown
> Make a shrine with the bones of the eaten
> Write in

>>6259530
>> Make a shrine with the bones of the eaten

>>6259530
> Figure out agriculture so you can start feeding yourselves more reliably

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6259538 1
>>6259540 2

You bark orders for your people to find seeds and plant them.

You spend all year doing this, and the following year you have a plentiful harvest.

You stop bleeding so many people. Your population begins to stabilize a little under a million souls.

Your people learned to prioritize what is essential - food. By now, every survivor spends pretty much all day looking for food.

But you managed to get a semblance of food stability


Year 3

Food 2/10
Morale 0/10
Resources 0/10
Magic 0/10

Hero: The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 900 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers

What will you do?

> Build shelter for your people so they don't keep dying in droves from exposure
> There are still lots of bones lying around, what about we build that shrine
> We still don't have enough food, find some animals you can domesticate
> Write in

>>6259547
>> There are still lots of bones lying around, what about we build that shrine

>>6259548


All those bones can't go to waste!

You tell your people to build a shrine with the bones of the eaten!

They spend all year doing this!

When it is done, you and a handful of attendants start living within the shrine.

One night, you have a very vivid dream!

Death itself came to visit.

"This is beautiful! This shrine! Rarely have I seen such a ruthless band of people! You are very blessed!"

The blessings of a goddess are powerful.

"Choose a boon and I will bestow it upon you!"

Year 4

Food 2/10
Morale 0/10
Resources 0/10
Magic 1/10

Hero: The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 900 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious

Buildings: Bone Shrine


> Grant me a name, so that I can name others
> Grant me an immortal companion, so I won't be alone
> Grant me death for I am too weary of all this
> Write in

>>6259551
> Grant me a name, so that I can name others

>>6259552


You ask Death to give you a name so that you can name others!

"I bestow upon you the name of Kritus! I will teach you letters so that you may write it down."

You wake up the next morning Inspired! You teach your inner circle how to read and write, in the manner that Death inspired you!

You now know two languages: Abyssal and Dark Speech.

Both languages are laced with powerful and ancient magic - Abyssal is the language of the demons, in which the Demon Code is written, and Dark Speech is the language of the Evil Gods, in which curses and imprecations are created, but also things and people are Named.

You can attain great heights of magical powers knowing these two languages!

Year 5

Food 2/10
Morale 0/10
Resources 0/10
Magic 2/10

Hero: The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 900 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate

Buildings: Bone Shrine

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech

> Tame some animals by giving them names
> Start naming your entire population
> Start reciting the Demon Code in Dark Speech to see what happens
> Write in

>>6259559
>> Tame some animals by giving them names

>>6259563


You start giving the animals of the forest names.

Once they learn their names, they start answering to those names! They come when you call and become tame!

The people marvel at your powers! You became some weird kind of Druid.

Your animal companions are delicious, and you simply luring some enormous beast to be killed now and then stabilized your food problem for good!

Now to bigger and better things!

Year 6

Food 3/10 (food stable)
Morale 0/10
Resources 0/10
Magic 2/10

Hero: The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 800 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid

Buildings: Bone Shrine

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech

> Feast to thank the goddess for all the bounties bestowed
> Start messing with clay to make tablets to record the languages you know
> You're naked savages! You need shelter, clothes and things! Start building civilization.
> Write in

>>6259565

forgot pic

>>6259565
>> You're naked savages! You need shelter, clothes and things! Start building civilization.

>>6259568
Yum, mammoth steak.

>>6259570


You start building civilization - a shacktown begins to emmerge! Now that's the life! Some privacy for the common man at last!

Life been good and although you aren't accumulating much stuff, you are well fed and people are generally happier with this arrangement.

More babies begin to be born!

Though such a vast sprawling amount of buildings is bound to drawn attention...

Year 7

Food 3/10 (food stable)
Morale 1/10
Resources 0/10
Magic 2/10

Hero: Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 830 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized

Buildings: Bone Shrine, Shacktown

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech

What will you do?
> Trust that the gods will protect you and just party all day
> Develop martial arts so that you can fend off attackers
> Research some kind of offensive spell
> Write in

>>6259578
> Develop martial arts so that you can fend off attackers

>>6259580


You begin developing a martial art to defend your people!

You call it Zhuang Dao! Everyone start training it everyday, and some people begin to develop much faster than others. Most people give up after a week though.

Maybe you should build some place just for the ones who enjoy martial arts to train in peace...

Or maybe you could try to incorporate some more supernatural stuff into it!

Or you could, you know, party hard. Not like there is any immediate danger lurking around. Or is there?

Year 8

Food 3/10 (food stable)
Morale 1/10
Resources 0/10
Magic 2/10

Hero: Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 860 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists

Buildings: Bone Shrine, Shacktown

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech

Martial Art: Zhuang Dao (thousands of White Belts)

What will you do?
> Build a monastery for your martial artists do greatly develop the art
> Start a secretive cabal to train your martial art mixed with magic
> Party hard and enjoy life, there is no real threat around here anyway
> Write in

>>6259590
> Build a monastery for your martial artists do greatly develop the art
Give names to the martial artists with belts.

>>6259591

To house and help train your martial artists, you order the construction of a monastery. It is built on top of a tall cliff, so unworthy people won't go there bother them.

Takes a whole year to fetch all the materials to build the monastery, and it is a flimsy wooden and clay structure.

But there are plenty of weights and weird tools your people invented to strengthen the body and the mind!

It will take many years for the art to mature, but you've laid the first proverbial stone!

You begin naming the people who get good at martial arts! They say their names and the names of their moves every time they challenge someone to a fight!

The most memorable fights are recorded in the Record, a martial archive with crude drawings and descriptions of the moves and people involved - currently made in a cave under the monastery.

Maybe it is time for a timeskip!

Year 9

Food 3/10 (food stable)
Morale 1/10
Resources 0/10
Magic 2/10

Hero: Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 900 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive

Buildings: Bone Shrine, Shacktown, Monastery

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech

Martial Art: Zhuang Dao (hundreds of Yellow Belts)

What will you do?
> Skip 10 years while your people train martial arts
> Skip 10 years while your people research magic (choose a purpose)
> Skip 10 years while your people domesticate some animals
> Write in

>>6259608
>> Skip 10 years while your people research magic (choose a purpose)
Expand our druid magic trying to nurture plants.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6259618


You spend the next decade talking to plants. At some point you begin to hallucinate that they are talking back to you. You start giving them names and praying and meditating and doing weird rituals that appear in your mind whispered by the plants.

You go completely insane over the course of a few years of this. People have to feed and clothe you because otherwise you spend all your time talking to plants to the point you forget to do the most basic things.

The dark speech destroy your mind and rebuilds it differently.

But you come out of on the other side. After about a decade of madness, you manage to develop a power to talk to a nearby plant and ask it to move and entangle a target. It is a shame the poor plant spends all its spiritual energy on this attack and after about a minute, it dies. You cried so much the first few hundred times it happened! Your plant friends you've been talking to for so long, sacrificing themselves for you!

You're still pretty fucking crazy, but your new powers enticed others to follow in your strange path.

Starting now I'm gonna roll a dice (this time 1d2) - on a 1 you can time skip, otherwise some horrible shit happens and you have to deal with it.

Year 20

Food 3/10 (food stable)
Morale 1/10
Resources 0/10
Magic 4/10

Hero: Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 1,200 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic

Buildings: Bone Shrine, Shacktown, Monastery

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech

Martial Art: Zhuang Dao (hundreds of Red Belts)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle

What will you do?
> Begin training shamans in the magical arts of Entangle
> Research more spells even if it costs your sanity (what kind of spell you want)
> Spend your time in the monastery regaining your sanity and overseeing training
> Write in

>>6259634
>> Spend your time in the monastery regaining your sanity and overseeing training

>>6259636

A massive sea serpent comes out of the sea and starts killing your people!

It shoots streams of extremelly hot water out of its mouth sometimes when it gets angry.

You are wholly unprepared to deal with this threat! The coastal areas are no longer safe!

You retreat deeper inland!

> Study the giant sea serpent at a great cost in lives lost (-500k lives)
> Make it a taboo to enter the sea so that your people may live (relocate deeper inland for good)
> Worship the giant sea snake as a deity and bring offerings of food to appease it (-2 food)
> Write in

>>6259641
>Use your plant knowledge to feed it poisonous offerings.

>>6259644

You start bringing nonstop massive offerings of food to appease the giant sea snake.

You nurture the idea of poisoning it, though you don't any toxin potent enough to kill a thing that big.

> You gotta do what you gotta do, just scale up your food production to accomodate its ravenous hunger
> Start building a massive poison garden with all kinds of toxic plants you can find, maybe you'll find a way to poison that thing
> You'll never be able to keep that thing fed, and even if you did, it would just grow and grow, retreat further inland and forget about the sea for now
> Write in

>>6259654
>> Start building a massive poison garden with all kinds of toxic plants you can find, maybe you'll find a way to poison that thing

>>6259656


You build a massive poison garden near the monastery and begin a comprehensive research on toxicology.

Lots and lots of "volunteers" are killed, as well as local fauna, trying to find a toxin potent enough to kill that massive creature.

Year 30

Food 1(3)/10 (feeding the giant sea snake)
Morale 1/10
Resources 0/10
Magic 4/10

Hero: Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 1,100 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist

Buildings: Bone Shrine, Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech

Martial Art: Zhuang Dao (hundreds of Green Belts)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle

What will you do?
> Continue toxicology research/deploy poison
> Increase food production, the people are having a hard time feeding themselves (specify how)
> Focus on martial arts training or spell research (specify)
> Write in


Please Roll 2d3 with your choices.

First dice. On a 1, you can time skip no biggie, otherwise some horrible shit happens.
Second dice. On a 1, you discover a way to kill the giant sea serpent. On a 2, you discover some toxin that might be useful though it doesn't kill that thing.

Rolled 3, 3 = 6 (2d3)

>>6259671
> Focus on martial arts training or spell research (specify)
Try to find a way to strengthen the poison of the plants with a spell or ritual.

>>6259675

You accidentally poison your water source and lots of people die until you figure out what is going on!

(I won't consider the second dice since you did not choose to continue toxicology research)

You attempt to develop a ritual to increase the strength of the toxins!

The maximum you can manage is to create a small spell that disburses a little bit of poison on a foe. It is relatively easy. You call it Poison Spray.

You notice the sea serpent is growing... soon your offerings won't be enough to pacify it!

Year 40

Food 1(3)/10 (feeding the giant sea snake)
Morale 1/10
Resources 0/10
Magic 4/10

Hero: Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 900 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist

Buildings: Bone Shrine, Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech

Martial Art: Zhuang Dao (hundreds of Blue Belts)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray

What will you do?
> Continue toxicology research/deploy poison
> Increase food production, the people are having a hard time feeding themselves (specify how)
> Focus on martial arts training or spell research (specify)
> Write in


Please Roll 2d4 with your choices.

First dice. On a 1, you can time skip no biggie, otherwise some horrible shit happens.
Second dice. On a 1, you discover a way to kill the giant sea serpent. On a 2, you discover some toxin that might be useful though it doesn't kill that thing. On a 3 the serpent grows and requires one extra food! Of course you can only discover it if you're researching it actively...

Rolled 1, 4 = 5 (2d4)

>>6259683
>> Increase food production, the people are having a hard time feeding themselves (specify how)
Grow more food inland.

>>6259687

You plant massive farms inland to greatly expand your capability of feeding your population!

Your people notice some weird creatures that live inland. They decide to call them

> Dwarves
> Elves
> Bramblefolk
> Burrowers
> Goblins
> Kobolds
> Write in

Year 50

Food 2(5)/10 (feeding the giant sea snake)
Morale 1/10
Resources 0/10
Magic 4/10

Hero: Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 1,100 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist

Buildings: Bone Shrine, Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech

Martial Art: Zhuang Dao (hundreds of Brown Belts)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray

What will you do?
> Continue toxicology research/deploy poison
> Increase food production, the people are having a hard time feeding themselves (specify how)
> Focus on martial arts training or spell research (specify)
> Domesticate some animals
> Write in


Please Roll 2d2 with your choices.

First dice. On a 1, you can time skip no biggie, otherwise some horrible shit happens.
Second dice. On a 1, you discover a way to kill the giant sea serpent. On a 2, it grows! Of course you can only discover it if you're researching it actively...

Rolled 1, 2 = 3 (2d2)

>>6259722
> Kobolds
> Continue toxicology research/deploy poison

>>6259725

Year 60

The kobolds, as you call them, ride huge lizards and wander in large groups in the depths of the island. You had not found them previously because there is large desert between your camp and theirs.

The sea serpent is noticeably bigger, now it requires 3 food instead of 2.

Your martial artists fully developed the Zhuang Dao! Now teaching the new generations will be easier.

The kobolds send an emissary. But we have no language in common. Their sages are willing to cooperate to create a way to communicate.
> Develop Common language (simplified language anyone can learn)
> Develop Neutral language (alignment language neutral people have an easy time learning)
> Teach kobolds Abyssal
> Teach kobolds Dark Speech
> Learn Draconic from kobolds (takes a ridiculously long time, as it is a tonal hissing language)
> Write in
Food 2(5)/10 (feeding the giant sea snake)
Morale 1/10
Resources 0/10
Magic 4/10

Hero: Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 1,100 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist

Buildings: Bone Shrine, Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech

Martial Art: Zhuang Dao (hundreds of Black Belts)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray

What will you do?
> Continue toxicology research/deploy poison
> Increase food production, the people are having a hard time feeding themselves (specify how)
> Focus on martial arts training or spell research (specify)
> Domesticate some animals
> Write in


Please Roll 2d2 with your choices.

First dice. On a 1, you can time skip no biggie, otherwise some horrible shit happens.
Second dice. On a 1, you discover a way to kill the giant sea serpent. On a 2, it lays eggs! Of course you can only discover it if you're researching it actively...

>>6259751
Forgot to edit the population to 1,300 thousand

Rolled 1, 2 = 3 (2d2)

>>6259751
>> Develop Neutral language (alignment language neutral people have an easy time learning)
> Continue toxicology research/deploy poison

Oh god not eggs.

>>6259756
+1

Lmao you made this one schizophrenic civ anon

>>6259756
>>6259789


Year 70

Together with a handful of kobold sages and dozens of kobold youth, you develop Neutral language! The language is not widespread yet, but enables diplomatic talks.

The kobolds explain they serve a powerful dragon called Tepnoktula.
By the way they talk about the dragon you believe it to be female, but maybe all dragons are hermaphrodite, you are not sure.

They say they want all our gold.

We explain we don't have any.

Seemingly frustrated, they explain that you can pan gold in rivers.
We ask why would we do that.

They say so we can trade for kobold goods.

You ask what goods kobolds have.

The kobolds have:
Jewelry (non gold)
Weapons (mainly razorswords, dogslicers and ogrehooks)
Flaming Oil
Cages
Lizard leather

> Deign to pan gold to buy kobold goods
> We don't need gold nor kobold goods
> Ask for a gift to determine if the goods are worth the effort
> Write in

The giant sea serpent lays eggs in the ocean! Hundreds of sea serperts the size of big fish can be seen in the waters near the shore!

The sea serpent one day simply leaves and can't be found anymore. The people rejoice with all the extra food now available.


Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 1/10
Resources 0/10
Magic 4/10

Hero: Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 1,500 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist

Buildings: Bone Shrine, Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral

Martial Art: Zhuang Dao (hundreds of Black Belts)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray

What will you do?
> Hunt or domesticate sea serpents (specify)
> Throw massive feasts or orgies to thank the gods (specify)
> Start a magic school or gather resources (specify)
> Write in

Roll 1d2 to determine if something bad happens.

On a 1 we can timeskip.

>>6259900
>>6259900
>> Deign to pan gold to buy kobold goods
> Throw massive feasts or orgies to thank the gods (specify)
Throw a feast in the name of the god of death.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6259922

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6259900
> Deign to pan gold to buy kobold goods
> domesticate sea serpents

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6259922 1 feast
>>6259931 2 domesticate sea serpents

>>6259939


Your people start panning for gold and exchanging it for kobold goods.

Turns out kobold goods are much higher quality than anything we have available.

Their razorswords are much sharper than anything we can make, their dogslicers and incredibly lethal, their ogrehooks have so many uses it is crazy!

A civil war erupts with people wanting more access to kobold goods for themselves.

It rages on, bloodly, for five years, until a group of martial artists lead by a woman called Shaga, one of your very finest martial artists, orders her martial artists to execute anyone who killed other people and beat up anyone causing trouble.

Shaga calls our new society the Shagrim and crowns herself Supreme Dictator for life.

In the meantime, some people who stayed away from the conflict have managed to befriend a few Sea Serpents! They start riding them all over the place. They aren't particularly loyal, but could be useful.

Year 75

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 1/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Shaga, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 1,500 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial

Buildings: Bone Shrine, Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral

Army:
Zhuang Dao (hundreds of Black Belts)
Sea Serpent Riders (handful, not loyal)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray

Resources: (Gold->), (Kobold Trade Goods<-)

What will you do?
> Institute mandatory martial arts training
> Follow the rivers upstream to find the gold source
> Send spies into the kobold lands to learn more about them
> Write in

Roll 1d2 to determine if something bad happens.

On a 1 we can timeskip.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6259941
>Follow the rivers upstream to find the gold source

>>6259941
>> Institute mandatory martial arts training
They will think twice of fighting if they know there foe also can.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6259945 1
>>6259946 2

>>6259952


You decide to institute mandatory martial arts training for the entire population! Everyone who doesn't comply gets beaten up and has to show up anyway the next day or will be beaten up again!

Soon the attendance of the martial arts classes soar!

A large wave of kobolds attack your settlement and murder lots of people before being drive away!

Inquired, the kobolds you trade it say that those are rebels who don't answer to their authority!

Shaga gets angry and wants to retaliate.

Shaga also witness you doing a bunch of magic one day and says you should start teaching people your magic!

You ponder what is the best course of action...

Year 76

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 1/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Shaga, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 1,430 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial

Buildings: Bone Shrine, Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral

Army:
Zhuang Dao (hundreds of Black Belts)
Sea Serpent Riders (handful, not loyal)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray

Resources: (Gold->), (Kobold Trade Goods<-)

What will you do?
> Attack the kobolds with all you got or start your own "rebel group" so that you can attack them and feign innocence (specify)
> Start a magic school to teach some of your spells and research more or find a single highly gifted apprentice and teach everything you know (specify)
> Do a massive sacrifice to appease Death or throw a large party to celebrate boons received (specify)
> Write in

Roll 1d2 to determine if something bad happens.

On a 1 we can timeskip.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6259961
> Do a massive sacrifice to appease Death or throw a large party to celebrate boons received (specify)
Find the rebel group and fight them for death. War is a party for death.

>>6259965

You decide to search for the rebel group.

After a long and exhaustive search spanning a couple years, your people finally locate them!

You find a massive cave complex full of traps!

> Send endless waves of people to trigger all the traps and attack the kobolds
> Siege the cave complex and attack all kobolds that try to leave
> Strip mine the caves to expose the kobolds
> Write in

>>6259973
>> Siege the cave complex and attack all kobolds that try to leave

>>6259977


You decide to siege the major cave complex! You station most of your best martial artists there, and a large tent city forms around the area just to keep them supplied!

They seem to either have large stockpiles, or some internal food source... the siege is bound to last many years...

Shaga is angry that with all our best warriors busy, the main settlements are largely undefended!

We could start training the people in spear formations, train some runners for early warning or come up with a massive ritual to enchant the forest around us to fight invaders for us!

Or we could just chill for awhile.

Year 79

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 1/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Shaga, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 1,600 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial

Buildings: Bone Shrine, Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral

Army:
Zhuang Dao (hundreds of Black Belts) (most of them Sieging Rebel Kobolds!)
Sea Serpent Riders (handful, not loyal)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray

Resources: (Gold->), (Kobold Trade Goods<-)


What will you do?
> Establish a spear formation doctrine to defend Shagrim and runners for early warning
> Develop a large scale version of the Entangle spell as a massive ritual for protection
> Throw an actual party or engage in a massive orgy
> Write in

Roll 1d2 to determine if something bad happens.

On a 1 we can timeskip.

>>6259982
> Throw an actual party or engage in a massive orgy
Orgy time

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6259983

>>6259983
>>6259985


You manage to convince the people to organize a massive orgy!

But while you're busy doing it, dire news come from the Siege Camp!

A large dragon came out of one of the main caves and began wreaking havoc on our forces!

Our brave martial artists threw themselves against the dragon with utmost abandon!

The most recent news from the front are unreliable, but we will soon learn that their counterattack was largely (roll 1d100)

1-60 A failure. Many have died and the rest were forced to flee. The kobolds launch a counter counter offensive and drive us away from our siege camp!
61-90 An even match. Though there was a death toll, the dragon also got beat up pretty bad and was forced to flee! The kobolds press on resisting!
91-100 A success. The dragon was defeated! The kobolds surrender.

How should we react?
> Send reinforcements
> Recall the offensive
> Send in someone to parlay
> Write in

(Roll 1d100 to determine success)

Rolled 15 (1d100)

>>6259992
> Send reinforcements

>>6259996
Ah shit

>>6259992
>Send reinforcements
We can't submit to these rebels. We need to put them down so we can get the kobolds' trust and start paying our debt.

>>6259996
>>6259999
We send a massive amount of low skill martial artists as reinforcements!

There is widespread carnage as the kobolds and our men clash!

The dragon looms above, picking up its fights carefully, destroying any warrior he feels like could be a threat to it!

You got one more shot at this!

1-50 failure. Your best Black Belts are forced to flee, and the rest aren't up to par. A retreat is ordered. The kobolds broke the siege.
51-80 the dragon got injured and retreated back into the caves, the kobolds retreated too to protect it. The siege goes on.
81-100 the dragon got injured, and the mass of low skill martial artists made it unsafe for it to return to the cave. As the injured dragon flies away, the kobolds surrender.

> Order your men to engage in total aggression! Roll two dice instead of one and pick the highest, but you get -1 morale at home due to massive casualties.
> Do it orderly, don't take too many risks, reward heroism and punish meekness and cowardice. Roll just one dice, but at a +10!
> The men don't feel like dying today for no reason and you don't push them. You get a +1 morale at home when people see there weren't too many deaths.
> Write in

Rolled 8, 85 = 93 (2d100)

>>6260004
>> Order your men to engage in total aggression! Roll two dice instead of one and pick the highest, but you get -1 morale at home due to massive casualties.
Death for the Death God!!!

>>6260005


The fight is fierce, and the huge dragon gets too injured to continue fighting! Rather than hide in the cave, it opens its massive wings and flies away!

Seeing their dragon flee, the kobolds surrender!

Hundreds of thousands of kobold have just capitulated.

You discover that there is a large hoard of gold within the cave!

What are you gonna do with them?

Year 80

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Shaga, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 1,600 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial

Buildings: Bone Shrine, Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral

Army:
Zhuang Dao (hundreds of Black Belts) (most of them Sieging Rebel Kobolds!)
Sea Serpent Riders (handful, not loyal)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray

Resources: (Gold->), (Kobold Trade Goods<-)


What will you do?
> Bring the gold to your settlement and sacrifice the kobolds to the death goddess
> Bring the gold to your settlement and enslave the kobolds to dig even more gold for you
> Bring the gold to your settlement and sell the kobold rebels as slaves to the other kobolds
> Write in

Roll 1d2 to determine if something bad happens.

On a 1 we can timeskip.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6260008
>>6260008
>> Bring the gold to your settlement and sacrifice the kobolds to the death goddess

Rolled 8, 29, 33 = 70 (3d100)

>>6260009


You decide to bring the gold to your settlement and sacrifice the kobolds to the death goddess!

When they learn about their fate, their fighting spirit reignites!

There was no reasonable way for you to restrain that many kobolds.

They resume fighting with renewed spirit, knowing their enemy is ruthless and the only thing you have reserved for them is death!

Might as well die fighting.

Roll 3d100 for the ensuing fight!

You gotta beat the DC of 50 more than the kobolds to win against them.

Even rolls mean you inflict extra casualties on the kobolds, even if you lose.

Odd rolls mean you suffer great casualties from the kobolds even if you win.

You need a total of 4 victory points to kill enough kobolds that they can't fight back anymore, each success counts as one, each massive casualties also count as one.

If the kobolds get more victory points than you, not only they survive but they recover part of their gold and take some of your people captive!

Strategies:

> Flesh tide! Roll one extra dice, but you suffer 2 extra automatic massive casualties.
> Total Attack! You get a +10 bonus on all rolls, but suffer 1 extra automatic massive casulties.
> Fight carefully. Try not to get too many people killed for no reason. You get a +1 morale back at home.
> Write in

>>6260021

The kobolds got a grand total of

Zero Successes

Inflicted 3 massive casualties. (odd results)

So they got 3 victory points.

Now is your turn to roll!

Rolled 74, 58, 77 = 209 (3d100)

>>6260021
>> Fight carefully. Try not to get too many people killed for no reason. You get a +1 morale back at home.

>>6260025
>>6260027
Dam, they got wiped

>>6260027
>>6260025

Total:

Kobolds got 4 victory points. (one extra from one of your odd rolls)

You got 5 victory points.

(three successes and two even rolls)

You win!

The surviving kobolds scatter and your men capture as many as they can to be sacrificed to the death goddess!

Still, word of your ruthlessness got out. Your enemies are unlikely to deal with you fairly, accept deals or surrender now that they know you are Death Cultists. You throw a massive orgy after sacrificing the kobolds.

Death shows up again, very pleased with the massive sacrifice.

"Very well, I will bestow upon you a boon! You may now train a priestly class that will wield my magical powers. The high priestess must be a woman though. I will grant her immense powers."

The cultists of death become widespread over the next ten years, they can cause great damage to other creatures just by touching them. We call it the Death Touch. We force them to wear black robes and use gloves so as to not kill people by accident.


> You want that power for yourself, plead "Make me the high priestess, I will wear a black dress everyday, what difference does it make?"
> You will appoint a highpriestess when you find someone worthy, if you find someone worthy
> You don't want a highpriestess to challenge you, that damn dictator woman is already bad enough
> Write in

Year 90

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Shaga, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 1,400 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists

Buildings: Bone Shrine, Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral

Army:
Zhuang Dao (hundreds of Black Belts) (most of them Sieging Rebel Kobolds!)
Sea Serpent Riders (handful, not loyal)
Death Cultists (hundreds, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Resources: (Gold->), (Kobold Trade Goods<-), Large Gold Hoard

What will you do?
> Reorganize your society to be fully martial, with a hierarchy consisting of who has the best martial arts belt and who had it for longer
> Train as many death cultists as you can, find a woman amongst them to be the high priestess or research better magic for your cultists (specify)
> Negotiate your surplus gold with the kobolds for a good deal, or dig some kind of vault to secure it (specify)
> Write in

Roll 1d2 to determine if something bad happens.

On a 1 we can timeskip.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6260037
Very well.
>You will appoint a highpriestess when you find someone worthy, if you find someone worthy
We can find someone to appoint later.

> Reorganize your society to be fully martial, with a hierarchy consisting of who has the best martial arts belt and who had it for longer
Martial arts are our biggest edge, we need to keep improving on it.

>>6260037
>> You will appoint a highpriestess when you find someone worthy, if you find someone worthy

> Train as many death cultists as you can, find a woman amongst them to be the high priestess or research better magic for your cultists (specify)
Train more cultists could help keep in check the dictator woman.

>>6260044
+1

>>6260043
>>6260044
>>6260079


You train as many cultists as you can! What was once cabal of a few hundred, now is a massive organization with thousands of members!

Shaga becomes worried that they might disrupt the "delicate balance of power" in Shagrim and decides to take some measures to deal with them.

The gold starts to circulate in your society, whether you want it to or not - it just happened! Everything becomes rapidly precified in gold.

Death comes visit you yet again!

"Good, good! With this many cultists, I'm going to require regular sacrifices."

How will you manage the sacrifices?
> Sacrifice every tenth baby, that should appease death enough
> Draw lots every time sacrifices are needed, rig the lots to sacrifice the undesirable of course
> Sacrifice the weak, this is no different than when we had to eat each other to survive
> Write in

You can't believe your eyes! Several strange monsters were seen in the horizon! They passed through your island but didn't get here. Next time though...

Year 100

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Shaga, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 1,900 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency

Buildings: Bone Shrine, Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral

Army:
Zhuang Dao (hundreds of Black Belts)
Sea Serpent Riders (handful, not loyal)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Resources: (Gold->), (Kobold Trade Goods<-), Large Gold Hoard (in circulation)

What will you do?
> Shaga is getting old, do a coup and instate someone else in power (probably a death cultist)
> You still have most of the gold, pay your warriors in gold and impose taxation to make it sustainable
> Use the gold to fund more resource acquisition (specify the type), impose taxation to make it sustainable
> Write in

Roll 1d2 to determine if something bad happens.

On a 1 we can timeskip.

>>6260093
>Sacrifice the weak, this is no different than when we had to eat each other to survive
This will make us stronger over time.

Hmm...
>Task Shaga with finding an heir, to continue improving our civ's martial arts
I think we shouldn't go all-in on death cultism.

>You still have most of the gold, pay your warriors in gold and impose taxation to make it sustainable
This will improve morale and make use of our gold.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6260100
Forgot the dice for a sec.

>>6260100
>>6260101


On an unexpected power move, Shaga resigns and puts one of her apprentices in charge of the Shagrim. She decides to call herself Shaga the Second (Shaga II). Shaga becomes sort of a tile. Shaga goes to live in the nearby monastery, resuming training new generations of martial artists.

We decide that we will sacrifice the weak to the goddess of Death! We do our first sacrifice, thousands upon thousands of the most vulnerable members of our community are dragged out of their homes and sacrificed! Death must be so pleased!

The cultists believe we can create powerful rituals, if we fuel them with sacrifices!

We start Taxing the people and paying our warriors with Gold. A monetary economy begins to develop, and soon enough we have a very large amount of merchants! Buy low sell high, babe! Prostitution also becomes rampant almost overnight.

The weird monsters we saw before were Ships! Made of Trees!

We barely even make canoes, we have no idea how to make things like that.

A group of creatures comes out of the ships and hails us in a strange language. What do we call them?
> Humans, they look just like us. Kinda.
> Seamen, they might look like us but they are not us, we don't want people thinking foreigners are welcome in our lands
> Dwarves
> Elves
> Dark Elves
> Minotaurs
> Write in

Year 101

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Shaga II, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 1,900 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes

Buildings: Bone Shrine, Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral

Army:
Zhuang Dao (hundreds of Black Belts)
Sea Serpent Riders (handful, not loyal)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Resources: (Gold->), (Kobold Trade Goods<-), Large Gold Hoard (in circulation)

What will you do?
> Research death rituals involving sacrifices
> Learn from or Teach language to the new arrivals (specify)
> Panic and murder all the newcomers, eat them to gain their strength
> Write in

Roll 1d2 to determine if something bad happens.

On a 1 we can timeskip.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6260109
>> Dark Elves
> Research death rituals involving sacrifices

>>6260109
> Dark Elves
> Learn from or Teach language to the new arrivals
learn language

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6260148 1 research death rituals
>>6260176 2 learn language

>>6260148
>>6260176
>>6260304

You call the beings that descended from the Ship the Dark Elves

You decide to learn their language. But much to your surprise, a lavishly styled female elvish translator comes forth and starts to hail you in several languages, until they notice we speak Abyssal.

"Ah, Abyssal. You must have had a lot of... contact... with beings from the underworld. Very well. We may negotiate then."

They say they are Traders, but they have very little interest in gold. They are more interested in purchasing laborers, for their mines require a large workforce that they don't currently have. They have powerful magic to trade, and they could even leave a Teacher here to instruct your people in the dark elf language and help you set up a Pier and a Trading Post for their Ships.

> Go talk to them personally, ask them what kind of magic they have to offer
> Ask them to leave the Teacher here, we could use a Dark Elf trading post, but don't trade yet
> Fill up their cargohold with disposable people then see what they have to offer in exchange
> Write in

>>6260324
>> Ask them to leave the Teacher here, we could use a Dark Elf trading post, but don't trade yet

The dark elves leave a Teacher behind, a dark elf female named Zola. She's incredibly promiscuous and greedy, and soon gets a reputation as a high class courtesan, entertaining whoever has the coin to throw a good party and sleeping with the highest bidder.

Her knowledge is vast in many areas, but she's too lazy to teach us everything, she's more interested in the local men. She even bears a couple children during her stay here, one boy and one girl. The girl she instructs very carefully, while the boy is raised in the streets being beaten up by the other boys for being weird and slow. Curiously, the boy is far more attached to her than the girl, even though she basically despises him, and in many occasions was seen beating him up severely to the point of bleeding.

Still, she fulfills her obligations to help us build a pier, a trading post and teach us dark elvish language. She spends a couple hours a day on that, and the rest of the time she parties and fucks around like there's no tomorrow. You're pretty sure she's treating this as some kind of extended holiday.

She always says that in a few decades the dark elves will return. She has no intention of taking her children with her, rather she plans to leave them behind in charge of the trading post.

The kobolds send an emissary. They say they found a large settlement of lizardmen who worship a different dragon than they do. Considering your experience with the rebels, they ask for your help to get rid of them!

> We have no quarrels with lizardmen, we will not get involved
> Perhaps for a sufficiently large sum, we could get our mighty warriors involved
> Join our eternal friends the kobolds in their crusade
> Write in

Year 111

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Shaga II, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.
Zola, the Dark Elf Teacher.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 2,400 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes

Buildings: Bone Shrine, Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish

Army:
Zhuang Dao (hundreds of Black Belts)
Sea Serpent Riders (handful, not loyal)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Resources: (Gold->), (Kobold Trade Goods<-), Large Gold Hoard (in circulation)

What will you do?
> Work on your magic (specify)
> Build a massive temple around the Shrine of Bones
> Keep bothering the Dark Elf Teacher to teach you something useful (specify)
> Write in

Roll 1d2 to determine if something bad happens.

On a 1 we can timeskip.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6260371
> Perhaps for a sufficiently large sum, we could get our mighty warriors involved
We get most of the lizardmen slaves of war.

> Build a massive temple around the Shrine of Bones

>>6260382
+1

>>6260382
>>6260424


We inform the kobolds that for a sufficiently large sum, we could get our mighty warriors involved. We imply that if we get most of the lizardmen slaves of war, we will help them out.

The kobolds have a hard time hiding their excitement. They agree to our terms and dispatch a few dozen Kobold Trackers, to help us pathfind through the island all the way to the lizardmen territory

On the way there, the kobolds show us a vast forest of massive tall trees that they say we should avoid.

"In there, the trees come to life and attack you.", they say, matter of factly.

We enter a vast swamp and the kobolds say that the lizardmen make their lairs here. They show us one of their villages.

From their reports, the lizardmen have far lesser numbers than we or the kobolds, but they are entrenched in this deadly swamp and it is very hard to root them out.

We start building a massive temple around the Shrine of Bones. It should get done in several years.

Year 112

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Shaga II, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.
Zola, the Dark Elf Teacher.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 2,400 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple (under construction), Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish

Army:
Zhuang Dao (hundreds of Black Belts)
Sea Serpent Riders (handful, not loyal)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Resources: (Gold->), (Kobold Trade Goods<-), Large Gold Hoard (in circulation)

Pacts: Kobolds (destroy the lizardmen, get slaves)

What will you do?
> You will need subterfuge to harm the lizardmen, research death rituals or ways to poison them (specify what you have in mind)
> Set your sea serpent riders loose upon the lizardmen or research ways to enable your other warriors to fight in aquatic terrains (specify)
> Attempt diplomatic contact with the lizardmen or spy on them (specify how)
> Write in

Roll 1d2 to determine if something bad happens.

On a 1 we can timeskip.

>>6260586
>> You will need subterfuge to harm the lizardmen, research death rituals or ways to poison them (specify what you have in mind)
Find a way to poison the water try and combine our magic with our poison we were trying to kill the sea serpent with.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6260596

>>6260596

Support, perhaps we might try and poison them just enough to incapacitate them rather than kill them, for more slaves.

>>6260596
>>6260600
>>6260601


We spend the following decade perfecting the delivery of our poison through magical means!

We develop a powerful Ritual we call Toxic Blight!

By sacrificing 100,000 people is a gruesome ritual to death by fusing their essence with a specially prepared Toxin, we dumped their bodies in the swamp and their ghosts began to haunt the place! The entire swamp became highly poisoned and haunted by ghosts which also poison anyone who enters the swamp at night! The ghosts are totally out of control and vengeful, and will attack us if we enter the swamp as well. Their poison is no more dangerous than a bee sting at night, and cause nothing but a mild nuisance during the day, but their sheer numbers and relentlessness could cause serious harm over time.

Our cultists notice that the numbers of the lizardmen dwindled! They mostly relocated to the coastline due to the threat of the swamp!

They seem to be unaware that we cursed them.

What are you gonna do?

Year 123

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Shaga II, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.
Zola, the Dark Elf Teacher.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 2,800 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple (under construction), Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish

Army:
Zhuang Dao (hundreds of Black Belts)
Sea Serpent Riders (handful, not loyal)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling)

Resources: (Gold->), (Kobold Trade Goods<-), Large Gold Hoard (in circulation)

Pacts: Kobolds (destroy the lizardmen, get slaves)

What will you do?
> Invent another curse to lay waste to the lizardmen or contact them to offer a fake cure that will poison them further (specify what you have in mind)
> Send your army to wipe them out or ask the kobolds to attack them now that they are weakened (specify)
> Train your most elite martial artists or cultists in the way of poison or establish a specific punishment of death to all those who fail behind in their lessons to incentivize them (specify)
> Write in

Roll 1d2 to determine if something bad happens.

On a 1 we can timeskip.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6260604
>Send your army to wipe them out or ask the kobolds to attack them now that they are weakened (specify)

Send our army out

>>6260604
> Send your army to wipe them out or ask the kobolds to attack them now that they are weakened (specify)
Attack with Kobolds and our army.

>>6260604
>Send your army to wipe them out or ask the kobolds to attack them now that they are weakened (specify)
Time to attack. A combined martial artist+kobold assault would be ideal, but not strictly necessary.

>>6260606
>>6260636
>>6260655


You send an envoy to the kobolds to organize the attack!

There is much discussion about tactics.

You learn the kobold army is composed largely of a massive amount of spear-chuckers - kobolds are required to defend the settlement and train with spears. They also have entire divisions of slingers and shieldbearers - kobolds who carry just a large shield, to protect other troops.

They also have some drake rider shock troops and lizard cavalry they mostly use for scouting.

Their army vastly outnumber yours, but their training level is much lower.

They insist that you attack first to soften the lizardmen and then they come in a massive tide.

Your military advisors say whoever attacks first will take the brunt of the lizardman forces, and will likely suffer great casualties. We do not understand very well the military capabilities of the lizardmen currently, but they live in mudhuts, they probably don't have much technology, they just rely on their superior strength and thick scales, maybe with some kind of amphibious strategy or tamed beast surprises.

> Agree with the kobolds and attack first
> Tell the kobolds it is their war so they must attack first
> Promise to help but don't actually attack at all
> Write in

>>6260694
If we are allies, we can fight together.
>Mix our forces, with our least skilled martial artists and half of theirs making the first wave. Later, we send all that both of us can spare in a stronger second wave.
This will reduce our weakness and show that we mean business to the kobolds.

>>6260702
support

Rolled 67, 91, 99 = 257 (3d100)

>>6260702
>>6260706


Your commanders argue with the kobolds that we are allies so we can fight together!

You insist that both your forces attack at the same time!

The kobolds don't seem happy about this arrangement at all.

You send in your weakest forces ahead to fight together with the kobold army.

When we are about to attack, the kobolds insist on launching a night attack, while your commanders want a daytime attack.

Not to displease the kobolds further, who are already pissed off at us for our outlandish "tactics", we end up agreeing on a late night attack, so that we can continue it further throughout the next morning.

We launch our attack, but it soon becomes clear the kobolds are too cowardly and too slow to get to the frontlines in time, skirmishing around and doing many false advances followed by retreats - your men will take the brunt of the attack regardless...

Your less skilled martial artists are very lightly armed, most carry only a quarterstaff.

The cohesion between your troops and the kobolds is very low. No kobolds is willing to die to protect a human in the battlefield, it seems.

Mixing your forces just created great confusion for everyone. Sending supbar troops means you will get penalties!

Choose your strategy:

> Attack with all you got. You're in the dance, might as well dance. -10 penalties, lots of casualties, but you get to roll one extra dice.
> At the last moment hold back and let the kobolds take charge. They might get angry at it later. They will certainly hesitate and lose momentum and surprise. -20 to all rolls.
> Fail to send in your best reinforcements after seeing this shitshow. Your men will get angry and the kobolds too. -30 to all rolls.
> Write in

Roll 3d100 (or 4d100 if you choose to attack with all you got), DC 50. Whoever gets more victory points wins. A decisive victory requires 5 or more victory points.

Even rolls are a victory point to you. Odd rolls are a victory point to the enemy.
Beating the DC means a victory point.
Same numbers double the outcomes (11, 22, etc)

If a decisive victory is not reached, there will be another round of combat, where everyone gets worse penalties.

I'm rolling for the Lizardmen. Their DC is 60 (+10 from surprise attack), unless you choose to hold back, in which case it is 50.

>>6260712

The lizards got:

3 successes

3 odd rolls

1 same number

for a total of

7 Victory points.

Now you roll.

Rolled 72, 27, 24, 31 - 10 = 144 (4d100 - 10)

>>6260712
Stinking kobolds... alas, a deal is a deal.
>Attack with all you got. You're in the dance, might as well dance. -10 penalties, lots of casualties, but you get to roll one extra dice.
Foooorwaaaard!

>>6260713
>>6260722
This is a great offering for Death. It is also a total shitshow and I take full responsibility. I shouldn't have trusted the kobolds to fight like men.

>>6260722

You got

One success

two even numbers

So 3 Victory points overall.

>>6260732
This could have been worse. The lizardmen won but not decisively. We can recover and strike them again, with or without the kobolds.

Come to think of it... outside of black belts, almost all of our troops are subpar. We need to improve our martial art or get more plant mages, or maybe improve our technology. We're still barbaric.

The combined army of men and kobolds march on against the shores where live the lizardmen.

They attack at night, by surprise!

The lizardmen suffer a few losses right away, but soon they start mustering their troops.

More and more lizardmen come out of their huts and their villages and from the sea.

As the fight drags on, it becomes increasingly clear that the lizardmen are far superior.

They are bigger, they have better reflexes, they are much stronger, they even have better weapons somehow.

The surprise attack quickly turns into a massacre of the forces sent in. Even your reinforcements are just chewed by the lizardmen.

Your martial arts are powerful, but against opponents with a very different physiology, most of what you know about the body and ways to disable the opponents don't directly apply. The lizardmen have different centers of mass and they can fight from the ground, with claws from whichever hand or leg, with their tails and by biting. It is hard to choke them, even harder to hold them in any kind of disadvantageous position. Your black belts are at a loss with how ineffective are the techniques they spent a lifetime honing!

Defeat is unavoidable.

Both yours and the kobold's army suffer massive casualties. You retreat to your homes, defeated.

But the lizardmen pursue you! Angered, the wanted to know who been attacking them.

There are many skirmishes against them, but they are relentless.

They turned the tables and brought the war into your turf!

They send a delegation to our lands, to discuss the terms of our surrender.

"You are to provide us with a large offering of food every year, surrender all your gold to us. If you fail to do so, we will slaughter your people! You will also provide us with workers for our mines!"

Do you agree with the surrender terms or do you keep fighting?
> Agree with the terms
> Keep fighting
> Write in

>>6260737

The lizardmen got far more victory points than needed for a decisive victory my dude.

>>6260741


Ah, the lizardmen delegation is communicating in Neutral language.

>>6260741
> Keep fighting
We will never be slaves again!!

>>6260744
Forgive me, for I am a retard. I misread it as 5 more victory points than the opposition for a decisive victory, not 5 or more total.

>>6260741
Damn these scaly bastards! They may be larger, stronger, faster, and more advanced than us, but we have two strengths that they don't. Patience and malice. If we fight them now, we risk annihilation. If we wait for later, we'll be better prepared.
>Agree with the terms
Hate to see it but there's not much else to do. We'll give up our food, gold, and weaklings. That will stoke our fury so that it'll be that much sweeter when we get them back.

>>6260752
I want to fight as well but they've stacked the deck. Then again, we do have the death cultists. If another anon agrees, I'll switch to support fighting.

I'm gonna wait a little while for a tie breaker then.

>>6260741
>> Keep fighting

We have been weeding out the weak for generations, now is the time for total war. Unleash our magic and send our people at them in waves. The strong and worthy shall survive to pass on their superior genes.

>>6260779
Alea iacta est.

>>6260741
I'm >>6260755 switching to
>Keep fighting
Death touch may yet win the day.

>>6260783


You scoff at the lizardmen offer.

"To the last man then! You'll regret it!", they say, before storming off.

What is your plan for the next year of war?

Year 123

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Shaga II, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.
Zola, the Dark Elf Teacher.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 2,600 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple (under construction), Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish

Army:
Zhuang Dao (a few dozen Black Belts)
Sea Serpent Riders (handful, not loyal)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling)

Resources: (Gold->), (Kobold Trade Goods<-), Large Gold Hoard (in circulation), trade halted!!!

Pacts: Kobolds (status unknown)

What will you do?
> Halt everything you're doing and start making weapons! You gonna arm the entire population and send them in waves against the lizardmen!
> Send in your death cultists to kill the lizardmen with the death touch! Send the remainder of your martial artists as bodyguards.
> Hastly prepare a massive death ritual by sacrificing hundreds of thousands of people to unleash vengeful spirits upon the lizardmen!
> Write in

>>6260790
If we risk our death cultists and fail, we're doomed. A death ritual is a gamble. That goes double for one we haven't researched. I think the best strategy is use our people as fodder to screen our remaining elites.
>Halt everything you're doing and start making weapons! You gonna arm the entire population and send them in waves against the lizardmen!
This way, there's slightly more room for error. I'm tempted to use poison, but lizardmen are likely resistant to it. Dressing everyone as death cultists to confuse the lizardmen could work, it might offend Death and is also less dangerous than giving everyone crude, stone-age clubs and spears.

>>6260790
> Hastly prepare a massive death ritual by sacrificing hundreds of thousands of people to unleash vengeful spirits upon the lizardmen!
We are going to take a lot of loses anyways.

>>6260790
>> Halt everything you're doing and start making weapons! You gonna arm the entire population and send them in waves against the lizardmen!

Have our death cultists dispersed amongst the waves with our martial artist acting as officers.

Rolled 7, 41, 16 = 64 (3d100)

>>6260799
>>6260816
>>6260832


You halt everything you're doing and start making weapons!

By winter's end you have roughly 100,000 good spears and little else.

That will have to do.

You give your strongest men a spear each and organize some tactics with the remaining martial artists working as officers.

You disperse the death cultists amongst the troops. One problem with that is they must wear the black robes.

So we dirt the clothing of everyone else with ashes to provide some basic disguise for them. We don't have time or resources to do more than that.

When spring comes, a large army of lizardmen is sighted marching straight into our settlement! Thousands of them!

"We outnumber them, but we are very poorly trained. Our best hope is to get several death cultists to touch each of them, one by one, and kill them with our magic. Everyone else, protect the cultists. Understood?"

With the tactics clear, it is time to engage!

Choose your strategy and roll 3d100.

> Keep falling back as the lizardmen advance, and when they invade your shantytown, set it on fire! +10 bonus to rolls due to surprise.
> Rush and meet them in the field. This way you can fully use your numbers advantage by encircling them. You can roll one extra dice.
> Make a spearwall with the cultists behind, when the lizardman try to breach, have the cultists touch them to death. No bonus, but minimizes casualties preventing a decisive victory from either side.
> Write in

5 victory points mean a decisive victory.

Even rolls are one victory point for you, odd rolls for the opponent.
Winning the DC 50 is one victory point.
Dubs in the rolls is one victory point as well.

Rolling for the lizardmen!

>>6260843


The lizardmen got 2 victory points.

You already got one victory point from the even roll they rolled.

Now it is your turn to roll.

>>6260843
I won't roll, as I did last time.
>Rush and meet them in the field. This way you can fully use your numbers advantage by encircling them. You can roll one extra dice.
In this situation, our numbers are critical and must be spent to their utmost. If Death smiles on us, we could turn this war around.

Rolled 24, 70, 13, 35 = 142 (4d100)

>>6260843
>Rush and meet them in the field. This way you can fully use your numbers advantage by encircling them. You can roll one extra dice.

Honestly, perhaps all of this death is a result of our reliance upon death, in the future perhaps we should try to trend towards our abyssal roots?

A healthy offering of lizardmen should help.

>>6260864

you got one success

you got 2 even numbers

so you got 4 successes total.

you got two odd numbers, that added to the 2 victory points of the lizardmen makes 4 successes.

There is no winner.

>>6260866


The fight rages on, the lizardmen attack and kill lots of our inexperienced warriors, then we circle them and start killing them with death touch spells.

They notice something odd is going on when their warriors start falling to a bunch of weaklings in dark robes, and decide to retreat to reevaluate their strategies.

But they are surrounded!

They fight their way out of our circle of death and return to their territory.

Spent, we dare not follow.

Both sides suffered losses, but neither side suffered a decisive defeat.

You lose about half of your spears in the fight, they broke or became unusable.

How will you prepare for next year?

Year 124

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Shaga II, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.
Zola, the Dark Elf Teacher.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 2,800 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple (under construction), Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish

Army:
Zhuang Dao (a few dozen Black Belts)
Sea Serpent Riders (handful, not loyal)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling)

Resources: Large Gold Hoard (in circulation)

Weapons: about 50,000 good spears

What will you do?
> Ramp up weapons production, you need more spears
> Send a diplomat to the lizardmen, ask for a truce, or go check what happened to the kobolds (specify)
> Take the fight to lizardmen territory, do a total attack
> Write in

>>6260871
>Ramp up weapons production, you need more spears

Perhaps we might poison the spears? Establish some formations using veterans of the previous engagements?

>>6260871
A stalemate. This could've gone better but could've gone far worse. Let us seize the momentum while we still can.
>Take the fight to lizardmen territory, do a total attack
If we give them time to strategize, they'll find a counter for our death cultism. That would be the death of us and not in a good way. If we take the fight to them, it's a win-win. If we win, we'll win. If we lose, we'll still have a chance to fallback.

Just a thought I had, with being immortal and magically powerful, perhaps the guide himself should embark upon the path of cultivation.

And where are those cowardly kobolds in all of this? This relationship seems less than mutually beneficial at this point.

>>6260884
My money's that the kobolds are hiding. They were too cowardly to fight without us, and now, they've got the choice to fortify or press on their own. I'm not sure of trying to do martial arts, since we're blind. We've barely tapped into the Dark Speech yet. I see a few possibilities
>Experiment with unholy poison rituals
>Tame and train the sea serpents
>Recite hell's laws in divine tongue
The sea serpents are likely the strongest choice. Especially since our martial artists could learn from them, later.

>write in
> Begin covertly training a new elite unit from among your death cultists, mixing martial arts with magic under Zola and Shaga’s guidance.

Our pop is pretty low compared to the souls required for payment, and a loss to the lizardmen could be catastrophic.

We could also try subterfuge and send Kritus to parlay with the lizardmen, citing that another divine force is driving this conflict (throw Kobolds and their god under the bus). Buys us time to decide what to do.

>>6260880
>>6260882
>>6260907

Alright, so the options you people propose are

1 - make more spears, poison them
2 - take the fight to the lizardmen
3 - covertly train an elite unit of martial artist cultists

Someone give me a tie breaker or I'll roll for it in a few minutes.

>>6260923
>>6260907
Death ops special forces.

>>6260923
An elite unit of martial cultists could be useful, but we don't have much time. Weapons are also useful but can't match lizardmen's metal and brawn. I think launching an attack before they learn to counter death touch is the best strategy but these are all sensible.

>>6260907
Wait a minute...
>Traits: Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Toxicologist, Death Cultists
All of the tools are there to train some NASTY assassins when this war is over. They could even double as a secret police! I'm in full agreement that we should get some elites, but I don't think we have the time to get them up to snuff before the lizardmen are back.

>>6260931
>>6260934

We might benefit from encouraging the development of multiple sects, think of it as having different tools for different problems.

Still we need an actual organized military as well, forming some standing formations out of veterans from the war to establish a military tradition can't hurt us.

Rolled 2 (1d3)

>>6260925
>>6260931
>>6260934
>>6260943


alright, covertly train an elite unit of martial artist cultists it is.

Rolling to determine if the lizardmen attack immediately or not

1 - they don't attack for awhile
2 - they send in an emissary
3 - they attack next year like clockwork

>>6260951

The lizardfolk send in an emissary to parlay. There is a token retinue escorting her - a lizardwoman which strangely have massive boobs for some reason. You did not know lizardwomen had boobs.

"Both of our people have suffered too much with this war! It is time for us to bury it in the past. The land is rich and we can coexist in peace! Bestow upon us Half of all your gold and we will consider the war debt paid and will cease hostilities!"

> Agree to their proposal, give half your gold
> Agree but cheat, give less gold, how will they even know
> Disagree. You will press onwards with the war
> Write in

>>6260956
>> Write in

Refuse to pay tribute, but offer peace all the same.

If they decline, war it is.

>>6260963

In a puzzling and ruthless attempt at negotiation, you refuse to pay the tribute yet offer "peace" all the same.

"Many lives were lost. You started the war. Compensation is required. Many more lives will be lost if you don't pay what you owe us. We are being more than reasonable, we are being magnanimous.", says the emissary, matter of factly, changing nothing about the terms.

> Agree to their proposal, give half your gold
> Agree but cheat, give less gold, how will they even know
> Disagree. You will press onwards with the war
> Write in

>>6260956
Say the Kobolds tricked us into the war. Saying when the lizard men find us, they would not stop attacking until we were wiped out. Propose joining forces and attacking the kobolds we could split the spoils of wars.

>>6260979

You say the Kobolds tricked you into the war. Saying when the lizard men find us, they would not stop attacking until we were wiped out. Propose joining forces and attacking the kobolds, we could split the spoils of wars.

"I understand, but I must refuse. We do not wage wars of conquest. We are a peaceful people who seek harmony with nature and all our neighbours. The kobolds have capitulated and are furnishing laborers for our mines to pay back what they owe us. Once the debt is paid, they will be released."

> Agree to their proposal, give half your gold
> Agree but cheat, give less gold, how will they even know
> Disagree. You will press onwards with the war
> Offer to give them laborers for their mines as well instead of giving them your gold
> Write in

>>6260984
>> Agree to their proposal, give half your gold

>>6260985


You agree with giving half your gold to the lizardmen in exchange for peace. You institute a "50% war tax" on all the gold in the kingdom, make a huge pile and tell the lizardmen.

"It is yours."

Over the course of the next year, the lizardmen come with big wooden boxes to retrieve the gold.

Incidentally, a caravan is established, as some of your people go visit the lizardfolk.

You learn the lizardfolk have an ancient tradition where Parley is considered sacred. Anyone who asks them to parley with their leaders is spared and escorted to have a conversation. Their leaders are a bunch of shamans, most of them female. They rarely leave their sprawling mudhut villages.

The lizardfolk have the following trade goods:

Pearls
Dried Swamp Herbs
Obsidian Blades
Salted Fish
Swamp Honey
Glowmoss
Chitin
Frog Oil

They accept only Gold in exchange.

You learn they worship a dragon they call simply Dragon King. They bring it food, gold and mates. It lives underwater.

Year 125

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Shaga II, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.
Zola, the Dark Elf Teacher.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 2,800 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple (under construction), Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish

Army:
Zhuang Dao (a few dozen Black Belts)
Sea Serpent Riders (handful, not loyal)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling)

Resources: Small Gold Hoard (in circulation)

Weapons: about 50,000 good spears

What will you do?
> Establish a trade route with the lizardfolk or go see what the kobolds are up to (specify)
> Build a massive marketplace near the center of the island so that you can begin an era of prosperity for all or explore the rest of the island to figure out who else lives here (specify)
> Research some new magic or strengthen your army (specify)
> Write in


Roll 1d2 to determine if something bad happens.

On a 1 we can timeskip.

>>6260996
>> Establish a trade route with the lizardfolk or go see what the kobolds are up to (specify)
See what the kobolds are doing.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6261000

>>6261000
>>6261007


You send emissaries to the kobolds to check on them.

They are digging a massive network of warrens deep underground to fortify their position. At the same time, they are building a gigantic spire.

But half of their people are away toiling in the lizardfolk mines.

Your people go check out the mines too. There are over a dozen of them, very deep. The lizardfolk mostly ignore all minerals except gold. They dig deeper and deeper until they find gold. The kobolds are good at finding gold, what helps.

One of the mines is so deep it reaches all the way to Hell, or so you're told. A hellscape filled with molten magma, where the lizardfolk gather obsidian sometimes.

The kobolds are wary of even whispering about rebellion. But you know it is in their hearts. They wish to conquer the entire island, and the world beyond. It hurts their pride to be servile to any creature - except, perhaps, their dragon deity.

The dark elves return, with three massive slave ships! They stay just in the horizon, and send small boats with people to negotiate.

By now, the children of the dark elf Teacher Zola have already had children - and a few grandchildren.

Yet she remains as beautiful and promiscuous as the day she first arrived.

The dark elves return with the following trade goods:

Silk
Mirrors
Parchment
Ink
Mushroom Booze (very strong!)
Ethereal Candles (made with fat from underground creatures, it reveals spirits and burns with a blue light)

and a bunch of magical items which they are willing to sell very expensive:

Blade of Bleeding (the slightest cut bleeds, very difficult to mend the wound) x 1
Corset of Command (forces obedience from weak minds) x 1
Choker of Obedience (induces obedience) x 200
Bracelets of Shared Pain (creates a psychic network where everyone wearing them feels the pain of everyone else) x 200

They demand you fill up their cargoholds with slaves and choose some goods.

They will part with the corset of command for 3 full holds (approximately 1,500 slaves) of the most beautiful women in your entire civilization.

The other items cost less - in fact they are willing to part with their whole cargo of non magical items for just one ship full of your best slaves.

100 chokers cost one ship full. 100 bracelets one ship full as well. Same for the Blade.

The dark elves are only interested in high quality slaves, since they can't carry too many. The traits they are looking for are:

Beautiful (the most beautiful people in your civilization, specially women)
Genius (the smartest people in your civilization)
Linguistic Knowledge (must know at least four languages)
Magical Aptitude (must be capable of learning magic)

They are willing to test your population for magical aptitude and pick and choose beautiful people and geniuses amongst them.

>>6261019

The dark elves say they will come again in a few decades. You may ask for something specific, if you want.

Year 136

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Shaga II, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.
Zola, the Dark Elf Teacher.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 3,300 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple (under construction), Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish

Army:
Zhuang Dao (a few dozen Black Belts)
Sea Serpent Riders (handful, not loyal)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling)

Resources: Small Gold Hoard (in circulation)

Weapons: about 50,000 good spears

What will you do?
> Let the dark elves test your people for magical aptitude and take the capable ones
> Let the dark elves take the geniuses and linguists of your civilization
> Let the dark elves take the most beautiful women of your civilization
> Write in


Roll 1d2 to determine if something bad happens.

On a 1 we can timeskip.

>>6261021
>> Write in

Sadly due to our extensive losses of late we cannot afford the trade. Instead offer a bargain for a longer term investment; the dark elves give us knowledge that would help us to conquer our neighbors and we will in turn provide them with slaves aplenty from those conquered peoples on their return.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6261021

>>6261041
>>6261043


Sadly due to our extensive losses of late we cannot afford the trade. Instead, we offer a bargain for a longer term investment; the dark elves give us knowledge that would help us to conquer our neighbors and we will in turn provide them with slaves aplenty from those conquered peoples on their return.

The dark elves are displeased to say the least at our unworthiness as trading partners. If we weren't going to sell them slaves, we should have told them before they came here ready to carry the slaves all the way over the sea.

They demand compensation for your failure to comply with standard business practices.

They want three cargoholds full of slaves, regardless of skills, merely as compensation for the time they wasted here.

In exchange, they will not decry our shameful lack of trading integrity to their Empress, the supreme mistress of ten thousand names, supreme admiral of ten thousand warships, supreme commander of ten thousand invisible assassins and descendant of the first tamers of flying nightmare monsters that eat souls (which they admit they don't have ten thousand of yet because they are too hard to feed).

It all sounded as a veiled menace, though you are uncertain about the veracity of their claims.

And they will also allow us the privilege of placing orders of what we want them to bring from foreign lands in exchange of slaves.

> Give them a bunch of undesirable slaves from the dregs of your society and place some orders (specify)
> Just give them a bunch of supplies and send them on their way, we don't really need their stuff
> Tell them we owe them nothing at all, have them leave empty handed and angry
> Write in

>>6260956
>the lizardmen are chill
I wasn't expecting that.

>>6260996
>the lizardmen have a dragon
I was expecting that. Useful information. We'll have to consider it carefully.

>>6261019
All of these goods could be profitable, particularly the parchment and ink, but we didn't trade for them. I'm hesitant to sell chattel of our own race, this was a missed opportunity and damaged our diplomatic relations.

>>6261064
>Apologize for our shortsightedness. As humans, we didn't realize that our gracious dark elven benefactors would be back so soon and the mistake is clearly 100% our own. Reassure them that in the future, we won't let our lack of experience lead to another faux passe.
Make sure to praise the guidance of Zola and imply that she's enlightened our civilization. Elves love flattery, and that probably goes double for dark elves.

>Give them a bunch of strong, sturdy slaves from the workers of your society and place some orders
Let's ask for dryads, brownies, or spriggans. Possibly gnomes or earth elementals. More or less any seelie fae or nature-related creatures they can find. Our poisons could use their vegetable expertise.

>>6261064
>writein

Send them the criminal, insane, and unredeemable, those who failed even as death cultists. Dress the transaction in ritual and honour: these are "souls unfit for our glorious rebirth, better suited for exile to the greater flame."

Id prefer not to send our hottest biddies away to a distant land.

Im thinking the Bracelets of shared pain might be good for our military capabilities. Can Kritus do a roll to understand the artefact better?

>>6261094
>>6261074
Also to add Apologize to the elves, and dress our slaves away with ritual and honour as our repentence.

>>6261064
I just thought, the dark elves are in the business of BUYING slaves, not selling slaves. Trying to set an order for them would piss them off further. Keeping that in mind, I'll change the order here >>6261074 to-
>Ink and parchment, as much as possible, and anything related to plant magic they can find
Which will be necessary for improving our magic scholarship.

>>6261094
Support, i suppose.

We must conquer our neighbors and set up a blood economy to sustain all of this stuff rather than keep sacrificing our own people. We have a debt to pay afterall.

>>6261094
>>6261097
I'll support both of these but keep the current order suggestion.

You apologize to the dark elves for their shortsightedness. As humans, you didn't realize that your gracious dark elven benefactors would be back so soon and the mistake is clearly 100% your own. You reassure them that in the future, you won't let our lack of experience lead to another faux passe. You also greatly praise the guidance of Zola and imply she enlightened our civilization.

The dark elf captain seems please by your words. Orders her men to bring in a few crates of booze as a gift and disembark for a few days of parley.

We sit together with her retinue at the Trading Post, drinking and discussing what should be brought on next trip.

We agree to sending to the dark elves our worst criminals, insane people, the unredeemable and those who failed even as death cultists, so they don't return empty handed. You feel a big burden lifted from upon your shoulders.

The dark elves say next time they will come with three ships again, expecting 1,500 of your best slaves. We start to negotiate the price of what we want to buy from them!

We ask if it would be possible to source fairies of some kind. They say those are very hard to catch, require complex enchantments just to prevent it from turning all the materials the ship is made of into carnivorous plants. If they manage to catch one, they would sell it for three full ships of your best slaves, and that would still be cheap!

You inquire upon the bracelets of shared pain. The captain has a couple pairs brought to you as a demonstration. She seemingly has a lot of fun demonstrating it again and again to your people, as a slave gets one and three other people wear it and then she gives the slave a lash with her whip and the other one feels the pain, but they get no wound!

You inquire what kind of magic is used to make those. The captain face turns somber.

She says the recipe is very simple, actually. A powerful magical soul is trained in the psychic arts for a few decades and then sacrificed in a very elaborate ritual that minces their soul in a myriad fragments. These fragments serve as conduits for very intense feelings. A few more complex rituals later, and the bracelets infused with those soul fragments are all attuned! The rituals are actually programmable during those particular stages. Instead of pain, they could make bracelets of shared pleasure for instance, or any other intense feelings, but pain and pleasure are the strongest feelings humans can have so very rarely they make anything else. She shares a story of how once they made a bunch of Bracelets of Shared True Love because someone asked for those, but for a long time they thought it was defective, until they found a young couple in love, so they tried the bracelets on them and the sensation was very weird and hard to describe, but it wasn't pleasant at all. They suppose they could make ones for panic, anger, sadness or joy as well, though people never request those. The range is a few miles.

>>6261260


The bracelets of shared pain will cost one full ship of your best slaves for 100, as stated. Custom orders (like bracelets of shared pleasure, or anything else) will cost 10 times more due to the complexity of retooling the rituals to make them, so one full ship for 10 of those.

We then inquire about ink and parchment. They say they can produce a very large amount of that on demand. They could bring us roughly the equivalent to 10,000 blank books for one ship full of your best slaves. They could also sell us 10,000 bottles of high quality ink in exchange for a ship full of your best slaves. One bottle is enough to write up to three books, depending on how much ink you use for each.

If we are interested in Dark Elvish Literature, they could sell us copies of their 100 best books for one ship full of your best slaves. The topics range from mythology to mathematics to philosophy. Everything is very abstract, but it develops rigorous thinking, which have many applications for bettering people's lives.
If you are interested in books of something more practical, they could fetch some and perhaps even find another Teacher, but it is unlikely that they will have more than 5-10 books on any given subject. Dark elves abhor the endless proliferation of books, they prefer to take several decades to write a good comprehensive book instead. Price is the same, a full ship of your best slaves.

We inquire specifically about plant magic. To sell books on magic she will have to ask the permission of the Council. In any case, a single copy of a grimoire on Plant Magic would cost three ship loads of your best slaves, and that would still cheap. These things take hundreds of years to develop, even copying them takes many years because it must be done in very specific conditions.

After several days of long and productive discussion, the Captain asks what will we want when they return. The elves are currently unwilling to bring more than three ships, but if the trade goes smoothly they might send more later on.

> One Fairy
> One Plant Grimoire
> Books on Practical Matters and a Teacher
> Dark Elvish Literature
> Blank Parchment Books
> High Quality Ink
> Bracelets of Shared Pain
> Bracelets of Shared Pleasure
> Thank them for their business but say we aren't interested at this moment
> Write in

>>6261263
>Books on Practical Matters and a Teacher

>>6261276

We need to grow our civilization.

>>6261263
>Books on Practical Matters and a Teacher
>>6261282

>>6261276
>>6261282
>>6261300


"Ah, so you're interested in knowledge on practical matters? Our knowledge is vast, honed over centuries! Very well, we shall seek a highly skilled artisan to teach your people the craft. But... what craft exactly do you wish to learn? Each set of teacher and a handful of books will cost you a full ship of your best slaves! The teachers will stay for a few decades to train a bunch of apprentices and set up a guild. The Empress doesn't mind that we spread Civilization, but of course this has a Cost associated with it..."

Currently the dark elves are only willing to send us up to three ships.

> Weaving, Knitting, Embroidery and Carpet Making. We'll finally stop looking like total savages wearing hides, they will teach us how to make a Loom!
> Tanning and Leather Working. How to turn hides into leather for various purposes, including Hardened Leather to make Leather Cuirasses!
> Dyeing. Advanced techniques for producing all kinds of dyes! Allows us to make a complex system of banners to use in battle! Also inks for scribes and painters.
> Parchment, Paper Making and Book Binding. An ancient craft of turning plants and animals into surfaces to scribe with!
> Pottery, Brickmaking and Glassworking. Includes advanced techniques for food preservation, so we can build Granaries!
> Masonry and Scultpture. The craft of building with stone and similar materials, to make structures that can stand the test of time.
> Wood Carving and Carpentry. The craft of shaping wood for useful purposes!
> Blacksmithing and Metalworking. The craft of shaping metal for useful purposes!
> Brewing and Fermentation. How to make booze! Enough said.
> Tar Making. Makes for good fuel and has many other uses! It is a miracle substance!
> Boatbuilding and Shipwright. How to make seaworthy vessels. Boatbuilding requires just carpentry, but Shipwright requires Carpentry, Rope Making, Weaving and Tarmaking.
> Jewelry Making. Women love this stuff, make everyone look just fabulous!
> Perfume, Alchemy and Apothecary. Advanced techniques for mixing substances. Requires Glassworking.
> Basket Weaving and Rope Making. Baskets are always necessary and ropes have many many uses.
> Tattooing and Body Art. The ancient craft of putting inscription on people's skin. If the inscriptions are magical writ, you could infuse spells on people.
> Beekeeping. Honey and wax! Also increases yield of your crops.
> Write in

>>6261303
>> Parchment, Paper Making and Book Binding. An ancient craft of turning plants and animals into surfaces to scribe with!

>> Blacksmithing and Metalworking. The craft of shaping metal for useful purposes!

>> Pottery, Brickmaking and Glassworking. Includes advanced techniques for food preservation, so we can build Granaries!

A decent balance I think. I think perhaps carpentry and leatherworking are things we can figure out on our own without much issue. Afterall, we are already crafting spears and building shacks, and wearing hides.

>>6261318
The dark elves thank us for our business and depart, with promises of bringing books and teachers of Parchment Making, Blacksmithing and Pottery next time they come along. Zola departs with them, leaving her children and grandchildren in charge of the Trading Post.

Shaga II resigns, and Mikor ascends as Supreme Dictator. He is one of the survivors from the Lizardfolk War.

Mikor demands improvements in our martial capabilities. He trains hundreds of new blackbelts.

We finish the massive temple! It looks like a weird pyramid.


Year 147

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Mikor, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 3,800 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple, Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish

Army:
Zhuang Dao (a few hundred Black Belts)
Sea Serpent Riders (handful, not loyal)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling)

Resources: Small Gold Hoard (in circulation)

Weapons: about 50,000 good spears

What will you do?
> Train blackbelts in the thousands, or craft more spears to equip our large militia (specify)
> Start that shadowy cabal of martial artist casters or train the death cultists in martial arts (specify)
> Capture some lizardfolk to study them, develop a new martial art to fight them
> Write in


Roll 1d2 to determine if something bad happens.

On a 1 we can timeskip.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6261321
>Use the Dark Speech to name and tame the sea serpents
We've needed to do this for a while. At the same time...
>Mikor and his strongest combatants should study the sea serpents' movements to improve our martial arts.
Grappling is powerful but it falls short against nonhuman foes. Diversifying would serve us well.

>>6261324


You use the Dark Speech to name and tame the sea serpents!

It has an unusual effect though - the sea serpents begin talking in Draconic and remembering the lives of their ancestors!

You don't know the language, but you recognize it from when you spoke to the kobolds.

Roll 1d100 to determine what happens next:

1-50 yearning for freedom, the Awakened Sea Serpents escape our clutches and go live in the open ocean, we could try to fight and subdue them, let them go or give them parting gifts
51-60 the Awakened Sea Serpents demand that we give them far more food, lots of gold and worship them as deities!
61-90 the Awakened Sea Serpents realize there can be only one and they attack each other! The last remaining one, weakened, demands the deity treatment.
91-100 the Awakened Sea Serpents agree to fight for us, but we must give them far more food and lots of gold!

What wil you do?

> Fight the creatures
> Give food and gold
> Let them go
> Write in

Rolled 16 (1d100)

>>6261329
Fascinating. Now I wonder what would happen if we used the Dark Speech on other creatures, or the elements.
>Let them go, unless they're willing to fight for us, then we'll appease them
The last thing we need are more casualties for what was already a niche unit. If released, they may compete with that accursed sea serpent that scourged us generations ago. If they stay, they'll be worth the price.

>>6261344


We let the sea serpents go.

The Dark Speech properties are still very elusive. We wonder what else we could do with it.

Very few people know the dark speech, only you and your inner circle - the people that live with you the bone shrine mostly female death cultists and the Animal Lurers as they became known, druids who bewitch animals to facilitate the hunt - they have no significant combat capabilities, so they aren't listed under Army.

There is no decent written records or translations between the languages.

After all this time, you still haven't appointed a high priestess.

There is much to do in terms of developing your Dark Speech capabilities!

Choose what to do on the next timeskip.

Year 148

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Mikor, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 3,850 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple, Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish

Army:
Zhuang Dao (a few hundred Black Belts)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling)

Resources: Small Gold Hoard (in circulation)

Weapons: about 50,000 good spears

What will you do?
> Teach the Dark Speech to more people or begin to recite the Hell's Laws in Dark Speech (specify)
> Start messing with clay to record the languages you know or do a translation effort between the known languages (specify)
> Appoint a high priestess of death or start sacrificing people until death shows up (specify)
> Write in

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6261345
>Recite Hell's Laws in the Dark Speech, making sure we're in a plant-filled area surrounded by bodyguards
The possibility has been tantalizing us for so long. It's time we took the plunge.

>>6261345
>> Write in

Let's work at bettering our military, whether by technology or training. Those veterans that we have and the experience we gained from the wars should be put to use.

We make a better military, and we raid our neighbors for slaves to give to the dark elves, or use in sacrifices.

>>6261346

You leave the death shrine and head to a plant filled area, surrounded by bodyguards.

Then you begin reciting Hell's Laws in the Dark Speech!

Nothing much seems to go on for awhile, but after a few hours or reciting it (it is a lot of laws) you start to feel something weird in the back of your throat.

You ignore it and push on.

But after a few more hours pass, you can't ignore it anymore.

You have a terrible case of choking and start coughing uncontrollably.

This lasts all night.

You are taken back to the shrine and told to rest by the most medically inclined amongst you.

As the coughing doesn't subside, they decide to examine your throat.

You open wide your mouth and someone looks inside...

But as your mouth is open wide, you involuntarily spit a small ball of diseased bile in the face of the guy that was examining you.

His face begins to melt, and the small ball grows somehow.

The guy ends up dying and everything made of meat the ball touches it absorbed.

In a matter of minutes, before you can think of a good way to deal with it, the ball of good transforms itself into a small... imp.

You accidentally summoned a demon!

The demon starts jumping around and it seems to have a very deadly touch, maiming and killing people willy nilly.

You then remember something from the Hell's Law.

<<I summon thee, I beseech thee—come to me. Obey my words, and I shall feed thee mortal souls, that thou mayest grow and become stronger!>>, you say, in Abyssal.

The little demon stops messing around, does a pirouette and and exaggerated bow, then speaks back to you.

<<Thou art a scholar and a gentleman, no doubt.>>, before jumping on your shoulder.

It then starts to whisper many things, wondrous things, into your ear!

It knows what people are thinking! Their most shameful thoughts... and it whispers it to you.

He says he will die in a day if you don't feed him a soul promptly! He needs a soul in every holy day or he will die.

You ask which days are holy.

He says every seventh day is holy, and any other holy day your people recognize and celebrate with a party full of... he spits... joy.

If you sacrifice at least seven people to him at once, he grows to RANK 2 and will be able to become invisible.

If you sacrifice 30 people, he grows to RANK 3 and grows wings.

The more sacrifices, the more powerful he grows, but he also demands an ever increasing upkeep.

You ask how many ranks there are.

The demon just laughs. And then says in Abyssal. <<There are ever more. They come without end.>>

<<Slay thy foe with a dagger and speak thus: "By blood and will, let it be known: This soul I offer unto Sutirk, that he may feast and grow!">>

What will you do?
> Sacrifice one soul so that the demon survives!
> Sacrifice 7 souls so that it grows to RANK 2 and becomes invisible!
> Sacrifice 30 souls so that it grows to RANK 3 and grow wings!
> Let the demon die
> Write in

>>6261355


You decide it is time to better our military!

How do you intend to do so?

> Train blackbelts in the thousands, or craft more spears to equip our large militia (specify)
> Start that shadowy cabal of martial artist casters or train the death cultists in martial arts (specify)
> Capture some lizardfolk to study them, develop a new martial art to fight them
> Write in

>>6261366
>Sacrifice 30 souls so that it grows to RANK 3 and grow wings!
We could totally use a demon familiar.

>>6261355
This is wise, we should definitely focus on bolstering our military. Drilling a few units of spearmen and teaching them to use poison could be lethal. I feel like martial arts has a lot of potential and is worth pursuing, but there's a high skill-ceiling and not every soldier can do it. Fodder is ideal.

>>6261368
Hmm...
>Train blackbelts in the thousands
This should be enough to keep them a regular part of our military. Right now, they're dwindling.

>>6261366
>> Sacrifice one soul so that the demon survives!

Let's not get ahead of ourselves on upkeep.

>>6261368
>> Write in

Develope our spearmen into something resembling proper warriors, fighting in rough formations, perhaps craft them shields and smaller spears that they can throw.

>>6261370
>>6261373


You sacrifice 30 souls for Sutirk! He gains the power to turn invisible and grow wings!

<<Know this: those bound to demons of lesser rank—up to the third—need offer but one soul per sacred day. Yet with might comes appetite; the greater the demon, the more must die.>>, he informs you.

Decided to improve upon your military capabilities, you order the training of thousands of black belts!

Competing teachers change the inherited doctrines, in remembrance of the failures of the Lizardmen War!

The martial arts branch out! From Zhuang Dao, you get:

Renguzhe, a martial art about using the enemy strength to throw them flying into the air, coupled with ways of otherwise dislocating their limbs! You train by throwing each other into the air, dislocating limbs and putting them back together.

Yemanshi, a martial art about punching the enemy very hard. The training consists in punching stone and strengthening the fists until they can smash them with one hit.

Wugouzheng, a martial art about hitting the weak points of the opponent - eyes, mouth, throat, joints, genitals, whatever it takes to bring them down. You train by strengthening your own weak points and ignoring pain so they become gradually impervious to your own art.

Will you let the masters teach their new doctrines?
> Allow Renguzhe
> Allow Yemanshi
> Allow Wugouzheng
> Allow them all
> Forbid them all
> Write in
Year 159

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Mikor, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 4,300 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple, Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish

Army:
Zhuang Dao (thousands of Black Belts) Renguzhe (a few masters) Yemanshi (a few masters) Wugouzheng (a few masters)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling)

Resources: Small Gold Hoard (in circulation)

Weapons: about 50,000 good spears

What will you do?
> Engage in trade with your neighbours or explore the island further (specify)
> Teach a cabal of casters or allow the death cult to research new rituals (specify)
> Improve the people's morale or seek additional resources (specify)
> Write in

>>6261403
>Allow them all

>>6261403

Let's try and explore carpentry, we do have some ability to exploit plants through magic, right?

We would be able to better house our people as well as craft better weapons and tools.

>>6261437

You decide to start tampering with advanced carpentry!

Gotta start making more than spears and stone axes at some point.

What are you going to focus on first?

> Structures and construction. You want to build lots of complex stuff!
> Furniture and domestic items. You want to be comfy and have more storage space!
> Tools, Transport and Utility. You need to turn lumber into something more useful.
> Enchantment and magic items. You desire to infuse lumber with magic!
> Pick two or more. Will take longer. (specify)
> Write in

>>6261437
I agree, better infrastructure will help us sustain our population.

>>6261471
>Tools, Transport and Utility. You need to turn lumber into something more useful.
This will make everything else even easier. It's also the most useful for combat and getting rid of all these corpses we keep making.

>>6261485
You invent the wheel and make a bunch of carts and wheelbarrows. Soon enough, people are carrying each other in carts! The more well off people stop going anywhere on foot, they have servants to carry them on carts! The women particularly think a guy is too poor to have kids with if he doesn't have carts and servants!

You learn to make planks with bone saws and invent chests and crates!

You also invent sturdy barrels and ladders, both of which could have military applications!

You also make rowboats that are more than dugout tree trunks. Currently you waterproof your boats with animal fat.

You can now make a vast sortment of simple tools for woodworking. They're mostly polished stone in many shapes and forms with wooden handles for ease of use.

Your people feel particularly inventive as of late! Maybe you want to research more stuff.

The death cultists say that now our population is larger, they need to sacrifice more people to appease Death!
> Sacrifice the bare minimum necessary
> Sacrifice your political opponents preferentially
> Sacrifice often and eagerly to please Death
> Write in

Year 170

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Mikor, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 4,700 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes, Carts

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple, Shacktown, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish

Army:
Zhuang Dao (thousands of Black Belts) Renguzhe (a few dozen) Yemanshi (a few dozen) Wugouzheng (a few dozen)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling)

Resources: Small Gold Hoard (in circulation)

Weapons: about 50,000 good spears

Technology: Basic Carpentry

What will you do?
> Invent new technology or new magic (specify)
> Make lots of boats and begin a new age of fishing, or circumnavigate the island (specify)
> Improve morale or acquire more resources (specify)
> Write in

>>6261471
>Tools, Transport and Utility. You need to turn lumber into something more useful.

From here the rest should follow naturally, or at least be easier learn.

>>6261492
>Sacrifice the bare minimum necessary

While death has certainly granted us some boons, the over reliance on the sacrifice of our own people when we need to expand our population for not only our debt to hell, as well as the slave trade is taxing us too much. We need slaves to sacrifice instead, scaley ones.

>>6261492
>Invent new technology or new magic (specify

Let's expand our carpentry, and build some proper structures.

Not only should this improve our peoples quality of life, and thus our population, but also fortification.

>>6261492
Excellent progress.

>>6261503
I agree, and support this. Soon Death will have all she could desire.

>>6261494
>>6261503
>>6261508
You talk to the death cultists and tell them to do only the bare minimum of sacrifices required.

You build lots of modern wooden houses and a bunch of palisades around your settlement! Your shantytown is looking better by the day!

You realize that when you do these big projects, lumber starts disappearing really fast.

> Assign a bunch of Treeplanters to reforest the areas around your base
> Who cares, there is plenty of lumber in the island
> Invent a ritual to make trees grow faster
> Write in

Mikor steps down. He doesn't have a clear successor and there in much quarrelling.
> Establish a martial arts tournament for the title of Supreme Dictator
> Appoint the warrior most loyal to you
> Dissolve the dictatorship and establish a Death centric Theocracy
> Write in

Year 181

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Mikor, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 5,200 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes, Carts

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple, Wooden Houses, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post, Palisade

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish

Army:
Zhuang Dao (thousands of Black Belts) Renguzhe (a few dozen) Yemanshi (a few dozen) Wugouzheng (a few dozen)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling)

Resources: Small Gold Hoard (in circulation)

Weapons: about 50,000 good spears

Demon: Sutirk (RANK 3)

Technology: Basic Carpentry

What will you do?
> Invent new technology or new magic (specify)
> Make lots of boats and begin a new age of fishing, or circumnavigate the island (specify)
> Improve morale or acquire more resources (specify)
> Write in

>>6261510
>Assign a bunch of Treeplanters to reforest the areas around your base

Can we develop rituals with them as well?

>>6261510
>> Establish a martial arts tournament for the title of Supreme Dictator

As a caveat, perhaps we could have the grandmaster of the orders who do not win serve as councilors, as well as the guide, to balance power. I still think the guide should begin cultivating as well. In time we can perhaps expand this concept.

>>6261510
>Invent new technology or new magic (specify)

Let's try and learn leatherworking, for both proper clothes and armor.

>>6261517
These are all smart. I'll support this. I think we should get more boons from Death if we can, but shouldn't become a theocracy and get distracted.

>>6261518
and we should also finally appoint a high priestess
i think we should just choose the oldest cultist

>>6261518
I think we need to find balance between death and hell, with a focus on our own people above them both. Taking slaves to sacrifice to them would be preferable to losing our own people.

For that matter, selling scaley slaves to the dark elves would be nice. I wouldn't mind encouraging a legation quarter for them around the trading post either.

>>6261526
Agreeable, but perhaps we also need to establish a counterbalance aside from the martial artists?

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6261517
>>6261518
>>6261526
>>6261528
You assign a bunch of treeplanters to reforest the areas around your base.

It soon becomes clear that there are many kinds of trees, some more useful than others!

What kind of trees should we plant? Pick as many as you want, but determine the proportion of them you want to plant.

OAK - strong durable hardwood

PINE - fast growing soft wood

CEDAR - rot resistant

TEAK - water-resistant

BIRCH - light, strong wood

ASH - strong and flexible

MAHOGANY - luxurious lumber

OLIVE - fruit bearing tree

COCONUT - source of coconut fruit

MULBERRY - fruit bearing tree

WILLOW - painkiller bark tea

SPRUCE - makes strong pitch

With the title of Supreme Dictator contested, you figure a martial arts tournament is the best way to figure out who will be next.

Thousands of fighters join the tournament and round after round there is much betting.

In the end two people fight fiercely - one old man, a grandmaster of Zhuang Dao and one young Wugouzheng practicioner.

The fight is very fierce and the winner is:

1 - the old master
2 - the young fighter

Will you accept the result?
> Yes
> No

We start researching ways to make leather! We have no idea how to do it, so it might take awhile.


You are a frail and blind old man that ancient dark magic keeps alive somehow. But you've been wondering - in a martial society, given enough time, perhaps you could train to become a martial artist too. And it seems you have Plenty of time. But magic and martial arts are both full time pursuits. You will have to make a choice.
> Devote yourself to magic, like creating a new ritual for plant growth
> Devote yourself to martial arts, perhaps a new style for blind people
> Appoint a high priestess to handle magical matters and go dedicate yourself to martial arts
> Pursue both, time is no concern
> Just chill, there is no need to exert yourself too much
> Write in

>>6261537
>OAK - strong durable hardwood
>ASH - strong and flexible
>SPRUCE - makes strong pitch
>OLIVE - fruit bearing tree

25% each, I think this would cover most of our bases from construction material, weapons, food, and future sea faring.

>Yes

Fair is fair, I suppose.

>Devote yourself to magic, like creating a new ritual for plant growth

Well, can't have our cake and eat it too, I guess. The guide should focus on his strengths then.

>>6261526
That would help. Maybe we should have the cultists do a test of zeal, and choose the most pious of them.

>>6261528
I'm in full agreement. The dark elves could be useful allies if we can keep them satisfied. More than the kobolds, anyway.

>>6261535
>>6261550
I agree and support this, again. Improving our druidic lore is the best route to go. We will need some Teak later but if we manage a plant growth ritual and conquer the lizardmen, we can accelerate the process.

>>6261555

That they could be, I think encouraging them to see us as an investment could be very beneficial.

Kobold or lizard man, sea serpent even, the creatures with scales have done naught but terrorize, betray, and extort us since our freedom. We must put them in their place, beneath our heel.

Forgive me, but I'm not well learned about Teak wood, what benefits could we reap from it?

>>6261562
>That they could be, I think encouraging them to see us as an investment could be very beneficial.
I doubt they'll send troops to fight with us, but the chance to bootstrap our own society from their tech and culture is invaluable. We're skipping centuries and all it costs us is some slaves here and there and letting them think we're a crude and primitive race.

>Kobold or lizard man, sea serpent even, the creatures with scales have done naught but terrorize, betray, and extort us since our freedom. We must put them in their place, beneath our heel.
Aye, the scalebacks have long been a thorn in our side. The lizardmen I respect for their strength and restraint, but the kobolds are pathetic outside of their numbers and work ethic.

>Forgive me, but I'm not well learned about Teak wood, what benefits could we reap from it?
Teak wood isn't a must-have in the same sense as Oak, but it makes for good, waterproofed ship decks. It's also used for furniture but if we went that route, likely for trading purposes, mahogany might be a better option.

>>6261566
Well hey, I'm game with introducing teak at 20% each.

And the kobolds, good workers and cowardly... makes for a good slave.

As to the dark elves, perhaps in time we might form a stronger bond with them, even encouraging a mixing of our peoples.

>>6261550
>>6261555
>>6261562
>>6261566
>>6261577


You decide to plant OAK, ASH, SPRUCE, OLIVE and TEAK at 20% each.

You accept the new Supreme Leader! He calls himself Sunak.

You decide to devote yourself to creating a new ritual for plant growth!

As you least expect it, a new ship arrives! It stays cautiously far away, and sends a small leaky boat to the shore.

It isn't dark elf though. It is a bunch of Ratmen.

You don't understand their language.

They offer you some of their cargo:

Rotten Limes (for scurvy!)
Pickled Spider Eggs (a delicacy! somewhere)
Chest of Wet Books (in many different languages, but badly damaged and barely legible)
Ratfolk Perfume (the most revolting vile scent you ever smelled)

> Let them land amongst you
> Tell them to go away
> Murder them
> Write in

Year 182

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Sunak, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 5,200 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes, Carts

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple, Wooden Houses, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post, Palisade

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish

Army:
Zhuang Dao (thousands of Black Belts) Renguzhe (a few dozen) Yemanshi (a few dozen) Wugouzheng (a few dozen)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling)

Resources: Small Gold Hoard (in circulation)

Weapons: about 50,000 good spears

Demon: Sutirk (RANK 3)

Technology: Basic Carpentry

What will you do?
> Invent new technology or new magic (specify)
> Make lots of boats and begin a new age of fishing, or circumnavigate the island (specify)
> Improve morale or acquire more resources (specify)
> Write in

>>6261587
>> Write in

Let's keep them quarantined until we can manage to find a way of communicating, and we can see what they would take in exchange for the books, some provisions perhaps. They may not be worth much, but we might learn something from them.

>Invent new technology or new magic (specify)

Let's see if we can't develop our military some, invent some new weapons and tactics. Like say... bows and arrows?

>>6261590

You were researching Leather Working!

Some people want to research ranged weapons instead!

What should we focus on?

> Continue leather working research
> Research ranged weapons
> Do both (will take longer)
> Write in

>>6261592
>Continue leather working research

Oh, well in that case

>>6261590


You decide to keep the ratmen quarantined!

The ratmen ship doesn't approach. They send a second boat, and the ratmen start arguing with you seemingly angrily in a language you can't understand!

You put them in quarantine as well.

The Ratmen ship then departs, leaving their fellow ratmen behind!

People who get into contact with the quarantined ratmen get sick of a horrible wasting skin disease!

It is highly contagious!

What do you do with them?

> Begin murdering everyone who catches the disease
> Order a million people who never had contact with them to relocate immediately, don't touch anything, just leave
> Wait to see what the disease does, study it in detail
> Write in

>>6261609
>Wait to see what the disease does, study it in detail
Intriguing! Trying to replicate it could further our ritual knowledge.

>>6261609
>Write in

Further quarantine those affected and put the death cultists to work to see what can be done.

>>6261614
>>6261615
yes and if we can get the disease under control we should keep and breed them for sacrifices and rituals or as slaves
that way we wont have to conquer a whole kingdom to enslave a race

>>6261695
I'm sure they are too few to really have much of a population, but perhaps they are prolific breeders. Either case, I'm sure we can learn something from them.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6261614
>>6261615
>>6261695
>>6261699


The ratmen seem to be immune to the disease,

Your people, on the other hand, seem to be very vulnerable to it.

Within a year, about a third of your population dies from the horrible wasting disease! Seems like the disease is airborne.

What will you do with the dead?
> Burn them
> Bury them
> Toss them into the sea
> Toss them into the swamp
> Write in

But after the initial shock and massive death toll, very few people die. The mortality rates drop to less than 1%

A deity shows up, but it is not death.

She calls herself Pestilence. She says she's death's sister.
"Ratmen are sacred to me! I created them! I see you got the first taste of my blessings!"

"I could end the plague, or make it much worse. All plagues are under my sole control."

"I will now decide your fate.", she takes a silver coin from her pocket.

"Heads and the plague gets much worse. Tails and it goes away."

1 - heads
2 - tails

You intended to breed the ratmen as slaves, but unfortunately all the ones that were abandoned here were male.

> Try to breed ratmen with humans
> Capture some kobolds and try to breed ratmen with them
> Try to learn their language
> Write in
Year 183

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Sunak, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 3,400 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes, Carts

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple, Wooden Houses, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post, Palisade

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish

Army:
Zhuang Dao (thousands of Black Belts) Renguzhe (a few dozen) Yemanshi (a few dozen) Wugouzheng (a few dozen)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling)

Resources: Small Gold Hoard (in circulation)

Weapons: about 50,000 good spears

Demon: Sutirk (RANK 3)

Technology: Basic Carpentry

What will you do?
> Invent new technology or new magic (specify)
> Make lots of boats and begin a new age of fishing, or circumnavigate the island (specify)
> Improve morale or acquire more resources (specify)
> Write in

>>6261715
Jfc

>>6261715
>Burn them

>Write in
Burn them, too.

>Improve morale or acquire more resources (specify)

This curse from the sister of death inclines me to have less to do with death. Perhaps this is punishment.

Let us see if there are any resources that we might exploit within our lands.

>>6261715
looks like we have a problem
> Burn them
> Try to learn their language
> Write in
appoint a high priestess and try to get Death to appease her sister or offer help in any other way

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6261721 1
>>6261723 2

>>6261715
This plague is good! It means the strongest of us will survive!

>>6261721
I'll agree with this. If we beg Death for help, she's likely to kill us out of spite. Specifically, I think we should-
>Use our toxicology to search for medicinal plants
Because if we already know what plants are poisonous, odds are we already know which ones aren't.

>>6261723
My line of thinking is that if we don't tough it out, we'll lose favour with Death. I bet there's a sibling rivalry going on.

>>6261723
>>6261725


All the living toil to gather and endless amount of lumber to burn down the dead!

It is... endless! Long before we can burn them all, they are rotting in the houses and in the streets. The disease festers! Morale and resources drop.

We try to learn the Ratmen language. We call their language Lower Ratmen, for they seem to speak a broken version of their own language.

It is surprisingly easy to learn. It is as if a retarded person that only cares about food was talking on a version of Dark Speech where people don't have the guts or the time to pronounce the entire words and so they butcher all the terminations and even most radicals. You couldn't quite decipher the endless amount of words they have for types of food, mold and smells though. They consider most types of moldy food perfectly edible, even those that would kill a regular person.

Then the real fun begins!

The corpses start rising in the streets and attacking people! It is crazy!

Death and Pestilence both show up at the same time.

"What are you doing to these poor people, Pesty?"

"They got unlucky, that's all."

For the first time ever, someone else seems to see the deities as well. A woman that lost her whole very extensive family to Death and Pestilence.

"Praises be upon you, lady Death! You taketh and taketh and giveth not. I'd keep on giving to you, but I'm too old and can't bear children anymore. I just burned my sixteenth and last son."

"Blessed Woman! Feel no more sorrow. If you can no longer give, then come and take with me! Rise and by my high priestess! I will grant you the powers to end this plague!"

"But plagues are mine, Deedee."

"Oh, c'mon, don't ruin my vibe. I gave you that silver coin, didn't I?"

"You gonna toss that into my face now? Have your shitty coin back, I don't need it!"

She toss the coin right in the face of death and disappears like smoke. Death doesn't dodge or flinch. The coin hits her and then falls to the ground. The high priestess picks it up.

"What a beautiful coin. I had never saw a silver coin before."

"Yes, yes. Most of the world uses silver coins. Gold attracts dragons."

"I didn't knew that."

"I will teach you many and wondrous things. Come, walk with me..."

The undead stop attacking the death cultists! It is like they don't even see them!

They continue attacking everyone else, though.

"Say, do you want to purge all these people? Start anew?"

"... no... let them live..."

"You're sure? They are scarred and plagued by a horrible wasting disease. It is the very sun which aggravates their condition to the point of madness. There is no cure. Nasty plague. And my sister is angry with me, she won't relent."

"Then they shall live in dark places."

Death smirks.

"Very well. Have them return through the very cave they came here from hell and live underground!"

The high priestess leads the whole army of undead underground. Millions of them! They simply follow her as she goes on singing praises to death.

>>6261748

The next ten years you spend rebuilding. You were forced to abandon your original location. Too many restless souls haunting the place. You rebuild a few dozen miles to the south - far enough that the ghosts won't disturb you, but not so far that you dont recognize the lay of the land.

The highpriestess comes visit now and then. She says she's having a very hard time organizing the undead society underground. They "live" in the tunnels underneath the old town, the ones you came from hell through. She's researching a cure for them. So far she had no progress. Her name is Krita.

> Help her research the cure
> You don't have resources to spare, you have to develop your own civilization
> Ask her to exchange places, you descend into the dark to research the cure, and she remains in the surface leading the living
> Write in

You see lots more skaven around the island. The kobolds show up to ask what is going on.

"Skaven came into boats. Caused massive pestilence. We are still looking for a cure."

The kobolds seem to be immune to the disease. They offer to help. Give them a few thousand of the diseases people and they will test many things on them to see if they can find a cure.
> Give the kobolds a bunch of undead
> Decline their help
> Write in

You now need to acquire more resources, fast.

Year 193

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 1/10
Resources 0/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Sunak, Leader of the Martial Artists, Supreme Dictator of Shagrim.
Krita, high priestess of Death.


Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 1,200 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes, Carts

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple, Wooden Houses, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post, Palisade

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish, Lower Ratfolk

Army:
Zhuang Dao (thousands of Black Belts) Renguzhe (a few dozen) Yemanshi (a few dozen) Wugouzheng (a few dozen)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling)

Resources: Small Gold Hoard (in circulation)

Weapons: about 50,000 good spears

Demon: Sutirk (RANK 3)

Technology: Basic Carpentry

Cursed Area: Millions of Restless Souls on landing beach

What will you do?
> Start stockpiling resources, you don't wanna be caught without enough lumber again
> Try to get the undead to mine some ore for you, they're just underground chasing food and doing nothing
> Develop a ritual to interact the undead in some capacity (specify)
> Write in

>>6261754
> You don't have resources to spare, you have to develop your own civilization
> Give the kobolds a bunch of undead
If Krita doesnt mind of course
> Start stockpiling resources, you don't wanna be caught without enough lumber again

>>6261762


Your tree farms began to grow quite nicely! You have a lot of OAK, ASH, SPRUCE, OLIVE and TEAK. You start stockpiling lumber!

You tell Trixa you don't have resources to spare on researching a cure for the undead.

She says she understands. She also acquiesces to the kobold's request and sends a bunch of undead their way.

The kobolds are eerily quiet for awhile, and then when you go check on them, you find their warrens completely filled with undead.

Seems like they underestimated the plague and got wiped out. Only small scattered groups of kobolds remain.

The skaven started digging warrens for themselves, away from the shore, deep inland. Their numbers are also still low.

Your population been breeding like crazy ever since the plague.

You finally figured out how to make leather! You start producing large amounts of leather promptly, there is a tanning tub frenzy that almost drives you out of lumber again.

Sunak died during the attack, and so did most of the martial artists. Turns out most of our martial arts are wholly useless against "zombies" as we called them. They only die if you destroy the brain.

People want to start using weapons to feel secure...

Year 204

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 1/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Krita, high priestess of Death.


Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 1,700 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes, Carts

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple, Wooden Houses, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post, Palisade, Treeplanter

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish, Lower Ratfolk

Army:
Zhuang Dao (thousands of Black Belts) Renguzhe (a few dozen) Yemanshi (a few dozen) Wugouzheng (a few dozen)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling)

Resources: Small Gold Hoard (in circulation)

Demon: Sutirk (RANK 3)

Technology: Basic Carpentry, Leather Making

Cursed Area: Millions of Restless Souls on landing beach

What will you do?
> Trade some of your gold with the lizardmen for quality weapons
> You abhor mining, but the population want weapons, might as well mine some ore
> Wooden spears are perfectly good weapons for killing zombies, we don't need to mine at all, research magic or technology instead
> Write in

>>6261767

A small group of dark elves show up at our settlement.

"Whatahell is going on, why is your city full of ghosts and assorted undead, did some necromancer attack you?"

"A ratmen deity cursed us. Long story."

"The spirits drove the waves insane and sunk our ship. We will stay around until a rescue vessel shows up. We'll find a place underground."

"There are lots of undead underground as well."

"Goddamnit. This island just gets worse and worse. Can we tag along with your people then?"

There are about a hundred dark elf survivors from the sunken ships, most of them female warriors.

They do have some quite fancy weapons...

> Let the dark elves live with you
> You don't need a bunch of dark elves, send them away
> Kill the dark elves and loot their stuff
> Write in

>>6261767
>Wooden spears are perfectly good weapons for killing zombies, we don't need to mine at all, research magic or technology instead
Continue developing the plant ritual. Soon, we'll be able to grow our own fortifications.

>>6261769
>Let the dark elves live with you, in the best accommodations we can afford
This could improve our relations.

>>6261767
> You abhor mining, but the population want weapons, might as well mine some ore
also try to get the zombies to mine for us too
> Let the dark elves live with you
ask if they have an idea how to best deal with the zombies, if theres even a cure

>>6261762
> Trade some of your gold with the lizardmen for quality weapons

We don't want enough gold to get a dragon's attention after all

>>6261769
> Let the dark elves live with you

>>6261767
> Trade some of your gold with the lizardmen for quality weapons
We can see if any of them are willing to engage in friendly spars with our martial artists.
> You abhor mining, but the population want weapons, might as well mine some ore
The skaven are digging anyways; we might as well make use of it.

Also:
>all medicines are poisons
>massive poison garden
???
Odds are we can make medicine with what we've got (also vaguely surprised no one's really suggested a poison based or hidden weapon martial art yet).

>1/5 through the timeframe of our debt
>still owe 4 million souls
W E L P

>>6261769
Are our Teachers with them? (We traded for them 50 years ago, apparently). Even if they aren't exchange shelter/lodging for teaching; there's many basic things that our civilization needs to improve on (and they would get to benefit as well; we might even get more part elves as part of the deal). Even if there's just warriors among them they could boost our military capability.

>>6261767
>> You abhor mining, but the population want weapons, might as well mine some ore

We need to become self sufficient, and we need to build a proper army to deal with all of these problems.

>>6261769
>Let the dark elves live with you

Hopefully they can teach us some stuff, but all the same it would be an honor for them to live amongst us, they are the only people to have really helped us any.

Seriously, our association with death and the scalies have brought us nothing but trouble.

We should enslave the skaven before they become a problem too.

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>6261770
>>6261773
>>6261799
>>6261820
>>6261918


You decide to let the dark elves live with you. Rolling to determine if any of the Teachers you asked for survived!

1 - it is a miracle! they all survived
2 - the paper maker survived
3 - the blacksmith survived
4 - the glassmaker survived
5 - papermaker + blacksmith
6 - papermaker + glassmaker
7 - blacksmith + glassmaker
8-20 - sorry, they weren't good swimmers...


The dark elves ask for a large plot of land to build some "businesses". Will you give it to them?
> Kick out some squatters and give them a large plot right in the middle of town
> Give them a large plot in the outskirts of the town where no one lives yet
> Give them a large plot of land but way out of the way, isolated near the tree farms
> Find a nice place a day or two away from your town and tell the dark elves they can settle there
> Refuse, tell them that you won't allow them to build a ghetto, they have to integrate with society
> Write in


You decide to send in a large trade caravan to buy weapons from the lizardmen in exchange of gold! You first negotiate the terms with them!

You have around 150k thousand gold pieces circulating in your economy. About half of that is at your coffers at all times. Your advisors say we could safely spend up to 50k gold without crashing the economy.

The lizardmen have vast capabilities to make Daggers, Swords and Halberds. Since we have had friendly relations for awhile, and they want gold, they will make very low prices for us!

The weapons are all made of either Bronze or Iron, you may choose. They can produce a very large amount of those, though the order might take a few years to arrive. Quality is average.

They also make Steel Battleaxes, but those are reserved for their elite troops because they are very hard to make. Quality is masterwork.

Since they desire gold very much, they could sell you some, but would be very expensive.

> 10 daggers for 1 gold piece
> 1 sword for 1 gold piece
> 1 halberd for 1 gold piece
> 1 Steel Battleaxe for 1000 gold pieces

We could start mining again. There is no longer anyone who remembers the toils at the demon mines - only you. You could easily convince the youth to start mining.

The only mining technique you know is Strip Mining.

Or we could find some kobolds or ratmen and try to convince them to mine for us.

> Find a deep cave and start strip mining it looking for any useful minerals
> Start in the open, make a huge hole and go deeper and deeper
> Find kobolds and convince them to mine for you
> Find ratmen and convince them to mine for you
> Write in

>>6261993
>dat 20
I bet whatever god is over the ocean hates dark elves.

>Kick out some squatters and give them a large plot right in the middle of town
Dark elves have a huge ego. If we play into it, they'll have a better opinion of us.

I don't have an opinion on the weapon usage. Another anon is bound to have a better idea.

>Find kobolds and convince them to mine for you
Kobolds no longer have a civilization, are skilled at mining, and desperate to survive. We were also once allies. Getting them to assist in exchange for our security seems like a win-win.

>>6261993
>> Kick out some squatters and give them a large plot right in the middle of town

Let's try and integrate them, to some degree.

>1 halberd for 1 gold piece

30k halberds to arm a standing military, a very versatile weapon.

200k daggers, we use them to make spears!

>Write in

Let's hunt down kobolds and enslave them to mine for us.

You kick out some squatters and give the dark elves a large plot right in the middle of town.

You are surprised at the quality of their craftsmanship. They wall off the entire lot and put watchtowers in the corners and at the entrance. They put some 20 dark elves on guard duty.

Inside the walled area, they unsurprisingly set up a whorehouse, but it only works during the day. At night, the dark elves keep running combat drills.

Over the years, they start to expand the services offered in their whorehouse, and hire humans to work there as well. After they hire enough humans, the place starts working all day and all night everyday. They have babies sometimes, but they don't take care of them, rather hiring humans to look after them.

Still, the dark elves don't break martial discipline and run strenuous combat drills every night.

Most of them have very very fancy weapons. Made of a metal you didn't even knew existed, they glow faintly. The dark elves say they can hurt the spirit as well as the body. There isn't a good word for their weapons in our language, but a crude translation could be "Spirit Blades". This is how they made their way through the ghost and undead infested city that we abandoned.

Undead can be seen all over the island now. They spread out and sometimes hordes of them advance over a place for no good reason. They have no respect whatsoever for death cultists. We learn their bite is lethal - the person catches a fever and soon dies and becomes another zombie. We have found no cure for that so far.

Whenever a large group shows up at our palisade, we are forced to call upon the militia. They attack the undead with spears, trying to keep them at bay. There are casualties more often than not.

We continue to burn corpses like there is no tomorrow. Almost everyday there is a burning pyre somewhere in our settlement.

We buy 30k halberds and 200k daggers from the lizardfolk. They take a long time to deliver them, saying the first time they tried they got ambushed by a zombie horde.

The halberds become a staple weapon of our militia. We make many thousand spears with the daggers, and the rest spread amongst our population as it is a fairly useful tool.

We start looking for kobolds to try and get them to work for us in the mines!

There are many small warrens of kobolds scattered all over the island, with a few hundred to a few thousand individuals, but they seem to have no central government. They just try to survive against the zombies and relocate whenever they get pinned down.

Eventually, we find a few thousand kobolds willing to start mining for us, if we defend them from the zombies!

The ore they mine is a small trickle, and we don't understand very well how to forge it into something useful.
> Ask the dark elves to teach us how to forge
> Ask the lizardmen to teach us how to forge
> Ask the kobolds to teach us how to forge
> Figure out how to forge by ourselves (could take longer)
> Write in

>>6262051

Your own population begins to spread around the village as well. Many people start to fear these massive agglomerations and feel safer in smaller, more mobile enclaves. Most of these enclaves are led by death cultists.

The ghosts of the swamp and the haunted city seem to rarely venture out of their designated spots, but on some nights we can see massive swarms of ghosts that come into town. They are lured by living things and by fear. Fire keeps them at bay. Some death cultists theorize that a few ghosts have more willpower than the others and lead the rest. They haven't been able to test this theory yet.
> Ask the dark elves to try and destroy the leader of one of these ghost swarms to test the theory
> Develop some kind of spell that can destroy ghosts
> Develop some kind of ritual that can ward against undead
> Write in

The Plant Growth Ritual is finished! But the cost is massive - we have to sacrifice thousands upon thousands of people to grow a forest. The ritual works this way - we sacrifice a person while infusing their soul with plant energy, and then the wandering ghost will be attracted to a seed or small tree. It will then get trapped in the plant and its struggle to get free makes the plant grow unnaturally fast somehow. It works, that's what matters! We don't understand all the details.

>>6262059


One night when you meet the leader of the dark elves, a warrior called Daleesa, she say that our society is very poorly structured. They could help us with that if we want.

Year 215

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 1/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Krita, high priestess of Death.
Daleesa, Dark Elf Warrior.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 2,200 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes, Carts

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple, Wooden Houses, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post, Palisade, Treeplanter

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish, Lower Ratfolk

Army:
Zhuang Dao (thousands of Black Belts) Renguzhe (a few dozen) Yemanshi (a few dozen) Wugouzheng (a few dozen)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)
Dark Elf Warriors (a few dozens, spirit blades)
Militia (tens of thousands, halberds, spears, daggers, experience fighting zombies)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling), Plant Growth (under tests, could be used, 1 soul = 1 tree)

Resources: Small Gold Hoard (in circulation) (less than 100k pieces)

Demon: Sutirk (RANK 3)

Technology: Basic Carpentry, Leather Making

Cursed Area: Millions of Restless Souls on landing beach

What will you do?
> Ask the dark elves with help restructuring our society
> Improve our resource acquisition or our morale (specify)
> Research more magic or technology (specify)
> Write in

>>6262051
Dark elf forging is the best, but guaranteed to require insane amounts of skill and metal that we don't have. Lizardmen forging is high-quality and we know that it's decent. Kobolds are primitive and it would take us multiple decades to learn ourselves. I think learning from the lizardmen is the best choice here.

>Ask the lizardmen to teach us how to forge

>>6262059
If we rely on the dark elves, they'll consider us to be weak and warding only delays the problem. If we want a permanent solution, we need to make it ourselves.

>Develop some kind of spell that can destroy ghosts

The plant growth ritual is great! Not something to use constantly, but useful.

>>6262062
An interesting offer. Our morale is at rock-bottom and we're primitives.

>Ask the dark elves with help restructuring our society

What do we have to lose? If we don't get our affairs in order and start paying off our debt to Hell, we'll suffer far worse than lifelong slavery.

>>6262073


Daleesa points to our pyramid and says:

"Much like this structure, the top of Our society should be very few people, while the bottom should have very clear obligations!"

The dark elves propose the following structure for our society!

At the very top, the Guide, bestowing his ancient wisdom upon us!

Aiding the Guide, a Grand Vizier! The personal slave of the Guide, who would handle everyday affairs!

Then a caste of Nobles, who would rule distant settlements and advise the Guide! The nobles could have their own Viziers!

Then a caste of Warriors that would defend the Guide and the nobles! The warriors would have farmer, crafters and slaves to keep them fed and equipped!

Then a caste of Priests that would keep the population pacified! The priests would claim to be everyone's servants, but they would have a bunch of slaves themselves as well.

Then a caste of Merchants that would keep the population supplied with needed goods! They could own slaves as well!

Then the Crafters who would make said goods! They too could own slaves.

Then the Farmers, who would feed everyone and form the militia in times of need! Even the farmers could own slaves.

Then there are the Slaves! They have to obey their master! Their right is that if they are killed, whoever kills them have to pay compensation to the owner. A slave can own slaves too, if their master allows it.

Everyone would have some kind of Obligation towards someone else, and that increases accountability!

The same pyramid would be replicated anywhere, with a noble family on top, reporting only to the Guide himself!

They say that is how most societies are organized in the broader world, except instead of an immortal guide, everyone just have regular monarchs, so you are at an advantage over most people.

> Establish a Monarchy!
> Despotism is working just fine...
> I don't like this model (tweak it a little)
> Write in

>>6262084

We ask the lizardmen to teach us how to forge!

The lizardmen say "Our secrets are our own... however, we would be willing to teach, if the compensation is right..."

> Offer them all our gold!
> Send them people to work on their mines for three generations!
> Offer to sign an alliance, we will attack their enemies for them!
> Write in

We start to develop some kind of spell that can destroy ghosts! There are many ways to do so...

> Arcane Blast/Explosion: develop a spell that overloads the structure of the ghost with arcane energy! It is just a big magical blast of energy. Should be simple enough. The explosion variant can be hurled and causes a big explosion in the point of contact. Advantages - can hit non ghosts with arcane energy!
> Sunburst/Sunbeam: since sunlight weakens the ghosts, develop a spell that creates a small sun for a few moments! It should destroy nearby ghosts and scare all the others who can see it! The sunbeam variant is targeted. Advantages - can destroy any creature vulnerable to sunlight, and cause blindness and serious burns on any others!
> Psychic Burst: develop a spell that targets specifically the Spirit, severing its connection with this world! This spell would ignore stuff like clothing and armor, but still requires a clear line of sight to a good chunk of the creature or at least their Eyes. Is the least powerful of them all in terms of raw destructive power, killing someone with this spell can take a long time. Can be targeted or effect area. Advantages - even in the area version, you can still choose who will be effected!
> Write in

>>6262051
We should have had teaching our people trades as a condition to move into the center of town. It's not as though our feeble people will ever compare to them... as it is they have no real reason to help teach us (unless they aren't self sufficient in feeding themselves).

I'd say ask if they are willing to take apprentices (focusing on forging and masonry; there's got to be people resenting their fortifications... maybe magic) and look over our militia for advice.

If they're unwilling ask the lizard men

>>6262059
> Develop some kind of ritual that can ward against undead

If we're going to keep using the undead we need ways to ward them off and control them. As it is mark criminals and other undesirables as forest fodder; we need the resources.

>>6262062
>help
Yes, but in teaching our people various trades, magic (especially if they know anything about warding, controlling, or making use of the undead), military tactics and in general advice... but I'd rather not give them wholesale control to overhaul our society.

Our society will sort itself out with proper education and opportunities.

>>6262085
>> Offer to sign an alliance, we will attack their enemies for them!
They probably aren't willing to sign an alliance with us, having experienced our martial prowess and finding it laughable. If they aren't, then offer the mining deal.

Arcane Blast and Psychic burst both sound promising desu. But I'm still on the control them train.

I'm gonna leave this vote open for awhile longer.

>>6262084
>Establish a Monarchy!

We are the divine monarch now!

@QM, have we ever tried to have children?

>>6262085
>Offer to sign an alliance, we will attack their enemies for them!

>Arcane Blast/Explosion: develop a spell that overloads the structure of the ghost with arcane energy! It is just a big magical blast of energy. Should be simple enough. The explosion variant can be hurled and causes a big explosion in the point of contact. Advantages - can hit non ghosts with arcane energy!

Most useful

>>6262154
>@QM, have we ever tried to have children?

Nope. You're a blind old man, the flesh holds no allure to you anymore.

Also you don't even know if the equipment still works.

But you could try if you really want, I could roll some dice.

>>6262088
>Arcane Blast and Psychic burst both sound promising desu. But I'm still on the control them train.

Feel free to suggest a write in spell, I'll adjust it if needed.

>>6262084
>Establish a Monarchy!

Perhaps in time... a god emperor?

>Write in
Let us instead approach our dark elf friends.

>Arcane Blast/Explosion: develop a spell that overloads the structure of the ghost with arcane energy! It is just a big magical blast of energy. Should be simple enough. The explosion variant can be hurled and causes a big explosion in the point of contact. Advantages - can hit non ghosts with arcane energy!

>>6262176

Perhaps we might try visiting the brothel. Surely there is a way to reinvigorate the body in any case.

>>6262183
Hm. We can just go with Arcane Blast for now; it's useful in battle and mining applications. I'm a little worried about control but we don't seem to care much about preserving lives.

I was most interested in being able to target a ghosts structure or a spirit directly; things we can figure out as future research projects.

>>6262084
I'm inclined to keep to our current structure... or to put a chosen line as a front in a monarchy. A king must be a public figure, will be responsible for a large number of administrative tasks, and is the first to fall should anyone take it into their heads to rebel (as is possible if they get hungry enough or stressed enough). Meanwhile, if we're the power behind the throne we still get the authority but still retain our freedom to goof around and experiment with things... and won't be held accountable once it's time to start paying our debt or the next time we sacrifice large portions of the population.

>>6262231
Considering we are tasked with providing so many souls in exchange for freedom in the past, kind of makes sense that guide should man the helm.

>>6262084
>Establish a Monarchy!
>>6262085
>Offer to sign an alliance, we will attack their enemies for them!
Sunburst/Sunbeam: since sunlight weakens the ghosts, develop a spell that creates a small sun for a few moments! It should destroy nearby ghosts and scare all the others who can see it! The sunbeam variant is targeted. Advantages - can destroy any creature vulnerable to sunlight, and cause blindness and serious burns on any others!

>>6262222
>Perhaps we might try visiting the brothel.

Capital idea! Maybe our children will also be blessed (cursed?) with great magical affinity

Let me try to tally the votes.

>>6262087
>>6262231

ask if the dark elves will take apprentices
develop some kind of ritual that can ward against undead
accept limited help
offer to sign alliance with lizardmen
arcane blast
keep current structure

>>6262154
establish a monarchy
offer to sign alliance with lizardmen
Arcane Blast/Explosion

>>6262394
establish a monarchy
Offer to sign an alliance, we will attack their enemies for them!


Alright, so I think we got a majority for

Monarchy
Alliance with lizardmen
Arcane blast

>>6262596


You decide to accept the dark elves help is reorganizing society. They say all that we need is develop a system of Oaths, and have people keep repeating those oaths everyday until they have them memorized. In addition, the priests should invent a bunch of Commandments that they will teach the people every time they attend a religious gathering.

This immediately makes you remember a bunch of stuff from Hell's Law...

<<A demon who feels wronged by another demon may ask for a trial by combat.>>

<<A demon of a lower rank that attacks a higher ranking demon shall be consumed if unsuccessful. If successful, will take his place.>>

<<A contract made with any demon is binding if signed with blood. A higher ranking demon binds through his words alone.>>

> Adapt some stuff from the demon code to your own society (trial by combat, blood oaths, word being law)
> Merely adopt the dark elves suggestions, invent some oaths for your people and have the death cultists come up with some commandments
> This is too complicated, you really don't see the benefits, give up trying to implement a monarchy
> Write in

You attempt to form an alliance with the lizardmen. But they say:

"You've done naught but turn this island increasingly uninhabitable ever since you showed up. We are being pushed back into the sea year after year, and there a bunch of mermen menace our people. Unless you can fight underwater, or secure the island from the undead, there is little you could offer us in terms of an alliance!"

> Promise to figure out a way to help them underwater
> Promise to help them secure a livable space within the island
> "Ah, so your so called friendship is skin deep? So be it!"
> Declare war on the lizardmen for their disrespect
> Write in

You research the arcane blast! Didn't take too long at all.

But you're the only one who learned it so far.

> Start teaching it to the death cultists
> Start a new cabal to teach the Arcane Blast to
> Keep this spell a secret, like most others
> Write in

You go visit the brothel one day! The dark elves are surprised to see you there, but welcome you nevertheless.
> Many things don't work anymore at your age...
> You rekindle the old flame and become a regular!
> You ask the dark elves for a personal mistress
> Write in

>>6262614

When asked to teach your people trades, the elves say

"We are but warriors, not tradespeople. Our knowledge is very limited and our technique crude. Still, if you're really interested, we could take a few apprentices... for a fee."


Year 217

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 1/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 4/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Krita, high priestess of Death.
Daleesa, Dark Elf Warrior.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 2,300 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes, Carts

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple, Wooden Houses, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post, Palisade, Treeplanter

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish, Lower Ratfolk

Army:
Zhuang Dao (thousands of Black Belts) Renguzhe (a few dozen) Yemanshi (a few dozen) Wugouzheng (a few dozen)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)
Dark Elf Warriors (a few dozens, spirit blades)
Militia (tens of thousands, halberds, spears, daggers, experience fighting zombies)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch, Arcane Blast

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling), Plant Growth (under tests, could be used, 1 soul = 1 tree)

Resources: Small Gold Hoard (in circulation) (less than 100k pieces)

Demon: Sutirk (RANK 3)

Technology: Basic Carpentry, Leather Making

Cursed Area: Millions of Restless Souls on landing beach

What will you do?
> Research a way to ward against undead or to control ghosts (specify)
> Improve your morale or your resources (specify)
> Develop a new magic or technology (specify)
> Write in

>>6262614
>Adapt some stuff from the demon code to your own society (trial by combat, blood oaths, word being law)

Kind of synchronizes with our martial artists, and leaning on death hasn't worked out too well for us, we need other influences.

>> "Ah, so your so called friendship is skin deep? So be it!"

Perhaps in time things will change.

>> Start a new cabal to teach the Arcane Blast to

>> You ask the dark elves for a personal mistress

>>6262618
>Improve your morale or your resources (specify)

Let's try and throw some celebrations and festivities to improve peoples morale, and establish the changes to our society.

>>6262614
>Adapt some stuff from the demon code to your own society (trial by combat, blood oaths, word being law)
This will lean into our martial prowess.

>Promise to help them secure a livable space within the island
Damned lizardmen. Well, we were planning on doing this eventually. Might as well bring those coldblooded bastards into it.

>Teach Arcane Blast to our druids
They're already into AoE magic. This synergizes well and gives them some combat potential and political leverage without further complicating our society.

>Abstain from sex vote
I'm not sure fornicating with dark elves is a good idea, but I'm not opposed to it. I'll abstain from this one.

>>6262618
>Improve morale by coming up with a new holiday
I agree with anon, a festival could do us some good. I suggest Livingsday, where the people celebrate that they aren't dead by doing everything that the undead can't.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6262698 1
>>6262712 2

>>6262698
>>6262712
>>6262753


You adapt some stuff from the demon code to your own society. People are now allowed trials by combat, blood oaths are binding and your word becomes law! Gotta be careful on your proclamations to not invent some nonsense and pass it as law...

You get upset with the lizardfolk refusal to help you, but you do nothing for now.

You start a new cabal to teach Arcane Blast to! How many people are you going to recruit into this cabal?
> A few dozens. You will be able to pick the very best.
> A few hundreds. Quality will degrade, but quantity is its own quality.
> A few thousands. Pretty much anyone who has any talent whatsoever for magic will be taught. Precludes the creation of new magical cabals, unless they are offshoots.
> Write in

You ask the dark elves for a personal mistress. They are more than happy to oblige! Her name is Tana! She stick to you like a shadow, and is always in the mood!

You invent a new holiday, the Livingday! Where people celebrate by doing all things that undead can't do! (+1 MORALE)

The dark elves suggest we start making some Really Strong Booze! For the party, they say. They crudely describe distillation methods.
> Have your best sages study distillation
> What's wrong with our fruit wine?
> Use some mild poison as hallucinogen instead
> Write in

>>6262759
Now we have our very own foreign spy-assassin. Could be worse, admittedly. With her, the dark elves likely think they've got us under their thumbs. Let's let them keep thinking that.

>A few dozens. You will be able to pick the very best.
If we want a proper wizard cabal, we need some serious big brains. I reason we should focus on teaching a corp of elites and then have the elites teach others.

>Have your best sages study distillation
What is a party without booze? If we improve distillation, it's bound to have a trickle effect into our toxicology. This is a fine springboard for alchemy.

>>6262764
Supporting, good plans.

As to the dark elves, I really hope we can all just get along.

So, the male half elf bastards aren't cared for by their parents, right?

I wonder if there's a way we can exploit this.

>>6262618
What's the fee? Take the opportunity to flatter them; if these are their crude skills ours are just feeble.

>>6262759
>> A few hundreds. Quality will degrade, but quantity is its own quality.
Let's make them part of the militia.
>>6262759
>Use some mild poison as hallucinogen instead
We haven't used our poison garden for awhile.

>>6262759

I'm curious about how our tech works, do we need to specifically research leather armor, or is it a given with our leatherworking?

>>6262917
>I'm curious about how our tech works, do we need to specifically research leather armor, or is it a given with our leatherworking?

You don't need to research leather armor, just specify you are going to produce it, since you have leather working tech. You know two types of leather armor - ordinary leather armor and hardened leather armor.

Leather Armor is simple to make. You could equip large amounts of people with it. But the protection it offers is limited.

Hardened Leather Armor use layered hardened leather. It is about 100 times more expensive to make, so you can't equip large armies with it unless you mobilize lots of resources for a long time. It offers much better protection.

>>6262816
Interesting idea anon - we should study these half breeds to see if they have any inherent genetic skills or magical properties.

They could become our praetorian guard

>>6263205
Kinda what i was thinking, or at the very least include them in it. I think drawing from the martial artists might not be a bad idea either.

They could be used to protect our mages as well.

>>6262764
>>6262803
>>6262816
>>6262853
>>6262917
>>6262984
>>6263205
>>6263365


Your sages eventually uncover the secrets of distillation, and your people learn it eagerly! Soon, bootleg booze starts being made all over the settlement. The ease with which weak booze, which is basically rotten food, turns into quality strong spirits entices the people to produce more and more.

The dark elves themselves rarely drink, but when they do they are heavy drinkers. They can chug down a barrel of booze and remain standing!

You learn that it is because they are essentially immune to most types of poison. Their superior organisms metabolize poison very quickly, they claim.

Your cabal of wizards call themselves the Arcane Cabal. They practice their spells daily! They notice that with enough concentration and training, if they aren't too tired that day, they can create multiple blasts to hit multiple targets, or make a explosion that is really very big.

This is your first major offensive spell! (MAGIC+1)

You wonder what other kinds of spells are available to you.
Year 228

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 5/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Krita, high priestess of Death.
Daleesa, Dark Elf Warrior.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 2,800 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes, Carts, Boozemakers

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple, Wooden Houses, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post, Palisade, Treeplanter

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish, Lower Ratfolk

Army:
Zhuang Dao (thousands of Black Belts) Renguzhe (a few dozen) Yemanshi (a few dozen) Wugouzheng (a few dozen)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)
Dark Elf Warriors (a few dozens, spirit blades)
Militia (tens of thousands, halberds, spears, daggers, experience fighting zombies)
Arcane Cabal (a few dozens, elite, trained in arcane blast)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch, Arcane Blast

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling), Plant Growth (under tests, could be used, 1 soul = 1 tree)

Resources: Small Gold Hoard (in circulation) (less than 100k pieces), Lot of Strong Booze

Demon: Sutirk (RANK 3)

Technology: Basic Carpentry, Leather Making

Cursed Area: Millions of Restless Souls on landing beach

What will you do?
> Research a way to ward against undead or to control ghosts (specify)
> Improve your morale or your resources (specify)
> Develop a new magic or technology (specify)
> Write in

>>6263403
>> Develop a new magic or technology (specify)

Let's try and develop some technologies for our military, such as bows and arrows, shields, armor etc

We're going to need to combat the undead soon enough, via both magic and the mundane.

>>6263441
I agree. Considering the danger of zombie bites, I think we should focus on makin resilient armour. Perhaps we could use our carpentry to cover our soldier's arms and shins with wood, and then fasten it with leather straps? That should offset the danger without compromising too much mobility.

>>6263460
Perhaps attaching wooden slats into leather armor to reinforce it?

Sort if like a primitive coat of plates.

Shields would be a no brainer, I would think.

>>6263403
>Research a way to ward against undead
>direct leatherworkers to experiment making sturdier armor
Since we got people already doing leather working might as well delegate this task

>>6263441
>>6263460
>>6263600
>>6263750


Your artisans develop sturdier leather armor - hardened leather! It is built on layers and can resist far more damage than regular leather armor.
But it is much harder to make.

You spent this time making:
> A few hundred hardened leather armor suits for more elite warriors
> Several thousand regular leather armor for the militia (still, there is not enough for everyone)
> Write in

You receive news that Krita died. Another high priestess ascends, she calls herself Krita the Second (Krita II).

Dragon sightings become increasingly common! These are small, likely young. What do you wanna do?
> Develop ranged weapons like bows, you need to pose a threat to the dragons
> Attempt to contact the dragons
> Hunt down the dragons
> Write in


Year 239

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 5/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Krita II, high priestess of Death.
Daleesa, Dark Elf Warrior.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 3,300 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes, Carts, Boozemakers

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple, Wooden Houses, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post, Palisade, Treeplanter

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish, Lower Ratfolk

Army:
Zhuang Dao (thousands of Black Belts) Renguzhe (a few hundred) Yemanshi (a few hundred) Wugouzheng (a few hundred)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)
Dark Elf Warriors (a few dozens, spirit blades)
Militia (tens of thousands, halberds, spears, daggers, experience fighting zombies)
Arcane Cabal (a few dozens, elite, trained in arcane blast)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch, Arcane Blast

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling), Plant Growth (under tests, could be used, 1 soul = 1 tree)

Resources: Small Gold Hoard (in circulation) (less than 100k pieces), Lot of Strong Booze

Demon: Sutirk (RANK 3)

Technology: Basic Carpentry, Leather Making

Cursed Area: Millions of Restless Souls on landing beach

What will you do?
> Research a way to ward against undead or to control ghosts (specify)
> Improve your morale or your resources (specify)
> Develop a new magic or technology (specify)
> Write in

>>6264068
>Several thousand regular leather armor for the militia

Our biggest issue is the ability to scale, it seems.

>Develop ranged weapons like bows, you need to pose a threat to the dragons

I say we leave the scalebacks alone as long as they leave us alone, but better to be prepared.

>Develop a new magic or technology

Let us begin domesticating beasts, I expect we will have some skill at it with our animal callers and such.

Bonus to food and leather production, and hipefully some beasts of burden and labor to boot!

>>6264068
> A few hundred hardened leather armor suits for more elite warriors
> Develop ranged weapons like bows, you need to pose a threat to the dragons
Research a way to ward against undead

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6264084 1
>>6264301 2

>>6264084
>>6264301
>>6264754


You create a few hundred hardened leather armor suit for more elite warriors. Who should keep them?
> Your best martial artists
> Create a new military unit to use them (specify)
> Write in

You develop bows! You can now shoot things from far away. You find Ash is the best tree in your treefarm to make them.
> Create a new military unit (archer)
> Create a new more exotic military unit using bows (specify)
> Write in

You start trying to develop a way to ward off undead.

Pestilence shows up.

"Don't you like the company of my people? Well, I could help you herd them all underground and seal the entrance with a powerful ward spell. But I want a high priestess too!"

> Create a high priestess of pestilence, gain a single ward against undead underground
> Decline and keep researching
> Write in

A demon succubus appears next to you, other people can see her too! She says:

"I came to check on your progress. Don't you think it is time to start sacrificing some people?"

> Explain to her you didn't figure out how to make people sacrifice themselves voluntarily
> Say you're trying to get slaves so you can sacrifice them instead of your own people
> Write in


Year 250

Food 5/10 (food stable)
Morale 2/10
Resources 1/10
Magic 5/10

Heroes:
Kritus, The Blind Guide, representative of your people with the forces of Hell, know all of Hell's Laws by heart.
Krita II, high priestess of Death.
Daleesa, Dark Elf Warrior.

Debt: Four Million Souls

Population: about 3,800 thousand

Traits: Cannibalism, Farmers, Pious, Literate, Druid, Civilized, Martial Artists, Martial Archive, Schizophrenic, Toxicologist, Goldpanners, Dictatorial, Ruthless, Death Cultists, Gold Currency, Taxes, Merchants, Prostitutes, Carts, Boozemakers

Buildings: Bone Shrine + Massive Temple, Wooden Houses, Monastery, Massive Poison Garden, Massive Farms, Pier, Trading Post, Palisade, Treeplanter

Languages: Abyssal, Dark Speech, Neutral, Dark Elvish, Lower Ratfolk

Army:
Zhuang Dao (thousands of Black Belts) Renguzhe (a few hundred) Yemanshi (a few hundred) Wugouzheng (a few hundred)
Death Cultists (thousands, death touch, otherwise harmless)
Dark Elf Warriors (a few dozens, spirit blades)
Militia (tens of thousands, halberds, spears, daggers, experience fighting zombies)
Arcane Cabal (a few dozens, elite, trained in arcane blast)

Spells: Speak With Animals, Entangle, Poison Spray, Death Touch, Arcane Blast

Rituals: Toxic Blight (100k souls, unwilling), Plant Growth (under tests, could be used, 1 soul = 1 tree)

Resources: Small Gold Hoard (in circulation) (less than 100k pieces), Lot of Strong Booze, Hardened Leather Suits (a few hundred)

Demon: Sutirk (RANK 3)

Technology: Basic Carpentry, Leather Making

Cursed Area: Millions of Restless Souls on landing beach

What will you do?
> Research a way to ward against undead or to control ghosts (specify)
> Improve your morale or your resources (specify)
> Develop a new magic or technology (specify)
> Write in

>>6264758
>Create a new military unit to use them (specify)

Form an elite unit of halberdiers

>Create a new military unit (archer)

>Decline and refocus our efforts towards offensive magic to kill the undead with

>Say you're trying to get slaves so you can sacrifice them instead of your own people

>Develop a new magic or technology (specify

Again, I vote for animal domestication

>>6264758
Hmm...

>Create a new military unit to use them (elite halberdiers)
I think we need to preserve our martial artist legacy. It was the earliest of our technologies and has only become more sophisticated since, but anon is right. Up against infectious undead, halberdiers are just common sense.

>Create a new military unit (archer)
This one is a no-brainer.

>Create a high priestess of pestilence, gain a single ward against undead underground
Aha! Now we can curry favour from both goddesses! As long as we can keep bouncing them off of each other... Damn, we'll need a plague shrine, won't we? I know it's sketchy, but think of how useful the death cultists have been. Imagine what toxic cultists might be capable of!

>Explain to her you didn't figure out how to make people sacrifice themselves voluntarily
The succubus is right, but maybe we can trick her into giving us some kind of charm magic, or failing that, treacherous advice.

>Develop a new magic or technology
Again, I agree with anon, animal domestication would do us a lot of good.

>>6264788
But the both of them have done nothing but fuck us anon, we need to be rid of them.

We'll be hard pressed to have the sacrifices for hell with constantly giving over people to death and pestilence, which has only led to increasingly worse situations for us.

>>6264762
supporting

also we could begin to setup this voluntary sacrifice thing
say that the crippled, terminally ill, mentally retarded or physically abnormal can still contribute to the advancement of our great society by making one final sacrifice

>>6264804
I agree that Death and Pestilence have only fucked our civilization over, however, the one we've been worshipping, Death, has been extremely useful for combat. The death cultists are cheap, lethal, and difficult to counter, and we've barely begun tapping into what Death is capable of. If we manage to get a slave population under us to sacrifice, Death will only become more useful. If we're clever or lucky, we could gain unstoppable momentum. Just imagine if these undead were tamed and conquering the island for us. That could be possible, at peak Death.

I imagine Pestilence is the same, aside from their sibling rivalry, she's bound to be highly useful for our traditional strategy of poisoning our enemies. There's a chance that Pestilence is trying to sabotage our relationship with Death and impose herself, but I think the chance of reaping the benefits of both is worth it. Death and Pestilence are both huge burdens, but carrying them could make us stronger. Rejecting the goddesses is reasonable and I wouldn't be opposed to it, but we may be missing out on further opportunities.

>>6264788
+1

>>6264896
That's a solid idea.

>>6264923
They've fucked us over hard, and what do we have to show for it? The people that we have been sacrificing to them could have went towards sacrificing to hell, which we have an obligation to. Hell has laws and structure, death and pestilence are naught but capricious monkey paws.

The undead must be dealt with, attempting to utilize them is only going to cause more problems.

I say we focus on our debt to hell, and perhaps seek out other gods or goddesses to confer boons to us. Perhaps a god of war?

>>6265063
The death cultists allowed us to defeat the lizardmen, when it otherwise could've been game over. I agree that Death and Pestilence are both erratic and dangerous patrons, but they are useful for combat. You make a good point about the hellish sacrifices. Right now, we're wayyy behind on paying our debt and I doubt either goddess would care enough to save millions of our souls.

I won't change my vote, because I think Death and Pestilence could be used, but I agree on the future focus. Finding another god would be great, if any of them will have us. Our civilization has, in all honesty, been evil as shit ever since its founding. Most benevolent, predictable gods probably won't abide by our piety.

I mean, it was a poorly planned war in which we sent basically unarmed martial artists and guys with pointy sticks in against big ass lizard guys who are apparently capable of mass producing metal weapons, alongside cowardly kobolds who appear to have planned to use us to soften up the lizard men. Part of that war, I might add, was the use of a death ritual that began the undead infestation, at the cost of 100k souls.

Sure, the death cultists were enough, alongside total mobilization of our people, to lower the degree by which we were defeated, but they did not bring us victory.

What we need are basic foundations for a civilization, and to not waste away our people to death and pestilence when we are already beholden to hell.

There may well be some nature god or martial god that we can appeal to, they certainly can't be worse for us than what we've gotten so far. Maybe we can dedicate some turns towards such things? I'd be game for it.

I already forgot everything, I need to reread the quest to know where were we going.

It is getting to that threshold of complexity where the pull of dropping the civ quest is heavy.

I'm probably going to condense a lot of information to make a more lean yearly prompt.

I'll be back soon, if I don't drop it.

>>6265919
make a word document with notes or something
one QM used rentry.org to also make those notes accessible to us

>>6265919
=(

>>6265919
It's okay, we know how it is.