Step 1: Ensure the area you are in has a surplus of sand. This may only be important to those who plan fortresses on the edges of the Vast Dust
Step 2: Plan the footprint of the fortress out with colored stones or any other type of marker to ensure proper foundations are created
Step 3: Build the innermost keep first, then expand your work. It will keep you safe in the event of an enemy attack, an almost guarantee seeing as a fortress is needed in your location
-’Three Steps to Ensure a Secure Fortress,’ Author unknown
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The Kharon slid to a stop behind the rest of the Green Oasis fleet. The base camp made by the few Nikolanians who were stationed there was impressive. It was a small fortress the size of a large mansion, with high, thick walls surrounding it and a massive stone spire erected in the center of the compound.
Mori, Fara, Desire, and the orc bureaucrat all stood in the control room for the Kharon, watching the fortress with varying degrees of interest. The orc walked up behind Desire and pointed to a section of wall beside the fortress, “This skiff is supposed to be parked over there, beside the inner wall,” Mori gave him a critical eye for a moment, but his simply sighed, “Please do not think that this is a snub. The location is, in fact, one of the most protected places in the planned J.A.L.F. Base Camp. There will be three walls between your skiff and the outside world. You do not have to worry about safety.”
Mori reluctantly nodded, standing beside Desire, “Alright, so where’s everyone else? Are we the first ones here?” The orc nodded, “Cool. Fara, let’s go meet whoever’s leading the Green Oasis fleet. Maybe we can make some friends before the strategy meeting.” Mori and Fara made their way out of the control room and waited for the skiff to be parked beside the large sandstone wall. To Mori, the wall felt too smooth and geometric, which she guessed was a side-effect of fortification magic.
Before they could drop a ladder down to the sands, Mori felt the tell-tale flare of mana being used and turned to the side of the skiff facing the wall. To Mori’s surprise, a large part of the wall was being cut open, making a corridor in the multi-foot thick stone wall. Waiting on the other side of the wall was an elf.
The elf, however, was much different from most others. Instead of having a skin color Mori would have expected, like tanned brown or paper white or coal black, he had skin that was sandy pale, with little specks of different colors sprinkled here and there. His hands were odd as well, with an extra thumb being added to the other side of his hands. He had long, flowing hair and a face that was just as feminine as it was masculine.
Mori did not know why, but a part of her insisted that the person in front of her was a man, so she simply referred to him as such, “Hey there, man. Thanks for that. It was pretty cool,” she said to him as she raised the gate of the Kharon.
He gave a bright smile, “Thank you,” he said with a beautiful voice, “I am a simple sandstone mage, so there is no need to praise me.” Mori could have sworn that he was blushing, but she decided to let him be him. There was nothing wrong with blushing under praise, after all.
Mori stepped inside the corridor and could hear the smooth sandstone clack under her feet as her metallic armor pushed on the ground. She realized that she had been wearing her mask down and decided to test the polite man. She opened the front of her helmet and gave the slightly stunned elf a smile, “I still find it quite good work. Perhaps I should learn how to do it sometime.”
The man, to his credit, gathered himself quickly and smiled, “It’s an interesting field. I simply prefer the thrill of creating something useful out of simple sand. I must be off, ma’am. Have a wonderful day.” He stepped back, descending the stone staircase out in front and moving a ways down the wall. After a deep breath, he began shaping a staircase out of sand, quickly compressing it and walking up the newly-made staircase. Mori and Fara walked down the stairs and into the Base Camp, being met by an expansive courtyard.
The courtyard was nearly two thirds of the space that the current Base Camp took up. All around them, tents were set up, supplies were piled with soldiers mulling around them, and pieces of artillery were being manned by bored-looking crews. The soldiers were all wearing flowing white cloaks on their backs and painted clocksteel helmets.
Some of the men and women looked towards them, raising eyebrows or eliciting hushed whispers. Mori did not care. She was more interested in a familiar orc walking towards the central keep, “Yutrad!” she shouted. The admiral turned, seeing her, and smiled. He stopped and waited for her to walk up, “It’s been a while! How’re you doing?” She held an armored hand out to shake.
The orc smiled, taking the offered hand from Mori, then giving one to Fara, “I’m doing well. How about yourself? The last time we met, you did not have such an… ornate set of armor. In fact, when did Mrs. Fara begin wearing a mask? It seems like an odd choice,” he asked, leading them into the front gate of the keep. The interior of the building was simple, but had a sort of foreign ascetic, being made of homogenous stone, that appealed to Mori’s sense of design.
Mori smiled, nudging her head towards Fara, “For the armor, it was all her. She and one of my undead made this after some… interesting adventures. The mask, however, is a different matter. And a bit personal,” she explained, earning an impressed noise and an understanding noise from Yutrad, “Well, you got your question, so I get one too. Are you the representative for the Green Oasis contingent of the fleet? It’ll be nice to have someone I can trust there to help keep everything going well.”
“I am indeed. I was temporarily promoted to Grand Admiral for the duration of this conflict. You, however, have been the talk of my subordinates. The idea of a lich being all at once friendly, willing to fight alongside the living, and guided by the Creators themselves is unbelievable. To them, of course.
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“It’s actually become a bit of a legend among them. Some were even there when we first met, which only makes the gossip between them more interesting.” He paused for a moment, “Come to think of it, how did you end up speaking with the Creators? Forgive me for saying so, but you do not seem exactly… noteworthy for the Creators.”
Mori smiled, “No offense taken. Well, let’s just say that I have a few noteworthy traits, the non-system thing, that make me suited to doing the gods’ bidding. I cannot, however, speak freely about the topic…”
Yutrad solemnly nodded, “Of course. I would expect nothing less. Out of curiosity, what were the Creators like?”
Mori smiled, “Interesting, to say the least. Very kind and very intelligent. Other than that, what do you want me to talk about? I doubt they won’t hear me saying this, so it’s not like I can speak ill of them.”
“Fair enough!” Yutrad laughed, “Apart from that, let us go and meet with the others.”
“Others?” both Mori and Fara asked at the same time.
He chuckled, “Of course. Do you think that with Gribnik, Nolus, and the two halves of Affex all in the same meeting, even with the threat of a Hive, we would not plan our moves? Mount Averus and Nikolan have both sent representatives to discuss plans of negotiating through this meeting without giving many concessions to the snakes.” He led them to a quiet corner of the keep, opening a stone door off to the side with nothing but a push. Inside was a small table with two other people sitting around it.
The first was a kindly-looking elderly woman wearing a pink dress and with green eyes, perusing through a fashion magazine. She was human save for vertical pupils that scanned her magazine’s page with calm joy.
The second was different. She was what Mori could only describe as a centaur with the lower half of a wolf instead of a horse. In addition, the woman’s wolf-body was massive. The place where her wolf-body ended and her human-body began was as tall as Mori’s shoulder. A long black cloth was draped over the wolf-half of her body, handily covering any private parts that would be associated with. On her upper body, however, she wore a tank top, the first time Mori had ever seen one being worn in Granulous.
Judging by the old lady’s slight glare at the woman’s exposed belly, wearing that little as a social faux paus. Either that, or the old woman had different ideas of what modesty was, because Yutrad barely blinked at the display. The wolf-woman’s eyes, hair, and fur was all white, less like snow and more like what remembered as silica sand— white, but not like snow nor paper. Simply somewhat white.
Yutrad cleared his throat and brought the two representatives from their hobbies, “I believe we are all here and ready?” he asked.
The elderly woman nodded, “I have everything I need,” she said in a sweet tone. Mori was almost convinced that the woman was gravely mistaken about where she was, but she had to remember that mistakes like that did not happen with such important things.
The wolf-woman nodded as well, “I do too,” she said, “Is this the lich then? I never heard anything about her wearing armor.”
“And I never even knew we were having this meeting,” Mori said, rolling her eye-flames, “But life has a way of surprising us. My name is Mori Athanatos. Yours?” she asked.
The wolf-woman paused for a moment before giving a careful smile, “Aetra Venae. I am a social scientist working for Mount Averus”
“Ushkia Bikala,” the older woman added, “I am a simple diplomat from Nikolan. It is very interesting, getting to meet a lich that is willing to be so civil. I believe this will be interesting!”
“Now, now,” Yutrad chided, “We have work to do. Let’s all start with getting seated.” After a few minutes of shuffling, Mori was seated in between Aetra and Yutrad, with Fara seated next to her. Only after sitting down did Mori notice that Aetra’s seat was simply a cushion on the floor, “Now then, do we have any ideas?” he asked.
Mori smiled and nodded, “I… do… but I think I need to run it by everyone else first.” The three representatives nodded, turning to her, “Alright, Fara and I have been working on a bit of a project. The idea was to fuse undead with mechanical suits and turn them into armored soldiers.”
“Wait,” Aetra said, “Isn't that just a warcasket but made with undead?” she asked, “What's the point?”
Mori grinned, plucking her notebook from under her cloak, where Unio had been holding on to it, and flipped it open, “Well, first of all, they will be under our control. We won’t need to care about their warcaskets if we have our own. Secondly, I will be putting unintelligent zombies in them that have no real free will. Thirdly, I plan on using them differently.
“From what I was told about the way the nobles of Gribnik use warcaskets, they are simply used as shields. Thrown at enemies as another layer of flesh and steel between the important nobles and the things to be killed. But, after getting a suit of my own, I realized something: what kind of weapons can a large, mechanized soldier use that would be unavailable to a normal soldier? Well, for starters, someone could upscale a rifle and give it to the soldier. The gun would be more durable, harder hitting, and only usable by the mechanized soldier.
“So… what do you think?” she asked, slightly hesitant.
The three stayed silent for a long while, emotions hidden behind facades of neutrality. The first to speak was Ushkia, who smiled at Mori and nodded, “I think it is a great idea.” The other two gave inquisitive expressions, and she smiled at them, “Well, do think of the lives to be saved and the advances in technology and magic that could be done. Armored undead soldiers seems like a fantastic idea, especially if our undead friend can simply raise them once more if they die. That, with the unlimited supply of clocksteel around here, and we may have troops that do not lose strength between battles. I will try to convince my superiors to work with this plan.”
Yutrad nodded, “I am in agreement as well. I simply want to know one thing.”
“Yes?” Mori asked.
“Can you control that many undead?” he asked with curiosity, “I have seen with my own eyes the stability of your undead, not battling your control, but can you control that many?”
Mori confidently nodded, “Easily. If I need to keep a closer eye on them, I can just have one of my death knights do it for me.” The room went silent as Mori spoke those words, “Did I say something wrong?”
“No, you did not,,,, but I want to ask you something else. How many death knights, greater revenants, revenants, and greater zombies do you have?”
Mori tilted her head, “Well, eleven death knights and I have never heard of any of those other ones…” she said, “To be honest, it was a bit of an experiment on my part, one that the gods helped me deal with the repercussions of. Why?”
Aetra stared for a second, before standing and walking to the door, “I need to speak with my supervisors. I will also speak with an engineering expert to properly understand your warcasket-replication plan. Please do not wait for me,” she said as she closed the door behind her wolf-half.
“She seems to like you,” Ushkia said with a sweet smile, “That’s rare for her.” Yutrad sighed while Mori gave a nervous smile. Mori did not know if half-wolf-half-woman taking special interest in her was good or not. She decided only time would tell.