BBeast

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

I'll be honest, I have little idea about how the Free Section works. I haven't had time to explore. But I agree that current Divinus is definitely Advanced material.

Btw, I definitely do not have time to GM this new version. I've been procrastinating for the past 6 hours simply talking about this when I should probably be doing work.

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

<Snipped quote by BBeast>

Haven't read the draft OP yet, but I'd like to raise that some gods will play cautiously with their Might simply because they don't know when they next need it, even if they're active, in which case we shouldn't punish them for actively choosing to stay quiet. Also, losing excess Might at the end of the turn is also incentive to try and level up with your spare Might if you have it, and it's enough.

I think the Might cap / Might expiry should be merged into a simple cap = 2 x Might per turn rule. That way you can still save a little, if you feel like playing that way.

I also would still like to keep the level-up-available-if-Might-is-spent rule, amended somehow, maybe so that Might spent on levelling doesn't count.

@Antarctic Termite

You raise a good point. It's hard to know when to save for a rainy day and when to spend all your Might. With the cap on expenditure on single items, saving up for super-weapons is no longer a concern.

I propose that the Might cap should either be 1.5 * Might per Turn, to encourage people to spend at least some Might during each Turn; or 2 * (Level+3), which is the Might per Turn ignoring Holy Sites (so Holy Sites can boost your generation, but not beyond the capacity allowed by your Level).

Also, for levelling up, how about you can Level Up only if you have spent at least 1 MP on something else since your last Level Up (including at the start of the game).

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

@Antarctic Termite has a point. Demigods work as a good probation system with the level to ascend scaled back as proposed, but whether such a system is necessary at all in a Free Section RP is debatable. Depends whether we want to have a consistent committed player base or allow drop-in-drop-out play.

If we allow drop-in-drop-out play, then we would need to encode some mechanism to remove inactive gods from the pool and free up their Portfolios for other players. Perhaps not doing anything IC for, say, 2 consecutive Turns without leave of absence results in that god's power fading away, such that their Portfolios can be taken, and they lose influence over worshippers.

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

In line with BBeast's suggestion that 'the threshold for ascending to godhood can be reduced to, say, Level 6 or 7', I've edited it in the proposed OP to level 6.

@Kho

It largely depends on how many Turns we want to make the new players wait. Getting to Level 6 takes 16 Might. Power levelling gets you there in 4 Turns with 9 MP to spare on other expenses along the way. If you get 1000 worshippers by the end of your first Turn, you can cut it down to 3 Turns. If we lower the limit to Level 5, then we reduce the time it takes by another Turn. Although the time taken by a Level 6 threshold seems adequate (especially considering that Turns should be faster).

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

A more sandboxy and free feel as well as freedom from a vague backstory that I'm not all that fond of. GM intervention would be a last resort in my idealized vision; for the most part, if one god is being overly destructive and a dick, I think that it should fall to the other players to stop him. If nobody does, then he rampages and run loose. Only if the story is utterly stagnating or something extreme happens (ie alliance of chaos gods threatening to scour all of creation) should some ex nihilo event need to happen with GM intervention. Because we'd plan on trying to avoid the need for such things, I dislike having the Primordial Beings primed and loomed over us like a bucket of water rigged to the top of a door.

@Cyclone

I can see the appeal there. As a player driven RP, it should be up to the players to keep the other player characters in check. This is, indeed, what we have been doing all along. In that sense, the Primordials are unnecessary.

As for your other points, I think you have identified the key question: what is to be the design philosophy behind Divinus Lite (or whatever we end up calling it)? Do we want to stay true to the style of the original Divinus, with Gods being transcendental beings who predate all mortal civilisation in a fully customised world? Or do we want to create a different flavour of god RP, as you are suggesting? Ultimately, these choices come down to whoever actually decides to run such an RP.


On a more mechanical thought: for Divinus Lite, I think we can streamline the ascension from Demigodhood to Godhood more (P.S. Termite already pointed out that this needed doing). As it stands, there are two tiers of players: those who were here at the start, and those who came later. This helps maintain consistency in the Divinus IC canon, where it would be weird if new fully-fledged gods kept appearing and disappearing, but it can be relaxed in Divinus Lite. A Demigod can basically be considered as a probationary god in this context. If the player sticks around for long enough to level up a bit, then they receive the privilege of becoming a full god. On the other hand, if the player drops out soon after joining, then only a demigod is lost and not a proper god. This probationary period allows the character to smoothly enter into the pantheon.

Perhaps the threshold for ascending to godhood can be reduced to, say, Level 6 or 7. We can retain the Might gained from worshippers, since obtaining worshippers requires roleplaying and that should be encouraged especially in the newer players.


Also, all this talk of Divinus Lite has made me start thinking about how it could be adapted to a tabletop setting...

Tabletop Divinus

To be played with a group of friends. Because you are all present in person, and all action is done live, and the story is all player-driven, you don't need a GM to coordinate things. No GM needed.

A story-driven RPG, inspired by the likes of Polaris and Microscope (and of course Divinus itself). No dice needed. You will need paper to write stuff down. Conflict resolution is to be roleplayed out. If no agreement can be reached, then the other players at the table are to arbitrate, based on factors described in actual Divinus rules.

Mechanically this game is very similar to Divinus Lite as proposed by Kho so far. There will be Might, and Turns, and Levels, and Heroes, and Holy Sites, etc.

The game is played by going around the table and asking each player what they want to do. They can do up to one action, then they move on to the next player (passing is allowed). You go around like this until everyone has spent all their Might or nobody wants to do anything any more. You then progress to the next Turn.

The trick will be ensuring we have enough roleplaying for this to be more than a world-building simulator. Perhaps, whenever a Hero, Avatar, or notable mortal does something, or whenever your God interacts directly with the people in the world or the other Gods, the players at the table have to roleplay a scene (similar to Microscope, except we have more recurring and personal characters, like Polaris).

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

@Cyclone

I disagree that gods need to be broadly weaker. One of the things I like about Divinus is the sheer power you wield. The reason we want Gods to be weaker, if I'm not mistaken, is to avoid abuses where we nuke planets and the like. If we lessened their creative powers to do this, I feel like it would be detracting from Divinus. However, limiting their destructive power without altering their creative power allows players to retain the feeling of god-like power without risking wanton destruction.

(P.S. In Kho's words: "Gods need to be powerful, semi-transcendent beings with tremendous power." I feel this is a core part of Divinus.)

I agree that a pre-existing planet would be useful for Divinus Lite. While creating the universe from scratch really allowed us to personalise our universe, and thus should be kept in full versions of Divinus, it is probably excessive for Divinus Lite. The initial planet, I think, should have basic continents and oceans and a good atmosphere and stuff like that, but no life (or only mundane life. Nothing sentient or magical or monstrous); allow the players to invent whatever sentient races and monsters they like without the GMs imposing it upon them. Customising the world around us is, I feel, an important part of Divinus.

What is gained by discarding Fate and Amul? Lore-wise, they provide coherency within the Divinus multiverse. They can also be used to give direction to the gods, even as simple as a quick speech at the opening. And it gives the gods something greater than themselves to potentially interact with, and call upon for help if need be. Mechanically, they give the GMs a ready-to-use tool for intervening with IC affairs if necessary without having to contrive something ex nihilio or bend their own characters to do it.

On Domains and Portfolios: Conceivably, you could get rid of Domains. I'll see if I can explore some of the consequences of that.

Without Domains, we will have to permit Portfolios to be potentially as broad as Domains (or almost as broad). Otherwise, the gods would be very good at a very small number of things and completely equal at everything else, which is dull. Maintaining themes would emerge naturally from the way Portfolios must be acquired. A Fire god could get the Rain portfolio, but they still have to spend 3 Might on rain-related actions first. Also, we reduce overlap between gods, because they cannot have anything in common any more, not even a Domain, because those have been turned into Portfolios. However, by changing Domains into Portfolios, we also have a mixed hierarchy of Portfolios. If you have a God of Water, can you also have a God of Rain? Rain would normally be a subset of Water, but here we have an interesting clash of specialisations; the Water God is equally good at all water things, but the Rain God is very good at rain but no good at any other water things.

I'll explain what role Domains do have: they provide a description of what your god is broadly good at, without laying exclusive claim to it. It maintains the division between being broadly good at something (Domain) and being highly specialised in something (Portfolio). Discarding Domains removes this division. You could get away with it. Doing so would allow for gods with more diverse skill sets. But you'd very much change the dynamic of how Divinus Gods work.

For instance, having the Crafting Domain means I am broadly good at crafting, and I then claim Portfolios which indicate areas in which I am extremely skilled. Without Domains, I would have had to choose the Crafting Portfolio, then picked what are essentially sub-Portfolios, or else I would have lacked the breadth of skill I had otherwise.

As a compromise: new Domains should be easier to acquire. Kho's current version of Divinus Lite says you can get your second Domain at Level 10, third at Level 15, and so on. I propose that instead you should be able to get your second Domain at Level 5, third at Level 10, and so on. The wait to acquire new Domains even here is too long.

As for conflicting Domains/Portfolios and allowing Portfolios outside your thematic reach: it depends how much we want to build in niche protection. The current system protects each God's area of specialty. I don't have to worry about Jvan getting better at building robots than Teknall; Jvan doesn't have to worry about Teknall getting better at making life than her; Astarte doesn't have to worry about Ilunabar getting better at magic than her; and so on. Portfolios are acquired on a first-come first-served basis during the course of the game, so dropping all restrictions (including Domains) turns the game into a free-for-all Portfolio land grab.

P.S. While I was writing this, Kho also commented on Domains, and got to my point much more succinctly. It gives gods a broad region of sovereignty, and prevents them from stepping on each other's toes.


This is interesting discussion, though. It is worth critically examining the system to see what works and what doesn't. I will note that a lot of the consequences I have listed for these possible changes are not all necessarily "bad", although they do all constitute considerable changes.

I think we should choose one or the other - either Might is lost at Turn change and one can level up regardless, or Might is kept at Turn change but to level up it needs to have all been spent.

@Kho

I think having Might lost at Turn change is simpler, and directly prevents problems which can be caused by stockpiling Might.

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

I concur that Gods have too much destructive potential as-is and their restraint is built upon contrivance and player consensus. We can not assume any of these things will be present in Divinus Lite. Even rules-as-written, a God can create a star for 2 MP in Divinus Lite, which would nuke a planet in a heart-beat.

It was suggested, and I agree with this, that Gods are to be far more creative beings than destructive beings. Specify explicitly that Might can only be used to create things, and that it cannot be directly used to destroy things; no nuking things, no dropping moons on people, no conjuring black holes next to planets, etc. This should help curb destructive behaviour and encourage creative solutions to conflicts.

How to handle powerful weapons is another matter though. Weapons are technically created, which means they are valid in a system where Might can only be used to create things, yet they can still be obscenely destructive if you invest enough Might into them. The no-MP-hoarding system helps mitigate the strength of weapons which can be created. We could set a hard limit on the power of divine weapons, such that they can't reach WMD power. We could specify that any uses of WMDs need to allow a response from the other players.

Or, alternatively, we could do away entirely with the concept of investing lots of Might into a single item (as Termite originally proposed). A divine weapon costs a flat 1 MP to build (as a blessed item). You could spend another 1 MP to add a different function to it, or build another divine weapon. But at no point would you be able to build a 25 MP death-ray.

Spending lots of MP on a single item was never in the rules-as-written, but we've house-ruled it in anyway. Divinus Lite should explicitly specify that you can't dump more Might on a single item/action to make it more powerful.

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

@Kho, reading your draft OP for Divinus Lite, I have some feedback:

• I quite like the idea of all unspent Might being lost at each Turn change. This encourages people to spend, which is what we want in Divinus Lite.
• However, if we have such a mechanic, then requiring that people spend all their Might the previous Turn to be allowed to Level up might be redundant and onerous. Also, Might spent on Levelling Up would count for Might spent, so it doesn't fix too much except for finding a way to get rid of the loose change. (But if you want to keep it, that's fine too. It does ensure that only active players get to level up.)
• TiPis are not necessary (unless you allow them to be stockpiled, but that would cause confusion). They are really just 0.25 Might which can't be used for Might-only actions. They may as well be omitted from Divinus Lite, and you just replace their function with fractional Might expenditure (like we have been doing anyway). Having a single currency is far simpler than having two.
• Avatar costs have been changed. Current costs go 1-2-4-8-12-16-20-etc, not simply doubling. This is because we decided that the benefit provided by more Avatars is far closer to linear than exponential.
• I've always found the wording of the worshipper mechanics for Demigods a little cumbersome and somewhat vague, especially with the scaling ratios. A simpler phrasing would be: Demigods get 1 Might Recuperation for every 1000 Worshippers, up to a cap of 4 Might Recuperation.
• If we want to ever do a cross-over between Divinus Mk.2 and Divinus Lite, then I suggest that we keep the Primordials the same between the two.
• Do we want to reduce the Khookie cost for levelling up Heroes, to be in line with the reduced Khookies per post?
• More details on quests. Quests could be set by GMs. Gods could also spend Might to create a quest which some Heroes could complete. The prize for the quest should be more efficient than simply spending Might to Level Up the Heroes. Unless you want to allow Gods to create quests for free, in which case we would have to specify a limit such as only one active quest per God, and you can only create one quest per Turn. We would have to ensure that quests meet some minimum standard of difficulty, so they cannot be abused to rapidly level up Heroes. We can permit a quest to be completed multiple times if that is within the parameters of the quest, although each Hero can only claim the prize once. Multiple Heroes working together to complete a quest all gain the full prize. It must be specified that all Heroes have the opportunity to learn of the existence of a quest (via rumours, legends, proclamations, visions, etc.); no secret/private quests allowed.

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

A Divinus-lite sounds fun, although I'm concerned it might draw activity away from main Divinus.

I'll deliver some feedback on the ideas thrown around anyway. (They also make good rules considerations for Divinus Mk.3 if we ever get to that stage.)

• I'm not sure how temporary Holy Sites would be useful. Additionally, IC, with Holy Sites meant to be lasting monuments to their creator god, having them expire runs counter to that.
• Capturing Holy Sites is cool, if you could figure out a way to do it.
• Worshipper mechanics might be complicated. What defines a worshipper? How can we ensure that worshippers are obtained fairly? A cap on the bonus worshippers gives like for demigods is likely needed. However, IC, Divinus gods are special in that their existence and power is largely independent of mortals, which gives you that extra feeling of power, that you are because you are, not because some mortals believed you into power.
• However, I've figured out a potential way to join modifications to Holy Sites and Worshippers: Holy Sites must be maintained/attended by your Worshippers in order for you to gain Might from it. Holy Sites thus become infrastructure for channelling mortal piety into divine power. The number of worshippers is not important, as long as it is enough to operate the Holy Site (which might scale with Might Cost). If you lose influence over your worshippers, your Holy Site stops functioning. If another god supplants your worshippers and puts their own in the Holy Site, then that god gains the benefits of the Holy Site instead.
• To add to the Fate/Amul debate: the mere presence of the Primordials is enough to remind the Player Characters that, although they are Gods, they are not the most powerful beings around, which adds an interesting dynamic. Also, if you are opening something up in the Free section, it might be worthwhile keeping them around as GM tools in case the players we attract are not as well behaved as us.

But again, don't you all go abandoning real Divinus. That would be rude.

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

The ground in the colony lurched and fractured. Splitting earth caused railways to buckle, and mining shafts collapsed on themselves. The Processors had stopped manufacturing and were trundling away from the slowly crumbling ground. Even the Nexus had uprooted itself, and was departing along a level road of gravel being produced ahead of it by Harvesters. Destroyer turrets walked with the evacuation, their guns scanning the horizon in case any elementals attempted a direct attack.

Manipulators moved along the quaking ground. Precision seismic measurements tracked the motion of many earth elementals below the colony, who were undermining its foundations. The Manipulators planted the occasional burrowing explosive and set it going. These devices had a drill head attached which was designed to propel the device forwards through the ground, until its warhead was detonated. This device allowed the Prometheans to damage underground earth elementals, although they were comparatively slow and had limited range. Regardless, it was the best the Prometheans had for attacking enemies protected by dozens of metres of stone.

For this colony, though, it hadn't been enough. The earth djinn had made the location uninhabitable, and the Prometheans had been reluctantly forced to abandon it and its mineral resources.

~~~~

The hydrocarbon lake was draining much faster than it should have been.

The primary use of hydrocarbons by the Prometheans was in manufacturing chemicals. With no ambient oxygen, hydrocarbons were almost useless as an energy source (save for stripping the hydrogen for use in fusion), but the simple organic molecules were essential for creating explosives, rocket fuels and plastics. With the war in full swing these resources were in high demand. The Prometheans siphoned hydrocarbons from surface lakes and oceans to supply this demand.

While the Prometheans consumed a lot of hydrocarbons, their consumption could not nearly account for how quickly the level of this lake was sinking. The lake was draining at a rate of a metre a day, and it was getting faster.

Carriers, Manipulators and Destroyers from the adjoining colonies went to investigate. Flow and acoustic measurements were made and aquatic probes were dropped. The Prometheans soon determined that the lake was being drained from the bottom into underground oil fields. The cause behind this disturbance were hydrocarbon elementals, identified when they attacked some of the probes.

A countermeasure was necessary, or else the colonies would be deprived of this resource. The Prometheans built a new Carrier and Destroyer type capable of submarine travel. Their hulls were made liquid-proof and capable of resisting crushing pressures. Then they dived into the depths, and were confronted by the sea djinn.

The battle was furiously energetic. The Prometheans targeted the otherwise invisible hydrocarbon djinn using sonar, and spears of flame lanced forth at the elementals. The elementals surged forth, carrying with them thousands of tonnes of liquid creating turbulent currents to disorient the Prometheans. The djinn latched onto the Prometheans and squeezed with the amplified pressure of the lake. Some of the Prometheans were destroyed by this, the extreme stress exploiting small flaws in their manufacture and allowing the djinn to get inside and rupture the robots. But this also brought the djinn into close contact with the Promethean flamethrowers, and many elementals were burned away in this assault.

Then came the elemental lord who had been leading these djinn. The Prometheans sensed his great bulk approach and loosed a salvo of torpedoes. When they burst within the djinn's liquid form he roared in pain. An amorphous limb shot forwards in retaliation, crushing one of the Destroyers against the lake bed. Fire licked at his swiftly retracting arm, and another limb gripped another Destroyer, flooded the pressurised oxygen vents of its flamethrowers, and squeezed until it ruptured. Meanwhile, the other Destroyers launched more torpedoes while the Carriers turned and fled.

With the might of an ocean the sea lord lashed out at the Prometheans and weathered their attacks until all the Destroyers had been reduced to scrap metal. The sea lord then flowed after the fleeing Carriers. He grasped at one and swallowed it, forcing liquid ethane into every little fault in its hull and tearing it apart from the inside. His pursuit of the rest took him closer to the surface, which put him in range of the more developed Promethean army and air force. Incendiary shells ripped through the lake and missiles burst at its surface, and the sea lord was forced to withdraw.

The Prometheans' submarine assault had been repelled, but they had an alternative plan. The Prometheans manufactured then sunk marine-grade mines into the lake, equipped with basic propulsion, and primed to explode if substantially disturbed or given a remote trigger. With the liberal sowing of explosives across the lake bed, it was only a matter of time before the sea lord came too close to one and triggered the explosion. At this cue, the other mines propelled themselves towards the source of the first explosion, converging upon the hydrocarbon elemental. More explosions tore into the djinni's form, and he had to move nimbly to avoid the mines.

After hours of dodging and the occasional explosion, the Prometheans stopped detecting the strong currents characteristic of hydrocarbon elementals. After waiting a few hours to ensure that all activity had stopped, they sent in the submarine Carriers escorted by the two submarine Destroyers they had managed to build since the last fight. They reached the bottom of the lake unopposed, where the lake intersected a layer of porous rock. The Carriers injected concrete into the layer, blocking it off and preventing any more hydrocarbons from being drained from the lake.

~~~~

To feed their ceaseless expansion, the Prometheans had to always find more resources. Water to feed the fusion cores. Hydrocarbons and ammopnia to create chemicals. Iron and bauxite ore to create structural metals. Uranium and thorium to feed nuclear reactors. These were the main resources consumed, but many other minerals were used in lower volumes and were just as essential. Many rarer minerals formed essential components of electronics and the fusion cores. And this made places where such minerals could be mined very valuable.

The colony containing Nexus 001335 was one such colony, a rare earth mineral mine. The war with the elementals had changed the structure of such outposts. This outpost contained only minimal manufacturing capacity; most goods including most new Prometheans were typically imported, and the resources collected by the outpost were almost entirely exported. This logistical format made establishing the colony cheaper, and also meant that lots of raw resources would not have to be shipped to the outpost.

The war against the elementals had also changed how resources were transported to and from the outposts. Railways were too susceptible to sabotage, so were only used deep within Promethean territory. Goods were hauled to and from the outposts using terrestrial Carriers, which were always accompanied by an escort of Destroyers.

But now the elementals were besieging the colony of Nexus 001335, cutting off the supply route. It had been many days since a Carrier had travelled to or from that outpost, and the elementals seemed content to continue their siege rather than assault the colony directly. Stealthily the elementals had stolen what little ice was around the colony, leaving the colony under imminent risk of a major power shortage.

With this colony helpless but too vulnerable to abandon, the other Prometheans mobilised an army to rescue them. Hundreds of Destroyers rolled across the ground and flew across the sky towards the elemental blockade, along with Carriers with spare munitions and Manipulators to perform field repairs.

The army was first spotted by the various sprites who were keeping watch for Prometheans and long range missiles. They raised a telepathic alert with their masters as a squadron of flying Destroyers flew ahead to engage these forwards scouts. The lesser elementals were readily dispatched, and with the air sweep complete some of the Destroyers on the ground armed and fired their long range missiles towards the elemental blockade over the horizon. Carriers moved in to reload the missile launchers, while the rest of the army advanced.

Closer to the blockade, but still with it over the horizon, another group of terrestrial Destroyers broke off from the army and stopped. They raised their railgun artillery and, using targeting information from high-altitude Destroyers with better vision of the blockade, commenced bombardment. Salvos of long-ranged missiles periodically soared overhead to accompany the artillery.

The remainder of the army rumbled onward, and they were soon met by a charge from the elementals. The ground heaved and lurched, and a ridge suddenly rose from beneath one Destroyer and toppled it onto its side. Turrets on the other Destroyers turned and fired a battery of shells and missiles at the rising stone lord, who sunk back into the ground to take cover. Elsewhere smaller stonedjinn rose from the ground, slammed their fists against the Destroyers and tore off pieces of them. Gunfire flared in retaliation, shattering many stonedjinn.

Some Manipulators quickly dismounted from the Carriers and planted seismometers on the ground. These instruments networked with each other to triangulate the locations of any subterranean motion, then broadcast their data to all Prometheans in range. With the sensors in place, the Prometheans were able to anticipate where the earth elementals would rise and target their weapons accordingly.

A colossal stone arm erupted from the ground beside a Destroyer and slammed down onto it, crushing the machine. The next moment the arm was struck by a coordinated salvo of missiles from the Destroyers in the air and railgun shells from the Destroyers on the ground, such that the limb was completely severed. The earth quaked in pain.

Approaching the battle was a roiling cloud of ammonia and ethane, crackling with lightning. Eddies danced ahead of the cloud, itching to meet the Prometheans in combat. Over the horizon came another artillery salvo. Some of the missiles were intercepted by the lesser wind elementals, one by a bolt of lightning, while the rest of the missiles and the explosive shells burst within the great cloud's form, whittling away at its strength. Some of the fighter jets turned to face the storm lord, while some flew around to flank the cloud. Missiles flew and autocannons fired, and explosions crackled across the storm lord.

The elemental did not slow its charge, though. It ploughed through those Destroyers which had flew into it, hurling them to the ground, and it kept going until it rolled over the army. Hurricane force winds tore at the army. The Destroyers and Carriers were far too heavy to be significantly affected, although a few unsecured Manipulators who were enacting field repairs were lifted from the ground and tossed aside. What the storm lord was able to pick up, though, were all the seismometers, which it flung high into the sky and left them to fall and shatter on the hard earth.

Short range missiles, flamethrowers and incendiary rounds tore at the storm lord and its lesser djinn as they blew past, but in seconds the storm lord had left the army behind. The Prometheans were now blind to the earth elementals beneath their wheels. A contingent of airborne Destroyers flew after the storm lord and continued to harry it, along with the continued long range bombardment.

With the Prometheans no longer able to sense beneath the earth, the earth elementals were able to strike the Prometheans by surprise then quickly retreat back into the ground. While the Prometheans were often able to shoot back, they were much less successful at killing the earth elementals than before.

A group of elementals sprung up from the ground around a Carrier laden with ammunition. A large stonedjinn stopped the Carrier in its tracks, while the rest tore the doors off their hinges and surged inside. Gunfire from the Destroyers struck some of these djinn. From within the Carrier came gunfire from its internal turrets, and resistance from Manipulators who hacked at the elementals with power tools. The elementals overpowered the internal resistance, and they would have trashed the Carrier and its cargo from inside out if a nearby Destroyer hadn't fired its railguns through the Carrier, striking and shattering the earth elementals within. The Carrier, although damaged, was still functional.

The army spread out and scattered, driving quickly. By staying on the move, few earth elementals were able to keep up and effectively attack the Prometheans. The stone lord was able to catch up, though. Giant stone limbs burst from the ground to punch the Prometheans, and more than one speeding Promethean collided head first with a rising cliff face. However, the stone lord could not catch all the Prometheans, for they had split up. With the army fleeing and the storm lord departed, the battle came to an end.

Concurrently with this battle, a few flying Carriers had gone around the distracted elemental blockade and delivered vital supplies to the besieged colony, including hydrogen for the fusion reactors. With the storm lord dispersed, flying Carriers were able to make more regular trips to and from the colony. In the following days the Prometheans were able to fight for a clear path past the stone lord too, so the terrestrial Carriers were able to resume travel along the transport routes as well.

~~~~

Far from Promethean territory, Stormlord Aurora had expanded into a great hurricane crackling with a pyrotechnics display of lightning which could be seen from orbit. Closer to ground level, a wind djinni sat in the eye of the storm and delivered a report to Aurora.

"Five of their colonies have been undermined by the stone lords, and they have been forced to abandon those locations. Another colony has been sufficiently starved for an assault to successfully destroy it."

Excellent. And the others?

"Nautilus' force was able to wash away one of the coastal colonies, although with considerable losses. Alkanus' attempt to drain the lake failed when he was repelled by the metal beasts. There is a new variant of metal beast which can swim and fight underwater."

Coward.

"The blockade established by Regolith and Mistral was broken by a sizeable enemy army. Mistral has been gravely wounded, and Regolith has also been substantially weakened."

There was frustrated silence from Aurora. The messenger continued.

"Rime's underlings have been stealing ice from the outer colonies, but he has been unable to penetrate far into their territory, so the metal beasts have still been able to deliver ice and other fuels to the outer colonies. Raids on the supply lines continue, but with limited success. Even if we kill some of the beasts, if we do not hide the bodies they consume the corpses and create new beasts. Meanwhile, our numbers are dwindling. They build new lords every few days, but we are losing our lords faster than they rise."

That is why our strategy must be to starve the beasts, rather than simply fight them. If they have no metals, no hydrocarbons, no ice, then they cannot multiply.

"But to achieve that, we must outlast the reserves which lie within their territory. Their strength is formidable!"

An eye of lightning glared at the elemental for a few seconds before receding.

We will see who is strongest once meteor are on our side.

Summary

Another post detailing the war between the Prometheans and the elementals. I would like to acknowledge Cyclone's assistance in helping to brainstorm some of the elemental strategies in this post.

With direct combat not so effective for the elementals, the elementals have turned their energy to undermining the Prometheans' infrastructure, logistics and resource economy.

Earth elementals tear open sink holes and crevasses underneath colonies, forcing them to relocate.

Some hydrocarbon elementals attempt to drain the lakes which the Prometheans harvest hydrocarbons from. The Prometheans develop submarines (0.25 MP) and sonar (0.25 MP) to bring the battle to the sea djinn.

Because railways don't work so well when elementals keep trashing them, the Prometheans build Carriers on wheels/treads to transport goods to and from the outposts.

The elementals try besieging outposts. They steal ice from nearby so they don't have fuel for the fusion reactors. Then they blockade the supply routes. The Prometheans respond aggressively.

We have a scene with Aurora talking to a messenger, giving an overview of how the war is going. While the elementals are dealing some serious damage, they are taking losses, and the Prometheans are far better positioned to fight a war of attrition than the elementals. Aurora is trying to signal meteor elementals for backup.

Might Summary
Start: 26 MP, 2 FP (12.25 MP reserved by Workshop)
Spent: 0.5 MP (submarines, sonar)
End: 25.5 MP, 2 FP (12.25 MP reserved by Workshop)