“That sounds much more grandiose than ‘Kick the arse of all the other factions’,” Princess Kristie sniffed.
“Without all that additional mana, I’m pretty sure all the other magical factions are going to be severely hampered and lose a LOT of their mobility and power. As long as we aren’t dependent on high-end magic, the fighting will go much, much better for us,” I explained calmly, which piqued her interest.
“Including the bugs?” she asked narrowly.
“Without the excess mana, their ability to introduce their ecology will collapse, and they are Magical Beasts. This island will go from being a tolerable place to exist to feeling like they are living at ten thousand feet, or maybe in a desert, every breath an effort of will as they slowly starve.”
She turned that over in her head. “That would mean the olthoi in the rest of the world aren’t nearly the threat that they are here,” she judged thoughtfully.
“I hope so.”
“And the creatures of the Deep?”
“Magical Beasts and Aberrations drawn here by the immense amount of mana being siphoned from everywhere else. What do you think will happen when that mana evaporates and they have to stay up here in the heat and light and shallows instead of the cold and quiet dark of the depths?”
“They’ll leave voluntarily. And if they lose their superior spellcasting ability while they are up here, that could also mean control over their servant races…”
“Which would mean they would leave QUICKLY. They’d go back to deep places in the ocean where the mana is thicker, and we’d only be left with outcasts, renegades, and the young, who could tolerate a more normal manafield.”
“The undead factions are not martials, much as they might pretend. They all use magic, and it ramps up quickly, according to the Mick. While Gold Scarab isn’t weak, if that is their limit, that is far, far more survivable than what we’ve seen of the top three Scarabs.”
“Especially if we get Energy Resistances and Evasion and Mettle and such going?” I remarked wisely.
She was flexing her black-nailed hands like unconscious claws. “It all adds up. What would it be to deny a Vuln going off on you?”
“Fortitude or Will Save, hmm. I’d say the former, as you’re trying to resist a temporary physical alteration in your body from Life Magic. If it set up an Aura about you that increased damage dealt to you, that would be a Will to shift the target off into clear air. Never had to Save against a Vuln?” I asked archly.
“I never tested one out, as I would have had to drop my Null, so there was no real reason, as they couldn’t get past my Null with them. But if we can introduce proper Saves both general and Sun-sourced, resistance to magical attacks should skyrocket quickly. How about Energized Armor?” she asked softly.
“Making armor effective against directed magic would also be a great defense,” I acknowledged. “Don’t forget those Aegis shields and how they worked.”
“I haven’t, trust me. Resist Energy combinations with Vulnerability resistance means that direct energy damage Isparian-style War Magic can be nerfed into the shadow realm. If they get decent weaponry on top of that, we can play the joker and turn the tables on them in very unexpected fashion.”
“Especially if we can Seal away the Armies of Summons doing most of their fighting, and make sure they can’t come back themselves. If they want to come back from Death, they are going to have to find much better methods…” I reminded her.
“Vivic Seals aren’t an effective long-term solution. That’s why you want to collapse the ley line fields!” Kris blurted out, catching that key point.
“It might warn them we are coming, but when they lose their basically unkillable armies and reinforcements, my, won’t things change at the tactical and strategic level.”
“Death will really be coming,” Kris whispered, two pairs of canines gleaming dangerously from this side of her profile.
“First, though, we need to get rid of a trio of opportunistic and experienced cowards.”
“That’s not a new thing for me,” Kris smiled even more widely.
“I imagine not,” I nodded. “But we’re not in a hurry.”
“Everything takes time, even the basic stuff. Sure, a few days won’t make much difference, but Naming Karma waits for nobody… especially in a place where it’s basically free!” Kris laughed.
The fact was actually quite reassuring. If bloody conflict was the best way to earn Naming Karma, having stuff nearby where you could avail yourselves of the Karma was extremely convenient.
It wasn’t the Karmic Banquet that killing seven billion undead was, but I wasn’t ready to do anything like that. Besides, I might have to do it against seven billion bugs, so was it that much different?
-------
There were a few hours of Investing and Infusing by eager students grasping at new magicks they’d had no idea they could learn, but were definitely eager to… and the more Karma they earned, the steadier would be their climb!
The farms and settlements of the Crow were, like all the islands, dominant among the shorelines, with the forests cut back there and gardens planted to grow food. There were some plantations and fields, but not many, as land was at a premium, and as always, there were Summons everywhere getting in the way which had to be worked around.
It was particularly funny to see a thatch of greenery a good thirty yards wide, grown so thick and tall you couldn’t actually see anything in the middle of it. Somewhere in middle of it, a Summons was sitting there, maybe listening to the world go by, dying of thirst or hunger, discorporating, and instantly being relieved by another Summons doomed to perish in a similar manner.
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The area along the roads actually had the most exposed Summons, purely for the benefit of traveling ‘adventurers’ and the regular military patrols coming through, of which the Mick’s crew was representative and went to the task with great enthusiasm. Sclavi, moarsmen, mosswarts, zefirs, wisps, reedsharks, and stands of slithyr tendrils died under rains of arrows, bolts, some spells, and a lot of hacking as they dashed from one to the next with great energy, determined to earn as much Karma as they could towards their next Class Level.
“Hoi, lass, question for ye,” Lord Mick asked, as the Scouts energetically retrieved the ammunition used to pepper a group of mosswarts down, hurrying to do so before the respawn.
“Answer for you!” I replied calmly.
“Be there somewhat t’ address the ammunition problem?” he asked quickly.
“Problem?” I repeated blankly. They had plenty of ammo that I could see, each archer or arbalester carrying a full quiver, and since the Wagon was there, they’d picked up an extra quiver each at Fort Mouth.
“The archers I worked with during the great an’ wonderful old days would sometimes carry around a thousand arrows or more at a time, an’ never bothered t’ reclaim the ones they shot.” I blinked once in some surprise. “Aye, looking back at it, it were both hilariously unreal an’ extremely wasteful, but… it didnae matter. There were unlimited arrows made for ‘em, an’ a person could carry around tens o’ thousands o’ them if they wanted. Damn me if a ‘quiver’ then wasn’t a thousand arrows by itself!”
Kris was listening in. “OMA Quivers?” she asked me calmly.
“That will help with ‘normal’ arrows of one kind or another, but not with any specialty types,” I nodded slowly, caught the Mick’s raised eyebrow. “OMA Quivers. One More Arrow Quivers. They always have one more arrow in them.”
“Hooo…” he breathed out. “But only one type o’ arrow, likely an armor-punching shaft?”
“Basically, yes.”
“Ye know, we used to be able to make elemental ammo nigh as easy as normal broadheads? Just a dash o’ alchemical oil, an’ there they were, what ye call Elemental Phasing ammo, clean as could be. Stored in a normal quiver, too.” His self-mocking smirk was firmly in place. “And then there were invented the Prismatic ammo. Changed its nature to reflect the Bow ye shot it from, t’ whatever matched the Elemental damage the Bow boosted!”
I looked at Kris, who looked back at me. “Not if it was Rended or Imbued?” I had to ask. This was another new tech.
“Oh, nay, nay. This be new to ye?” He warmed to the subject as the Scouts scampered away from the spawn point with their arrow salvage. “The best o’ the high end Bows were made t’ enhance a particular type of damage fired from them, an’ so they gave damage bonuses to that kind o’ arrow if it were shot from them.”
Kris slapped her forehead. “Don’t tell me, let me guess. Archers used to carry around multiple Bows, too!”
“Sometimes ten or more, depending on how well-prepared for a fight they wanted t’ be,” the Mick nodded. “A Render for each basic damage type. At least one Armor-Render, if a mage be working with ye, perhaps two or three fer specific Elements, normally Fire and Blunt, and the like for a Critical Strike Bow, too, if the enemy were of a sort that were over-vulnerable to Imperils.”
“Over-vulnerable to Imperils?” I repeated.
“Aye, that were a great thing. Creatures that didn’t have much armor, but a mess o’ natural resistances. If an Imperil went off on ‘em, it were explained to me that their armor went negative in protective value, an’ actually increased the damage done t’ them!”
I blinked at him again. “I… don’t recall anything like that happening back in Ispar,” I said slowly, going through Mira’s memories of use of Imperil. “All it did there was neutralize existing armor or natural armor. You’re talking about it… going negative?” I boggled at the idea.
“That were how one o’ the brainy types explained it with simple math t’ me. Pointed out that it worked with reversed Armor Banes, if ye could land them on an enemy. Baits were specific, too, but could take a shield t’ negative, an’ instead o’ protecting an enemy, it would help ye cut right through them.”
“That-!” Kris frowned and shook her head. “I don’t even want to consider how that would work on a shield, and if you did it to armor, the armor would end up destroying itself granting an attacker the benefit! Magnifying the damage to something that wore it? I mean, that is totally possible from a magical standpoint, but how would it work when the armor is tearing itself and the person wearing it apart under your blows?”
“Well, t’ be fair, lass, when we pulled it on someone, weren’t much intact by the time we got done,” the Mick pointed out.
“Did you actually chop the shields apart, or something?” she had to ask.
“Nay. When Baited t’ the negative, armor or shields basically become transparent t’ the Baited damage, an’ magnify it when it passes through.
“Those Ruschk I told ye of, far t’ the north? They liked to pull that stunt. If ye didn’t have yer Shield Baned, but it had Impenetrability on it, its factor to frost damage went from, oh, .7, t’ negative 1.3, well,” he coughed in mock embarrassment. “Had that happen t’ me once. Banes went down on me, wasn’t paying attention at the time. Had a nice Shield with built-in Impen, more than 400 Shield Level, aye? Nice an’ strong, take a Gotrok hammer or olthoi pincer-spear, no problem! A Ruschk Drakhten Frost Baited me Shield, then tossed one o’ their nasty ice darts at me. Nae a problem, it would bounce off me armor and shield, no issues…”
“And you took a quick trip to your deathstone.”
“Aye. Going from full Health ta me chest being instantly frozen solid were quite the surprise. Never lost track o’ me Banes duration again, especially fightin’ the Ruschk.”*
“Armor… probably doesn’t work quite that way anymore?” Kris hazarded. “Although that’s an impressive result!” I assured him.
“Aye. Funny as Hell t’ see if ye arranged for it, too. Mind, we didn’t fight a lot o’ things that used Shields, and ye couldn’t Bait the armor o’ the enemy. So opportunities to pull it off were limited, but fun when ye could.”
“And the things you needed to do it against would be even rarer, I’d imagine?”
Fwzap! A cluster of angry dead mosswart Summons was suddenly replaced by a knot of angry bronze-scaled moarsmen Summons. With a whoop, the Scouts fell upon them with melee weapons, brandishing their newest Feat: Improved Armed Strike, or as it was normally known… Sword beats Fist!
One Attack of Opportunity a round against a foe that is not wielding a weapon or does not have reach on you, per foe!