Underdeep Factions and Rules
Soundtrack (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=X3c4j62qHIk)
Alternate (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=vUCE9qVkBic)
[ic=The Battle of Dvalin's Bridge]Goblin arrows whizzed past Morikand's face, the crude shafts of bone and wood clattering against the great stone pillars behind him. Snarling a curse in Undertongue the Duergar warrior dodged to one side, behind a fragment of masonry that once formed part of the vaulted, rune-graven ceiling above. The Bridge was just ahead, a span of worked stone crossing the chasm known as Gorzahond-Khul, the Black Rift, which some claimed went all the way down from the Upperdeep into the tenebrous depths of the Lowerdeep, those lightless, nethermost caverns of the Underdeep haunted by tentacled monstrosities and ancient demons. The Goblins had the bridge guarded with Bugbears, half a dozen hulking, shaggy, red-eyed brutes wielding ugly stone axes and bone clubs; behind they'd arrayed rows of archers, sending volley after volley of arrows across the chasm towards the scattered remnants of the Duergar forces. Morikand had heard the howls of Wargs, as well, bestial cries echoing through the ruinous fortress-city of Hammerheart, once the capitol of a long-defunct Dwarven kingdom.
The Duergar squinted into the pillared gloom, seeking out the faint reddish glimmers that signified friendly forces. A regiment of halberdiers was strewn about the chamber, most of their number dead or dying on the cold stone floor, bristling with arrows, a handful of survivors sheltering behind the huge stone pillars of the hall. Their Battle Cleric, Zorithar, was wounded but alive, muttering some kind of prayer to Father Darkness, a spell to shield them from the Goblin arrows. Over by the entrance a squad of hammer-throwers had just gained the hall, though a handful had already been mowed down by the Goblin barrage. If they were to take Hammerheart, as their leader Xorinatch the Cruel insisted they must, they had to first wrest the bridge from the Goblin forces; then, once they'd secured the rest of the stronghold they could establish a base here in the Uperdeep, the upper reaches of the Underdeep, and begin raiding the vulnerable surface settlements above, bountiful in slaves and food. There were rumours of a mine in the lower reaches of the city, as well, perhaps still abundant in gems, gold, or even truesilver. Morikand giggled greedily at the thought. If he survived this battle he might become wealthy beyond the dreams of anyone back in Ludaguir. He clutched his warhammer tight, preparing to charge forth.
Just then a chorus of screams echoed through the hall, from towards the entrance where the hammer-throwers had just entered. Morikand paused, on the verge of leaping out from cover, and twisted his head back to face the door. The hammer-throwers lay sprawled in a slick of their own dark blood, and there were slender shapes already melting back into the darkness, blades dripping with Duergar blood. What was this? Hobgoblins? Orcs, perhaps, allies sent from the warlord said to dwell in the caverns to the north? The Goblin archers had ceased firing; the hall had fallen eerily silent. Where was Zorithar? The priest had never finished with his spell. Morikand grimaced in the darkness. What was going on? Where were the rest of their forces?
As he cast around in the dark a shape detached itself from a nearby shadow, picking its way delicately over the rubble-strewn floor of the hall, a slender sword in hand. The Dark Elf assassin Eleira Nightwound smiled as she approached the Duergar warrior. Her Matriarch's alliance with the Goblin forces was proving most advantageous – with the bulk of his forces lost at Hammerheart, Xorintach would be forced to retreat towards Ladaguir to regroup. A band of rangers would ambush him on his way to the gates of the underground city, and without their general the Duergar would fall to infighting and anarchy, leaving their outposts ripe for the taking; with the Duergar effectively eliminated, the Dark Elves of Vashnaranzenan could go on to seize much of the Middledeep. The Goblins, of course, would be dealt with in good time; unlike those of the short-lived, lesser races, Dark Elves knew that to build an empire took patience.
The sword slid in-between Morikand's ribs almost effortlessly, piercing the Duergar's black heart. He gave a little grunt of pain, dark blood gurgling from his lips, before Eleira withdrew her sword, letting the corpse collapse in a heap of twitching limbs. Somewhere in the fortress of Hammerheart a Duergar war-horn sounded, signalling retreat.[/ic]
Underdeep is a strategic play-by-post forum game in which you take on the role of rulers and generals in a vast cavern-system in a fantasy world. There will be a total of twelve playable factions – Goblins, Orcs, Undead, Dwarves, Kobolds, Dark Elves, Duergar, Derro, Ceremorphs, Fungoids, Watchers, and Eye Tyrants. There will also be four maps, or layers, on which the action unfolds, each lower than the last: the Surface above, the Uperdeep, the Middledeep, and the Lowerdeep. Over the course of the game you will build a Dungeon, adding rooms, traps, and defences to deter invaders or adventurers. You will recruit a variety of creatures to your cause, explore the caverns of the Underdeep, fight wandering monsters, raid Surface settlements, uncover forgotten treasures, and expand your territory. You will also contend with one another for dominion of the dark places of the world, and with non-player factions also seeking to conquer the Underdeep for themselves.
The rules for Underdeep are a work in progress, and I will be posting rules for movement, combat, dungeon-building, and empire management in this thread, as well as unit lists for each faction and other relevant information. Questions and comments are very welcome, but I'd ask that you put them in the Underdeep Discussion & Interest thread, found here (http://www.thecbg.org/index.php/topic,209781.msg219599.html#msg219599). I'll especially welcome balance help once I get into posting units. I've done some play-testing with the battle mechanics, but the individual troops will almost certainly need tweaking. It may in fact be necessary to periodically "patch" the game once it's in progress if especially egregious balance issues become evident. I will try to keep such changes small and infrequent, however. Right now, I'm picturing relatively small armies engaging with one another, with most battles involving 100 or fewer troops per side, with occasional larger engagements as well.
At this time, I am envisioning weekly turns, with each week of real-time also equaling a weak of game-time. If you're unable to post once a week but would still be interested in participating, your troops could simply stay where they are for that turn while your Dungeons accrued income and your troops incurred Upkeep costs – I could help players manage with accounting for their Dungeons. Combat will be resolved very swiftly with a handful of die-rolls which I will make: all you need to do is give units orders. Apart from ordering troops and excavating new rooms, you could also send messages to your fellow players, forming alliances against enemies. Any number of players is welcome.
Those who followed my solo game, Goblin!, will note some similarities between that game, which was also about underground politicking and warfare, and this one. Other sources of inspiration include the other forum games on this site, as well as the Dungeon Keeper, Warcraft, Heroes of Might and Magic, and the Total War series. Tolkien and Lovecraft are the major literary influences, and of course the idea of a vast cavern-system owes much to the Underdark of D&D.
For now, if you're interested in playing in the game or have any comments, questions, suggestions, or other queries, please post in the Discussion & Interest thread. If you are interested in participating and have a particular race in mind, I'll take pains to post units, rooms, and other information on that race soon. I also encourage players to customize your race, flavour-wise, to give it a unique spin; if you like, I can even modify some of the race's abilities and units to reflect such customization. Perhaps you'd like to play as a group of Goblin mechanists who've invented explosive devices and gunpowder. Or perhaps you don't like the idea of playing a Lich, but a Vampire Queen appeals to you. If you've got an idea, post it and we can discuss the details!
Finally, if you'd like to play but don't have the time or energy to devote to building and maintaining a Dungeon or army, you can still participate by playing as a monster or a party of adventurers. Instead of building rooms and hiring troops, you can control a single powerful monster or a small group of monsters or adventurers. You'd move your character(s) around the map just as the other players move their forces around, encountering other denizens of the Underdeep. You could ally with certain players or work to bring down certain factions; perhaps you're a group of heroes on a quest for vengeance, gold, or glory, or perhaps you're an ancient evil recently awakened from a centuries-long slumber in the caverns of the Lowerdeep, and you're very, very hungry...
If you'd like to join the game, you can post a character here (http://www.thecbg.org/index.php/topic,209801.msg220144.html#new).
Updates to follow!
Peoples of the Underdeep
Goblins
(http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/3038/goblinqw.jpg)
Great in number but individually weak, Goblins infest the Upperdeep, those caverns nearest the surface. They can field numerous cheap creatures and have a versatile army that includes flying troops (dire bat riders), cavalry (warg riders), and several large monsters, such as Bugbears and Rock Trolls, with whom they often make alliances. The core of their forces, however, is almost always a seething mass of poorly armed warriors. Goblins are a cowardly lot, but they gain a significant advantage when they outnumber their enemies. Their Dungeons are ramshackle affairs, often little more than natural caverns with crude dwellings built inside out of bones and wood, though Goblins have been to known to squat in the ruinous cities of Dwarves and other races.
Dwarves
(http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/5973/dwarfq.jpg)
Hardy, stalwart, and equipped with the finest weapons and armour in the entire Underdeep, Dwarves are a valiant, doughty people fond of strong drink, bright gold, and spilling the blood of their enemies. Of all the peoples of the Underdeep, only Dwarves refuse to raid Surface settlements, but neither are they bothered by the pesky adventurers that often plague the Dungeons of other races. They have a slow, ponderous, heavily armoured force with powerful ranged warriors, sappers, and ingenious inventions (such as the dreaded Iron Golem). Their Dungeons tend to be exceptionally defended and reinforced, mighty fortress-cities with near-impenetrable defences. Many Dwarven units are known to hold grudges against members of other Underdeep factions, lending them strength in combat when they face certain foes.
Orcs
(http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/9213/orct.jpg)
A savage, bestial race of marauders and war-like barbarians, the Orcs are a chaotic, lawless people, bloodthirsty and terrifying in battle. Orcs are driven constantly to the slaughter; those who fail to satisfy their bloodlust on a regular basis tend to turn on one another. An aggressive race, they are strongest on the attack, descending on their foes in a tide of primal rage and might, but they make poor defenders. Their Dungeons are often little more than itinerant camps in large caverns, as they tend towards a nomadic lifestyle, staying in an area only long enough to depopulate it and strip it of resources before moving on to another region. The Orcs are the most destructive of the Underdeep races.
Undead
(http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/60/undeadl.jpg)
A shambling army of the walking dead, the Undead tend to linger in the Upperdeep near the graveyards of the Surface. While other armies must feed and pay their troops to keep them satisfied, Undead require no such succour. They strike fear into the hearts of their enemies, a creeping dread that afflicts even the bravest warriors. Commanded by Liches, wizened mortal wizards who have transformed themselves into cadaverous abominations that can no longer stand the touch of sunlight, the Undead are seeming unstoppable in battle, and with their ability to replenish their numbers with the bodies of the slain their ranks never seem to dwindle. Many of their creatures spread disease as well, debilitating those they come into contact with. Their Dungeons are sprawling necropolises, abandoned catacomb, and ancient barrows beneath the earth, places where spirits of the restless dead linger.
Dark Elves
(http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/5752/darkelfm.jpg)
Sinister, scheming, and stealthy, the Dark Elves are a cunning people skilled with magic and poison. They prefer to employ subterfuge to brute force. Fleet of foot and comfortable in the shadows, they are known to employ assassins, as well as gigantic spiders which they use as mounts and war-beasts. Infamous slavers, the Dark Elves frequently capture enemy units rather than killing them outright, though often such prisoners end up sacrificed on black altars in service of the profane Dark Elf liturgy. Their Dungeons are horrifying, labyrinthine cities that echo the cries of pain and misery and the vile chants of witch-cults. Though fewer in number than many Underdeep dwellers, they do field large battalions of slave-soldiers as fodder.
Kobolds
(http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/3228/kobold.jpg)
The most ubiquitous of the Underdeep races, Kobolds can be found almost anywhere, exceeding even the Goblins in number. Diminutive, scaly, lizard-men, Kobolds make up for their lack of physical prowess with cunning. The best trap-makers in all of the Underdeep, they frequently lay snares, pits, and a plethora of other traps for their enemies, and their Dungeons – crazed, winding burrows full of moulted Kobold-skins – are inevitably protected by any number of fiendish contraptions, built from whatever lies at hand. They are known to ride giant rats into battle and to occasionally strike up bargains with Black Dragons, which they worship as living gods. Kobolds are often underestimated, a fact that works to their advantage; though they rarely build empires to the scale of Dark Elves, Dwarves, or Duergar, they are consummate survivors and keen opportunists.
Fungoids
(http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/9421/fungoid.jpg)
Wherever there are spores, there are Fungoids. Their Dungeons are toadstool-citadels deep within mushroom forests, hidden enclaves protected by defensive miasmas and slimes. Individually small and totally amoral, they view other creatures simply as a means of propagating their spores, which require dead bodies to mature into full-grown Fungoids. Employing creeping moulds, lumbering fungal behemoths, and enemy troops mind-controlled through powerful spores, Fungoids are a force to be reckoned with, hard to find and even harder to eliminate. Their Rotqueens, unquestioned leaders of their bustling collectives, are rapacious and utterly without mercy, seeing the kingdoms of their neighbours as potential breeding grounds. Their ability to seed regions with unborn troops that later mature into full-grown Fungoid warriors and battle-creatures allows them to take many foes by surprise.
Duergar
(http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/9448/duergar.jpg)
A race of degenerate Dwarves who have forgotten the feel of sunlight on their skin or the sound of wind in the mountains, Duergar are grey-skinned, unwholesome creatures who live only to satisfy their lusts for power, pleasure, and gold. In times past the Duergar were enslaved by the Ceremorphs: indeed, that is why they inhabit the lowest levels of the Underdeep, constituting a race apart from their Dwarven kindred. Now they hold a bitter hatred for all Ceremorphs, even employing specialized hunters conditioned to resist their psychic attacks. Of all the Underdeep peoples are they are the most skilled with illusions and deceptive spellcraft, and though they lack the technological skill of their erstwhile brethren, they make up for it with a penchant for trickery and guile.
Derro
(http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/8642/derro.jpg)
Long ago, a tribe of nomadic Deep Gnomes, a group of merchants and tinkers, became lost while wandering the depths of the Underdeep, and strayed into unknown caverns where strange powers dwelt. These entities - lunatic, gibbering powers from some unknown plane - twisted the Gnomes into the creatures now known as Derro. Incurably mad, boundlessly cruel, and possessed of a depraved whimsy, the Derro are skilled in stealth and uncanny sorcery, and command a variety of bizarre creatures, the abhorrent denizens of an alien reality. Their Dungeons are nonsensical labyrinths far within the Lowerdeep, warped warrens where fanatical hordes perform horrific, capering rituals to the imbecilic, ululating, tenebrous, amorphous gods of Chaos.
Ceremorphs
(http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/6589/ceremorph.jpg)
Aberrant creatures who reside in the nethermost caverns of the Underdeep, Ceremorphs resemble monstrous hybrids of octopi and humanoids, brain-eating monstrosities who skulk in the gloom in the deepest depths. A naturally psychic species, they form a kind of hive mind ruled by a telepathic Overbrain, a pulsating, god-like super-intelligence at the center of a Ceremorph city. The Ceremorph life cycle is a horrifying process wherein the Ceremorph larvae, writhing worm-like tadpole-creatures, incubate in the emptied skulls of still-living humanoids, eventually transforming them into new Ceremorphs. Capable of psychically wounding or dominating their foes, Ceremorphs employ swarms of thralls in battle and for labour. Their Dungeons are twisted, eerily organic complexes whose disturbing, uncanny architecture violates the laws of physics.
Watchers
(http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/9343/watcher.jpg)
The primeval race that call themselves the Watchers have slumbered for millennia in the deep, cold lakes and sunless subterranean seas of the Lowerdeep, observing the world via a trance-like dream-state through which they have seen the rise and fall of empires, the evolution and extinction of countless species over the slow crawl of aeons. The Watchers have been asleep for so long that most species of the Underdeep have forgotten that they exist, save in a few old legends, stories of leviathan fish and monstrous squids in the lightless depths that most dismiss as mere fables. Now that they have awakened from their Long Dreaming, however, the Watchers will not soon be forgotten, for they plan to remake their Primal Sovereignty even if it takes centuries. Hermaphroditic and vaguely eel-like, the Watchers are powerful psychic creatures and are skilled in the perverse and eldritch art of fleshcraft, warping the forms of other species to suit their needs – mostly marine life native to their lakes and seas, but also humanoids who stumble ignorantly into their primordial, half-sunken vaults in search of ancient treasures...
Eye Tyrants
(http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/8350/eyetyrant.jpg)
Some say the Eye Tyrants are the result of a deranged Wizard's experiments, others that they were created by a spiteful god. Whatever the case, these hateful creatures haunt the Lowerdeep, harassing and enslaving other denizens of the caverns. Solitary and egotistical by nature, only the eldest Eye Tyrants are able to bully their lessers into cooperation, for by nature they loathe one another almost as much as they hate the other inhabitants of the endless darkness. Physically they are spheroid, levitating beings of great size with enormous central eyes and masses of eyestalks capable of discharging beams of magical energy to various petrify, dominate, maim, melt, freeze, or otherwise incapacitate their foes. Their Dungeons are bizarre cylindrical nests without stairs or doors - only a series of rounded tunnels bored out of the rock. Their goals are nakedly malevolent in nature - the ultimate eradication or enslavement of all other living beings. When forced into temporary harmony by particularly powerful and ruthless Elder Orbs they can be extraordinarily dangerous, mounting vicious campaigns of conquest and "purification" against the other peoples of the Underdeep.
Regions of the Underdeep
The Upperdeep
The Upperdeep comprises those caverns nearest the Surface. Populated principally by Dwarves and Orcs, the caverns here are also home to many Goblin and Kobold tribes, as well as the undead forces of the occasional Lich, driven down into the depths out of hatred for the sun. Access routes to the world above are plentiful, and hotly contested: those who control such routes can raid the Surface, bringing back slaves and resources. While access to the Surface is useful, the Upperdeep is also the regular haunt of adventurers, Surface marauders who descend in the Underdeep in search of gold and glory. Its caverns are also less plentiful in gold, jewels, metal, and other resources, most of which have long ago been mined by the Dwarves and others.
[spoiler]
(http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/3561/upperdeep.jpg)
[/spoiler]
The Middledeep
The Middledeep lies far below the Surface; those born here can live out their entire lives without ever once seeing the world above. Many cities, usually built by Dark Elves or Duergar, can be found here, as can the Great Mushroom Forest and many caverns teeming with valuable jewels and crystals the like of which cannot be found in the Upperdeep in any plenitude. Though safer from the depredations of adventurers and richer in gold and metal than the more thoroughly-mined caverns of the Upperdeep, the Middledeep is also in constant tension, being in danger both from above and below: Dungeons in the Middledeep suffer frequently from Ceremorph incursions, Orc raids, and attacks from neighbouring city-states.
[spoiler]
(http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/5074/middledeep.jpg)
[/spoiler]
The Lowerdeep
The foul reaches of the Lowerdeep are inhabited sparsely by civilized creatures, for dangerous monsters lurk here, elder evils who have never seen the sun, or who crawled into the earth long millennia ago to sleep – woe be to those who disturb them! The Darksea fills a vast cavern here, a sunless ocean where slimy, ancient things dwell. Here also lair the dreaded Ceremorphs: brain-eating, tentacled monstrosities, said by some to be refugees from some other reality, by others to be the primordial rulers of the earth, driven down into the deep places, now longing for revenge and dominion. While far from the Surface, the Lowerdeep is even richer in resources than the Middledeep, but it is a horror-haunted and perilous place, its caverns filled with magma or poisonous fumes as often as gold or gemstones.
[spoiler]
(http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/7627/lowerdeep.jpg)
[/spoiler]
The Surface
The Surface is an alien region, filled with strange fauna and flora and scorched by a hideous burning orb that hangs in a terrifying blue emptiness like some gigantic, flaming eye. Despite the horror this realm holds for denizens of the Underdeep, the settlements that dot the Surface are useful for those who dwell below, providing a valuable source of food, slaves, and other resources. A variety of races make their homes on the Surface: the graceful High Elves and their primitive arboreal cousins, the Wood Elves; the diminutive Halflings and Gnomes, which some claim are distant relatives of Goblins and Kobolds; the fearsome Giants, kindred to Ogres and Trolls; and, of course, the ubiquitous Humans.
[spoiler]
(http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/3269/surface.jpg)
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Goblins]
Goblins
Soundtrack (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=AFK670bEYUQ)
Alternate (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=2a6jJdTesLM)
A hoard of diminutive, semi-tribal warriors, Goblins plague the Upperdeep, banding together into roving mobs unless unified by a strong leader. Renowned for their stealth, Goblins frequently strike up alliances with packs of cave-dwelling Wargs, Rock Trolls, Bugbears, and their overgrown, brutish cousins, the Hobgoblins. Their chief strength, however, lies in numbers: while for Dwarves and Dark Elves every life lost is a tragedy, Goblins hurl themselves at their enemies in vast quantities, overwhelming their foes. What they have in numbers, however, they lack in strength and ferocity, for they are individually weak and cowardly, and produce few fighters of any true quality. Their Fortresses tend to be ramshackle, decrepit affairs in constant need of maintenance, overgrown with toadstools.
Starting Dungeon: Goblin players must always claim their first Fortress in the Upperdeep. This Fortress begins with a Hall of the Goblin King, a Goblin Mine, 1 Mushroom Patch, and a Goblin Lair. Additional rooms, traps, and defences can be purchased before play commences, with two week's construction already completed.
Starting Resources: Goblins rarely plan ahead and don't hoards wealth like Dwarves or Duergar. Goblin players begin the game with 750 Gold, 150 Metal, and 100 Food.
Strength in Numbers: When Goblins outnumber the enemy army at a 2:1 they gain +1 to Attack and Morale; when they outnumber them 4:1 they gain +2, 6:1 +3, 8:1 +4, etc. This ratio can change over the course of the battle. Strength in numbers does not affect Hobgoblin Warriors, Bugbears, or Rock Trolls, but does affect Warg Cavalry and Bat Riders. Strength in Numbers does not affect attacks against Defences. The maximum bonus Goblins can gain from Strength of Numbers is +10, if they outnumber their target 20:1.
Cowardly: If Goblin units (not including Rock Trolls, Bugbears, or Hobgoblin Warriors) fail a morale check by 5 or more instead of 10 or more, they flee. However, they gain a +5 bonus to Defence while fleeing.
Units
[ic=Goblin King]Goblin "kings" are often nothing more than particularly big, authoritative, cruel, or vicious goblins who proclaimed themselves rulers, though there are some legitimate Goblin dynasties. Goblin rulers tend to maintain control of their subjects through fear, exploiting the cowardice of Goblin-kind. Many prefer to squat in their Fortresses, but when they do take to the battlefield they are not to be underestimated.
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 10
Defence: 18
Health: 20
Speed: 4
Morale: +6
Special Abilities: Leadership, Discipline
The Goblin King increases the Melee Attack and Morale of any army he is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon he increases the Melee Attack and Morale of garrisoned troops by +1. His Discipline ability applies to the specific regiment he leads and negates the Cowardly racial ability.
If Warg Kennels or Dire Bat Caverns have been constructed, a Goblin King can be mounted on a Warg or Dire Bat. If mounted on a Warg he gains the Cavalry ability, +2 Speed, +1 Defence, and +3 Health; if mounted on a Dire Bat he gains the Cavalry and Flying abilities and gains +4 Speed and +3 Health. He can only join regiments of Warg Cavalry or Dire Bat Riders, according to his choice. Mounting the Goblin king costs 15 Gold, plus 2 Metal if mounted on a Dire Bat (no Upkeep costs, however).[/ic]
[ic=Goblin Grunt (Requires: Goblin Lair)]The core of any Goblin army consists of wave after wave of minimally trained, haphazardly equipped Goblin warriors, typically armed with rusty short swords, bone knives, clubs, rocks, spears, and stone axes and armoured in scraps of leather, hide, and chainmail. Even hardened Dwarf veterans or slavering Orc berserkers can be overwhelmed by the sheer weight of Goblin numbers.
Cost: 5 Gold
Upkeep: 1 Gold, 1 Food
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 15
Health: 5
Speed: 4
Morale: +1[/ic]
[ic=Goblin Archer (Requires: Goblin Lair)]With crude shortbows and arrows mostly of stone, bone, and bronze, Goblin archers often serve more as a distraction to enemy forces than a true threat, but in sufficient quantity they can take down even the hardiest monsters of the Underdeep. If unsupported by other troops they are quickly slaughtered.
Cost: 5 Gold
Upkeep: 1 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +2
Ranged Damage: 2
Melee Attack: +1
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 14
Health: 5
Speed: 4
Morale: +1[/ic]
[ic=Goblin Cutthroat (Requires: Goblin Lair)]With their small stature and light step, Goblins are a naturally stealthy race, able to disappear into the gloom of the Underdeep when predators appear. Goblin cutthroats are the sneakiest of their kindred, skulking knife-wielders who slip from the shadows to ambush enemy units.
Cost: 10 Gold, 1 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 1 Food
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 4
Defence: 16
Health: 5
Speed: 4
Morale: +2
Special Abilities: Infiltrator[/ic]
[ic=Hobgoblin Warrior (Requires: Barracks)]Hobgoblins are the larger cousins of Goblin-kind; some say that they have Human or Orc blood. Whatever the case, they tend to spend more of their time on the surface than Goblins; some, however, can be lured down into the Underdeep if promised gold and a chance to spill the blood of Dwarves and Dark Elves.
Cost: 10 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 2 Food
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 16
Health: 10
Speed: 4
Morale: +4
Special Abilities: Discipline[/ic]
[ic=Bugbear (Requires: Barracks)]Even larger than Hobgoblins, Bugbears are dim-witted creatures, but when armed with stone mauls or fire-hardened spears they are a force to be reckoned with, smashing through the ranks of enemy forces.
Cost: 15 Gold, 3 Metal
Upkeep: 3 Gold, 3 Food
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 8
Defence: 18
Health: 15
Speed: 4
Morale: +4
Special Abilities: Animosity, Large[/ic]
[ic=Warg Cavalry (Requires: Warg Kennels)]The dread wolves known as Wargs often make their lairs in mountains and hills near to Goblin caverns. Capable of speech, Wargs often strike up allegiances with Goblins, serving them as mounts, provided they are well-fed. Warg riders are typically equipped with javelins or long spears.
Cost: 15 Gold
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 3 Food
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 16
Health: 10
Speed: 6
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Cavalry, Scout[/ic]
[ic=Dire Bat Rider (Requires: Dire Bat Caverns)]Goblins have bred and domesticated Dire Bats for generations. The largest can be trained to serve as mounts for Goblin archers, half-mad warriors who swoop through the black caverns of the Underdeep cackling maniacally and peppering enemies with arrows.
Cost: 15 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 3 Food
Ranged Attack: +5
Ranged Damage: 3
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 2
Defence: 15
Health: 8
Speed: 8
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Flyer, Cavalry[/ic]
[ic=Rock Troll (Requires: Troll Hole)]Rock Trolls are elusive but wicked creatures who dig their holes in hills or mountains, and so often come into contact with Goblins. With skins like stone, colonized by lichens and fungi, the monstrous Trolls are terrible to behold, towering over their Goblin allies. A small band of Bugbears spearheaded by a Rock Troll or two can smash an enemy to regiment to pieces in moments.
Cost: 35 Gold
Upkeep: 5 Gold, 8 Food
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 15
Defence: 20
Health: 50
Speed: 2
Morale: +6
Special Abilities: Large, Regeneration 10, Vulnerability (Acid, Fire)[/ic]
[ic=Goblin Witchdoctor (Requires: Witchdoctor's Hut)]The mushroom-addled, often demented Goblin witchdoctors are an asset to Goblin Kings, using their powers to curse enemy units or stir their allies into a frenzy. Though their reagents are expensive and their constant chanting annoying, Goblin Witchdoctors can often turn the tide of a battle. When not cursing foes or filling Goblin hearts with bloodlust Witchdoctors summon swarms of stinging insects or hurl orbs of fire at their enemies.
Cost: 50 Gold
Upkeep: 7 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +6
Ranged Damage: 4
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 17
Health: 12
Speed: 4
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Detector, Distraction, Curse, Frenzy[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Hall of the Goblin King]This room includes both the throne room of the Goblin King and his personal chambers. The main cavern is furnished with furs, flayed hides, and the weapons of defeated foes. This chamber has no cost, and is located at the Goblin capitol.
Benefit: Trophies of dead foes – the leaders of enemy factions, or powerful monsters – can be hung here on display. Garrisoned troops gain +1 to Morale when stationed in a Fortress with such a trophy. Multiple trophies add cumulative bonuses.[/ic]
[ic=Goblin Harem]This harem of coquettish Goblin beauties service only the Goblin King himself.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Prerequisites: Hall of the Goblin King
Benefit: A Goblin King who avails himself of the Goblin harem gains +1 to Melee Attack and Morale for 1 week.[/ic]
[ic=Fishing Pool (Limit 5)]This large, cold, subterranean pool is stocked with blind, albino fish which the Goblins catch by hand and use to supplement their meagre diet.
Cost: 10 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: A fishing pool produces 5 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Mushroom Patch (Unlimited)]The rambling mushroom farms of the Goblins are often precarious vertical affairs, cliff-faces strewn with phosphorescent mushrooms which the Goblins boil into a thin mushroom gruel or distil into fungus ale.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A mushroom patch produces 20 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Mushroom Grove (Unlimited)]Once several mushroom patches have been established they can be linked together to form a gigantic mushroom grove. Additional lifts, pulleys, and gathering equipment facilitate their productivity.
Cost: 40 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Prerequisites: 4 Mushroom Patches (replaces)
Benefit: A mushroom grove produces 140 Food every week.[/ic]
[ic=Goblin Mine]Goblin mines are often nothing more than meandering shafts excavated almost at random.
Cost: 150 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You mine up to 150 Gold and up to 15 Metal per week, provided your Dungeon is built over a suitable deposit. You can only have a single mine per deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Improved Goblin Mine]The addition of crude rail-carts and other mining equipment stolen or fashioned from oddments improves the efficiency of a goblin mine appreciably.
Cost: 200 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Goblin Mine (replaces)
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 250 Gold and 25 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Goblin Mine Complex]The height of Goblin mining sophistication, a labyrinth of crazed tunnels, rickety mechanical lifts, and mad carts of ore zigzagging past one another.
Cost: 250 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Improved Goblin Mine (replaces)
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 350 Gold and 50 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Market Cavern]Here, Goblins trade slaves, mushrooms, weapons, trinkets, clothes, armour, building materials, and other resources. Goblin Kings typically tax all such transactions.
Cost: 75 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: The Market Cavern produces 50 Gold per week in taxes.[/ic]
[ic=Bat Roost]This cavern is filled with messenger bats, allowing for relatively rapid communication.
Cost: 50 Gold, 20 Food
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A Goblin King garrisoned at a Dungeon with a Bat Roost can send an additional message per week per player.[/ic]
[ic=Goblin Armoury]This cavern is filled with spare bows, axes, spears, daggers, and crude swords. Goblins can quickly equip themselves here.
Cost: 25 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: You can convert garrisoned Goblin Grunts into Goblin Archers and vice versa.[/ic]
[ic=Shrine to the All-Mother]This cavern has been transformed into a primitive shrine dedicated to the Goblin deity, a goddess of fertility, war, and trickery – the All-Mother. It includes a crude altar, an idol of the All-Mother, and various fetishes and totems. Praying to the All-Mother is said to cure disease and lend warriors strength in battle.
Cost: 75 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Troops who pray at a Shrine to the All-Mother gain +1 to Morale, Attack, and Damage and are immune to disease (if they are suffering from a disease, it is cured, and they return to full health). These benefits remain for 2 weeks.[/ic]
[ic=Goblin Lair]The heart of any Goblin Fortress, this rambling, communal cavern is a mix of living space, impromptu barracks, armoury, guard-room, and training yard. Here Goblins sleep, eat, scrap, rear young, train, maintain their weapons, and do virtually everything else.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Goblin Grunts, Goblin Archers, and Goblin Cutthroats.[/ic]
[ic=Barracks]By far the neatest room in any Goblin Fortress, the barracks is still usually a slovenly mess of derelict furniture stolen from Above, stone beds lined with straw, and heaps of rusted weapons.
Cost: 50 Gold, 10 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Hobgoblin Warriors and Bugbgears.[/ic]
[ic=Warg Kennels]The kennels of the Wargs are filthy, rough cavern floors crusted with blood and strewn with gnawed bones. An animal musk lingers always in the air, and the caves echo with the Wargs' barks and uncanny, bestial laughter.
Cost: 75 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Warg Cavalry. Additionally, Goblin Grunts can be converted into Warg Cavalry at a cost of 10 Gold.[/ic]
[ic=Dire Bat Caverns]The roosts of Dire Bats are slick with guano. Here the whining drone of the huge, leathery creatures is always on the edge of hearing, and Goblin beast-masters run to and fro tending to the creatures, feeding them fresh blood and the succulent meat of prisoners from Above.
Cost: 75 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dire Bat Riders. Additionally, Goblin Archers can be converted into Dire Bat Riders at a cost of 10 Gold and 2 Metal.[/ic]
[ic=Troll Hole]The holes of Rock Trolls are fetid, cluttered places festooned with the gruesome trophies Trolls like to collect from those they kill – bloodied swords, cloven shields, splintered skulls, and the flayed skins of their enemies. A disgusting fire-pit and a crude latrine-chamber complete the hole.
Cost: 100 Gold
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Rock Trolls.[/ic]
[ic=Witchdoctor's Hut]Perched atop a stalactite, accessible only via a rickety bridge of wood, bones, and sinew, the hut of a Goblin Witchdoctor is a ramshackle thing crammed with unusual alchemical reagents, stolen magical texts, hide scrolls, and strange fetishes of fur, bark, and teeth. Cages of albino cave-lizards and fuming cauldrons complete the chaos.
Cost: 125 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Goblin Witchdoctors.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=Palisade (Limit 1)]This crude palisade of sharpened stakes protects Goblin Fortresses from attackers, with a single gate allowing entrance and exit.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Defence: 20
Health: 30[/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]This crudely dug tunnel allow Goblins to escape their Fortress if things go ill.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Defenders who fail their morale checks within a Dungeon can withdraw or flee to the nearest neighboring territory instead of surrendering.[/ic]
[ic=Spiked Moat (Limit 1)]This simple trench is filled with spikes, deterring invaders. Ranged units can assail enemies from behind the moat.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: -2
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Ranged units can get off an extra volley of attacks if protected by a Spiked Moat, exactly as if they were being shielded by melee units. It takes attackers 1 round to circumvent the moat. The moat still functions as a trap – units can fall in accidentally. They must still breach any other Defences, such as a Palisade.[/ic]
[ic=Reinforced Gate (Limit 1)]This reinforced gate is strengthened with scrap metal.
Cost: 15 Gold, 5 Metal
Prerequisites: Palisade
Construction Time: 1 week
Defense: +5 to Palisade Defense.[/ic]
[ic=Pit Trap (Limit 3)]These poorly disguised pit traps rarely fool enemies, but every now and then a reckless Dwarf or blundering Orc falls foul of one.
Cost: 15 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +3
Damage: 8[/ic]
[ic=Spiked Pit Trap (Limit 3, counts as Pit Trap)]A more vicious version of the pit trap, the spiked pit trap has long wooden stakes at the bottom to skewer those who fall in.
Cost: 5 Gold
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +4
Damage: 12[/ic]
[ic=Murder Holes (Limit 3)]These holes are bored in the roof of a cavern or passageway, allowing defenders to drop poisonous insects, starving rats, boiling water, pitch, or other unpleasant substances on attackers.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +5
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective.[/ic]
[ic=Goblin Catapult (Limit 4)]This crude catapult is lashed together out of whatever is at hand. It sometimes misfires, with destructive (and hilarious!) results, but when the stones it lobs connect with enemy forces it can devastating indeed.
Cost: 35 Gold
Prerequisites: Palisade
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +5
Damage: 30
Special Abilities: Goblin Catapults must be manned by 2 garrisoned units to be effective. If a Goblin Catapult rolls a 1 it misfires and deals 30 damage to whatever unit was manning it.[/ic]
[ic=Rockfall Trap (Limit 1)]A simple tripwire activates this crude trap, which dumps boulders on attackers.
Cost: 35 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 20[/ic]
[ic=Troll Hole Chute (Limit 1)]This pit trap simply dumps enemies into a Troll hole, where a hungry Troll awaits.
Cost: 15 Gold
Prerequisites: Troll Hole
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +4
Damage: None
Special Abilities: Instead of damage, a Troll Hole chute deposits 1d6 enemy units in a Troll Hole. If a Rock Troll is currently garrisoned in the Dungeon, it gets a surprise round against the enemies, and then fights them apart from the main army. The Troll can still participate in the rest of the battle to defend the Dungeon later on, provided it is still alive.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Dwarves]
Dwarves
Soundtrack (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=YzVryvFUzXA)
Alternate (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=PTJ3e_HR9Bk)
Dwarves are the finest miners of the Underdeep, and their cities - called Clanholds and Mansions - overflow with wealth. Dwarves exhaust deposits of Gold and Metal faster than other races, however, and so they must always continue to delve and explore in search of fresh resources, for their greed is the stuff of legend, and unpaid Dwarves grow surly indeed. Dwarves are slow and their appetites are fierce, but their bravery and honour are incontestable. They possess many weapons and machines the likes of which other races cannot dream, including the secrets of blackpowder. Their armour is thick, their hearts doughty, and their weapons keen. Dwarven Clanholds are vast but dim, their cavernous halls exquisitely crafted and exceptionally well-defended.
Starting Dungeon: Dwarf players must always claim their first Dungeon in the Upperdeep. This Clanhold begins with a Thane's Hall, a Forge Hall, a Shield Hall, 1 Tuber Garden, 1 Apiary, and a Dwarf Mine. Additional rooms, traps, and defences can be purchased before play commences, with two weeks' construction already completed.
Starting Resources: Dwarves are amongst the richest races of the Underdeep. Dwarf players begin the game with 1000 Gold, 500 Metal, and 250 Food.
Honourable: Dwarves never attack Surface settlements, but also never suffer attacks from adventurers or Surface armies. They can still explore the Surface, and can even establish trading arrangements with Surface towns.
Greed: Dwarf units that aren't paid their Gold Upkeep suffer double the morale penalties as normal.
Miners of Great Skill: Dwarves know how to extract the riches of the earth better than any other people, and their dowsers and prospectors are highly skilled. Dwarves always know exactly how much Gold, Metal, and other mineable resources are located in a region they own a Dungeon in.
Units
[ic=Dwarf Thane]Dwarf Thanes are the leaders of Dwarf Clans, often ruling not only from dynastic right but from election in a Dwarfmoot as well – an unpopular leader can be voted out and replaced if necessary. As a result, those who stay Thanes must serve their people well, giving rings and treasure generously, protecting his Clanhold against the depredations of enemies, and calculating risks and rewards. They are exceptionally tough in battle, frequently joining their subjects on campaigns.
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 8
Defence: 22
Health: 25
Speed: 3
Morale: +8
Special Abilities: Leadership, Grudge (choose one: Orc, Goblin, Troll, Ogre, Dark Elf, Kobold, Duergar, Fungoid)
The Dwarf Thane increases the Defence and Morale of any army he is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon he increases the Defence and Morale of garrisoned troops by +1. His Grudge ability applies to all units in the specific regiment he leads.[/ic]
[ic=Dwarf Axeman (Requires: Shield Hall)]The core of any Dwarf army is generally a large regiment of Axemen, valiant Dwarf warriors who wield shields and battleaxes in battle, armoured in mail and half-helms.
Cost: 8 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 2 Food
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 17
Health: 8
Speed: 3
Morale: +3[/ic]
[ic=Dwarf Grudgebearer (Requires: Shield Hall)]Dwarves are notorious for holding onto grudges, stubbornly persisting in ancient hatreds for centuries. The stout-hearted warriors known as Grudgebearers are particularly renowned for their bitterness against a particular foe. Most Grudgebearers are equipped with warhammers and shields and armoured in mail.
Cost: 10 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 3 Gold, 2 Food
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 17
Health: 8
Speed: 3
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Grudge (choose one: Orc, Goblin, Troll, Ogre, Dark Elf, Kobold, Duergar, Fungoid) [/ic]
[ic=Dwarf Ironbound (Requires: Shield Hall)]Sheathed from head to toe in armour, the Dwarf warriors known as Ironbound are practically invulnerable in battle, charging into regiments of foes many times their number and emerging practically unscathed. They wield warhammers, battleaxes, or short swords in battle, and bear heavy metal shields.
Cost: 12 Gold, 5 Metal
Upkeep: 3 Gold, 2 Food
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 20
Health: 10
Speed: 2
Morale: +3[/ic]
[ic=Dwarf Riflemen (Requires: Gunsmithy)]Only a select few Dwarven gunsmiths know the secrets of blackpowder and the construction of firearms, and so the Dwarves are unequalled with ranged weapons. Their riflemen are extremely adept with their weapons, able to hit an Orc square between his beady red eyes at a hundred paces.
Cost: 10 Gold, 5 Metal
Upkeep: 4 Gold, 1 Metal, 2 Food
Ranged Attack: +4
Ranged Damage: 6
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 16
Health: 8
Speed: 3
Morale: +3[/ic]
[ic=Dwarf Cannoneer (Requires: Gunsmithy)]Dwarf cannons are potent weapons of war, slow to manoeuvre but powerful in battle. The costs of maintaining them can be steep, however.
Cost: 25 Gold, 20 Metal
Upkeep: 5 Gold, 4 Metal, 2 Food
Ranged Attack: +5
Ranged Damage: 15
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 16
Health: 8
Speed: 2
Morale: +3[/ic]
[ic=Dwarf Engineer (Requires: Hall of Gears)]Dwarf engineers are skilful sappers and miners, experts at circumventing enemy fortifications. In combat they wield small pistols and warhammers, but their chief utility is as tunnelers and demolitions experts.
Cost: 15 Gold, 5 Metal
Upkeep: 5 Gold, 1 Metal, 2 Food
Ranged Attack: +4
Ranged Damage: 6
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 2
Defence: 17
Health: 12
Speed: 3
Morale: +4
Special Abilities: Demolitions, Repair, Tunnelling[/ic]
[ic=Dwarf Greybeard (Requires: Mead Hall)]The most grizzled, hard-bitten, scarred, red-nosed, battle-hardened veterans of the Dwarves are known as Greybeards; Dwarves who grow old are not enfeebled by age, only becoming tougher and more gnarled. Greybeards are resilient veterans who sit around the Mead Hall swapping stories of old campaigns, but in battle they are impossibly fierce and disciplined.
Cost: 15 Gold, 3 Metal
Upkeep: 5 Gold, 3 Food
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 8
Defence: 18
Health: 12
Speed: 3
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Grudge (choose two: Orc, Goblin, Troll, Ogre, Dark Elf, Kobold, Duergar, Fungoid), Discipline[/ic]
[ic=Iron Golem (Requires: Artificer's Hall)]The hissing, clanking constructs known as Iron Golems are marvels of Dwarven engineering and runecraft, colossal engines of war forged in the semblance of Dwarven warriors. Extremely slow but nigh-invulnerable, they are typically armed with enormous waraxes, warhammers, halberds, or swords.
Cost: 65 Gold, 20 Metal
Upkeep: 10 Gold, 5 Metal
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 15
Defence: 22
Health: 100
Speed: 1
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Construct, Huge[/ic]
[ic=Dwarf Runeseer (Requires: Hall of Runes)]The wizened Dwarven Runeseers can read the future in a handful of thrown stones, shield their allies with special runes, or lay traps for foes in the form of invisible runes graven on stones.
Cost: 50 Gold, 1 Metal
Upkeep: 8 Gold, 3 Food
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 20
Health: 15
Speed: 3
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Detector, Shield, Scry, Rune Trap[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Thane's Hall]The Thane's Hall is part war-room, part tavern, part council chamber, and part living quarters – a huge, cavernous hall at the heart of a Dwarven Clanhold where longbearded elders debate strategy and tactics while younger Dwarves swear oaths and make boasts. This chamber has no cost, and is located in the Dwarven capitol.
Benefit: Units can make boasts in the Thane's Hall, swearing an oath to complete some feat of arms and courage. Sample boasts might include reclaiming a stolen relic, avenging the death of fallen comrades, or slaying a powerful beast. Boasts are not to be made lightly; while pursuing a boast a unit gains +1 Attack, Speed, and Morale, but if they ignore their boast or procrastinate they suffer a -1 penalty to Attack and Morale. If they accomplish their boast then all units in Dwarven faction they belong to gain +1 Morale for 1 week as the tale spreads, but if they are killed or otherwise fail to complete their boast, all units in the Dwarven faction suffer -1 Morale for 2 weeks. These Morale bonuses do not stack, so if a regiment of 30 Dwarf Axemen make the same boast and complete it, they do not impart a +30 bonus to Morale. Each Axeman would, however, gain the +1 Attack, Speed, and Morale bonus while pursuing their boast. [/ic]
[ic=Forge Hall]
The center of any Dwarf Clanhold is the Forge Hall, a vast, hot hall filled with the sound of hammers striking anvils and bellows being stoked. Here Dwarven smiths hone their trade, producing weapons and tools for the Clanhold's use. The Forge Hall provides no direct benefits but is a prerequisite for many other Dwarf buildings.
Cost: 50 Gold, 10 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks[/ic]
[ic=Mushroom Garden (Unlimited)]Dwarves are not overly fond of mushrooms, but will eat them if required. They tend small gardens of the hardy fungi to supplement their diets. Mushrooms can also be fermented to make fungus ale.
Cost: 10 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: A mushroom garden produces 5 Food per week. If mushrooms are the only food available to Dwarves, they suffer a -1 Morale penalty until they get better food. [/ic]
[ic=Apiary (Unlimited)]Dwarves are renowned bee-keepers. Honeycomb and honey are consumed in large quantities, and honey can be combined with water and fermented to create mead, the Dwarven drink of choice.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: An apiary produces 15 Food per week. [/ic]
[ic=Tuber Garden (Unlimited)]Roots, tubers, and other vegetables form the bulk of the Dwarven diet, pallid things specially adapted to grow with little light. Tubers can also be fermented to produce vodka.
Cost: 30 Gold
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: A tuber garden produces 25 Food per week. [/ic]
[ic=Lizard Pen (Unlimited)]Dwarf-reared cave-lizards are bred for their tender flesh. They also lay eggs which form a staple of the Dwarven diet.
Cost: 40 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: A lizard pen produces 35 Food per week. [/ic]
[ic=Brewery (Limit 1)]Mead, vodka, fungus ale, and beer brewed from barley acquired through trade can be created here. Dwarf liquor is extremely nourishing stuff, and Dwarves near a good brewery tend to be happy creatures indeed; it's sometimes facetiously said that a single mug of good Dwarf drink can feed a small family for a month.
Cost: 50 Gold, 5 Metal
Prerequisites: Apiary, Mushroom Garden, or Tuber Garden
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A brewery produces 10 Food per week. All Dwarven units garrisoned in a Dungeon with a brewery gain +2 Morale. [/ic]
[ic=Hall of the Ancestors]The hallowed Hall of the Ancestors contains graven images of fallen heroes and other Dwarves of importance. Here the dead are entombed, and Dwarf warriors come to the sacred Hall to seek guidance from the spirits of the glorious dead.
Cost: 100 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Dwarves who pray at the Hall of the Ancestors gain +1 to Morale and Defence and are immune to fear effects. Any units suffering from disease are cured, and return to full health. These effects remain for 2 weeks.[/ic]
[ic=Dwarf Mine]Dwarves are exemplary miners, and their mines are incredibly efficient and well-constructed, almost never suffering cave-ins or collapses that could slow production.
Cost: 200 Gold, 20 Metal
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You mine up to 200 Gold and up to 25 Metal per week, provided your Dungeon is built over a suitable deposit. You can only have a single mine per deposit. If a Dwarven Engineer is garrisoned at a Clanhold with a Dwarven mine the mine is even more efficient, producing an additional 10 Gold and 5 Metal every week.[/ic]
[ic=Improved Dwarf Mine]Mechanical enhancements courtesy of the Hall of Gears allow a Dwarven mine to function at even greater efficiency.
Cost: 250 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Dwarf Mine (replaces), Hall of Gears
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 350 Gold and 50 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit. If a Dwarven Engineer is garrisoned at a Clanhold with an Improved Dwarven mine the mine is even more efficient, producing an additional 10 Gold and 5 Metal every week. [/ic]
[ic=Dwarf Mine Complex]The pinnacle of Dwarven engineering, this sophisticated mine produces truly vast amounts of gold and metal.
Cost: 350 Gold, 35 Metal
Prerequisites: Improved Dwarf Mine (replaces), Artificer's Hall
Construction Time: 6 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 500 Gold and 75 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit. If a Dwarven Engineer is garrisoned at a Clanhold with a Dwarf Mine Complex the mine is even more efficient, producing an additional 20 Gold and 10 Metal every week. [/ic]
[ic=Hall of Trade]In the vast Hall of Trade, Dwarven artisans sell their exquisitely wrought wares. Dwarven Thanes levy tariffs and taxes on transactions for additional coin.
Cost: 150 Gold
Prerequisites: Forge Hall
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: A Hall of Trade produces 100 Gold per week. [/ic]
[ic=Bat Roost]This cavern is filled with messenger bats, allowing for relatively rapid communication.
Cost: 50 Gold, 20 Food
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A Dwarf Thane garrisoned at a Dungeon with a Bat Roost can send an additional message per week per player.[/ic]
[ic=Dwarf Armoury]Here Dwarves store spare armour and weapons – principally battleaxes, warhammers, short swords, and daggers. If a gunsmithy is attached to the Dwarf Clanhold, spare firearms and ammunition will be stored here as well.
Cost: 35 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Forge Hall
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can convert garrisoned Dwarf Axemen into Dwarf Ironbound for 4 Gold and 3 Metal. If the Dungeon includes a gunsmithy, you can convert Dwarf Axemen into Dwarf Riflemen for 2 Gold and 3 Metal. [/ic]
[ic=Shield Hall]The Shield Hall echoes with the sound of blade on blade and blade on wood – this is the training hall where warriors hone their talents, sparring endlessly with one another.
Cost: 50 Gold, 5 Metal
Prerequisites: Forge Hall
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dwarf Axemen, Grudgebearers, and Ironbound.[/ic]
[ic=Training Hall]Upgrades to the shield hall include mechanical dummies, a firing range for riflemen, and similar amenities. Here stern Dwarven elders bark at young Dwarves training to become warriors, teaching them the principles of battle and the importance of discipline.
Cost: 100 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Shield Hall (replaces)
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: All Dwarf units recruited at a Clanhold with a training hall have the Discipline ability. Dwarf units garrisoned at a training hall for 1 week gain this ability permanently. [/ic]
[ic=Gunsmithy]The secret of blackpower is a closely guarded one, jealously kept by expert Dwarven gunsmiths. The gunsmithy reeks of sulphur and other alchemical ingredients, but the weapons it produces are without match in the Underdeep.
Cost: 50 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Forge Hall
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dwarf Riflemen and Cannoneers.[/ic]
[ic=Hall of Gears]Sounds of grinding cogs fill the Hall of Gears, where Dwarven inventors, mechanists, and engineers perform experiments and design new inventions. Dwarf cities with such Halls are bastions of knowledge and expertise.
Cost: 50 Gold, 20 Metal
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Prerequisites: Forge Hall
Benefit: You can recruit Dwarf Engineers.[/ic]
[ic=Mead Hall]Attached to a Dwarven brewery, mead halls are often the most popular locations in a Dwarven Clanhold. Here grizzled veterans swap stories of valour and heroism over huge tankards of mead.
Cost: 100 Gold
Prerequisites: Apiary, Brewery
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dwarf Greybeards. Also, the Morale bonus from the Brewery increases to +3. Dwarf Grudgebearers can be converted into Dwarf Greybeards here at a cost of 5 Gold and 1 Metal each.[/ic]
[ic=Artificer's Hall]The Artificer's Hall is an annex of the Hall of Gears; here Dwarven engineers craft the miraculous marvels of technology and magic known as Iron Golems, formidable constructs of rune-graven metal.
Cost: 100 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Hall of Gears
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can construct Iron Golems.[/ic]
[ic=Hall of Runes]The Hall of Runes is covered in chronicles of the Dwarven race, from their primordial legends and myths to relatively modern sagas. Here Runeseers read the future in stones and meditate on the ancient stories.
Cost: 150 Gold
Prerequisites: Hall of the Ancestors
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dwarf Runeseers. While garrisoned in a Dungeon with a Hall of Runes, Runeseers can use their Scry ability twice per week instead of once per week.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=Outer Wall (Limit 1)]This thick stone fortification provides an extra measure of protection to a Dwarven outpost or Clanhold.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Defence: 22
Health: 40[/ic]
[ic=Reinforced Walls (Limit 1)]Dwarves frequently reinforce their Clanholds with thick, reinforced walls to deter enemy sappers.
Cost: 100 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Enemy tunnelers take twice as much time to tunnel into a Dungeon with reinforced walls. [/ic]
[ic=Impenetrable Walls (Limit 1)]
These walls are even thicker than normal.
Cost: 150 Gold
Prerequisites: Forge Hall
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: The Clanhold is immune to tunnelers. Demolition is still effective. [/ic]
[ic=Iron Gate (Limit 1)]This reinforced, iron gate is extremely thick and difficult to breach. Slits allow ranged defenders to assail enemies attacking the gate.
Cost: 30 Gold, 20 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Defence: 22
Health: 50[/ic]
[ic=Runegate (Limit 1, counts as Gate)]This gate has been inscribed with protective runes, reinforcing it.
Cost: 75 Gold
Prerequisites: Iron Gate, Hall of Runes
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Defence: +10 to Iron Gate Defence, but can be Dispelled.[/ic]
[ic=Dwarf Door (Limit 1, counts as Gate]Some Dwarf Doors are hidden, resembling simple rock faces. Only skilled spellcasters can discover them.
Cost: 100 Gold
Prerequisites: Runegate, Hall of Runes
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A Dwarf Door can only be automatically discovered by those with Detection. Dwarf Doors can only be built in Dungeons, not Outposts.[/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]This sally-port allows Dwarves the chance to flee a Clanhold in secret.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Defenders who fail their morale checks within a Dungeon can withdraw or flee to the nearest neighbouring territory instead of surrendering. [/ic]
[ic=Murder Holes (Limit 3)]These holes are bored in the roof of a cavern or passageway, allowing defenders to drop poisonous insects, starving rats, boiling water, pitch, or other unpleasant substances on attackers.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +5
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective. [/ic]
[ic=Dwarf Cannon Battery (Limit 3)]Hidden sections of rock slide away and enormous cannons – too big to be transported to other battlefields – appear, protruding from the Clanhold to rain leaden death on attackers.
Cost: 50 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Gunsmithy
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 30
Special Abilities: A Dwarf Cannon Battery must be manned by two garrisoned units.[/ic]
[ic=Incinerator (Limit 1)]This trapped room can be filled with flames, immolating any enemies who wander in unawares. Complex mechanical pumps, nozzles, and pressure plates are installed, such that flammable gas fills the trapped chamber when attackers blunder past.
Cost: 50 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Hall of Gears
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: 50 (Fire)[/ic]
[ic=Crushing Room Trap (Limit 1)]This trapped hall smashes intruders to a paste. The complicated mechanisms involved require the expertise of master artificers.
Cost: 75 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Artificer's Hall
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Attack: +10
Damage: 75[/ic]
[ic=Minefield (Limit 1)]This trap consists of hollows made in the ground and filled with blackpowder, then fitted with a complex pressure-mechanism triggered when an enemy steps on the hollow.
Cost: 75 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Hall of Gears, Gunsmithy
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +5
Damage: 60
Minefields can be built anywhere at Outposts and other Dungeons without the usual prerequisites provided the Dwarves have the prerequisites in a Clanhold somewhere.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Dwerim (created by The Meanest Guest)]
Dwerim
The Dwerim, known to their close kin - the Dwarves - as the petty folk, are prideful and acquisitive. The Dwerim were driven into the Middledeep centuries ago, but delve their mines and stoke their forges much as they did before. They are guarded and secretive, but welcome trade with other peoples of the Underdeep - when they see an advantage, of course. They are not a numerous race, living either in small and scattered houses, or the sole remaining mansion of their people: Mhaldûl-Nem. Dwerim are gaunt and appear half-starved, though they are as strong as any Dwarf. Their flesh is pale and milky, and flushes easily. Their hair and beards are deepest black, or rarely fiery red, but fade to silver or gold in old age. Dwerim are fierce and implacable warriors, fighting in good order and close formation. They wear well-crafted mail and fearsome masqued helms into battle, and bear shield and axe. They will fight to the death to defend their homes and will give no quarter to their enemies. Thought not as advanced, Dwerim smiths and craftsmen routinely exceed those of the Dwarves in technique, and their jewelcraft is unequaled in the Underdeep. Their houses and mansions are strong and well-defended, and harken back to an earlier age aesthetically. Above all things the Dwerim cherish wealth, and guard their hoards jealously. Their mines are among the deepest in the world, and grow deeper yet each passing year.
Starting Dungeon: Dwer players must always claim their first Dungeon in the Middledeep. This Clanhold begins with a Thane's Hall, a Forge Hall, a Shield Hall, 1 Tuber Garden, 1 Apiary, and a Dwer Mine. Additional rooms, traps, and defences can be purchased before play commences, with two weeks' construction already completed.
Starting Resources: Dwerim are amongst the richest races of the Underdeep. Dwer players begin the game with 1000 Gold, 500 Metal, and 250 Food.
Honourable: Dwerim never attack Surface settlements, but also never suffer attacks from adventurers or Surface armies. They can still explore the Surface, and can even establish trading arrangements with Surface towns.
Greed: Dwer units that aren't paid their Upkeep suffer double the morale penalties as normal.
Miners of Great Skill: Dwerim know how to extract the riches of the earth better than any other people, and their dowsers and prospectors are highly skilled. Dwerim always know exactly how much Gold, Metal, and other mineable resources are located in a region they own a Dungeon in.
Units
[ic=Lothë, Prince of the Mhaldûlne and Lord of the Mansion, Dwer Thane]
(http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/2593/lothed.jpg)
Nír, who was King in the Deep when the great city of Nüln yet stood, had but a single son. When Nír met his grisly end, and when Nüln was put to the sack and the Dwerim slaughtered, it was Lothë who abandoned his father's madness and saved the remnant of his people. He gathered up those few that he could, and led them away without looking back. It was a long and perilous journey, and many more yet died on the road. But at last Lothë came to the delvings of his ancestors, and the Mines of Andacer. The land had grown feral and wild in the absence of Dwer or Dwer, and so Lothë desired to tame it for his folk. The mansion of Mhaldûl-Nem, which is the last home of the Dwerim, was carved from the rock with all the skill and craft that could then be mustered. The walls and gates were made strong and fair, and halls were dug and forges lit.
In the Great Forest dwelt, and still dwell, many fell creatures, who would harass and haunt the Dwerim. And so Lothë decreed that it should be driven back, and with flame and axe it was. It was this work that garnered the ire of Blackrot, a foul Rotqueen of the Sporekin. And she raised from the pungent earth a great host of her odious kin, and set them against all the works of the Dwerim, and brought a new war to that harried folk. The numbers at her command were vast, and she soon assailed the gates of Mhaldûl-Nem with a writhing throng. The Dwerim spilled fire from the battlements upon the Sporekin, and the greater part of that host was blackened to ash. But again Blackrot came, and again her horde was driven back with flame. And then to the Dwerim there was left no more of their secret fire, and Blackrot was pounding at the gate, and the strange and ravenous cries of the Fungoids were heard in the halls. Lothë resolved that this could not be the end of his people, and gathered all his warriors about him. The Dwerim issued from the gate, and though they were outnumbered, their axes were sharp and their assault sudden, and they drove the Sporekin back, and cut to the heart of that host. But the Dwerim were then surrounded and pressed from all sides, and many among them began to fall, and it was that it might have been the end. But with a great cry Lothë took up his axe with new strength, and slew any beast that stood before him, and his men were all about him. They sung a dirge, deep and low, for all the losses of their people, and it brought fear even into the rotting hearts of the Sporekin, and they quailed before the Dwerim. And it was that Lothë at last espied Blackrot, and none now stood between them. He took up his great axe and cut into her bulk nine times, and she fell with a groan. With the foul blood of their Queen upon Lothë's blade the last of that vile host fled the field, and into the heart of the wood, and Lothë and the Dwerim stood triumphant.
His axe is yet named the Rotdoom, and the people of Mhaldûl-Nem cherish their Lord above all their riches, though perhaps only just. It has been a century and more, and the Mansion of the Dwerim has slowly grown, and prospered, and been left alone by the other peoples of the deep. But the mines are dug deeper, and the forges stoked ever hotter, as the Dwerim know that all things must pass. Though he will not set the Crown of the King upon his fiery brow, and instead yet wears the iron band of a Prince of his folk, Lothë stands ready to defend his people, and woe to him who arouses the wrath of the Dwerim.
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 8
Defence: 22
Health: 25
Speed: 3
Morale: +8
Special Abilities: Leadership, Grudge (Fungoid)
Lothë increases the Defence and Morale of any army he is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon he increases the Defence and Morale of garrisoned troops by +1. His Grudge ability applies to all units in the specific regiment he leads.
Rotdoom deals an additional 2 points of damage against Fungoids. This stacks with the bonuses from Lothë's Grudge, but applies only to Lothë's damage.[/ic]
[ic=Dwer Axeman (Requires: Shield Hall)]The core of any Dwer army is generally a large regiment of Axemen, valiant Dwer warriors who wield shields and battleaxes in battle, armoured in chain mail and half-helms.
Cost: 8 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 2 Food
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 16
Health: 8
Speed: 3
Morale: +3[/ic]
[ic=Dwer Grudgebearer (Requires: Shield Hall)]Like Dwarves, Dwerim are notorious for holding onto grudges, stubbornly persisting in ancient hatreds for centuries. The stout-hearted warriors known as Grudgebearers are particularly renowned for their bitterness against a particular foe. Most Grudgebearers are equipped with warhammers and shields and armoured in mail.
Cost: 10 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 3 Gold, 2 Food
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 16
Health: 8
Speed: 3
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Grudge (choose one: Orc, Goblin, Troll, Ogre, Dark Elf, Kobold, Duergar, Fungoid) [/ic]
[ic=Dwer Ironbound (Requires: Shield Hall)]Sheathed from head to toe in scale mail armour, the Dwer warriors known as Ironbound are practically invulnerable in battle, charging into regiments of foes many times their number and emerging practically unscathed. They wield warhammers, battleaxes, or short swords in battle, and bear heavy metal shields.
Cost: 12 Gold, 5 Metal
Upkeep: 3 Gold, 2 Food
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 20
Health: 10
Speed: 2
Morale: +3[/ic]
[ic=Dwer Flamesprayer (Requires: Pyretic Refinery)]The hallmark of a Dwerim host on the march is the smell of burning flesh that precedes it. Bulky flamesprayers are lugged into battle by their singed and soot-caked operators, who loose burning streams of fire over impressive distances onto their hapless enemies.
Cost: 10 Gold, 5 Metal
Upkeep: 4 Gold, 2 Food
Ranged Attack: +4
Ranged Damage: 6 (Fire)
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 16
Health: 8
Speed: 2
Morale: +3[/ic]
[ic=Dwer Igniter (Requires: Pyretic Refinery)]Dwer Igniters are skilled miners and demolitions experts who are equally at home boring the deep mineshafts of their folk with liquid flame, or bringing down the walls and towers of their enemies.
Cost: 15 Gold, 5 Metal
Upkeep: 5 Gold, 1 Metal, 2 Food
Ranged Attack: +4
Ranged Damage: 6 (Fire)
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 17
Health: 12
Speed: 3
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Demolitions, Repair, Tunnelling[/ic]
[ic=Dwer Furnace Master (Requires: Grand Furnace)]The most skilled craftsmen and smiths of the Dwerim might one day be elevated to Furnace Master, to tend to the Grand Furnace and pursue the perfection of their craft.
Cost: 35 Gold, 10 Metal
Upkeep: 6 Gold, 3 Food, 3 Metal
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 18
Health: 15
Speed: 3
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Repair
If garrisoned at a Dungeon with a Grand Furnace, the Dwer Furnace Master can upgrade the arms and armour of garrisoned troops. For a cost of 3 Metal he can upgrade a unit's Defence by +1 or Melee Damage by +1. These upgrades can each by taken only once per unit (though a single unit can take both upgrades).[/ic]
[ic=Dwer Brightbeard (Requires: Mead Hall)]The most grizzled, hard-bitten, scarred, vicious, battle-hardened veterans of the Dwerim are known as Brightbeards; Dwerim who grow old are not enfeebled by age, only becoming tougher and more gnarled, their beards growing pale with age. Brightbeards are resilient veterans who sit around the Mead Hall swapping stories of old campaigns, but in battle they are impossibly fierce and disciplined.
Cost: 15 Gold, 3 Metal
Upkeep: 5 Gold, 3 Food
Melee Attack: +7
Melee Damage: 8
Defence: 17
Health: 12
Speed: 3
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Grudge (choose two: Orc, Goblin, Troll, Ogre, Dark Elf, Kobold, Duergar, Fungoid), Discipline[/ic]
[ic=Dwer Shadowseer (Requires: Hall of Shadows)]Dwerim Shadowseers read the future in the clash of shadows, shield their allies with obfuscating gloom, or summon wraiths to guard tunnels and passageways.
Cost: 50 Gold, 1 Metal
Upkeep: 8 Gold, 3 Food
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 20
Health: 15
Speed: 3
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Detector, Obfuscating Shroud, Scry, Summon (Wraith)[/ic]
[ic=Dwer Wraith (Summoned Unit)]These shadowy wraiths are bound by Dwer Shadowseers to guard specific chambers and passages. Dwer Shadowseers can summon a wraith once per week. The wraith remains in place for two weeks before dissipating into shadow one more.
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 10
Defence: 20
Health: 40
Speed: 0
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 15), Regeneration 10, Undead[/ic]
[ic=Dwer Revenant (Requires: Mausoleum)]Half-seen shades who haunt the darkened hallways of Dwerim Mansions, these Revenants watch over their people and their wealth even past the yawning door of death. They tear at invaders and trespassers with unseen blades and hooks, and drag them screaming into the depths of the Mausoleum.
Cost: 100 Gold
Upkeep: None
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 12
Defence: 22
Health: 60
Speed: 0
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 20), Regeneration 20, Undead[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Thane's Hall]The Thane's Hall is part war-room, part tavern, part council chamber, and part living quarters – a huge, cavernous hall at the heart of a Dwer Clanhold where longbearded elders debate strategy and tactics while younger Dwerim swear oaths and make boasts. This chamber has no cost, and is located in the Dwer capitol.
Benefit: Units can make boasts in the Thane's Hall, swearing an oath to complete some feat of arms and courage. Sample boasts might include reclaiming a stolen relic, avenging the death of fallen comrades, or slaying a powerful beast. Boasts are not to be made lightly; while pursuing a boast a unit gains +1 Attack, Speed, and Morale, but if they ignore their boast or procrastinate they suffer a -1 penalty to Attack and Morale. If they accomplish their boast then all units in Dwer faction they belong to gain +1 Morale for 1 week as the tale spreads, but if they are killed or otherwise fail to complete their boast, all units in the Dwer faction suffer -1 Morale for 2 weeks. These Morale bonuses do not stack, so if a regiment of 30 Dwer Axemen make the same boast and complete it, they do not impart a +30 bonus to Morale. Each Axeman would, however, gain the +1 Attack, Speed, and Morale bonus while pursuing their boast. [/ic]
[ic=Forge Hall]
The center of any Dwer Clanhold is the Forge Hall, a vast, hot hall filled with the sound of hammers striking anvils and bellows being stoked. Here Dwer smiths hone their trade, producing weapons and tools for the Clanhold's use. The Forge Hall provides no direct benefits but is a prerequisite for many other Dwer buildings.
Cost: 50 Gold, 10 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks[/ic]
[ic=Mushroom Garden (Unlimited)]Dwerim are not overly fond of mushrooms, but will eat them if required. They tend small gardens of the hardy fungi to supplement their diets. Mushrooms can also be fermented to make fungus ale.
Cost: 10 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: A mushroom garden produces 5 Food per week. If mushrooms are the only food available to Dwerim, they suffer a -1 Morale penalty until they get better food. [/ic]
[ic=Apiary (Unlimited)]Dwerim are renowned bee-keepers. Honeycomb and honey are consumed in large quantities, and honey can be combined with water and fermented to create mead, the Dwer drink of choice.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: An apiary produces 15 Food per week. [/ic]
[ic=Tuber Garden (Unlimited)]Roots, tubers, and other vegetables form the bulk of the Dwer diet, pallid things specially adapted to grow with little light. Tubers can also be fermented to produce vodka.
Cost: 30 Gold
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: A tuber garden produces 25 Food per week. [/ic]
[ic=Lizard Pen (Unlimited)]Dwer-reared cave-lizards are bred for their tender flesh. They also lay eggs which form a staple of the Dwer diet.
Cost: 40 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: A lizard pen produces 35 Food per week. [/ic]
[ic=Brewery (Limit 1)]Mead, vodka, fungus ale, and beer brewed from barley acquired through trade can be created here. Dwer liquor is extremely nourishing stuff, and Dwerim near a good brewery tend to be happy creatures indeed; it's sometimes facetiously said that a single mug of good Dwer drink can feed a small family for a month.
Cost: 50 Gold, 5 Metal
Prerequisites: Apiary, Mushroom Garden, or Tuber Garden
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A brewery produces 10 Food per week. All Dwer units garrisoned in a Dungeon with a brewery gain +2 Morale. [/ic]
[ic=Hall of the Ancestors]The hallowed Hall of the Ancestors contains graven images of fallen heroes and other Dwerim of importance. Here the dead are entombed, and Dwer warriors come to the sacred Hall to seek guidance from the spirits of the glorious dead.
Cost: 100 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Dwerim who pray at the Hall of the Ancestors gain +1 to Morale and Defence and are immune to fear effects. Any units suffering from disease are cured, and return to full health. These effects remain for 2 weeks.[/ic]
[ic=Dwer Mine]Dwerim are exemplary miners, and their mines are incredibly efficient and well-constructed, almost never suffering cave-ins or collapses that could slow production.
Cost: 200 Gold, 20 Metal
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You mine up to 200 Gold and up to 25 Metal per week, provided your Dungeon is built over a suitable deposit. You can only have a single mine per deposit. If a Dwer Furnace Master is garrisoned at a Clanhold with a Dwer mine the mine is even more efficient, producing an additional 10 Gold and 5 Metal every week.[/ic]
[ic=Improved Dwer Mine]Mechanical enhancements courtesy of the Grand Furnace allow a Dwer mine to function at even greater efficiency.
Cost: 250 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Dwer Mine (replaces), Grand Furnace
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 350 Gold and 50 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit. If a Dwer Furnace Master is garrisoned at a Clanhold with an Improved Dwer mine the mine is even more efficient, producing an additional 10 Gold and 5 Metal every week. [/ic]
[ic=Dwer Mine Complex]The pinnacle of Dwer engineering, this sophisticated mine produces truly vast amounts of gold and metal.
Cost: 350 Gold, 35 Metal
Prerequisites: Improved Dwer Mine (replaces), Pyretic Refinery
Construction Time: 6 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 500 Gold and 75 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit. If a Dwer Furnace Master is garrisoned at a Clanhold with a Dwer Mine Complex the mine is even more efficient, producing an additional 20 Gold and 10 Metal every week. [/ic]
[ic=Hall of Trade]In the vast Hall of Trade, Dwer artisans sell their exquisitely wrought wares. Dwer Thanes levy tariffs and taxes on transactions for additional coin.
Cost: 150 Gold
Prerequisites: Forge Hall
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: A Hall of Trade produces 100 Gold per week. [/ic]
[ic=Bat Roost]This cavern is filled with messenger bats, allowing for relatively rapid communication.
Cost: 50 Gold, 20 Food
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: If Lothë is garrisoned at a Dungeon with a Bat Roost he can send an additional message per week per player.[/ic]
[ic=Dwer Armoury]Here Dwerim store spare armour and weapons – principally battleaxes, warhammers, short swords, and daggers. If a pyretic refinery is attached to the Dwer Clanhold, spare flamesprayers can be found here as well.
Cost: 35 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Forge Hall
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can convert garrisoned Dwer Axemen into Dwer Ironbound for 4 Gold and 3 Metal. If the Dungeon includes a pyretic refinery, you can convert Dwer Axemen into Dwer Flamesprayers for 2 Gold and 3 Metal. [/ic]
[ic=Shield Hall]The Shield Hall echoes with the sound of blade on blade and blade on wood – this is the training hall where warriors hone their talents, sparring endlessly with one another.
Cost: 50 Gold, 5 Metal
Prerequisites: Forge Hall
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dwer Axemen, Grudgebearers, and Ironbound.[/ic]
[ic=Training Hall]Upgrades to the shield hall include mechanical dummies, a firing range for flamesprayers, and similar amenities. Here stern Dwer elders bark at young Dwerim training to become warriors, teaching them the principles of battle and the importance of discipline.
Cost: 100 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Shield Hall (replaces)
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: All Dwer units recruited at a Clanhold with a training hall have the Discipline ability. Dwer units garrisoned at a training hall for 1 week gain this ability permanently. [/ic]
[ic=Grand Furnace]The Forge Hall of this Mansion has been augmented with an enormous stone and iron furnace stories tall. Any Dwer who comes near must wear protective clothing, as the heat it throws off is incredible. But it is this heat that is necessary for the greatest projects of the Dwerim, and such furnaces are lovingly maintained by their masters.
Cost: 50 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Forge Hall (replaces)
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dwer Furnace Masters.[/ic]
[ic=Pyretic Refinery]A maze of pipes coils about the metal tanks and glass vessels that dominate this room. Great cauldrons bubble and boil as nearby vats slowly set, all watched attentively by dozens of igniters and chemists. It is here that the deadly flamegel of the Dwerim is produced from rare compounds found within the depths of the Earth. The scent of smoke and singed hair lingers in the air.
Cost: 50 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Forge Hall
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dwer Igniters and Flamesprayers.[/ic]
[ic=Mead Hall]Attached to a Dwer brewery, mead halls are often the most popular locations in a Dwer Clanhold. Here grizzled veterans swap stories of valour and heroism over huge tankards of mead.
Cost: 100 Gold
Prerequisites: Apiary, Brewery
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dwer Brightbeards. Also, the Morale bonus from the Brewery increases to +3. Dwer Grudgebearers can be converted into Dwer Brightbeards here at a cost of 5 Gold and 1 Metal each.[/ic]
[ic=Hall of Shadows]Covered with gems cut precisely to refract and distort the light cast by burning braziers, shadows war in this Hall, shifting across it in constant flux. Shadowseers read the future and the past as it is written on the walls and floors, and devise new methods from ancient wisdom.
Cost: 150 Gold
Prerequisites: Hall of the Ancestors
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dwer Shadowseers. While garrisoned in a dungeon with a Hall of Shadows, Shadowseers can use their Scry ability twice per week instead of once per week.[/ic]
[ic=Mausoleum]Mausoleums of the revered dead surround the Hall of the Ancestors, and it is here that the bones of the Dwerim are interred along with their worldly wealth. Shadowseers call spirits from the grave to watch over their living kin. These Revenants stalk the halls in a ceaseless search for those who would defile their home, so that they might flense the flesh from their bones.
Cost: 100 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Hall of the Ancestors, Hall of Shadows
Construction Time: 4 Weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dwer Revenants.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=Outer Wall (Limit1)]This thick stone fortification provides an extra measure of protection to a Dwer outpost or Clanhold.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Defence: 22
Health: 40[/ic]
[ic=Reinforced Walls (Limit 1)]Dwerim frequently reinforce their Clanholds with thick, reinforced walls to deter enemy sappers.
Cost: 100 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Enemy tunnelers take twice as much time to tunnel into a Dungeon with reinforced walls. [/ic]
[ic=Impenetrable Walls (Limit 1)]
These walls are even thicker than normal.
Cost: 150 Gold
Prerequisites: Forge Hall
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: The Clanhold is immune to tunnelers. Demolition is still effective. [/ic]
[ic=Iron Gate (Limit 1)]This reinforced, iron gate is extremely thick and difficult to breach. Slits allow ranged defenders to assail enemies attacking the gate.
Cost: 30 Gold, 20 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Defence: 22
Health: 50[/ic]
[ic=Ashsteel Gate (Limit 1, counts as Gate)]Through the application of immense heat, considerable skill, and Dwerim shadow magic the simple iron of this gate has been transformed into a much more durable substance.
Cost: 90 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Grand Furnace, Hall of Shadows, Iron Gate
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Defence: +5 to Iron Gate defence. [/ic]
[ic=Dwer Door (Limit 1, counts as Gate)]Some Dwer Doors are hidden, resembling simple rock faces. Only skilled spellcasters can discover them.
Cost: 100 Gold
Prerequisites: Ashsteel Gate
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A Dwer Door can only be automatically discovered by those with Detection. [/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]This sally-port allows Dwerim the chance to flee a Clanhold in secret.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Defenders who fail their morale checks within a Dungeon can withdraw or flee to the nearest neighbouring territory instead of surrendering. [/ic]
[ic=Murder Holes (Limit 3)]These holes are bored in the roof of a cavern or passageway, allowing defenders to drop poisonous insects, starving rats, boiling water, pitch, or other unpleasant substances on attackers.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +5
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective. [/ic]
[ic=Flame Gallery (Limit 3)]A long gallery carved into the rock above the gate of a Dwerim Mansion. Narrow apertures mounted with enormous vat-fed flamesprayers pour deadly fire on attackers.
Cost: 50 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Pyretic Refinery
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 30 (Fire)
Special Abilities: A Dwer Flame Gallery must be manned by two garrisoned units.[/ic]
[ic=Furnace Chute (Limit 1)]The floor of this room slides suddenly away, dropping invaders into the furnace that waits below. Blood boils, flesh evaporates from bone and bone quickly becomes ash in the intense heat.
Cost: 50 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Grand Furnace
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 60 (Fire)[/ic]
[ic=Shadowed Labyrinth (Limit 1)] Any Dwer knows to avoid this archway, but the enticing and beguiling shadows that dance within unerringly lure in trespassers. The twisting and branching passageways lead to sudden pitfalls, the tombs of the restless dead, or to an inevitable and slow death from thirst.
Cost: 65 Gold
Prerequisites: Mausoleum
Construction Time: 4 Weeks
Attack: +10
Damage: 30[/ic]
[ic=Fire Mines (Limit 1)]This trap consists of hollows made in the ground and filled with flamegel, then fitted with a complex pressure-mechanism triggered when an enemy steps on the hollow.
Cost: 65 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Pyretic Refinery
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +5
Damage: 50 (Fire)
Fire Mines can be built at Outposts and other Dungeons without the usual prerequisites provided the Dwerim own a Pyretic Refinery somewhere.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Orcs]
Orcs
Soundtrack (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=kXGHwj67wtI&playnext=1&list=PLB3A7E796FFE2B3C5&feature=results_video)
Alternate (https://www.youtuberepeat.com/watch?v=8Gfv_W0myp0)
Orcs are flesh-eating, psychotic savages who consider themselves at war with all other beings. They roam the Underdeep and the Surface world slaughtering all that they come across, burning, pillaging, raping, and plundering. They revel in destruction over all other things. When not sating themselves on others they fight amongst themselves, and many Orc tribes tear themselves apart without the presence of a strong Warlord to keep them in line. Their Dungeons are often little more than ramshackle war camps, and due to their itinerant lifestyle large sections of an Orc Stronghold can be picked up and moved at any given time.
Starting Dungeon: Orc players must always claim their first Stronghold in the Upperdeep or the Middledeep. This Stronghold begins with a Warlord's Tent, War Camp, 1 Warthog Pen, and an Orc Mine. Additional rooms, traps, and defences can be purchased before play commences, with one week's construction already complete.
Starting Resources: Orcs tribes can grow prosperous through raiding, but they don't hoard their treasures as some do. Orc players begin the game with 850 Gold, 150 Metal, and 250 Food.
Aggression: Orcs greatly prefer to be on the offensive side of any battle. In any battle in which the Orcs are the aggressors all of their units (
not including Ogres or Ettins) gain +1 to Attack rolls and Morale checks.
Raiders: Orcs are superb raiders. When they successfully attack a Surface settlement or enemy Dungeon and sack the settlement or Dungeon, they steal double the resources they normally would.
Belligerent: Orcs never form long-term alliances, save with Ogres and their ilk. While Orc players can ally themselves with other players, such alliances can only ever endure for four weeks' time, at which point they always dissolve and cannot be renewed for at least another four weeks (if an Orc Warlord attempts to maintain an alliance for longer than a month, he will find that his own troops fail to honour such agreements!). Orcs are never neutral towards any other factions: their default stance is
always "hostile."
Cannibalism: Orcs delight in eating their goes. They can convert 1 Body into 1 Food, though they refuse to eat carrion and will only eat freshly slain enemies, so such Food must be used immediately to pay Upkeep costs. They have no compunctions against cannibalism, and will devour each other with gusto; one upside to their occasional bursts of self-destructive animosity is that surviving warriors tend to be well-fed for awhile.
Units
[ic=Orc Warlord]A towering hulk of muscle, rage, and aggression, the brutal Orc Warlords are amongst the most fearsome and powerful fighters in all of the Underdeep. They almost always accompany their troops into battle, wielding enormous swords or axes and wearing the tanned hides of fallen foes and beasts. Their war-cries are the stuff of legend.
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 12
Defence: 15
Health: 25
Speed: 4
Morale: +7
Special Abilities: Leadership, War Cry
The Orc Warlord increases the Melee Attack and Damage of any army he is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon he increases the Melee Attack and Damage of garrisoned troops by +1.
The Warlord's War Cry ability acts similarly to the Frenzy spell, but the Warlord need not give up a turn to use it, and it affects both him and the regiment he is attached to.
If a Wyvern Roost has been constructed, an Orc Warlord can be mounted on a Wyvern. He gains the Cavalry, Flying, and Poison 3 abilities and can only join a regiment of Orc Wyvern Riders. He also gains +2 Defence, +4 Speed and +5 Health. Mounting the Warlord on a Wyvern costs 20 Gold and 5 Metal (no Upkeep costs, however).[/ic]
[ic=Orc Raider (Requires: War Camp)]Orc raiders are ferocious warriors who delight in slaughter and mayhem. Their natural animosity means that they make poor defensive troops. Typical Orc raiders are armed with a motley collection of clubs, axes, swords, and spears. Few use shields, and most are armoured in studded leathers or furs.
Cost: 8 Gold, 1 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 2 Food
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 14
Health: 10
Speed: 4
Morale: +2
Special Abilities: Animosity[/ic]
[ic=Orc Axe-Thrower (Requires: War Camp)]Though most Orcs relish the bloody crush of close-quarter carnage, a few prefer the satisfying
thwack of a hurled axe splitting an enemy's skull. Such Orcs sometimes incur the mockery of their kindred, but a swiftly thrown axe to the face tends to silence such deprecation.
Cost: 8 Gold, 1 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 2 Food
Ranged Attack: +3
Ranged Damage: 4
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 2
Defence: 13
Health: 10
Speed: 4
Morale: +2
Special Abilities: Animosity[/ic]
[ic=Orc Berserker (Requires: War Camp)]Having taken hallucinogenic spores that transform their brains into pulsating organs of primordial fury, the bestial Orc troops known as berserkers pay little heed to defence, but in hand-to-hand combat their abilities are unmatched. A handful of berserkers can mow through ranks of lesser troops or even take down larger enemies like Bugbears or Trolls.
Cost: 10 Gold, 1 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 3 Food
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 7
Defence: 12
Health: 10
Speed: 4
Morale: +4
Special Abilities: Animosity[/ic]
[ic=Ogre Brute (Requires: Ogre Den)]Ogres are thought by some to be the primitive ancestors of Orcs, by others to be more closely related to the Giants of the Surface world. Whatever the case, they often ally themselves with Orc forces, sending club-wielding brutes into battle alongside ravenous Orc forces. Ogres are somewhat slow and lumbering and lack the extremity of Orcish bloodlust, but they more than make up for their ponderousness with pure strength.
Cost: 20 Gold
Upkeep: 3 Gold, 5 Food
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 10
Defence: 16
Health: 15
Speed: 3
Morale: +4
Special Abilities: Large[/ic]
[ic=Ogre Rock-Hurler (Requires: Ogre Den)]Ogre rock-hurlers are simply ogres that lob boulders rather than wielding clubs in melee.
Cost: 20 Gold
Upkeep: 3 Gold, 5 Food
Ranged Attack: +4
Ranged Damage: 6
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 4
Defence: 15
Health: 15
Speed: 3
Morale: +4
Special Abilities: Large[/ic]
[ic=Orc Wyvern Rider (Requires: Wyvern Roost)]Wyverns are terrifying dragon-like creatures with barbed, venomous tails. Orcs, being a race of reckless, bloodthirsty lunatics, decided it would be a good idea to ride these creatures into battle.
Cost: 20 Gold, 5 Metal
Upkeep: 5 Gold, 6 Food
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 8
Defence: 16
Health: 15
Speed: 8
Morale: +4
Special Abilities: Animosity, Flyer, Cavalry, Large, Poison 2[/ic]
[ic=Ettin (Requires: Ettin Lair)]Ettins are a particularly malignant sub-breed of Ogres with two heads. They can be bribed to join Orc armies with promises of food and shiny objects.
Cost: 45 Gold
Upkeep: 5 Gold, 5 Food
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 15
Defence: 16
Health: 60
Speed: 3
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Double-Headed, Large[/ic]
[ic=Battering Ram (Requires: Siege Pavilion)]A hundred feet of wood and metal in the semblance of a glowering warthog's head, wreathed in flames!
Cost: 75 Gold, 10 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Metal
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 60
Defence: 20
Health: 50
Speed: 1
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Construct, Huge
The Battering Ram must be carried by at least six Orcs or four Ogres. It can only be employed in attacks on gates and doors, but if the attack is successful, other Orc troops can enter the Dungeon immediately. Those carrying the Battering Ram forfeit their attacks for the round.[/ic]
[ic=Orc Shaman (Requires: Shrine to Old One-Eye)]The gibbering, ululating, half-mad Orc shamans revere a grotesque battle-god, Old One-Eye. They are quite useful in battle, able to hex enemies, whip allies into a frenzy, and scry on enemy troop movements.
Cost: 50 Gold
Upkeep: 8 Gold, 3 Food
Ranged Attack: +6
Ranged Damage: 4
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 14
Health: 15
Speed: 4
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Detector, Frenzy, Hex, Scry, Animosity[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Warlord's Tent]This large pavilion of stitched humanoid hides is the personal war-tent of an Orc general. Here an Orc warlord devises battle plans while drinking the blood of enemies from bone cups and feasting on the flesh of his foes. This structure has no cost and follows the Warlord wherever he travels, only being destroyed if the Warlord is slain. If it stationed at a Dungeon that Dungeon effectively becomes the Orc capitol. The Warlord's tent alone does not count as a "Dungeon" for purposes of defence.
Benefit: An army with a Warlord's tent traveling with it or garrisoned with it can re-roll failed Animosity morale checks once per week.[/ic]
[ic=Mushroom Garden (Unlimited)]Orcs sometimes cultivate mushroom gardens, though they have little enthusiasm for fungi unless they're the squealing, pleading semi-humanoid kind.
Cost: 10 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: A mushroom garden produces 5 Food per week. If mushrooms are the only food available to Orcs, they suffer a -1 Morale penalty until they get better food.[/ic]
[ic=Bloodcap Patch]Bloodcaps are a type of fungus which whips Orcs into a permanent frenzy, but deals harrowing damage to them later. Sometimes, Orcs cultivate Bloodcaps to use as battle drugs.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequisites: Mushroom Garden
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Any unit garrisoned in a Stronghold with a Bloodcap patch can choose to eat the toadstool and become Frenzied (+2 Damage, passes all morale checks automatically, -2 Defence) and gain +1 Speed for 2 weeks. At the end of the 2 week period the unit's Health is reduced by half (rounding down) for 1 week.[/ic]
[ic=Blackroot Patch]An even more potent version of Bloodcaps, Blackroot fungi are always lethal, but they impart temporary strength and agility unmatched. Some particularly insane Orcs have been known to consume Blackroot fungi as a test of their fortitude. Almost all of them die, but they often kill impressive numbers of enemies before they do so...
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequisites: Bloodcap Patch
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Any unit garrisoned in a Stronghold with a Blackroot patch can choose to eat the toadstool and become Frenzied (+2 Damage, passes all morale checks automatically, -2 Defence) and gain +10 Health and +2 Speed for 4 weeks. At the end of the 4 week period the unit rolls 1d20 and dies on anything but a natural 20.[/ic]
[ic=Warthog Pen (Unlimited)]Though Orcs are omnivores, they prefer the taste of meat. Many Orc settlements include warthog pens where overgrown cave-pigs are reared for food. The warthogs are also used for milk.
Cost: 40 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: A warthog pen produces 35 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Slave Pit]Here, slaves taken on Surface raids and prisoners from enemy Dungeons are kept, auctioned off for food or as labourers. Orc Warlords take a cut from every transaction.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Slaves and prisoners can be sold at the Slave Pit for 2 Gold each, or converted into 2 Food each instead. You can also buy slaves for 2 Gold each, if you wish. Such slaves are fed on scraps and gruel and do not have an Upkeep cost.[/ic]
[ic=Bat Roost]This cavern is filled with messenger bats, allowing for relatively rapid communication.
Cost: 50 Gold, 20 Food
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: An Orc Warlord garrisoned at a Dungeon with a Bat Roost can send an additional message per week per player.[/ic]
[ic=Orc Mine]Orcs mine very little, and when they do they employ slaves. They prefer to capture the mines of others, especially Dwarves. Unlike most other races Orcs can never upgrade their mines.
Cost: 150 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You mine up to 150 Gold and up to 15 Metal per week, provided your Dungeon is built over a suitable deposit. You can only have a single mine per deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Fighting Pit (Limit 1)]The fighting pit is nothing more than a crude hole in the ground lined with sharpened stakes. Orcs descend into the pit to work out their aggressions, to the delight of their fellows.
Cost: 15 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: Orcs garrisoned at a Stronghold with a fighting pit gain +1 on Morale check to quell their Animosity.[/ic]
[ic=Arena (Limit 1, counts as Fighting Pit)]A grander, more elaborate fighting pit, the arena is a formal structure of wood and stone where Orcs fight each other, captive slaves, and wild beasts. Extremely entertaining, the spectacle of the arena keeps Orcs relatively contented.
Cost: 50 Gold, 5 Metal
Prerequisite: Fighting Pit (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: Orcs garrisoned at a Stronghold with an arena gain +4 on Morale check to quell their Animosity.[/ic]
[ic=War Camp]The war camp is a collection of hide tents and campfires where Orcs sit around brawling, eating, training, rutting, defecating, and otherwise being Orcs. It forms the filthy, stinking, primal heart of any Orc settlement.
Cost: 40 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Orc Raiders, Orc Axe-Throwers, and Orc Berserkers. The war camp is a "mobile room" which can be transported with an army; so long as members of the army survive the war camp travels with them, but if they are wiped out it is destroyed. The war camp alone does not count as a "Dungeon" for purposes of defence, capturing a Dungeon, etc. Other mobile rooms like the armoury tent, drilling pavilion, and siege pavilion can be constructed in the field, so long as a war camp is present.[/ic]
[ic=Armoury Tent]This tent contains spare weapons – axes, swords, spears, and whatever the Orcs have stolen on raids. Here Orc warriors can quickly equip themselves for battle.
Cost: 25 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: War Camp
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: You can convert Orc Raiders into Orc Axe-Throwers and vice versa. Like the war camp and Warlord's tent the armoury tent can be transported with an Orc army.[/ic]
[ic=Drilling Pavilion]This pavilion is set aside for drills and training. Orcs who train here sometimes manage to obtain a limited measure of discipline, though it rarely sticks for long.
Cost: 25 Gold
Prerequisites: War Camp, Warlord's Tent
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: Units garrisoned in a Stronghold with a drilling pavilion temporarily gain the Discipline ability. Like the war camp and Warlord's tent the drilling pavilion can be transported with an Orc army, imparting the Discipline ability to that army. Note that the Discipline ability has no effect on Animosity. If an Orc unit leaves the Stronghold or mobile camp with the pavilion, he loses the Discipline ability.[/ic]
[ic=Ogre Den]This series of caves are a mixture of living space, cesspit, and cooking area for tribes of Ogres allied with Orc bands.
Cost: 100 Gold
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Ogre Brutes and Ogre Rock-Hurlers.[/ic]
[ic=Wyvern Roost]These caverns tend to be especially large, with cliffs where Wyverns can make their nests. Orc beast-tenders keep the caverns, raising Wyvern young and keeping some of the eggs for food.
Cost: 125 Gold, 10 Metal
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Orc Wyvern Riders. In addition, the Wyvern roost produces 10 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Ettin Lair]The Ettin Lair is simply an enlargement of the Ogre Den, a particularly large cavern hollowed out for an Ettin's use.
Cost: 125 Gold
Prerequisites: Ogre Den
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Ettins.[/ic]
[ic=Siege Pavilion]Battering-rams are assembled at the siege pavilion, a huge tent filled with tools, scaffolding, and crudely scrawled blueprints.
Cost: 150 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: War Camp
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: You can construct Battering Rams. Like the war camp and Warlord's tent the armoury tent can be transported with an Orc army.[/ic]
[ic=Shrine to Old One-Eye]This dim cavern reeks of incense, spores, blood, and burnt flesh. A grim, fire-blackened altar to the maimed Orc deity dominates the chamber, flanking by a pair of smouldering braziers that fill the room with greasy smoke. Strange echoes and guttural chants fill the room at all times.
Cost: 150 Gold
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Orc Shamans. While garrisoned in a Stronghold with a Shrine to Old One-Eye, Shamans can use their Scry ability twice per week instead of once per week. In addition, garrisoned Orcs who pray at the Shrine to Old One-Eye gain +1 to Morale for 1 week. Any units suffering from disease are cured, and return to full health.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=Palisade (Limit 1)]This crude palisade of sharpened stakes protects Orc Strongholds from attackers, with a single gate allowing entrance and exit.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Defence: 20
Health: 30[/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Defenders who fail their morale checks within a Dungeon can withdraw or flee to the nearest neighboring territory instead of surrendering.[/ic]
[ic=Spiked Moat (Limit 1)]This simple trench is filled with spikes, deterring invaders. Ranged units can assail enemies from behind the moat.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: -2
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Ranged units can get off an extra volley of attacks if protected by a Spiked Moat, exactly as if they were being shielded by melee units. It takes attackers 1 round to circumvent the moat. The moat still functions as a trap – units can fall in accidentally. They must still breach any other Defences, such as a Palisade.[/ic]
[ic=Reinforced Gate (Limit 1)]This reinforced gate is strengthened with scrap metal.
Cost: 15 Gold, 5 Metal
Prerequisites: Palisade
Construction Time: 1 week
Defense: +5 to Palisade Defense.[/ic]
[ic=Pit Trap (Limit 3)]These poorly disguised pit traps rarely fool enemies, but every now and then a reckless Dwarf or blundering Goblin falls foul of one.
Cost: 15 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +3
Damage: 8[/ic]
[ic=Spiked Pit Trap (Limit 3, counts as Pit Trap)]A more vicious version of the pit trap, the spiked pit trap has long wooden stakes at the bottom to skewer those who fall in.
Cost: 5 Gold
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +4
Damage: 12[/ic]
[ic=Murder Holes (Limit 3)]These holes are bored in the roof of a cavern or passageway, allowing defenders to drop poisonous insects, starving rats, boiling water, pitch, or other unpleasant substances on attackers.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +5
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective.[/ic]
[ic=Rockfall Trap (Limit 1)]A simple tripwire activates this crude trap, which dumps boulders on attackers.
Cost: 35 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 20[/ic]
[ic=Hex Trap (Limit 1)]This cursed corridor has been scrawled with blood-glyphs sacred to Old One-Eye – woe be to those who pass through it!
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequsite: Shrine to Old One-Eye
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: Hexes all enemy units hit by the trap for the duration of the battle.[/ic]
[ic=Frenzy Totem (Limit 1)]This grisly, fetishistic totem, composed of teeth, bones, hair, and congealed blood, can be used to whip Orc defenders into a Frenzy.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequsite: Shrine to Old One-Eye
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Special Abilities: This totem can be used to Frenzy one defending regiment per battle.[/ic]
[ic=Detection Totem (Limit 1)]This grisly, fetishistic totem, composed out of decaying eyeballs removed from still-living sacrifices, is used to ward a Stronghold or Outpost against infiltrators and invisible foes.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequsite: Shrine to Old One-Eye
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Special Abilities: All units garrisoned in a Dungeon with a Detection Totem gain Detection while they remain there.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Undead]
Undead
Soundtrack (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=cWgswdsoSwo)
Alternate (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=pwIfUcjzUSI)
The Undead are not a native faction of the Underdeep, being rather the minions of the sinister Liches – mortals who, through twisted necromancy, have granted themselves shadowy immortality. Such creatures abhor daylight, and so many flee into the Underdeep, often using abandoned catacombs, barrows, and necropolises as their lairs. Here they raise their rotting hordes, sending Ghouls to the Surface world to exhume the corpses of the dead from graveyards in order to bolster their putrid armies. Many Liches seek to forge alliances with Dark Elves, Orcs, and other creatures who can supply them with additional bodies, though just as often the Undead prey on other races, adding the bodies of Goblins, Dwarves, and other humanoids to their shambolic forces.
Starting Dungeon: Undead players must always claim their first Necropolis in the Upperdeep. This Necropolis begins with a Lich's Study, a Tomb, 1 Bone Garden, and an Undead Mine. Additional rooms, traps, and defences can be purchased before play commences, with two weeks' construction already completed.
Starting Resources: Liches, being immortal, are often creatures of considerable means. Undead players begin the game with 800 Gold, 125 Metal, and 100 Bodies.
Undead: Undead units never have to make morale checks, fighting till destroyed or until they are victorious. They are unaffected by disease, poison, cold damage, psychic damage, or mind-affecting spells like Frenzy or Agony. Hexes, Curses, Detection, Shield, and other magical effects affect them normally. They can still be fooled by illusions. Non-regenerating Undead do not heal injuries.
Most Undead have no Upkeep. Those with Upkeep, however, do starve if not paid their Body Upkeep, having their Health lowered by 1 per week their Upkeep isn't paid until destroyed or until their Upkeep is paid in full, at which point they regain the Health they lost immediately. Regeneration and healing spells cannot reverse this effect.
Sunlight Vulnerability: Undead creatures cannot stand the touch of sunlight. While other troops suffer Morale penalties if exposed to the sun, Undead begin to deteriorate. For each full week that an Undead unit spends on the Surface it loses 1 Health. It immediately recovers this lost health if it returns underground. Units that reach 0 Health due to this deterioration are destroyed completely. Regeneration and healing spells have no effect on sunlight-damage. Liches killed by sunlight still revivify with their Phylacteries.
Haunted: Undead Dungeons are haunted. If the Undead's starting Dungeon is captured by enemies, troops stationed there suffer a -2 penalty to Morale and Defence while garrisoned. This does not apply to other Dungeons captured by the Undead, unless the Undead built new rooms (crypts, barrows, catacombs, etc) there.
Units
[ic=Lich]Liches are mortal spellcasters who have transcended life and death, becoming Undead. Appearing as horrific, near-skeletal beings, usually shrouded in dark robes, Liches loathe the touch of sunlight and thus often make their lairs in the Upperdeep, near Surface graveyards that they can rob of bodies to fuel their twisted necromantic experiments.
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 8
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 18
Health: 20
Speed: 4
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Detector, Fear (DC 20), Curse, Leadership, Necromantic Healing, Phylactery, Undead
The Lich increases the Health and Speed of any army it is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon it increases the Health and Defence of garrisoned troops by +1.
In addition, the Lich can recruit Zombies, Skeletal Warriors, and Skeletal Archers in the field rather than at a Dungeon, provided the requisite Gold and Bodies are provided; he doesn't need a Tomb to do so (a Tomb simply lets the Undead player recruit those troops without the Lich being present). The Lich cannot recruit other Undead units in the field.
All Liches have a special item known as a Phylactery, containing its soul. The Phylactery can be placed in any Dungeon or carried with the Lich. If the Lich is ever destroyed, its body reforms at the Phylactery's location in 1 week's time. Destroying the Phylactery, however, permanently destroys the Lich, wherever it may be, so most Liches keep their Phylacteries in especially secure locations.
If a Lich - and any other Liches or Necromancers in its service - is permanently destroyed, all Undead under its control instantly become wandering monsters. Zombies, Skeletal Warriors, and Skeletal Archers simply collapse, dying instantly.[/ic]
[ic=Zombie (Requires: Tomb)]Decomposing, maggot-ridden, shambling, near-mindless automatons, Zombies are putrescent puppets, the shuffling, rancid, worm-eaten infantry of the Undead army. When Zombies fall in battle, Liches simple reanimate them later, adding the cadavers of fallen enemies to their ranks as well. Zombies are too clumsy to be equipped with anything save clubs and spears, though many fight only with their nails and teeth, spreading disease through enemy ranks.
Zombies that survive for 8 weeks automatically decompose to become Skeleton Warriors.
Cost: 10 Gold, 1 Body
Upkeep: None
Melee Attack: +1
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 14
Health: 8
Speed: 2
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 10), Disease 2, Undead[/ic]
[ic=Skeletal Warrior (Requires: Tomb)]Zombies that decompose completely become skeletons, held together only with rotting sinews and necromantic wizardry. Though fleshless and thus more fragile, skeletal warriors make up for their vulnerability with increased speed. Skeletons are armed and armoured much the same as zombies.
Cost: 10 Gold, 1 Body
Upkeep: None
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 14
Health: 6
Speed: 3
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 10), Undead[/ic]
[ic=Skeletal Archer (Requires: Tomb)]Skeletal archers may not be the best shots in the Underdeep, but when massed four ranks thick they can prove deadly enough.
Cost: 10 Gold, 1 Metal, 1 Body
Upkeep: None
Ranged Attack: +2
Ranged Damage: 2
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 14
Health: 6
Speed: 3
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 10), Undead[/ic]
[ic=Ghoul (Requires: Catacomb)]Unlike Zombies, Ghouls retain a shred of sentience, though this manifests almost purely as wretched, voracious hunger for carrion – also unlike Zombies, Ghouls must feed, devouring rotting flesh. Ghouls can also be created by Ghasts, partially-eaten corpses rising from the dead. Ghouls also spread terrible fever amongst foes, so even if they fall in combat, they can still damage their enemies.
Cost: 15 Gold, 1 Body
Upkeep: 1 Body
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 16
Health: 8
Speed: 4
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 12), Diseased (5), Scout, Undead[/ic]
[ic=Ghast (Requires: Catacomb)]Ghasts are essentially more powerful Ghouls; those they slay in combat, and those that from the sickness they spread, rise as Ghouls.
Cost: 25 Gold, 1 Body
Upkeep: 2 Bodies
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 8
Defence: 18
Health: 12
Speed: 4
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 14), Create Spawn (Ghouls), Diseased (8), Undead[/ic]
[ic=Wight (Requires: Barrow)]Wights are terrifying armoured warriors, the remains of dead heroes clad in armour and equipped with two-handed blades. Those slain by Wights rise as zombies, gruesome retainers for the unliving noblemen.
Cost: 30 Gold, 8 Metal, 1 Body
Upkeep: None
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 20
Health: 14
Speed: 2
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Create Spawn (Zombies), Fear (DC 16)[/ic]
[ic=Death Knight (Requires: Sepulchre)]Death Knights are mounted Wights, dread riders whose putrid steeds writhe with worms. Death Knights are amongst the most powerful cavalry in the Underdeep, leaving a wake of destruction in their wake; those slain during such rampages later rise as zombies.
Cost: 50 Gold, 12 Metal, 2 Bodies
Upkeep: None
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 10
Defence: 20
Health: 25
Speed: 5
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Cavalry, Create Spawn (Zombies), Fear (DC 18), Undead[/ic]
[ic=Vampire (Requires: Crypt)]Stealthy, nigh-invulnerable, and terrifying, Vampires are amongst the most powerful Undead creatures, though their lust for blood is insatiable. Vampires sometimes fight with blades, but their claws and teeth are often just as effective. A small band of Vampires can decimate much larger forces, leaping from warrior to warrior in a blur of blood.
Cost: 75 Gold, 5 Metal, 1 Body
Upkeep: 7 Bodies
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 12
Defence: 20
Health: 30
Speed: 4
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 20), Regeneration 15, Infiltrator, Undead, Vulnerability (Fire)
Vampires cannot cross running water, even over bridges. Vampires can also never endure sunlight – if they spend more than 1 turn on the Surface, they are instantly destroyed.[/ic]
[ic=Zombie Dragon (Requires: Bonehoard)]These truly monstrous Undead beings can only be created from the corpse of a dead Dragon. Dragons are rare and extremely difficult to kill, but if successfully reanimated they are extraordinarily powerful foes, decimating enemy forces with withering black fire-breath, bony claws, and snapping teeth.
Cost: 200 Gold, 1 Dragon Body
Upkeep: 15 Bodies
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 20
Melee Attack: +15
Melee Damage: 30
Defence: 22
Health: 150
Speed: 7
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 22), Flying, Huge, Undead
Zombie Dragons breathe whatever form of breath weapon they possessed in life and also possess the corresponding immunities.[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Lich's Study]The Lich's study is filled with macabre artefacts, scrolls, partially completed projects, and various magical apparatus. This chamber has no cost, and is located in the Undead capitol.
Benefit: The Lich can use the study to research new spells. Each spell takes 3 weeks to research; at the end of the week, he acquires the new spell permanently (only one spell can be researched at once). He can research any of the following spells: Dispel, Invisibility, Mindlink, Obfuscating Shroud, Shield, Ward. A Lich must be garrisoned in the Necropolis with the Lich's Study to perform research.[/ic]
[ic=Scrying Chamber]Attached to the Lich's study, the scrying chamber has walls and floor graven with mystic symbols, and a throne built of bones carved with divinatory sigils. While seated on the throne the Lich can scry far-flung locations.
Cost: 150 Gold
Prerequisites: Lich's Study
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: The Lich gains the Scry spell. When garrisoned in a Necropolis with a scrying chamber, he can use it twice per week instead of only once per week.[/ic]
[ic=Arcane Library]This subterranean library is filled with eldritch grimoires and magical texts.
Cost: 200 Gold
Prerequisites: Lich's Study
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: The Arcane Library reduces research times to 1 week per spell and adds the following possible spells for research: Agony, Distraction, Haste, Hex, Poisonous Cloud, Rune Trap, and Illusory Duplicate.[/ic]
[ic=Necromantic Laboratory]This extensive workshop contains various tools and magical instruments for the reanimation of the dead. The walls are adorned with anatomical diagrams and eldritch formulae, while the central bulk of the laboratory is given over to slab-like tables where the dead await revivification.
Cost: 100 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Arcane Library
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Zombies, Skeletal Warriors, and Skeletal Archers have their costs reduced to 8 Gold and 1 Body (Archers still cost 1 Metal as well).[/ic]
[ic=Teleportation Circle (Unlimited)]This chamber contains a magical circle linked to a matching chamber in a different location. When activated, it instantly transports all those standing within the circle to the matching location.
Cost: 75 Gold
Prerequisites: Arcane Library
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Teleportation Circles must be built in pairs to function (though they need not be built at the same time). Once per week, the Circles can be activated, transporting up to 50 units between locations. Teleportation Circles are always linked in pairs: a group of three Circles, for example, cannot be linked, though multiple pairs of Circles can be constructed. If a Teleportation Circle hasn't been used and troops wish to withdraw from a Dungeon under attack, it can be used to do so.
Note: although an Arcane Library is required to create the Teleportation Circle, it need not be physically present in all Dungeons with a Circle, only one of them. If the Necropolis containing the Library is lost, however, new Circles cannot be inscribed.[/ic]
[ic=Embalming Chamber]This room reeks of alchemical preservatives and reagents. Here corpses are carefully embalmed, their organs removed and their skins stitched up by zombie attendants before being reanimated.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Zombies recruited at a Necropolis with an embalming chamber don't decay into Skeletal Warriors. Alternatively, you can use the Embalming Chamber to immediately convert garrisoned Zombies into Skeletal Warriors.[/ic]
[ic=Dark Shrine]This profane shrine, dedicated to blasphemous death-gods or similar malignant powers of darkness, is the personal place of worship for a Lich. Here the twisted creature performs unholy rites, beseeching deities of carrion and disease for aid.
Cost: 75 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: A Lich who prays at a Dark Shrine gains +1 to Attack, Health, and Speed. These benefits remain for 2 weeks.[/ic]
[ic=Bone Garden (Unlimited)]Bone Gardens are chambers dug very close to the Surface, beneath graveyards and old battlefields. Zombie labourers dig through the muck of the roof to unearth corpses for use in necromantic rituals.
Cost: 100 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A bone garden produces 20 Bodies per week, provided your Dungeon is built under a suitable deposit. Unlike mines, you can have multiple Bone Gardens.[/ic]
[ic=Boneyard (Limit 1)]This repository of corpses provides a reserve of bones and rotting flesh to fuel a Lich's experiments.
Cost: 150 Gold
Prerequisites: 5 Bone Gardens
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A boneyard produces 50 additional Bodies per week, provided your Dungeon is built under a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Undead Mine]Zombies and skeletons work the mines of the undead, lightless passages filled with the sound of pickaxes.
Cost: 175 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You mine up to 175 Gold and up to 15 Metal per week, provided your Dungeon is built over a suitable deposit. You can only have a single mine per deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Improved Undead Mine]The addition of rail-carts and other mining equipment improves the efficiency of a mine appreciably. Even zombies can learn how to operate basic mining equipment.
Cost: 225 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Undead Mine (replaces)
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 300 Gold and 25 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Undead Mine Complex]This extremely extensive mine is a sprawling maze of passageways where skeletal miners dig ever deeper.
Cost: 300 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Improved Undead Mine (replaces)
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 400 Gold and 50 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Secret Chamber]This chamber is used to store a Lich's Phylactery. It remains undetected unless the enemy has a Detector, even if the Necropolis containing the chamber is conquered.
Cost: 50 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Only a Detector can find the secret chamber, in which a Phyalctery can be placed; up to normal-sized 4 units can be placed in the chamber as well, if desired. If a Lich revives in the secret chamber while enemies occupy the Dungeon, he has several choices. If the Dungeon contains an active Teleportation Circle or an escape tunnel he can use either to immediately withdraw to friendly territory (with or without his Phylactery). He can remain in the chamber while awaiting friendly troops to retake the Necropolis (in which case he can choose to participate in the attack if he wishes). Or he can immediately choose to attack garrisoned troops, using any units hidden in the secret chamber with him.[/ic]
[ic=Skeleton Armoury]This armoury is filled with spare weapons with which Skeletons can equip themselves.
Cost: 25 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: Skeletal Warriors can be converted into Skeletal Archers for 1 Metal. Skeletal Archers can be converted into Skeletal Warriors as well, in which case the Undead player gains 1 Metal.[/ic]
[ic=Tomb]All Undead Dungeons tend to include vast networks of tombs, warrens of musty passageways that stink of rotting flesh. Here zombies and skeletons await orders, lying in carved niches or stone sarcophagi until called upon.
Cost: 50 Gold, 5 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Zombies, Skeletal Warriors, and Skeletal Archers.[/ic]
[ic=Catacomb]These musty catacombs absolutely reek of carrion, their halls strewn with gnawed bones and half-eaten corpses. Ghouls and Ghasts nest here, gorging themselves with cadaverous feasts.
Cost: 100 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Ghouls and Ghasts.[/ic]
[ic=Barrow]These earthen chambers are often filled with funerary goods and other relics. Here Wights await their orders, cold white hands gripping dark blades...
Cost: 75 Gold, 25 Metal
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Wights.[/ic]
[ic=Sepulchre]The sepulchre is an ornate series of chambers fit for true nobility. Death Knights lurk in the baroque darkness, their unliving eyes glimmering red, their black hearts full of ancient malice.
Cost: 100 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Barrow
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Death Knights.[/ic]
[ic=Crypt]This ostentatious crypt is a Vampire lair, filled with coffins of grave-earth and fine silver goblets brimming with blood. Strange shadows flicker about the crypt, and beguiling voices seem to echo from the gloom.
Cost: 150 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Catacomb
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Vampires.[/ic]
[ic=Bonehoard]This vast nest of bones is piled high and deep, in macabre parody of a Dragon's hoard. Something immense groans hungrily in the blackness, and you hear the beating of leathery wings.
Cost: 250 Gold, 100 Bodies
Prerequisites: Boneyard
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Zombie Dragons.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=Outer Wall (Limit 1)]This thick stone fortification provides an extra measure of protection to a Necropolis.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Defence: 22
Health: 40[/ic]
[ic=Reinforced Walls (Limit 1)]These reinforced walls help to deter enemy sappers.
Cost: 100 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Enemy tunnelers take twice as much time to tunnel into a Dungeon with reinforced walls.[/ic]
[ic=Zombie Wall (Limit 1)]This wall is made out of reanimated corpses. You can only build a Zombie Wall if you do not already have an Outer Wall - you cannot have both.
Cost: 20 Golb, 50 Bodies
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +2
Damage: 10
Defence: 14
Health: 100
Special Abilities: Disease 2[/ic]
[ic=Iron Gate (Limit 1)]This reinforced, iron gate is extremely thick and difficult to breach. Slits allow ranged defenders to assail enemies attacking the gate.
Cost: 30 Gold, 20 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Defence: 22
Health: 50[/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]This sally-port allows Undead to withdraw from their Necropolis.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: While Undead never fail morale checks or surrender, they may still wish to withdraw to abandon a Dungeon, and can use an escape tunnel to do so.[/ic]
[ic=Pit Trap (Limit 3)]These pit traps are slightly better-designed than most, and are relatively well-hidden.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 8[/ic]
[ic=Spiked Pit Trap (Limit 3, counts as Pit Trap)]A more vicious version of the pit trap, the spiked pit trap has long wooden stakes at the bottom to skewer those who fall in.
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 12[/ic]
[ic=Murder Holes (Limit 3)]These holes are bored in the roof of a cavern or passageway, allowing defenders to drop poisonous insects, starving rats, boiling water, pitch, or other unpleasant substances on attackers.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +5
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective. [/ic]
[ic=Spiked Moat (Limit 1)]This simple trench is filled with spikes, deterring invaders. Ranged units can assail enemies from behind the moat.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: -2
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Ranged units can get off an extra volley of attacks if protected by a Spiked Moat, exactly as if they were being shielded by melee units. It takes attackers 1 round to circumvent the moat. The moat still functions as a trap – units can fall in accidentally. They must still breach any other Defences, such as an Outer Wall.[/ic]
[ic=Scarecrows (Limit 1)]Nothing quite demoralizes enemy attackers like the sight of mutilated corpses suspended from chains, dangling from the cavern ceiling.
Cost: 5 Gold, 5 Bodies
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 15). Each attacking regiment must pass the morale check or suffer -2 to hit in the coming battle.[/ic]
[ic=Miasma (Limit 1)]This bank of pestilential fog makes besieging a Necropolis difficult, to say the least.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequisites: Catacomb
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Special Abilities: Attackers or enemies besieging the Necropolis or Outpost all contract a Disease of potency 3. All mushrooms in the Necropolis' Cavern or Outpost's Corridor become grey and etiolated, making them useless for Food, and Fungoids cannot hide in them.[/ic]
[ic=Glyph Trap (Limit 4)]This glyph is scrawled on a wall in blood. It activates only when disturbed by the living. A Glyph Trap must be inscribed by a Lich.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +10
Damage: Choose one offensive spell your Lich knows, such as Curse, Agony, Hex, or even Dispel. This spell is activated if the trap hits. A trap glyph that is activated cannot be reset.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Dark Elves]
Dark Elves
Soundtrack (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=4M-MRb_YOpE)
Alternate (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=kO_9wPHkhpo)
Graceful. Arrogant. Elegant. Subtle. Sublimely patient. Immeasurably cruel. Preternaturally beautiful. Utterly monstrous. All of these describe the Dark Elves: a race apart from their Surface kindred, banished to the Underdeep, known to Elf-kind as the Evergloom or the Night Unending. The Dark Elves turned from the harmonious ways of their brethren in pursuit of black and unwholesome delights, a pursuit that led them to fall from Elven grace. Perverse in the extreme, Dark Elven culture is a bizarre, horrifying mixture of decadent aestheticism and draconian theocracy. Ruthlessly matriarchal and stiflingly religious, the Dark Elves live by an intricate code of twisted honour, though many violate their own sacred precepts readily enough in the interests of power, profit, or pleasure. A conniving race, they are renowned for their assassins, for their use of poison, and for their affinity with the bloated, gigantic spiders that throng the Middledeep.
Starting Dungeon: Dark Elf players must always claim their first City in the Middledeep. This City begins with a Matriarch's Spire, Slave Pens, War Spire, 1 Lichen Garden, and a Dark Elf Mine.
Starting Resources: Dark Elves are a wealthy and patient race, though they are licentious and decadent as well. Dark Elf players begin the game with 800 Gold, 250 Metal, and 200 Food.
Slavers: Dark Elves are notorious slavers. When attacking a fleeing unit, any casualties they inflict can be taken as slaves instead of being killed. If transported back to a Dark Elf City slaves can be sold for 2 Gold each provided the City possesses a Slave Market. If enemy units defeat a Dark Elf army transporting slaves, those slaves can be liberated if they wish.
Sacrifice: Dark Elves are a religious people who make live sacrifices to their dark gods. Before a battle, Dark Elves can choose to sacrifice slaves or even their own units. For every 5 units they sacrifice all units in the army gain +1 to Defence and Morale in the ensuing battle, to a maximum of +4 Defence and Morale. Dark Elves cannot make such sacrifices if being ambushed or sneak attacked, obviously.
Dazzled: Dark Elves are easily dazzled by bright light. They suffer double the morale penalties for sunlight.
Units
[ic=Dark Elf Matriarch]Dark Elf Matriarchs are immeasurably cruel, brilliant, and skilled in dark magic, being zealous devotees to the pantheon of shadowy gods the Dark Elves revere. They are exceptional tacticians, inspiring a mixture of fear and worshipful awe in their troops and subjects. In battle they prefer to fight with spells rather than weapons, though if pressed they are competent enough with blades.
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 8
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 20
Health: 18
Speed: 6
Morale: +7
Special Abilities: Agony, Detector Leadership, Ward
The Dark Elf Matriarch increases the Speed and Morale of any army she is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon she increases the Defence and Morale of garrisoned troops by +1.
If either the Web Caverns or a Drake Nest has been constructed, a Dark Elf Matriarch can be mounted on a giant spider or Drake. If mounted on a spider she gains the Cavalry ability, +1 Speed, +2 Defence, and +4 Health, Climbing, and Poison 2; if mounted on a Drake she gains the Cavalry and Flying abilities and gains +2 Speed, +2 Defence, and +7 Health. She can only join regiments of Dark Elf Spider Cavalry or Drake Riders, according to her choice. Mounting the Matriarch costs 20 Gold and 2 Metal for a spider and 25 Gold and 5 Metal for a Drake (no Upkeep costs, however). [/ic]
[ic=Slave Soldier (Requires: Slave Pens)]Slave soldiers are the expendable masses of the Dark Elf army. Often a handful of these bedraggled unfortunates – a haphazard mix of toplanders, Dwarves, Goblins, and Kobolds, generally – end up sacrificed before battle is joined, to invoke the blessing of tenebrous gods. Slave Soldiers are typically armed with spears and shields and armoured in leather.
Cost: 5 Gold
Upkeep: 1 Food
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 14
Health: 4
Speed: 4
Morale: +0
Special Abilities: Slave Soldiers must always be accompanied by at least 1 non-slave unit; otherwise, they immediately desert, often turning to banditry.[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Swordsman (Requires: War Spire)]Elegant, preternaturally dextrous, uncannily graceful, and consummately deadly, Dark Elf swordsmen wield long, two-handed blades, slightly curved and sometimes serrated, and are armoured in studded leather with rather ornate but still effective spiked metal bracers, greaves, helms, and pauldrons.
Cost: 12 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 1 Food
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 7
Defence: 16
Health: 7
Speed: 5
Morale: +2[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Crossbowman (Requires: War Spire)]The Dark Elf ranged weapon of choice is the crossbow, with which they are quite adept. Dark Elf crossbows are generally made mostly of metal, with wood being employed sparingly.
Cost: 12 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +5
Ranged Damage: 3
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 15
Health: 7
Speed: 5
Morale: +2[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Spider Cavalry (Requires: Web Caverns)]Scuttling over enemy fortifications in disgusting, hairy clutches, Dark Elf spider-riders wield spears and swords, and their mounts are extremely poisonous. The spiders themselves are bred specially in vast caverns covered in webbing.
Cost: 20 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 5 Gold, 3 Food
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 8
Defence: 16
Health: 12
Speed: 6
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Cavalry, Climbing, Poison 2[/ic]
[ic=War Spider (Requires: Web Caverns)]Even larger and more formidable than the fearsome spiders ridden by Dark Elf spider cavalry, these massive arachnids are trained from hatching for war. Their poison is often lethal and they often terrify enemy troops, but their appetites are voracious, making them an expensive investment for a Dark Elf general.
Cost: 35 Gold
Upkeep: 7 Food
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 10
Defence: 18
Health: 40
Speed: 6
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Climbing, Fear (DC 18), Large, Poison 6, Vermin
War Spiders must always be accompanied by at least 1 non-slave unit; otherwise, they immediately desert and become wandering monsters until they encounter other Dark Elf units (of any player) at which point they join those units.[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Drake Rider (Requires: Drake Nest)]Riding horrible black cave-wyrms bred for warfare, Dark Elf drake riders are principally ranged warriors, wielding crossbows in battle, though they also carry spears or long blades in case they need to engage in melee.
Cost: 25 Gold, 5 Metal
Upkeep: 6 Gold, 4 Food
Ranged Attack: +5
Ranged Damage: 4
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 18
Health: 15
Speed: 8
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Cavalry, Flyer, Large[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Ranger (Requires: Rangers' Spire)]Rangers are the elite scouts and snipers of the Dark Elf army, able to move silent as shadows through the endless gloom of the Underdeep. They are typically very lightly armoured, but they are both skilled swordsmen and archers.
Cost: 25 Gold
Upkeep: 8 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +6
Ranged Damage: 5
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 4
Defence: 15
Health: 8
Speed: 5
Morale: +4
Special Abilities: Infiltrator, Scout[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Assassin (Requires: Assassins' Spire)]Dark Elf assassins are infamous throughout the Underdeep, renowned for their ability to sneak inside enemy fortifications and dispatch enemy leaders. Assassins favour knives and slender blades coated in poison culled from the sacs of gigantic spiders.
Cost: 40 Gold
Upkeep: 15 Gold, 1 Food
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 15
Defence: 20
Health: 15
Speed: 5
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Assassinate, Disarm Traps +3, Infiltrator, Poison 6[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Witch-Priestess (Requires: Temple Spire)]Sensual and impossibly cruel, the witch-priestesses of the Dark Elves are depraved, sybaritic mystics wholly dedicated to their malevolent gods, gods they honour through horrifying orgies of violence and debauchery. With their ability to weave an obfuscating gloom around friendly forces or to curse their enemies, witch-priestesses are a valuable asset on the battlefield.
Cost: 60 Gold
Upkeep: 13 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +8
Ranged Damage: 5
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 18
Health: 10
Speed: 5
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Detector, Curse, Bless, Obfuscating Shroud[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Matriarch's Spire]This ornate, ominous-looking spire is the personal tower of a Dark Elf Matriarch. From here the general plans battles and runs the Dark Elf city; a small army of servants attend to her every sadistic need here. This structure has no cost, and is located in the Dark Elf capitol.
Benefit: The sight of the spire strikes fear into the hearts of attackers. Anyone attacking the Dark Elf city must make a morale check (Difficulty Class 15) or suffer -2 to Attack.[/ic]
[ic=Matriarch's Harem]This perfumed chamber is stocked with only the purest bred Dark Elf concubines, both male and female, all of them marked with the idiosyncratic property-mutilations that identify them as the chattel of a Dark Elf Matriarch. Here the Dark Elf general amuses herself in-between schemes, coupling with her highborn slaves if her mood is contented or whipping them bloody if frustrated.
Cost: 35 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Prerequisites: Matriarch's Spire
Benefit: A Dark Elf Matriarch who avails herself of the harem gains +1 to Melee Attack and Morale for 1 week.[/ic]
[ic=Matriarch's Study]This study is a chamber in the Matriarch's Spire where she can expand her magical talents, filled with eldritch apparatus and unholy instruments.
Cost: 150 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Matriarch's Spire
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: The Matriarch can use the study to research new spells. Each spell takes 3 weeks to research; at the end of the week, she acquires the new spell permanently (only one spell can be researched at once). She can research any of the following spells: Curse, Dispel, Invisibility, Mindlink, Shield. A Matriarch must be garrisoned in the City with the Matriarch's study to perform research.[/ic]
[ic=Scrying Chamber]Attached to the Matriarch's Spire, the scrying chamber has walls and floor graven with mystic symbols, and a pool of blood (re-poured each day, to keep it fresh) in which the Matriarch can glimpse things that are, were, and may be.
Cost: 150 Gold
Prerequisites: Matriarch's Study
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: The Matriarch gains the Scry spell and becomes a Detector. When garrisoned in a City with a scrying chamber, she can use it twice per week instead of only once per week.[/ic]
[ic=Arcane Library]This subterranean library is filled with eldritch grimoires and magical texts.
Cost: 200 Gold
Prerequisites: Matriarch's Study
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: The Arcane Library reduces research times to 1 week per spell and adds the following possible spells for research: Distraction, Haste, Hex, Poisonous Cloud, Rune Trap, and Illusory Duplicate.[/ic]
[ic=Teleportation Circle (Unlimited)]This chamber contains a magical circle linked to a matching chamber in a different location. When activated, it instantly transports all those standing within the circle to the matching location.
Cost: 75 Gold
Prerequisites: Arcane Library
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Teleportation Circles must be built in pairs to function (though they need not be built at the same time). Once per week, the Circles can be activated, transporting up to 50 units between locations. Teleportation Circles are always linked in pairs: a group of three Circles, for example, cannot be linked, though multiple pairs of Circles can be constructed. If a Teleportation Circle hasn't been used and troops wish to withdraw from a Dungeon under attack, it can be used to do so.
Note: although an Arcane Library is required to create the Teleportation Circle, it need not be physically present in all Dungeons with a Circle, only one of them. If the City containing the Library is lost, however, new Circles cannot be inscribed.[/ic]
[ic=Lichen Garden (Unlimited)]Though they will eat fungi, Dark Elves prefer to consume a variety of purplish moss, which they are experts at cultivating.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A lichen garden produces 20 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Lizard Pen (Unlimited)]Dark Elf-reared cave-lizards are bred for their tender flesh. They also lay eggs which Dark Elves occasionally incorporate into their dishes.
Cost: 40 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: A lizard pen produces 35 Food per week. [/ic]
[ic=Spider Farm (Unlimited)]Dark Elves often eat spiders, either live or cooked. Spider farms are rambling underground complexes attached to the web-swathed caverns where war-spiders are kept.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequisites: Web Caverns
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A spider farm produces 45 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Torture Gardens]Ah, the torture gardens! The sounds, the smells, the hideous, unforgettable sights! The fountains that gurgle with crimson blood! The beauteous tableaux of mutilated flesh! The sublime chorus of screams! It's enough to make a Dark Elf weep with its vile beauty.
Cost: 35 Gold, 5 Metal
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Dark Elves garrisoned in a City with Torture Gardens gain +2 to Morale checks.[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Mine]Dark Elf Mines are always worked by non-Elf slaves, as Dark Elves themselves refuse to sully their fingers with dirt.
Cost: 175 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Slave Pens
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You mine up to 175 Gold and up to 15 Metal per week, provided your Dungeon is built over a suitable deposit. You can only have a single mine per deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Improved Dark Elf Mine]Technological improvements – often borrowed or stolen from Duergar – make this Dark Elf mine a bit more efficient. And if a few slaves get mangled in the complex machinery, well, at least the Dark Elf foremen are entertained.
Cost: 225 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Dark Elf Mine (replaces)
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 300 Gold and 25 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Mine Complex]This complex is an efficient network of tunnels tended to be experienced slaves, a few of whom may even be freedwomen, career-miners given a shred of liberty for a back-breaking lifetime's worth of service.
Cost: 300 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Improved Dark Elf Mine (replaces)
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 400 Gold and 50 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Slave Pens]These miserable, lightless pens are where Dark Elf slaves are kept, filthy, degrading dungeons where prisoners fight with one another in the endless black.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Slave Soldiers.[/ic]
[ic=Overseer's Chamber]Dark Elf Overseers are experts at conditioning slaves, using a variety of unsavoury techniques both physical and psychological to compel obedience. Properly conditioned, slaves never attempt escape – they simply know nothing else apart from loyalty and servitude.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequisites: Slave Pens
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Slave Soldiers recruited at a City with an Overseer's Chamber have the Discipline ability and no longer require constant supervision – they won't desert if on their own. Slave Soldiers garrisoned at a City with an Overseer's Chamber permanently acquire the Discipline ability and also never desert.[/ic]
[ic=Slave Market]Here, slaves taken on Surface raids and prisoners from enemy Dungeons are kept, auctioned off for food or as labourers. Dark Elf Matriarchs take a cut from every transaction.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Slaves and prisoners can be sold at the Slave Pit for 2 Gold each. Slave Soldiers can likewise be sold here for the same amount. You can also buy slaves for 2 Gold each, to be used as sacrifices. Such slaves are fed on scraps and gruel and do not have an Upkeep cost.[/ic]
[ic=War Spire]This grim, militant structure is the principle barracks and training facility for Dark Elf soldiers.
Cost: 75 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dark Elf Swordsmen and Dark Elf Crossbowmen.[/ic]
[ic=Taskmaster's Spire]Only marginally gentler than the Overseers of the slave pens, Dark Elf Taskmasters evoke discipline with the lash, and an array of psychological techniques bordering on torture.
Cost: 100 Gold
Prerequisites: War Spire
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: All Dark Elf units recruited at a City containing a Taskmaster's Spire except for Slave Soldiers, War Spiders, Matriarchs, and Witch-Priestesses acquire the Discipline ability. Such units garrisoned at a City containing a Taskmaster's Spire permanently acquire the Discipline ability.[/ic]
[ic=Armoury Spire]This tower is often attached directly to the war spire; it contains additional arms and armour for Dark Elves to swiftly equip themselves.
Cost: 40 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: War Spire
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Dark Elf Swordsmen can be converted into Dark Elf Crossbowmen and vice versa.[/ic]
[ic=Web Caverns]Often located beneath a Dark Elf City, these caverns are a web-swathed warren where foul, multitudinously limbed arachnids breed in vast numbers. The choicest of these monsters serve as mounts for Dark Elf warriors, or as war-beasts.
Cost: 150 Gold
Prerequisites: War Spire
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dark Elf Spider Cavalry and War Spiders.[/ic]
[ic=Drake Nest]In this dark spire, Drakes are lovingly fed the flesh of slaves until they are big enough to ride. The black Wyrms form immutable bonds of loyalty with their riders.
Cost: 125 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: War Spire
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dark Elf Drake Riders.[/ic]
[ic=Spidersilk Armoury]Only the Dark Elves know the secret ways of weaving spidersilk into a kind of flexible armour.
Cost: 200 Gold
Prerequisites: Web Caverns, Armoury Spire
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Dark Elf Swordsmen, Crossbowmen, Spider Cavalry, Drake Riders, Rangers, and Assassins recruited in a City with a Spidersilk Armoury all gain +1 Defence. Such units garrisoned in a City with a Spidersilk Armoury permanently gain +1 Defence.[/ic]
[ic=Poison Laboratory]The poison laboratory is a seething alchemical workshop where the venom of enormous arachnids is synthesized into convenient poisons.
Cost: 75 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Web Caverns
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Dark Elf Swordsmen, Crossbowmen, and Rangers recruited at a City with a Poison Laboratory gain Poison 1. Swordsmen, Crossbowmen, and Rangers garrisoned at said City also acquire this ability permanently.[/ic]
[ic=Rangers' Spire]The Rangers' Spire is an impressive, military-looking building crowned with spikes and monstrous statues, guarded by dark-eyed warriors with cold smiles and colder hearts.
Cost: 85 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: War Spire
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dark Elf Rangers.[/ic]
[ic=Assassins' Spire]The sinister Assassin's Spire seems cloaked in shadows; within lies a complex labyrinth of twisting halls, a maze of darkened passages that only the assassins themselves know how to navigate.
Cost: 100 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Poison Laboratory
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dark Elf Assassins.[/ic]
[ic=Temple Spire]The black halls of the Temple Spire echo with gasps and cries that could be unbearable of excruciation or unspeakable ecstasy, or, quite possibly, both at once. Here nude and tattooed witch-priestesses luxuriate in pools of blood or consume themselves in frenzied, hedonistic rites to the abominable deities of pain and pleasure they revere.
Cost: 150 Gold, 10 Metal
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dark Elf Witch-Priestesses. In addition, garrisoned Dark Elves who pray at the Temple Spire gain +1 to Morale for 1 week. Any units suffering from disease are cured, and return to full health.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=City Wall (Limit 1)]This thick stone fortification provides protection to a Dark Elf City.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Defence: 20
Health: 50[/ic]
[ic=Improved City Wall (Limit 1, counts as City Wall)]Additional battlements and scaffolding make the city wall even stronger.
Cost: 30 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: City Wall
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Defence: +5 to City Wall Defence and +10 to City Wall Health.[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Ballista (Limit 3)]This intricate ballista can be mounted atop the walls of a Dark Elf city. Though it rarely kills very many foes, it is extremely accurate.
Cost: 50 Gold, 20 Metal
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +12
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: A Dark Elf Ballista must be manned by two garrisoned units.[/ic]
[ic=Poisoned Dark Elf Ballista (Limit 3, counts as Ballista)]Dark Elves like to put poison in everything.
Cost: 15 Gold
Prerequisites: Dark Elf Ballista (replaces), Poison Laboratory
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +12
Damage: +4 Damage to Ballista
Special Abilities: A Dark Elf Ballista must be manned by two garrisoned units.[/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]This sally-port allows Dark Elves to escape their city.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Defenders who fail their morale checks within a Dark Elf City can withdraw or flee to the nearest neighbouring territory instead of surrendering.[/ic]
[ic=Pit Trap (Limit 3)]These pit traps are slightly better-designed than most, and are relatively well-hidden.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 8[/ic]
[ic=Spiked Pit Trap (Limit 3, counts as Pit Trap)]A more vicious version of the pit trap, the spiked pit trap has long wooden stakes at the bottom to skewer those who fall in.
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 12[/ic]
[ic=Poisonous Spiked Pit Trap (Limit 3, counts as Pit Trap)]The spikes on this pit trap are smeared with poison, Dark Elves being unfamiliar with the concept of "overkill."
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Spiked Pit Trap (replaces), Poison Laboratory
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Poison 4.[/ic]
[ic=Murder Holes (Limit 3)]These holes are bored in the roof of a cavern or passageway, allowing defenders to drop poisonous insects, starving rats, boiling water, pitch, or other unpleasant substances on attackers.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +5
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective. [/ic]
[ic=Spiked Moat (Limit 1)]This simple trench is filled with spikes, deterring invaders. Ranged units can assail enemies from behind the moat.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: -2
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Ranged units can get off an extra volley of attacks if protected by a Spiked Moat, exactly as if they were being shielded by melee units. It takes attackers 1 round to circumvent the moat. The moat still functions as a trap – units can fall in accidentally. They must still breach any other Defences, such as a City Wall.[/ic]
[ic=Poisonous Spiked Moat (Limit 1, counts as Spiked Moat]Spider venom has been smeared on the spikes in this moat.
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Spiked Moat (replaces), Poison Laboratory
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: -2
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Poison 4.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Kirr (created by Ghostman)]
Kirr
At first glance, Kirr-Godna with its eerily coiling walkways and domed spires appears no different from any other city state of the infamously decadent Dark Elves. Yet this labyrinth of organically gothic architecture houses a population of reviled heretics, the House of Kirr, whose thrice-accursed name has become synonymous with blasphemy and wretchedness among their kinsmen.
Millennia ago, the Kirr, already versed in the craft of summoning and binding demons, turned away from the traditional ways of Dark Elves to further their ambitions. Over centuries of experimentations and bargaining they had become intimate with the fell denizens of the nether planes, and discovered new tempting avenues to power. They recognized and embraced the potential in cross-breeding with summoned fiends, augmenting their lineages with diabolic essence. In so doing, they abandoned the dogma of Dark Elves' racial supremacy, and the devil-blooded ones used their fell powers to establish themselves as overlords to their pure-bred kin. In the turmoil of this social upheaval the traditional structure of Bloodlordy also crumbled, brought low by the clandestine schemes of the first Bloodlords.
The early centuries of the magocracy were perilous, assaulted from within by embittered conservatives who plotted its downfall, and from without by zealous armies from other Dark Elf cities that made unholy war to stamp out this heresy. Through their cunning, sorcery and unspeakable demonic pacts the Bloodlords and Bloodladies of Kirr-Godna prevailed, consolidating their position as undisputed masters of the city. They had ushered in a new era, albeit at the steep price of forever alienating themselves from the rest of their race.
Due to their position as outcasts, the Kirr have no hope of pursuing alliances or trade with other Dark Elf city states. The very best they can hope for in terms of diplomatic relations is an awkward "peace." This state of affairs has made them somewhat more eager to parlay with other races, although they have just as few qualms about treachery when it suits their interests.
Starting Dungeon: Kirr Dark Elf players must always claim their first City in the Middledeep. This City begins with a Bloodlord's Spire, Slave Pens, War Spire, 1 Lichen Garden, and a Dark Elf Mine.
Starting Resources: Dark Elves are a wealthy and patient race, though they are licentious and decadent as well. Dark Elf players begin the game with 800 Gold, 250 Metal, and 200 Food.
Slavers: Dark Elves are notorious slavers. When attacking a fleeing unit, any casualties they inflict can be taken as slaves instead of being killed. If transported back to a Dark Elf City slaves can be sold for 2 Gold each provided the City possesses a Slave Market. If enemy units defeat a Dark Elf army transporting slaves, those slaves can be liberated if they wish.
Pact: The Kirr have forsaken Dark Elf orthodoxy to pact pacts with the Infernal Powers. Before a battle, Kirr Dark Elves can choose to sacrifice slaves or even their own units. For every 5 units they sacrifice all units in the army gain +1 to Damage and Morale in the ensuing battle, to a maximum of +4 to each. Kirr Dark Elves cannot make such sacrifices if being ambushed or sneak attacked, obviously.
Dazzled: Dark Elves are easily dazzled by bright light. They suffer double the morale penalties for sunlight.
Units
[ic=Dalashinn, The Onyx Prince, Dark Elf Bloodlord](http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/7416/dalashinn.jpg)
The current ruler of Kirr-Godna is the ancient sorcerer Dalashinn of House of Kirr, known also by his moniker 'Onyx Prince'. The blood of an archfiend flows in his veins, and a hundred demonic servants tend to his whims as he wanders the halls of black-veined marble in his ornate palace. He rose to power in the meritocratic manner – by masterminding the death of his predecessor and eliminating competitors to the throne – and has now held it in his grip for longer than anyone before him. Under his ruthless governance the city has prospered, and is now greedily looking to expand its sphere of influence. The Bloodlords and -ladies fear his power as they should, while his ability to negotiate favourable bargains with devil-princes has ensured that the infernal forces will take his side against any attempted coup.
Yet for all his might, Dalashinn has a problem: the lack of an heir. In an ironic twist of fate, the very demonic heritage that lends him much power has also rendered him androgynous and infertile – a curse so potent that even the blackest of magics can offer no remedy. His siblings are long dead, slain in bygone days by his very own machinations, and he has been unable to find a worthy adoptee from amongst the multitude of fawning sycophants that flock around him like corpse-flies about a rotting carcass. With the unstoppable march of time, even the sorcerously extended lifespan of Dalashinn inevitably grinds toward its ultimate conclusion, heralding a bitter end to his glorious lineage. Such matters would not have bothered him when he was younger and still able to find contentment in the jubilant delights of decadent life, in the thrill of political intrigue, and in the intoxicating rush of raw magical power. But even diabolic sorcerers must grow weary of these things, it seems.
As he broods gloomily on his jewel-encrusted throne, the Onyx Prince realizes that if he cannot produce an heir, then he must instead forge a legacy – something that will outlast the clash of vultures that is sure to follow his death. The answer lies clear in his mind's eye: Kirr-Godna itself shall be his legacy; the destiny of the city one with his own. By elevating it's majesty to unprecedented heights, by carving an empire in the Underdeep, he will have made his mark.
Ranged Attack: +6
Ranged Damage: 4
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 12
Defence: 20
Health: 18
Speed: 6
Morale: +7
Special Abilities: Agony, Detector, Frenzy, Immunity (Fire), Leadership
Dalashinn increases the Speed and Morale of any army he is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon he increases the Defence and Morale of garrisoned troops by +1.
If either the Web Caverns or a Drake Nest has been constructed, Dalashinn can be mounted on a giant spider or Drake. If mounted on a spider he gains the Cavalry ability, +1 Speed, +2 Defence, and +4 Health, Climbing, and Poison 2; if mounted on a Drake he gains the Cavalry and Flying abilities and gains +2 Speed, +2 Defence, and +7 Health. He can only join regiments of Dark Elf Spider Cavalry or Drake Riders, according to his choice. Mounting Dalashinn costs 20 Gold and 2 Metal for a spider and 25 Gold and 5 Metal for a Drake (no Upkeep costs, however).[/ic]
[ic=Slave Soldier (Requires: Slave Pens)]Slave soldiers are the expendable masses of the Dark Elf army. Often a handful of these bedraggled unfortunates – a haphazard mix of toplanders, Dwarves, Goblins, and Kobolds, generally – end up sacrificed before battle is joined, to invoke the blessing of diabolic powers. Slave Soldiers are typically armed with spears and shields and armoured in leather.
Cost: 5 Gold
Upkeep: 1 Food
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 14
Health: 4
Speed: 4
Morale: +0
Special Abilities: Slave Soldiers must always be accompanied by at least 1 non-slave unit; otherwise, they immediately desert, often turning to banditry.[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Swordsman (Requires: War Spire)]Elegant, preternaturally dextrous, uncannily graceful, and consummately deadly, Dark Elf swordsmen wield long, two-handed blades, slightly curved and sometimes serrated, and are armoured in studded leather with rather ornate but still effective spiked metal bracers, greaves, helms, and pauldrons.
Cost: 12 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 1 Food
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 7
Defence: 16
Health: 7
Speed: 5
Morale: +2[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Crossbowman (Requires: War Spire)]The Dark Elf ranged weapon of choice is the crossbow, with which they are quite adept. Dark Elf crossbows are generally made mostly of metal, with wood being employed sparingly.
Cost: 12 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +5
Ranged Damage: 3
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 15
Health: 7
Speed: 5
Morale: +2[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Spider Cavalry (Requires: Web Caverns)]Scuttling over enemy fortifications in disgusting, hairy clutches, Dark Elf spider-riders wield spears and swords, and their mounts are extremely poisonous. The spiders themselves are bred specially in vast caverns covered in webbing.
Cost: 20 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 5 Gold, 3 Food
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 8
Defence: 16
Health: 12
Speed: 6
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Cavalry, Climbing, Poison 2[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Drake Rider (Requires: Drake Nest)]Riding horrible black cave-wyrms bred for warfare, Dark Elf drake riders are principally ranged warriors, wielding crossbows in battle, though they also carry spears or long blades in case they need to engage in melee.
Cost: 25 Gold, 5 Metal
Upkeep: 6 Gold, 4 Food
Ranged Attack: +5
Ranged Damage: 4
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 18
Health: 15
Speed: 8
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Cavalry, Flyer, Large[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Hellblade (Requires: Fighting Pits)] Half dark elf, half demon soldiers bred for war and armed to the teeth with cruel blades and spiked flails, Hellblades are faster, stronger and hardier than ordinary Dark Elves and infused with infernal bloodlust. They are formidable shock infantry that assail their foes with relentless fury; not made for prolonged combat, they must strike fast and hard to overwhelm the enemy. When not marching on campaigns they are used as pit fighters, shedding blood for the amusement of their masters.
Cost: 25 Gold, 10 Metal
Upkeep: 8 Gold, 2 Food
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 15
Defence: 17
Health: 12
Speed: 6
Morale: +6
Special Abilities: Animosity, Immunity (Fire)[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Assassin (Requires: Assassins' Spire)]Dark Elf assassins are infamous throughout the Underdeep, renowned for their ability to sneak inside enemy fortifications and dispatch enemy leaders. Assassins favour knives and slender blades coated in poison culled from the sacs of gigantic spiders.
Cost: 40 Gold
Upkeep: 15 Gold, 1 Food
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 15
Defence: 20
Health: 15
Speed: 5
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Assassinate, Disarm Traps +3, Infiltrator, Poison 6[/ic]
[ic=Diabolic Behemoth (Requires: Hell-Gate)]Colossal, hulking monstrosities summoned from the nethermost abyssal pits, the dreaded behemoths are veritable nightmares given flesh. They are rarely encountered, and never in large numbers, for the sorcerous effort required to capture and control them is tremendeous. However, the presence of even a single such beast might prove decisive, for entire warbands have been shattered by the onslaught of these massive abominations. Due to their sheer size and strength, Behemoths can be useful in siegecraft, smashing war engines to pieces and shaking the foundations of fortifications. Their one major weakness is the difficulty in keeping them under control: there is always a danger that a Behemoth may go berserk and run amok, destroying everything in its path - friend or foe.
Cost: Sacrifice 100 Souls, 250 Gold
Upkeep: 25 Food
Melee Attack: +15
Melee Damage: 50
Defence: 24
Health: 300
Speed: 5
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 20), Huge, Immunity (Fire), Regeneration 20
A Diabolic Behemoth must be escorted by at least 4 Summoners or 3 Summoners and a Bloodlord at all times. If this escort perishes, the Behemoth deserts and becomes a wandering monster.
Each round of combat, roll a d20. On a 1, the Diabolic Behemoth runs amok and attacks a random regiment (even a friendly unit). It returns to normal the next round (but must roll again).[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Summoner (Requires: Profane Temple)]Sorcerers that specialize in conjuring and controlling beasts from the lower planes, Summoners are weak and frail, but capable of turning the tide of battle with their eldritch craft if allowed to complete their incantations. They must be kept away from the front lines and protected.
Cost: 50 Gold
Upkeep: 12 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +8
Ranged Damage: 5
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 16
Health: 8
Speed: 5
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Detector, Curse, Poisonous Cloud, Summon (Bloodfiend)[/ic]
[ic=Bloodfiend (Summoned Unit)]These horrific fiends manifest out of pools of sacrificial blood, cruor congealing into blades, horns, and claws. Dark Elf Summoners can summon a Bloodfiend once per week. It persists as long as it is given sacrifices, dissipating back into blood if it isn't sated.
Cost: 5 Sacrifices
Upkeep: 1 Sacrifice
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 12
Defence: 15
Health: 20
Speed: 5
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Immunity (Fire), Regeneration 10[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Bloodlord's Spire]This ornate, ominous-looking spire is the personal tower of a Dark Elf Bloodlord. From here the general plans battles and runs the Dark Elf city; a small army of servants attend to his every sadistic need here. This structure has no cost, and is located in the Dark Elf capitol.
Benefit: The sight of the spire strikes fear into the hearts of attackers. Anyone attacking the Dark Elf city must make a morale check (Difficulty Class 15) or suffer -2 to Attack.[/ic]
[ic=Bloodlord's Harem]This perfumed chamber is stocked with devil-kin Dark Elf concubines bred with succubi and incubi, both male and female. Here the Dark Elf general amuses himself in-between schemes, coupling with his slaves if his mood is contented or whipping them bloody if frustrated.
Cost: 35 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Prerequisites: Bloodlord's Spire
Benefit: A Dark Elf Bloodlord who avails himself of the harem gains +1 to Melee Attack and Morale for 1 week.[/ic]
[ic=Bloodlord's Study]This study is a chamber in the Bloodlord's Spire where he can expand his magical talents, filled with eldritch apparatus and unholy instruments.
Cost: 150 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Bloodlord's Spire
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: The Bloodlord can use the study to research new spells. Each spell takes 3 weeks to research; at the end of the week, he acquires the new spell permanently (only one spell can be researched at once). He can research any of the following spells: Curse, Dispel, Invisibility, Mindlink, Shield. A Bloodlord must be garrisoned in the City with the Bloodlord's study to perform research.[/ic]
[ic=Scrying Chamber]Attached to the Bloodlord's Spire, the scrying chamber has walls and floor graven with mystic symbols, and a pool of blood (re-poured each day, to keep it fresh) in which the Bloodlord can glimpse things that are, were, and may be.
Cost: 150 Gold
Prerequisites: Bloodlord's Study
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: The Bloodlord gains the Scry spell and becomes a Detector. When garrisoned in a City with a scrying chamber, he can use it twice per week instead of only once per week.[/ic]
[ic=Arcane Library]This subterranean library is filled with eldritch grimoires and magical texts.
Cost: 200 Gold
Prerequisites: Bloodlord's Study
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: The Arcane Library reduces research times to 1 week per spell and adds the following possible spells for research: Distraction, Haste, Hex, Illusory Duplicate, Obfuscating Shroud, Rune Trap, and Ward.[/ic]
[ic=Teleportation Circle (Unlimited)]This chamber contains a magical circle linked to a matching chamber in a different location. When activated, it instantly transports all those standing within the circle to the matching location.
Cost: 75 Gold
Prerequisites: Arcane Library
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Teleportation Circles must be built in pairs to function (though they need not be built at the same time). Once per week, the Circles can be activated, transporting up to 50 units between locations. Teleportation Circles are always linked in pairs: a group of three Circles, for example, cannot be linked, though multiple pairs of Circles can be constructed. If a Teleportation Circle hasn't been used and troops wish to withdraw from a Dungeon under attack, it can be used to do so.
Note: although an Arcane Library is required to create the Teleportation Circle, it need not be physically present in all Dungeons with a Circle, only one of them. If the City containing the Library is lost, however, new Circles cannot be inscribed.[/ic]
[ic=Lichen Garden (Unlimited)]Though they will eat fungi, Dark Elves prefer to consume a variety of purplish moss, which they are experts at cultivating.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A lichen garden produces 20 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Lizard Pen (Unlimited)]Dark Elf-reared cave-lizards are bred for their tender flesh. They also lay eggs which Dark Elves occasionally incorporate into their dishes.
Cost: 40 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: A lizard pen produces 35 Food per week. [/ic]
[ic=Spider Farm (Unlimited)]Dark Elves often eat spiders, either live or cooked. Spider farms are rambling underground complexes attached to the web-swathed caverns where war-spiders are kept.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequisites: Web Caverns
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A spider farm produces 45 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Torture Gardens]Ah, the torture gardens! The sounds, the smells, the hideous, unforgettable sights! The fountains that gurgle with crimson blood! The beauteous tableaux of mutilated flesh! The sublime chorus of screams! It's enough to make a Dark Elf weep with its vile beauty.
Cost: 35 Gold, 5 Metal
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Dark Elves garrisoned in a City with Torture Gardens gain +2 to Morale checks.[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Mine]Dark Elf Mines are always worked by non-Elf slaves, as Dark Elves themselves refuse to sully their fingers with dirt.
Cost: 175 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Slave Pens
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You mine up to 175 Gold and up to 15 Metal per week, provided your Dungeon is built over a suitable deposit. You can only have a single mine per deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Improved Dark Elf Mine]Technological improvements – often borrowed or stolen from Duergar – make this Dark Elf mine a bit more efficient. And if a few slaves get mangled in the complex machinery, well, at least the Dark Elf foremen are entertained.
Cost: 225 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Dark Elf Mine (replaces)
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 300 Gold and 25 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Mine Complex]This complex is an efficient network of tunnels tended to be experienced slaves, a few of whom may even be freedwomen, career-miners given a shred of liberty for a back-breaking lifetime's worth of service.
Cost: 300 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Improved Dark Elf Mine (replaces)
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 400 Gold and 50 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Slave Pens]These miserable, lightless pens are where Dark Elf slaves are kept, filthy, degrading dungeons where prisoners fight with one another in the endless black.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Slave Soldiers.[/ic]
[ic=Overseer's Chamber]Dark Elf Overseers are experts at conditioning slaves, using a variety of unsavoury techniques both physical and psychological to compel obedience. Properly conditioned, slaves never attempt escape – they simply know nothing else apart from loyalty and servitude.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequisites: Slave Pens
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Slave Soldiers recruited at a City with an Overseer's Chamber have the Discipline ability and no longer require constant supervision – they won't desert if on their own. Slave Soldiers garrisoned at a City with an Overseer's Chamber permanently acquire the Discipline ability and also never desert.[/ic]
[ic=Slave Market]Here, slaves taken on Surface raids and prisoners from enemy Dungeons are kept, auctioned off for food or as labourers. Dark Elf Matriarchs take a cut from every transaction.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Slaves and prisoners can be sold at the Slave Pit for 2 Gold each. Slave Soldiers can likewise be sold here for the same amount. You can also buy slaves for 2 Gold each, to be used as sacrifices. Such slaves are fed on scraps and gruel and do not have an Upkeep cost.[/ic]
[ic=War Spire]This grim, militant structure is the principle barracks and training facility for Dark Elf soldiers.
Cost: 75 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dark Elf Swordsmen and Dark Elf Crossbowmen.[/ic]
[ic=Taskmaster's Spire]Only marginally gentler than the Overseers of the slave pens, Dark Elf Taskmasters evoke discipline with the lash, and an array of psychological techniques bordering on torture.
Cost: 100 Gold
Prerequisites: War Spire
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: All Dark Elf units recruited at a City containing a Taskmaster's Spire except for Slave Soldiers, Diabolic Behemoths, Bloodlords, and Summoners acquire the Discipline ability. Such units garrisoned at a City containing a Taskmaster's Spire permanently acquire the Discipline ability.[/ic]
[ic=Armoury Spire]This tower is often attached directly to the war spire; it contains additional arms and armour for Dark Elves to swiftly equip themselves.
Cost: 40 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: War Spire
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Dark Elf Swordsmen can be converted into Dark Elf Crossbowmen and vice versa.[/ic]
[ic=Web Caverns]Often located beneath a Dark Elf City, these caverns are a web-swathed warren where foul, multitudinously limbed arachnids breed in vast numbers. The choicest of these monsters serve as mounts for Dark Elf warriors, or as war-beasts.
Cost: 150 Gold
Prerequisites: War Spire
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dark Elf Spider Cavalry.[/ic]
[ic=Drake Nest]In this dark spire, Drakes are lovingly fed the flesh of slaves until they are big enough to ride. The black Wyrms form immutable bonds of loyalty with their riders.
Cost: 125 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: War Spire
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dark Elf Drake Riders.[/ic]
[ic=Spidersilk Armoury]Only the Dark Elves know the secret ways of weaving spidersilk into a kind of flexible armour.
Cost: 200 Gold
Prerequisites: Web Caverns, Armoury Spire
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Dark Elf Swordsmen, Crossbowmen, Spider Cavalry, Drake Riders, Hellblades, and Assassins recruited in a City with a Spidersilk Armoury all gain +1 Defence. Such units garrisoned in a City with a Spidersilk Armoury permanently gain +1 Defence.[/ic]
[ic=Poison Laboratory]The poison laboratory is a seething alchemical workshop where the venom of enormous arachnids is synthesized into convenient poisons.
Cost: 75 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Web Caverns
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Dark Elf Swordsmen, Crossbowmen, and Hellblades recruited at a City with a Poison Laboratory gain Poison 1. Swordsmen, Crossbowmen, and Hellblades garrisoned at said City also acquire this ability permanently.[/ic]
[ic=Fighting Pits]The brutal fighting pits of Kirr-Godna showcase the formidable martial talents of the Hellblades. Dark Elves gather in the pits to watch them spar.
Cost: 85 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: War Spire
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Hellblades. While garrisoned in a City with Fighting Pits, Hellblades automatically pass all Animosity checks but do not gain Animosity bonuses. The Fight Pits also impart a +1 Morale bonus to all Dark Elf units garrisoned in the City with them.[/ic]
[ic=Assassins' Spire]The sinister Assassin's Spire seems cloaked in shadows; within lies a complex labyrinth of twisting halls, a maze of darkened passages that only the assassins themselves know how to navigate.
Cost: 100 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Poison Laboratory
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Dark Elf Assassins.[/ic]
[ic=Profane Temple]This diabolic temple is dedicated to unholy powers. The Kirr worship here, forming pacts with malignant creatures.
Cost: 75 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You an recruit Dark Elf Summoners. Garrisoned Dark Elves who pray at the Profane Temple gain +2 to Morale for 1 week. Any units suffering from disease are cured, and return to full health.[/ic]
[ic=Hell-Gate]The Hell-Gate at the center of Kirr-Godna opens infrequently, and only after terrible sacrifice. When it does open in a blaze of sanguineous light, horrors emerge – vast diabolic Behemoths, the living war-engines of the Kirr.
Cost: 150 Gold, Sacrifice 10 Souls
Prerequisites: Bloodlord's Spire, Profane Temple
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Diabolic Behemoths.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=City Wall (Limit 1)]This thick stone fortification provides protection to a Dark Elf City.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Defence: 20
Health: 50[/ic]
[ic=Improved City Wall (Limit 1, counts as City Wall)]Additional battlements and scaffolding make the city wall even stronger.
Cost: 30 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: City Wall
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Defence: +5 to City Wall Defence and +10 to City Wall Health.[/ic]
[ic=Dark Elf Ballista (Limit 3)]This intricate ballista can be mounted atop the walls of a Dark Elf city. Though it rarely kills very many foes, it is extremely accurate.
Cost: 50 Gold, 20 Metal
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +12
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: A Dark Elf Ballista must be manned by two garrisoned units.[/ic]
[ic=Poisoned Dark Elf Ballista (Limit 3, counts as Ballista)]Dark Elves like to put poison in everything.
Cost: 15 Gold
Prerequisites: Dark Elf Ballista (replaces), Poison Laboratory
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +12
Damage: +4 Damage to Ballista
Special Abilities: A Dark Elf Ballista must be manned by two garrisoned units.[/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]This sally-port allows Dark Elves to escape their city.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Defenders who fail their morale checks within a Dark Elf City can withdraw or flee to the nearest neighbouring territory instead of surrendering.[/ic]
[ic=Pit Trap (Limit 3)]These pit traps are slightly better-designed than most, and are relatively well-hidden.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 8[/ic]
[ic=Spiked Pit Trap (Limit 3, counts as Pit Trap)]A more vicious version of the pit trap, the spiked pit trap has long wooden stakes at the bottom to skewer those who fall in.
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 12[/ic]
[ic=Poisonous Spiked Pit Trap (Limit 3, counts as Pit Trap]The spikes on this pit trap are smeared with poison, Dark Elves being unfamiliar with the concept of "overkill."
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Spiked Pit Trap (replaces), Poison Laboratory
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: Poison 4.[/ic]
[ic=Murder Holes (Limit 3)]These holes are bored in the roof of a cavern or passageway, allowing defenders to drop poisonous insects, starving rats, boiling water, pitch, or other unpleasant substances on attackers.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +5
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective. [/ic]
[ic=Spiked Moat (Limit 1)]This simple trench is filled with spikes, deterring invaders. Ranged units can assail enemies from behind the moat.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: -2
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Ranged units can get off an extra volley of attacks if protected by a Spiked Moat, exactly as if they were being shielded by melee units. It takes attackers 1 round to circumvent the moat. The moat still functions as a trap – units can fall in accidentally. They must still breach any other Defences, such as a City Wall.[/ic]
[ic=Poisonous Spiked Moat (Limit 1, counts as Spiked Moat)]Spider venom has been smeared on the spikes in this moat.
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Spiked Moat (replaces), Poison Laboratory
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: -2
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Poison 4.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Kobolds]
Kobolds
Soundtrack (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=7A6uoblk3sk)
Alternate (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=_eX0d3v5zqI)
Kobolds are not quite as fecund as Goblins, but they are far more ubiquitous, springing up in every part of the Underdeep, for they are consummate survivors. A diminutive race, they are frail in body and have few strong fighters. Their power lies in their cunning, for they are extremely adept in the invention and creation of complex traps. Kobolds would far prefer to lure enemies into a narrow passage filled with caltrops, or a chamber rigged to fill with poison gas, or a tunnel riddled with spiked pits, than to fight them in pitched battle. As a result they have few stalwart warriors but many specialists: trapmakers, commandoes, burrowers, stealthy skulkers, and the ingenious grenadiers. They do, however, revere Black Dragons, the fearsome Gloomdrakes of the Underdeep, scaly, serpentine monstrosities that belch caustic acids capable of eating through stone.
Starting Dungeon: Kobolds can be found virtually anywhere. They may claim their first Warren anywhere but the Surface. This Warren begins with a Chieftain's Den, a Burrow, 1 Mushroom Patch, and a Kobold Mine. Additional rooms, traps, and defences can be purchased before play commences, with two week's construction already completed.
Starting Resources: Kobolds are not the wealthiest race, being often scattered or enslaved. Kobold players begin the game with 750 Gold, 150 Metal, and 100 Food.
Cramped and Confusing: Kobold Warrens are extremely cramped and labyrinthine, making them difficult to navigate for attacking troops. Dungeons constructed by Kobolds – as opposed to those seized by Kobolds in conquest – are thus harder to assail: all enemy troops attacking such a Warren suffer -2 to Attack and Morale. Large monsters suffer a -4 penalty and Huge monsters suffer a -6 penalty. The only exception is other Kobolds, who suffer no penalty when attacking a rival tribe's Warren.
Carrion Eaters: Kobolds are avid scavengers and will eat just about anything. They can convert 1 Body into 1 Food, including partially rotten Bodies taken from battlefields. They have no compunctions against cannibalism, and indeed Kobold funerals are usually cannibal feasts.
Agoraphobia: Kobolds are most comfortable in small, confined spaces, and hate large open ones (nowhere to hide!). They suffer -1 to Attack and Morale rolls in caverns that are larger than 1 region in size, or on the Surface. The only exception is if they're attacking or defending a Kobold Warren in such a cavern.
Units
[ic=Kobold Chieftain]Kobold chieftains are generally the craftiest, most ruthless Kobolds around. They prefer stealth to upfront combat, and they rarely venture from their Warrens except to lead crack raids on enemy Dungeons. Kobold chieftains are easily slain in pitched battles, but other Kobolds are always waiting in the wings to assume control of the tribe.
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 8
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 22
Health: 15
Speed: 4
Morale: +6
Special Abilities: Infiltrator, Leadership
The Kobold Chieftain increases the Ranged Attack and Morale of any army he is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon he increases the Ranged Attack and Morale of garrisoned troops by +1. His Infiltrator ability is imparted to any regiment he leads.
If a Midden has been constructed, the Kobold Chieftain can be mounted on a dire rat. He gains the Cavalry, Climb and Disease 3 abilities and can only join a regiment of Kobold Dire Rat Cavalry. He also gains +2 Defence, +2 Speed and +6 Health. Mounting the Chieftain on a dire rat costs 17 Gold and 1 Metal (no Upkeep costs, however). [/ic]
[ic=Kobold Slinger (Requires: Burrow)]These Kobold troops form the core of any Kobold army – a legion of slingers, hurling rocks and other hard objects at enemies.
Cost: 5 Gold
Upkeep: 1 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +2
Ranged Damage: 2
Melee Attack: +1
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 16
Health: 4
Speed: 4
Morale: +1[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Skulker (Requires: Burrow)]Kobolds are a naturally stealthy race, adept in the creation of ambushes and sneak-attacks. Their skulking infantry are generally armed with bone spears and javelins as well as bone knives, though some also manage to get their hands on scavenged metal weapons.
Cost: 7 Gold, 1 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 1 Food
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 17
Health: 4
Speed: 4
Morale: +1
Special Abilities: Infiltrator, Scout[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Burrower (Requires: Burrow)]Kobolds are amazing tunnel-makers, and their burrowing troops specialize in boring into enemy Dungeons. They're armed with picks and shovels, which make decent weapons, in a pinch.
Cost: 10 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 3 Gold, 1 Food
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 16
Health: 4
Speed: 4
Morale: +1
Special Abilities: Tunnelling[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Grenadier (Requires: Workshop)]Though not nearly sophisticated as the Dwarves, Kobolds are quite inventive, and they're learned enough alchemy to create very crude explosives which can be used to blow up bridges and fortifications, or simply lobbed as grenades at enemy forces.
Cost: 13 Gold, 5 Metal
Upkeep: 4 Gold, 2 Metal, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +4
Ranged Damage: 8 (Fire)
Melee Attack: +1
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 17
Health: 6
Speed: 4
Morale: +2
Special Abilities: Demolitions, Obfuscating Shroud[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Trapspringer (Requires: Workshop)]The cunning Kobold trapspringers have a knack for constructing murderous clockwork and artfully concealed pits and snares. Being trapmakers, they're also adept at spotting and disabling enemy traps.
Cost: 13 Gold, 8 Metal
Upkeep: 6 Gold, 4 Metal, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +3
Ranged Damage: 4
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 2
Defence: 17
Health: 6
Speed: 4
Morale: +2
Special Abilities: Disarm Traps +5, Repair, Trapmaking[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Commando (Requires: Command Post)]Kobolds are cunning and resourceful, but they're not cowardly like Goblins, as their extremely disciplined and courageous commandoes prove. Elite infiltrators, Kobold commandoes are armed with cunning hand crossbows and metal knives.
Cost: 20 Gold, 4 Metal
Upkeep: 5 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +5
Ranged Damage: 6
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 4
Defence: 18
Health: 6
Speed: 5
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Discipline, Infiltrator [/ic]
[ic=Kobold Dire Rat Cavalry (Requires: Midden)]Kobolds feed certain rats special fungal drugs in order to encourage their growth. The resulting mutant beasts are employed as mounts for their elite spear-wielders. Such creatures are not only ferocious, they can spread disease through enemy ranks.
Cost: 17 Gold, 1 Metal
Upkeep: 3 Gold, 3 Food
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 18
Health: 10
Speed: 6
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Cavalry, Climb, Disease (3)[/ic]
[ic=Black Dragon (Requires: Dragon's Pool)]The terrifying Black Dragons are claimed by some Kobolds to be the forefathers of the Kobold race, though most other denizens of the Underdeep consider such stories foolish tales told by the Kobolds only to aggrandize themselves. Whether or not the rumours are true, Kobolds know special tricks to lure Black Dragons to prepared pools, where they pamper the enormous wyrms with meat and treasure in tribute. Of course, the wyrms are extremely territorial, so Kobolds take care to ensure that two Black Dragons never meet one another in the field. Gloomdrakes are not only exceptional combatants, they can also eat through stone, and if promised gold and food, they will accompany Kobolds into the field.
Cost: 185 Gold
Upkeep: 20 Gold, 15 Food
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 15 (Acid)
Melee Attack: +15
Melee Damage: 30
Defence: 20
Health: 180
Speed: 8
Morale: +10
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 20), Flying, Huge, Immune (Acid), Tunneling
A single army can only ever contain one Black Dragon. If multiple Black Dragons meet, they immediately fight to the death.[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Sorcerer (Requires: Sorcerer's Cave)]Kobold sorcerers are crafty, manipulative creatures who wear ornate headdresses made from the skulls of juvenile drakes. They can hex opponents, bolster the speed of their allies, or use pools of stagnant water to scry with.
Cost: 50 Gold
Upkeep: 7 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +6
Ranged Damage: 4
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 18
Health: 10
Speed: 4
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Detector, Haste, Hex, Scry[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Chieftain's Den]The chieftain's den is a large personal burrow adorned with the skulls of his or her predecessors and a variety of personal effects, weapons, and other trinkets. Kobold chieftains often spend great lengths of time in their dens concocting schemes and complex battle-plans for defending the Kobold Warren in case of attack. This room has no cost, and is located at the Kobold capitol.
Benefit: While the Kobold Chieftain is garrisoned in the Warren with the Chieftain's Den, all garrisoned troops (including the Chieftain) gain +1 Defence in addition to normal bonuses for having their general present.[/ic]
[ic=Fishing Pool (Limit 5)]This large, cold, subterranean pool is stocked with blind, albino fish which the Kobolds catch by hand and use to supplement their meagre diet.
Cost: 10 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: A fishing pool produces 5 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Mushroom Patch (Unlimited)]The rambling mushroom farms of the Kobolds are winding, maze-like warrens festooned with fungi which the Kobolds eat whole or stew.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A mushroom patch produces 20 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Mushroom Grove (Unlimited)]Once several mushroom patches have been established they can be linked together to form a gigantic mushroom grove.
Cost: 40 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Prerequisites: 4 Mushroom Patches (replaces)
Benefit: A mushroom grove produces 140 Food every week.[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Mine]Kobold mines are winding labyrinths, often with little distinction from the rest of the Kobold Warren.
Cost: 150 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You mine up to 150 Gold and up to 15 Metal per week, provided your Dungeon is built over a suitable deposit. You can only have a single mine per deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Improved Kobold Mine]Some stolen mining tools and a handful of rather ingenious contraptions developed at the workshop makes this improved mine far, far more efficient.
Cost: 225 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Kobold Mine (replaces), Workshop
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 300 Gold and 25 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Mine Complex]Complex mechanical lifts and a variety of fairly sophisticated custom-built mining tools, not to mention a large number of stolen or traded picks, lanterns, carts, and the like, combine to make this mine extremely productive.
Cost: 300 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Improved Kobold Mine (replaces)
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 400 Gold and 50 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Bat Roost]This cavern is filled with messenger bats, allowing for relatively rapid communication.
Cost: 50 Gold, 20 Food
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A Kobold Chieftain garrisoned at a Dungeon with a Bat Roost can send an additional message per week per player.[/ic]
[ic=Slave Pit]Here, slaves taken on Surface raids and prisoners from enemy Dungeons are kept, auctioned off for food or as labourers. Kobold Chieftains take a cut from every transaction.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Slaves and prisoners can be sold at the Slave Pit for 2 Gold each, or converted into 2 Food each instead. You can also buy slaves for 2 Gold each, if you wish. Such slaves are fed on scraps and gruel and do not have an Upkeep cost.[/ic]
[ic=Dragon Shrine]This elaborate shrine is dedicated to Black Dragons. Here fossils and other relics of such creatures – scales, teeth, coins from Dragon hoards, and the like – are kept as sacred relics.
Cost: 75 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Troops who pray at a Dragon Shrine gain +1 to Morale and Defence and are immune to disease (if they are suffering from a disease, it is cured, and they return to full health). These benefits remain for 2 weeks.[/ic]
[ic=Burrow]This confused maze of tunnels serves as a communal living space, barracks, guard-room, and training ground for Kobolds, littered with their weapons and other possessions.
Cost: 35 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Kobold Slingers, Kobold Skulkers, and Kobold Burrowers.[/ic]
[ic=Workshop]This clattering, messy cavern is used by Kobold Trapspringers to design new (and horrible) traps and inventions, including the crude fire-bombs used by Grenadiers.
Cost: 65 Gold, 25 Metal
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Kobold Grenadiers and Kobold Trapspringers.[/ic]
[ic=Poison Kitchen]This slovenly laboratory is used by Kobolds to concoct a variety of poisons. It's mostly stocked with stolen alchemical equipment.
Cost: 75 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Workshop
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Kobold Skulkers, Commandoes, and Dire Rat Cavalry recruited at a Warren with a Poison Kitchen all gain Poison 1, and garrisoned units of those types permanently gain Poison 1. Kobold Grenadiers recruited or garrisoned at a Warren with a Poison Kitchen can choose to lose their Fire damage to acquire Poison 1 instead.[/ic]
[ic=Command Post]In contrast with the unorganized chaos of the rest of the Warren, Kobold command posts are maintained to exacting standards, and the troops trained here possess the height of military discipline.
Cost: 100 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Burrow, Workshop
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Kobold Commandoes.[/ic]
[ic=Midden (Limit 1)]The midden is a revolting, pestilential den of filth where rats are bred in great numbers. The fattest, largest, meanest rats are given strange fungal drugs that greatly increase their size, making them suitable for mounts. The other rats make good eating, or can always be placed in pits or dropping down murder holes.
Cost: 125 Gold
Prerequisites: Burrow
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Kobold Dire Rat Cavalry. The midden also produces 35 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Dragon's Pool]This specially prepared chamber is adorned with all manner of bone fetishes, scrawled markings, and other holy signs, for Black Dragons are sacred creatures to Kobolds, worshipped as their supposed forebears. The pool always has a special, enlarged tunnel that the Dragon can use to enter and exit the Warren through.
Cost: 300 Gold
Prerequisites: Burrow, Dragon Shrine
Construction Time: 6 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit a single Black Dragon. Additional Dragons require their own pool, which must be placed in a different Dungeon, unless the Black Dragon dies.[/ic]
[ic=Sorcerer's Cave]This shadowy cavern is the personal domain of a Kobold Sorcerer, filled with the reek of strange reagents. Sorcerous gewgaws litter the cave, and a stolen cauldron simmers over a fire.
Cost: 125 Gold
Prerequisites: Burrow
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Kobold Sorcerers.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=Palisade (Limit 1)]This crude palisade of sharpened stakes protects Kobold Warrens from attackers, with a single gate allowing entrance and exit.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Defence: 20
Health: 30[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Trebuchet (Limit 3)]This ramshackle trebuchet is lashed together out of whatever is at hand. It sometimes misfires, with destructive (and hilarious!) results, but when the stones it slings connect with enemy forces it can devastating indeed.
Cost: 35 Gold
Prerequisites: Palisade
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: 25
Special Abilities: Kobold Trebuchets must be manned by 2 garrisoned units to be effective. If a Kobold Trebuchet rolls a 1 it misfires and deals 25 damage to whatever unit was manning it.[/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]This crudely dug tunnel allows Kobolds to escape their Warren if things go ill.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Defenders who fail their morale checks within a Dungeon can withdraw or flee to the nearest neighbouring territory instead of surrendering.[/ic]
[ic=Maze (Limit 1)]Kobolds often dig mazes into the outer defences of their Warrens, confusing invading troops even further. This defence can only be built in Warrens founded by Kobolds.
Cost: 100 Gold
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Special Abilities: The Cramped and Confusing Penalties increase by 1 for all troops – so regular units suffer -3 to Attack and Morale, Large units suffer -5, and Huge units suffer -7. Other Kobolds are still completely immune.[/ic]
[ic=Labyrinth (Limit 1, counts as Maze)]This expanded maze is so bewildering it would drive even a Dwarven engineer totally mad.
Cost: 200 Gold
Prerequisites: Maze (replaces)
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Special Abilities: The Cramped and Confusing Penalties increase by 2 for all troops – so regular units suffer -4 to Attack and Morale, Large units suffer -6, and Huge units suffer -8. Other Kobolds are still completely immune.[/ic]
[ic=Spiked Moat (Limit 1)]This simple trench is filled with spikes, deterring invaders. Ranged units can assail enemies from behind the moat.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: -2
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Ranged units can get off an extra volley of attacks if protected by a Spiked Moat, exactly as if they were being shielded by melee units. It takes attackers 1 round to circumvent the moat. The moat still functions as a trap – units can fall in accidentally. They must still breach any other Defences, such as a Palisade.[/ic]
[ic=Poisonous Spiked Moat (Limit 1, counts as Spiked Moat)]Debilitating venom has been smeared on the spikes in this moat.
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Spiked Moat (replaces), Poison Kitchen
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: -2
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Poison 4.[/ic]
[ic=Reinforced Gate (Limit 1)]This reinforced gate is strengthened with scrap metal.
Cost: 15 Gold, 5 Metal
Prerequisites: Palisade
Construction Time: 1 week
Defense: +5 to Palisade Defense.[/ic]
[ic=Disguised Entrance (Limit 1)]Carefully positioned rocks and fungi make the Warren entrance difficult to locate.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Special Abilities: Units attacking the Warren must spend 1 Speed simply to locate the Warren, unless they possess Detection or are accompanied by those who do. Such entrances can only be built in Warrens, not outposts.[/ic]
[ic=Improved Disguised Entrance (Limit 1, counts as Disguised Entrance)]Additional camouflage makes the Warren's entrance even harder to find.
Cost: 25 Gold
Prerequisite: Disguised Entrance (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Units attacking the Warren must spend 2 Speed simply to locate the Warren, unless they possess Detection or are accompanied by those who do. Such entrances can only be built in Warrens, not outposts.[/ic]
[ic=Invisible Entrance (Limit 1, counts as Disguised Entrance)]The Warren entrance is so well disguised as to be virtually invisible.
Cost: 25 Gold
Prerequisite: Improved Disguised Entrance (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: The Warren entrance cannot be found except by units with Detection or those accompanied by those who possess Detection. Such entrances can only be built in Warrens, not outposts.[/ic]
[ic=Snare (Limit 3)]This clever snare will trap an enemy unit without killing it.
Cost: 10 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Special Abilities: If the snare hits, it traps 1d2 units, though Large units are unaffected. These units are unharmed, but they become Kobold prisoners if Kobolds successfully repel their attackers. If a snare is placed by a Trapmaker in a region uninhabited by Kobolds, it is only effective if all of the units in the army are snared – otherwise the remaining troops simply free their comrades. Like other traps, snares can be tripped by wandering monsters.[/ic]
[ic=Cage Trap (Limit 1)]This cleverly concealed cage trap can hold quite sizeable monsters! Some fresh meet or similar bait makes it especially effective.
Cost: 50 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +8
Special Abilities: If the cage trap hits, it traps 1d4 units or 1 Large unit. These units are unharmed, but they become Kobold prisoners if Kobolds successfully repel their attackers and/or travel to the region the trap is in to collect the prisoners. If a cage trap is placed by a Trapmaker in a region uninhabited by Kobolds, it is only effective if all of the units in the army are caged – otherwise the remaining troops simply free their comrades. Like other traps, snares can be tripped by wandering monsters. Truly Huge monsters cannot be caged in this way.[/ic]
[ic=Caltrops (Limit 2)]A small explosive spreads painful caltrops everywhere.
Cost: 10 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Workshop
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +4
Damage: 5[/ic]
[ic=Metal Jaws (Limit 2)]These nasty little traps clamp around the ankles of enemies.
Cost: 20 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Workshop
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +5
Damage: 10[/ic]
[ic=Pit Trap (Limit 5, counts as Pit Trap)]These pit traps are slightly better-designed than most, and are relatively well-hidden.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 8[/ic]
[ic=Spiked Pit Trap (Limit 5, counts as Pit Trap)]A more vicious version of the pit trap, the spiked pit trap has long wooden stakes at the bottom to skewer those who fall in.
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 12[/ic]
[ic=Poisonous Spiked Pit Trap (Limit 5, counts as Pit Trap)]The spikes on this pit trap are smeared with poison.
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Spiked Pit Trap (replaces), Poison Kitchen
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Poison 4.[/ic]
[ic=Pit of Rats (Limit 5, counts as Pit Trap)]This pit is filled with starving, diseased rats.
Cost: 12 Gold
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces), Midden
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 10
Speical Abilities: Disease 3[/ic]
[ic=Acid Pit (Limit 5, counts as Pit Trap)]This pit is filled with powerful acid.
Cost: 15 Gold
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces), Poison Kitchen
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 15 (Acid)[/ic]
[ic=Monster Pit (Limit 5, counts as Pit Trap)]This pit has been stocked with a monster from the Underdeep, snared in a Kobold trap and deposited here.
Cost: None
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces)
Construction Time: None
Attack: +6
Special Abilities: This trap must be stocked with a wandering monster caught in a Kobold snare or cage trap and taken prisoner.[/ic]
[ic=Murder Holes (Limit 5)]These holes are bored in the roof of a cavern or passageway, allowing defenders to drop poisonous insects, starving rats, boiling water, pitch, or other unpleasant substances on attackers.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +5
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective. [/ic]
[ic=Rat Cages (Limit 5, counts as Murder Holes)]These bone cages of diseased rats can be emptied down murder holes.
Cost: 15 Gold
Prerequisites: Murder Holes (replaces), Midden
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: Disease 3. Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective.[/ic]
[ic=Buckets of Acid (Limit 5, counts as Murder Holes)]These caustic fluids can be emptied down murder holes.
Cost: 15 Gold
Prerequisites: Murder Holes (replaces), Poison Kitchen
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 10 (Acid)
Special Abilities: Poison 4. Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective.[/ic]
[ic=Grenades (Limit 5, counts as Murder Holes)]These crude bombs can be lobbed down murder holes.
Cost: 15 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Murder Holes (replaces), Workshop
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 15 (Fire)[/ic]
[ic=Rockfall Trap (Limit 1)]A simple tripwire activates this crude trap, which dumps boulders on attackers.
Cost: 35 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 20[/ic]
[ic=Collapsing Tunnel (Limit 1)]This tunnel is rigged to collapse on top of foes.
Cost: 45 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +10
Damage: 30[/ic]
[ic=Poison Gas Trap (Limit 1)]This poisonous gas is carefully harvested from certain fissures and secluded chambers, placed in bladders, and then rigged to be released if trespassers blunder in.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequisites: Poison Kitchen
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: A regiment hit by this trap has its Health of all its units lowered by 2 for the duration of the battle.[/ic]
[ic=Flooding Room (Limit 1)]This chamber can be sealed, and then flooded full of water. The trap has no effect on units that don't need to breathe, such as Undead or plant-creatures such as Fungoids. This trap can only be built in Dungeons and Outposts.
Cost: 75 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Workshop
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 60[/ic]
[ic=Acidic Flooding Room (Limit 1)]What's better than a room that floods with water? A room that floods with acid, of course! This trap can only be built in Dungeons and Outposts.
Cost: 30 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Flooding Room (replaces)
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 80 (Acid)[/ic]
[ic=Mimic (Limit 2)]Kobolds have tamed the bizarre, wild creatures known as mimics, strange shapeshifters said to originally be the creature of some demented wizard. Mimics disguise themselves as treasures – often chests of gold – only to attack enemies attempting to plunder them with clawed arms and teeth. Kobolds keep such creatures starved in isolated caverns for maximum deadliness.
Cost: 25 Food
Prerequisites: Workshop, Sorcerer's Cave
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +12
Damage: 15
Mimics can travel with a Sorcerer, but cannot move on their own. They can also be abandoned in a region by a Sorcerer.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Duergar]
Duergar
Soundtrack (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=In-Eh4oS_Sk)
Alternate (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=8ayMp6K8pwg)
The origins of the Duergar are tragic – they were once a Clan of Dwarves who delved too deep into the earth and so stumbled upon a Hive of Ceremorphs. The eldritch horrors enslaved their entire Clan, thrusting them into a long age of servitude. But the Duergar rebelled against the Ceremorphs, casting off their bonds in a struggle for liberty. They broke free of the Ceremorph Hives and forged an empire of their own in the Middledeep, and for long ages they ruled the central caverns almost unchallenged. In recent years they have once more grown vulnerable, their empire fracturing into individual city-states ruled by vicious despots. Duergar have much of the skill of Dwarves in the crafting of arms, armour, and ingenious devices, but unlike Dwarves they have no sense of honour. Long years of darkness and pain and backbreaking toil transformed them into grim, pitiless creatures, xenophobic and heartless beings who have become one with the gloom.
Starting Dungeon: Duergar players must always claim their first Citadel in the Middledeep or Lowerdeep. This Citadel begins with a Despot's Hall, a Forge Hall, a Hall of Carnage, 1 Beetle Farm, and a Duergar Mine. Additional rooms, traps, and defences can be purchased before play commences, with two weeks' construction already completed.
Starting Resources: Duergar hoard their wealth well, though their precarious position often engenders unforeseen expenditures. Duergar players begin the game with 950 Gold, 450 Metal, and 250 Food.
Magmacraft: Duergar know how to manipulate molten rock, using it for warfare and defence. They never fall prey to magma and can move through magma-ridden regions without ever being harmed.
Miners of Great Skill: Like Dwarves, Duergar know how to extract the riches of the earth better than any other people, and their dowsers and prospectors are highly skilled. Duergar always know exactly how much Gold, Metal, and other mineable resources are located in a region they own a Dungeon in.
Hatred: Duergar remember the long centuries they spent as Ceremorph thralls with undying bitterness, and due to their long lifespans, elder Duergar often remember the horror of the thrall pens firsthand. Duergar can never be allied with Ceremorphs and always attack them on sight. When fighting Ceremorphs they gain +1 to Morale.
Dazzled: Duergar have spent so long in the darkness that they have forgotten the light, have come to hate it. They suffer double the morale penalties for sunlight.
Units
[ic=Duergar Despot]Duergar despots think of themselves simply as leaders who do what needs to be done, who make the hard choices that weaker minds are incapable of. They rule with an iron fist, brooking no disobedience amongst their subjects. In combat they are brutal fighters, often wielding double-ended flails or spiked chains.
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 8
Defence: 20
Health: 25
Speed: 3
Morale: +8
Special Abilities: Leadership, Discipline
The Duergar Despot increases the Melee Attack and Morale of any army he is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon he increases the Melee Attack and Morale of garrisoned troops by +1. His Discipline ability applies to the specific regiment he leads.[/ic]
[ic=Duergar Halberdiers (Requires: Hall of Carnage)]Ceremorphs armed Duergar thralls with halberds, and when they rebelled, breaking free of the Overbrains and rising up against their former masters, many of them wielded such weapons in combat. Halberdiers in current Duergar forces are armoured in thick mail, often adorned with spikes.
Cost: 8 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 2 Food
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 17
Health: 8
Speed: 3
Morale: +2[/ic]
[ic=Duergar Hammer-Thrower (Requires: Hall of Carnage)]In the darkness of the Ceremorph mines and forges, Duergar were given hammers to pound at metal, endlessly toiling for those that enslaved them. When they rose up, they learned to use what seemed like mere tools as weapons, and the art has continued through the ages. Duergar hammer-throwers can hurl what look like clumsy hammers with deadly accuracy.
Cost: 8 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 2 Food
Ranged Attack: +4
Ranged Damage: 3
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 16
Health: 8
Speed: 3
Morale: +2[/ic]
[ic=Duergar Sneak (Requires: Hall of Carnage)]Duergar have learned the arts of stealth and misdirection, becoming one with the shadows and the darkness in which they were born. Duergar sneaks wield cruel, serrated knives, hatchets, and pickaxes in combat, and wear light leather armour for the sake of mobility.
Cost: 12 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 3 Gold, 2 Food
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 15
Health: 8
Speed: 4
Morale: +2
Special Abilities: Infiltrator[/ic]
[ic=Cave Beetle (Requires: Hatchery)]Duergar beastmasters have learned the art of beetle-husbandry, training the gigantic beetles of the Middledeep and Lowerdeep to serve them using alchemically derived pheromones and other substances. Cave beetles – beings the size of a Warg, or larger – are resilient and tenacious, and their wings make them excellent in sieges.
Cost: 20 Gold
Upkeep: 8 Food
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 8
Defence: 17
Health: 15
Speed: 8
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Flyer, Poison 2, Vermin, Vulnerability (Poison)[/ic]
[ic=Tunnel Hulk (Requires: Hatchery)]These monstrous creatures resemble hybrids of beetle and ogre, and were originally bred by the Ceremorphs as a species of thrall. The Duergar learned to control them during the long centuries of their servitude, and they were instrumental to the success of the Duergar uprising against their tentacle masters. Now, Tunnel Hulks serve the Duergar in battle and in labour, enormous creatures that make superb guards, shock-troops, and tunnelers.
Cost: 25 Gold
Upkeep: 10 Food
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 10
Defence: 20
Health: 20
Speed: 4
Morale: +6
Special Abilities: Large, Tunneling[/ic]
[ic=Duergar Magma Cannon (Requires: Hall of Smoke)]This terrifying weapon is often forged in the semblance of a monstrous Wyrm, vomiting forth enormous gobs of magma onto enemies. It must be manned by several Duergar in order to function properly.
Cost: 25 Gold, 20 Metal
Upkeep: 10 Metal, 2 Food
Ranged Attack: +5
Ranged Damage: 20 (Fire)
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 15
Health: 15
Speed: 2
Morale: +2
Special Abilites: Construct, Demolitions, Large.[/ic]
[ic=Engine of Excruciation (Requires: Hall of Torment)]The Engines of Excruciation in some ways resemble Dwarven Iron Golems, but unlike those masterful machines, Duergar Engines run on steam generated through boiling blood, their furnaces always clotted with the charred corpses of the slain. They carry enormous saw-like blades and terrible maces into combat, leaving trails of mutilated corpses in their wake. The very sight of such monstrous machines inspires terror.
Cost: 50 Gold, 20 Metal, 10 Bodies
Upkeep: 5 Gold, 5 Metal, 5 Bodies
Melee Attack: +12
Melee Damage: 15
Defence: 20
Health: 85
Speed: 1
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Construct, Fear (DC 16), Huge[/ic]
[ic=Duergar Ceremorph Hunter (Requires: Hall of Trophies)]The Duergar have not forgotten the centuries they spent as Ceremorph slaves, and indeed many of their number still squat in the Thrall Pens. Duergar Ceremorph Hunters have dedicated their lives to battling Ceremorphs, cultivating an emptiness of mind that allows them to pass unseen even near Ceremorphs who would normally sense them – they make their minds as voids, and cloak themselves in darkness.
Cost: 30 Gold, 5 Metal
Upkeep: 12 Gold, 3 Food
Melee Attack: +12
Melee Damage: 10
Defence: 18
Health: 12
Speed: 4
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Assassinate (Ceremorph targets only), Grudge (Ceremorphs), Immunity (Psychic), Infiltrator (evades Ceremorph Detectors)[/ic]
[ic=Deurgar Battle Cleric (Requires: Hall of Darkness)]Duergar Battle Clerics a revere joyless god of gloom and dread, most commonly known as Father Darkness. These somber, pallid warriors fight with spiked flails or pickaxes, and their prayers help to cloak Duergar warriors in shrouds of blackness, or to misdirect foes to strike at shadows.
Cost: 50 Gold, 1 Metal
Upkeep: 8 Gold, 3 Food
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 18
Health: 15
Speed: 3
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Detector, Illusory Duplicate, Invisibility, Obfuscating Shroud[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Despot's Hall]The innermost Hall of a Citadel is the command room of a Duergar Despot, a redoubt to which defenders can flee if the Citadel comes under attack. Often an escape tunnel and other defences are concentrated around it. This chamber has no cost and is located within the Duergar capitol.
Benefit: Defenders who fail a morale check can withdraw or flee to the Despot's Hall, where they rally the next round of combat, awaiting attackers to assail the Hall itself. If they fail a second morale check once the attackers reach the Despot's Hall, they surrender or withdraw through an escape tunnel if one is available. Of course, if ordered specifically to abandon the Citadel through the escape route, defenders can choose not to fall back to the Despot's Hall.[/ic]
[ic=Forge Hall]The center of any Duergar Citadel is the Forge Hall, a vast, hot hall filled with the sound of hammers striking anvils and bellows being stoked. Here Duergar smiths hone their trade, producing weapons and tools for the Citadel's use. The Forge Hall provides no direct benefits but is a prerequisite for many other Duergar structures.
Cost: 50 Gold, 10 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks[/ic]
[ic=Mushroom Garden (Unlimited)]Duergar tend small gardens of the hardy fungi to supplement their diets. Unlike Dwarves, they eat whatever is given to them without complaint.
Cost: 10 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: A mushroom garden produces 5 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Tuber Garden (Unlimited)]Roots, tubers, and other vegetables form the bulk of the Duergardiet, pallid things specially adapted to grow with little light.
Cost: 30 Gold
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: A tuber garden produces 25 Food per week. [/ic]
[ic=Beetle Farm (Unlimited)]Duergar are skilled in the husbandry of beetles and other insects, creatures they often use for food. Beetle farms seethe with thousands of glittering black bodies, huge colonies of beetles the Duergar carefully nurture.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: A beetle farm produces 50 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Duergar Mine]Duergar are exemplary miners, and their mines are incredibly efficient and well-constructed, almost never suffering cave-ins or collapses that could slow production. Their whip-wielding taskmasters ensure that quotas are always met.
Cost: 200 Gold, 20 Metal
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You mine up to 200 Gold and up to 25 Metal per week, provided your Dungeon is built over a suitable deposit. You can only have a single mine per deposit. [/ic]
[ic=Improved Duergar Mine]Mechanical enhancements courtesy of the Hall of Smoke allow a Duergar mine to function at even greater efficiency.
Cost: 250 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Duergar Mine (replaces), Hall of Smoke
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 350 Gold and 50 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Duergar Mine Complex]The pinnacle of Duergar engineering, this sophisticated mine produces truly vast amounts of gold and metal.
Cost: 350 Gold, 35 Metal
Prerequisites: Improved Duergar Mine (replaces), Hall of Torment
Construction Time: 6 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 500 Gold and 75 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Hall of Trade]In the vast Hall of Trade, Duergar artisans sell their masterfully wrought weapons and tools. Duergar Despots levy tariffs and taxes on transactions for additional coin.
Cost: 150 Gold
Prerequisites: Forge Hall
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: A Hall of Trade produces 100 Gold per week. [/ic]
[ic=Bat Roost]This cavern is filled with messenger bats, allowing for relatively rapid communication.
Cost: 50 Gold, 20 Food
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A Duergar Despot garrisoned at a Citadel with a Bat Roost can send an additional message per week per player.[/ic]
[ic=Hall of Carnage]This brutal hall is a place where Duergar endlessly train under the watchful eye of merciless weapon-masters.
Cost: 50 Gold, 5 Metal
Prerequisites: Forge Hall
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Duergar Halberdiers, Hammer-Throwers, and Sneaks.[/ic]
[ic=Training Hall]Upgrades to the shield hall include mechanical dummies, a target range for hammer-throwers, and similar amenities. Here brutal Duergar taskmasters beat the principles of battle into young Duergar, leaving them scarred but disciplined.
Cost: 100 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Hall of Carnage(replaces)
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: All Duergar units recruited at a Citadel with a training hall have the Discipline ability. Duergar units garrisoned at a training hall for 1 week gain this ability permanently. [/ic]
[ic=Duergar Armoury]Here Duergar store spare armour and weapons – principally maces, flails, hatchets, battleaxes, halberds, and cruelly serrated swords.
Cost: 35 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Forge Hall
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can convert garrisoned Duergar Halberdiers into Duergar Hammer-Throwers and vice versa.[/ic]
[ic=Hatchery]In this extensive cavern system, the eggs of giant cave beetles and tunnel hulks, brutish vermin in service of the Duergar, are carefully nurtured.
Cost: 100 Gold
Prerequisites: Beetle Farm
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Cave Beetles and Tunnel Hulks.[/ic]
[ic=Hall of Smoke]This vast hall is always hot, and full of black, choking vapours. Here Duergar practice their magmacraft, forging the giant siege-weapons known as Magma Cannons.
Cost: 60 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Forge Hall
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can construct Magma Cannons.[/ic]
[ic=Hall of Torment]This hall is full of ingenious and deadly machines; here Duergar smiths labour to construct the hideous war-machines known as the Engines of Excruciation.
Cost: 100 Gold, 15 Metal, 15 Bodies
Prerequisites: Forge Hall
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can construct Engines of Excruciation.[/ic]
[ic=Hall of Trophies]The Hall of Trophies is a macabre place, very long and very narrow, with a soaring ceiling. Its high walls are covered with hundreds of Ceremorph heads, embalmed and mounted. Adjoining chambers constitute the conditioning-rooms and training halls where Duergar Ceremorph Hunters learn to banish their thoughts and wrap themselves in shadows, the better to stalk their tentacle prey.
Cost: 100 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Training Hall
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Duergar Ceremorph Hunters.[/ic]
[ic=Hall of Darkness]This holy hall is always pitch black, saturated by a darkness so intense that even the Duergar find it unnerving. Here the Duergar Clerics perform sinister rituals, worshipping the black god known as Father Darkness.
Cost: 200 Gold
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Duergar Battle Clerics. Duergar who pray at the Hall of Darkness gain +1 to Morale and are immune to fear effects. Any units suffering from disease are cured, and return to full health. These effects remain for 2 weeks.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=Outer Wall (Limit 1)]This thick stone fortification provides an extra measure of protection to a Duergar outpost or Citadel.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Defence: 22
Health: 40[/ic]
[ic=Spiked Wall (Limit 1)]Duergar often line their outer walls with spikes to deter assailants.
Cost: 12 Gold
Prerequisites: Outer Wall
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 12
This damage only applies to climbing creatures.[/ic]
[ic=Reinforced Walls (Limit 1)]Duergar frequently reinforce their Citadels with thick, reinforced walls to deter enemy sappers.
Cost: 100 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Enemy tunnelers take twice as much time to tunnel into a Dungeon with reinforced walls. [/ic]
[ic=Impenetrable Walls (Limit 1)]
These walls are even thicker than normal.
Cost: 150 Gold
Prerequisites: Forge Hall
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: The Citadel is immune to tunnelers. Demolition is still effective. [/ic]
[ic=Iron Gate (Limit 1)]This reinforced, iron gate is extremely thick and difficult to breach. Slits allow ranged defenders to assail enemies attacking the gate.
Cost: 30 Gold, 20 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Defence: 22
Health: 50[/ic]
[ic=Magma Moat (Limit 1)]Duergar are experts at manipulating magma, funnelling it into specially dug moats to protect their Citadels from assault. A magma moat can only be constructed in a region that includes magma.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +2
Damage: 20 (Fire)
Special Abilities: Ranged units can get off an extra volley of attacks if protected by a Magma, exactly as if they were being shielded by melee units. It takes attackers 1 round to circumvent the moat. The moat still functions as a trap – units can fall in accidentally. They must still breach any other Defences, such as an Outer Wall.[/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]This sally-port allows Duergar the chance to flee a Citadel in secret.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Defenders who fail their morale checks within a Dungeon can withdraw or flee to the nearest neighbouring territory instead of surrendering. [/ic]
[ic=Pit Trap (Limit 4)]These pit traps are slightly better-designed than most, and are relatively well-hidden.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 8[/ic]
[ic=Spiked Pit Trap (Limit 4, counts as Pit Trap)]A more vicious version of the pit trap, the spiked pit trap has long wooden stakes at the bottom to skewer those who fall in.
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 12[/ic]
[ic=Magma Pit (Limit 4, counts as a Pit Trap)]This pit trap deposits attackers directly into a pit filled with magma.
Cost: 20 Gold
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 20 (Fire)[/ic]
[ic=Murder Holes (Limit 3)]These holes are bored in the roof of a cavern or passageway, allowing defenders to drop poisonous insects, starving rats, boiling water, pitch, or other unpleasant substances on attackers.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +5
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective. [/ic]
[ic=Duergar Magma Turret (Limit 3)]
Cost: 50 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Hall of Smoke
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 30 (Fire)
Special Abilities: A Duergar Magma Turret must be manned by two garrisoned units.[/ic]
[ic=Incinerator (Limit 1)]This trapped room can be filled with flames, immolating any enemies who wander in unawares. Complex mechanical pumps, nozzles, and pressure plates are installed, such that flammable gas fills the trapped chamber when attackers blunder past.
Cost: 50 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Hall of Smoke
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: 50 (Fire)[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Fungoids]
Fungoids
Soundtrack (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=H55T21LEvlM)
Alternate (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=W-25WqPQ9fM&list=PLF108FB65C3A15508)
Primordial manifestations of decay, the Fungoids are a constant threat to other races in the Underdeep, lurking in mushroom-groves, always waiting for the right moment to attack. They are an amoral and alien race, and though they do possess a kind of culture it is quite unfathomable to most humanoid species; Fungoid lives are short, save for those of their immortal Rotqueens, and they care little for the interests of other races. They live only to consume, to propagate, to corrupt, to blight the flesh of others and so replicate themselves. Their ultimate goal seems to be complete domination of the Underdeep, to transform the caverns into a single vast super-organism. Fungoids are not unified, however – rival Rotqueens do sometimes come into conflict with one another, competing strains of Fungoids contending for dominion. They even sometimes ally themselves with other races, though such arrangements are usually tenuous at best. Fungoid Colonies are vast accretions of fruiting bodies hidden deep in mushroom groves, toadstool-cities where hundreds – sometimes thousands – of Fungoids dwell, feeding on the flesh of humanoid prisoners.
Starting Dungeon: Fungoid players must always claim their first Colony in a cavern containing mushrooms. This Colony begins with a Festering Palace, a Fungal Nursery, 1 Skin Farm, 1 Mushroom Grove, and 1 garrisoned Sporemother. Additional rooms, traps, and defences can be purchased before play commences, with two weeks maturation time already completed. Units purchased before play commences likewise have two weeks maturation time already completed.
Starting Resources: Fungoids have no use for Gold, Metal, or even conventional Food. The only resource they consume is Bodies; thus, Fungoid players begin the game with 250 Bodies.
Sporekin: Fungoids are naturally camouflaged by the giant cave-mushrooms that thrive throughout the Underdeep. All Fungoid units gain the Infiltrator ability while within regions containing mushrooms, and lose the ability as soon as they depart the mushroom-infested region. While within such regions, they gain a +5 bonus to Defence while fleeing. Fungoid Dungeons are still marked on the map. Fungoids units are also never impeded by mushroom forests and can pass through them as if they were normal terrain, and while entrenched in regions containing mushrooms, Fungoids gain an additional +1 Defence, for a total Defence bonus of +2.
Sunlight Sensitivity: Much like Undead, Fungoids loathe the sun, flourishing only in damp, dark places. For every two weeks that a Fungoid unit spends on the Surface it loses 1 Health. It immediately recovers this lost health if it returns underground. Units that reach 0 Health due to this deterioration are destroyed completely. Unlike Undead, Fungoids also suffer Morale penalties from sunlight as well.
Fungi: Fungoids are immune to poison but not to disease. They are vulnerable to fire and cold, taking double damage from either form of attack. Dead Fungoid creatures do not become Bodies. They receive +2 to Defence and any Morale checks vs. Mind-influencing spells or psychic damage, though friendly mind-influencing effects, such as Frenzy, work on them normally.
Growth and Decay: Unlike other races, Fungoids don't mine Gold or Metal, and they don't consume Food either – their only real resource is decomposing bio-matter (that is, Bodies). However, Fungoid units cannot be recruited instantly; they possess a "Maturation Time," growing just as buildings do. While maturing in decomposing corpse-matter, Fungoids are considered infiltrated; however, since Detectors discover infiltrated units, they can find maturing Fungoids and have them destroyed. After fully maturing, Fungoids are born with all necessary knowledge and skills required of them, but they possess a highly limited Lifespan. If this Lifespan is reached and the Fungoid unit is still alive, it withers and dies, eventually drifting apart into a cloud of spores (this is partly why the Underdeep is filled with mushrooms).
Units
[ic=Fungoid Rotqueen]In her natural form, a Fungoid Rotqueen is a grotesque mass of fruiting bodies, though all Rotqueens possess the ability to manipulate their bodies to some degree, assuming different shapes as they see fit, and so they sometimes adopt vaguely humanoid forms when dealing with other races. The uncontested rulers of Fungoid Colonys, Rotqueens are generated from certain "royal spores" released whenever a Fungoid community requires a leader. While other Fungoids wither and die over the course of weeks or months, the Rotqueen can endure for centuries, overseeing vast realms of decomposition. They are inscrutable, alien creatures whose true motives cannot ever fully be comprehended by humanoids minds. On the battlefield they release a number of spores to confuse enemies.
Ranged Attack: +8
Ranged Damage: 6
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 4
Defence: 18
Health: 25
Speed: 4
Morale: +7
Special Abilities: Detector, Confusion, Leadership, Poison 3, Regeneration 12
The Fungoid Rotqueen increases the Health and Morale of any army she is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon she increases the Health and Morale of garrisoned troops by +1. Her Poison 3 ability is also transferred to any regiment she leads. If the regiment already has a Poison attack, it is increased by 3.[/ic]
[ic=Fungoid Thrall (Requires: Skin Farm)]Fungoid Thralls are humanoids that have been infested with certain spores that colonize the creature's brain and transform it into an automaton. While such creatures make useful thralls and fodder, they are poor combatants, and after a period of time they deteriorate entirely.
Cost: 1 Body
Maturation Time: 1 week
Upkeep: 1 Food or 1 Body
Lifespan: 8 weeks
Melee Attack: +1
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 14
Health: 8
Speed: 2
Morale: N/A
Fungoid Thralls can be converted into lifeless Bodies at any time.[/ic]
[ic=Fungoid Sporemother (Requires: Fungal Nursery)]Sporemothers are mobile spore-factories, seeding corpses with neonate Fungoid warriors and other creatures. Physically they are lumbering fungal beasts that walk slowly on three thick, trunk-like legs. Their backs seethe with spores, which the deposit using long, snaking tendrils. Though not powerful in battle they do have the ability to cloak a battlefield in a shroud of obfuscating spores, providing cover against ranged attacks, or exhale clouds of choking spores to distract enemy troops.
Cost: 12 Bodies
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Upkeep: 4 Bodies
Lifespan: 20 weeks
Ranged Attack: +4
Ranged Damage: 0
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 20
Health: 50
Speed: 4
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Distraction, Large, Obfuscating Shroud, Regeneration 25
Sporemothers can plant spores in Bodies that mature into Fungoid Warriors or Fungoid Puffball Mines. If garrisoned in Dungeons with certain rooms, she can implant spores to generate other units as well.
A Sporemother can also sacrifice herself in order to found a new Colony at no cost.[/ic]
[ic=Fungoid Warrior (Requires: Sporemother)]The main fighting force of any Fungoid army generally consists of a group of Fungoid warriors, strange creatures like walking mushrooms that fight with spiny growths on their fists and whipping tendrils.
Cost: 1 Body
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Upkeep: 1 Body
Lifespan: 12 weeks
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 15
Health: 10
Speed: 4
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Disease 2, Regeneration 5[/ic]
[ic=Fungoid Puffball Mine (Requires: Sporemother)]Puffball mines are fast, rolling balls of fungus that explode in clouds of spores and caustic liquid. Their lifespan is extremely short – just under a month – and so they need to be grown and utilized very quickly to be effective. In melee combat, puffball mines explode if enemy units destroy them, dealing additional damage.
Cost: 1 Body
Maturation Time: 1 week
Upkeep: None
Lifespan: 4 weeks
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 15 (Acid, Suicidal)
Defence: 12
Health: 4
Speed: 6
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Death Throes, Demolitions (Suicidal)[/ic]
[ic=Fungoid Crawling Cap (Requires: Toxic Cluster)]Sometimes referred to as "mushroom mortars" by enemy troops, crawling caps are slow-moving Fungoids who walk on long, thick stalks, capable of climbing down vast chasms or over enemy walls. In combat, they discharge toxic spores that sicken enemy creatures, though crawling caps are weak in melee and require support.
Cost: 1 Body
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Upkeep: 3 Bodies
Lifespan: 12 weeks
Ranged Attack: +8
Ranged Damage: 0
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 14
Health: 12
Speed: 3
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Climbing, Poisonous Cloud, Regeneration 6[/ic]
[ic=Fungoid Deathcap Assassin (Requires: Deathcap Cluster)]Cloaked by chameleonic spores, the dreadful Fungoid creatures known as deathcap assassins are said by some to be the equals of trained Dark Elf killers; there is, in this, an element of truth, for Deathcap assassins can only be grown from the corpses of Dark Elves. They appear much as Fungoid warriors do, but their caps are shadowy and their eyes black, like those of Dark Elves.
Cost: 1 Dark Elf Body
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Upkeep: 5 Bodies
Lifespan: 20 weeks
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 12
Defence: 18
Health: 20
Speed: 5
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Assassinate, Infiltrator, Poison 6, Regeneration 10[/ic]
[ic=Fungoid Creeping Mould (Requires: Slime Pool)]Creeping moulds are disgusting tides of corruption that seethe over battlefields and enemy fortifications, simply absorbing any enemies they come across. Those few who survive the attacks of such horrid creatures find themselves afflicted with a wasting fungal rot.
Cost: 20 Bodies
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Upkeep: 5 Bodies
Lifespan: 20 weeks
Melee Attack: +7
Melee Damage: 25
Defence: 14
Health: 100
Speed: 2
Morale: +6
Special Abilities: Climbing, Disease 4, Huge, Regeneration 20
Creeping Moulds are unaffected by the Kobolds' Cramped and Confused racial ability or any other abilities that penalize Huge creatures (though they are still count as 8 creatures for regiment-splitting purposes).[/ic]
[ic=Fungoid Infestor (Requires: Infestation Mound)]Fungoid Infestors are mutated Sporemothers whose purpose is not to create new Fungoid warriors but to seed regions with poisonous moulds and toxic slimes. They can also release certain substances that cause other Fungoid creatures to enter a bloodthirsty frenzy.
Cost: 12 Bodies
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Upkeep: 6 Bodies
Lifespan: 20 weeks
Ranged Attack: +6
Ranged Damage: 3
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 15
Health: 15
Speed: 4
Morale: +6
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 20), Frenzy, Large, Regeneration 6, Trapmaker[/ic]
[ic=Fungoid Blightguard (Requires: Blight Cluster)]The elite Blightguard often form a retinue for a Rotqueen. These powerful warriors resemble overgrown Fungoid warriors with several arms, each terminating in a barbed club or an array of lashing tendrils.
Cost: 1 Body
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Upkeep: 4 Bodies
Lifespan: 16 weeks
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 8
Defence: 20
Health: 25
Speed: 4
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Discipline, Disease 4, Regeneration 12[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Festering Palace]These fetid cathedrals are the abhorrent lairs of Fungoid Rotqueens, vast, primordial profusions of mushrooms and slime congealed into the shape of a vast, alien structure. Here Rotqueens preside over their armies of decay, wrapped in malignant clouds of spores. Festering Palaces release spores to increase the virulence of Fungoid spores. The Festering Palace has no cost, and is located in the Fungoid capitol.
Benefit: All Fungoid units garrisoned in a Colony with a Festering Palace have their Poison or Disease abilities increased by 2.[/ic]
[ic=Skin Farm (Limit 10)]These monstrous farms contain breeding populations of toplanders and Underdeepers alike, hemmed in with fungal membranes impervious to any escape attempts. Specialized spores keep the humanoid cattle pacified at all times, though periodically pheromone spores are released to encourage breeding. Fungoids use the prisoners as incubators for their spores.
Cost: 15 Bodies
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can develop Fungoid Thralls. A skin farm also produces 25 Bodies per week.[/ic]
[ic=Mushroom Grove (Unlimited)]Fungoids feed their Thralls mushrooms to sustain them.
Cost: 20 Bodies
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A mushroom grove produces 20 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Fungal Nursery]This enormous cavern is festooned with fruiting bodies, most prominently an enormous conglomeration of phosphorescent fungi from which neonate Sporemothers bud, detaching once they reach full size.
Cost: 60 Bodies
Maturation Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: You can develop Sporemothers.[/ic]
[ic=Toxic Cluster]This biliously coloured coagulation of poisonous mushrooms provides Sporemothers with the spores they require to cultivate Crawling Caps.
Cost: 30 Bodies
Maturation Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Fungoid Sporemothers garrisoned in a Colony with a Toxic Cluster can implant spores that develop into Fungoid Crawling Caps.[/ic]
[ic=Deathcap Cluster]This tenebrous mass of fungi provides Sporemothers with the spores they need to cultivate the deadly, chameleonic Fungoids known as Deathcap Assassins.
Cost: 35 Bodies
Prerequisites: Toxic Cluster
Maturation Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: Fungoid Sporemothers garrisoned in a Colony with a Toxic Cluster can implant spores that develop into Fungoid Deathcap Assassins.[/ic]
[ic=Slime Pool]This seething pool of fungal sludge cultivates the surging horrors known as Creeping Moulds.
Cost: 60 Bodies
Maturation Time: 6 weeks
Benefit: You can develop Fungoid Creeping Moulds (you don't need a Sporemother, and Sporemothers can never implant Creeping Moulds in the field).[/ic]
[ic=Infestation Mound]This horrific, pestilential mound of spores is added to the Fungal Nursery, allowing it to mutate Sporemothers into Infestors.
Cost: 40 Bodies
Prerequisites: Fungal Nursery
Maturation Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can develop Fungoid Infestors (you don't need a Sporemother, and Sporemothers can never implant Infestors in the field).[/ic]
[ic=Transmutation Cluster]This puffball of spores, when inhaled by a Sporemother, transforms it into an Infestor; when inhaled by an Infestor, it transforms it into a Sporemother.
Cost: 40 Bodies
Prerequisites: Infestation Mound
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Sporemothers can be transformed into Infestors and vice versa. This process takes one week, during which time the Sporemother or Infestor retains their abilities.[/ic]
[ic=Blight Cluster]This gangrenous canker of mushrooms provides Sporemothers with the spores they need to cultivate the elite Fungoid warriors known as the Blightguard.
Cost: 35 Bodies
Prerequisites: Toxic Cluster
Maturation Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: Fungoid Sporemothers garrisoned in a Colony with a Blight Cluster can implant spores that develop into Fungoid Blightguard.[/ic]
[ic=Maturation Bulb (Unlimited)]These bulbs can be used to augment existing Fungoid clusters, allowing them to develop Fungoids without a Sporemother's presence.
Cost: 8 Bodies
Prerequisites: Fungal Nursery, Toxic Cluster, Deathcap Cluster, or Blight Cluster (attaches)
Maturation Time: 1 week
Benefit: You can develop certain Fungoid units without a Sporemother, depending on which structure you attach the Maturation Bulb to. If you attach it to a Fungoid Nursery, you can develop Fungoid Warriors; if you attach it to a Toxic Cluster, you can develop Crawling Caps; if you attach it to a Deathcap Cluster, you can develop Deathcap Assassins; and if you attach it to a Blight Cluster you can develop Blightguard.[/ic]
[ic=Regeneration Bulb (Unlimited)]This bulb can be attached to certain Fungoid clusters and other structures, extending the lifespan of Fungoids produced by those clusters.
Cost: 12 Bodies
Prerequisites: Skin Farm, Fungal Nursery, Toxic Cluster, Deathcap Cluster, Slime Pool, Infestation Mound, or Blight Cluster (attaches)
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Units developed at a structure with a Regeneration Bulb attached add +4 weeks to their lifespan. This extended lifespan does
not carry over to units produced by Sporemothers, but does affect units developed directly at a structure equipped with a Maturation Bulb.[/ic]
[ic=Cultivation Bulb (Unlimited)]This mottled, pulsating bulb accelerates the maturation of developing Fungoids.
Cost: 20 Bodies
Prerequisites: Skin Farm, Fungal Nursery, Toxic Cluster, Deathcap Cluster, Slime Pool, Infestation Mound, or Blight Cluster (attaches)
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Units developed at a structure with a Cultivation Bulb attached take 1 less week to develop. This accelerated maturation time does
not carry over to units produced by Sporemothers, but does affect units developed directly at a structure equipped with a Maturation Bulb.[/ic]
[ic=Mindlink Bulb]This special bulb allows a Rotqueen to commune with other beings in the Underdeep.
Cost: 10 Bodies
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: While garrisoned at a Colony with a Mindlink Bulb, a Rotqueen gains the Mindlink spell, useable once per week.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=Living Wall (Limit 1)]This fibrous mass of fungal-matter is capable of repairing itself.
Cost: 25 Bodies
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Defence: 18
Health: 40
Special Abilities: Regeneration 10[/ic]
[ic=Flailing Wall (Limit 1, counts as Living Wall]Tendrils sprout from the living wall, flailing at attackers as they attempt to breach it.
Cost: 20 Bodies
Prerequisites: Living Wall (replaces)
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +5
Damage: 12
Defence: 18
Health: 40
Special Abilities: Regeneration 10[/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]This escape tunnel is concealed by mushrooms, making it hard for non-Fungoids to discover.
Cost: 5 Bodies
Maturation Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Defenders who fail their morale checks within a Dungeon with an escape tunnel can withdraw or flee to the nearest neighbouring territory instead of surrendering.[/ic]
[ic=Disguised Entrance (Limit 1)]Camouflage-mushrooms make the Fungoid Colony very difficult to find.
Cost: 15 Bodies
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Special Abilities: Units attacking the Colony must spend 1 Speed simply to locate the Colony, unless they possess Detection or are accompanied by those who do. Such entrances can only be built in Colonies, not Outposts.[/ic]
[ic=Lurker (Limit 5)]These innocuous-looking mushrooms are actually a species of murderous Fungoid that can lash out at unaware enemies.
Cost: 10 Bodies
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 12[/ic]
[ic=Vault Slime (Limit 3)]This disgusting blackish-grey slime is highly corrosive. It drips down in a rain of caustic dribble, burning the flesh of invaders.
Cost: 5 Bodies
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +5
Damage: 8 (Acid)[/ic]
[ic=Brown Mould (Limit 2)]This mottled, brownish mould feeds off the body heat of those who draw near it.
Cost: 8 Bodies
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 12 (Cold)[/ic]
[ic=Stranglevines (Limit 2)]These fungal tendrils drop down to choke incoming troops.
Cost: 14 Bodies
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +10
Damage: 20[/ic]
[ic=Giant Stinkhorn (Limit 1)]This overgrown stinkhorn is repellent to non-Fungoid troops.
Cost: 10 Bodies
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Special Abilities: Any attacking units assaulting a Colony or Outpost with a Giant Stinkhorn suffer -1 to Morale checks.[/ic]
[ic=Euphoria Cluster (Limit 1)]This enormous, fluting stalk of fungus releases spores that cause a mild euphoria in Fungoid troops.
Cost: 15 Bodies
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Special Abilities: Fungoids garrisoned at a Colony or Outpost with a Euphoria Cluster have a +2 Morale bonus.[/ic]
[ic=Restoration Cluster (Limit 1)]This gargantuan puffball releases spores that enhance the healing capabilities of Fungoid troops.
Cost: 20 Bodies
Maturation Time: 4 weeks
Special Abilities: Fungoids garrisoned at a Colony or Outpost with a Restoration Cluster are immune to disease and cured of any pre-existing diseases. If they possess Regenerative capabilities, these abilities increase by 10.[/ic]
[ic=Frenzy Cluster (Limit 1)]This bright crimson mass of spores causes Fungoids nearby to become wildly frenzied.
Cost: 18 Bodies
Maturation Time: 4 weeks
Special Abilities: Fungoids garrisoned at a Colony or Outpost with a Frenzy Cluster gain +2 Damage but -2 Defence.[/ic]
[ic=Poisonous Cluster (Limit 1)]This cluster of poisonous mushrooms can be cunningly placed in amongst a cluster of edible mushrooms. Unsuspecting enemies who forage for food in a poisoned patch find themselves sickened.
Cost: 12 Bodies
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Special Abilities: Units who forage in a mushroom forest containing a Poisonous Cluster planted by a Fungoid Infestor or grown at an Outpost or Colony have their Health lowered by 4 for 2 weeks.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=The Glow (created by Polycarp)]
The Glow
Soundtrack (http://picosong.com/nsS6/)
The first elves who saw it named it yellow, and then it was yellow, a sallow, sickly light that seeped dimly from below.
The first dwarves who saw it named it green, and then it was green, a deep algal emanation that crept through the tunnels from deep within the earth.
The first orcs who saw it named it red, and then it was red, a carmine radiance that seemed to slowly pulse in the darkness.
None were mistaken, for the light from below was all these colors and none. The hue, the richness, the character of the glow were all fluid as water, changing, growing stronger, dimming again, sometimes flickering like distant flames and sometimes glowing like half-dead embers – and so, in the languages of half a dozen races at least, the queer light from below is known simply as the Glow.
Only the few scavengers and raiding-parties that camped by the nearby lake ever saw the Glow, and often it faded so that it could not be seen at all, and so to most in the Middledeep who had even heard of it, the Glow was a strange tale and nothing more. The Glow was old, even by the counting of the dark Elves, and in the rise and fall of cavernous empires the strange light was nearly forgotten. There were far more dangerous things to worry about, after all, and when the very occasional party chose to delve down into the cavern by the lake, their subsequent disappearance was attributed to any number of terrible things already known to lurk in the lowest reaches of the world.
Yet in this lonely darkness, there was still the Glow. The Glow slept, and dreamt, and forgot the world as the world had forgotten it.
In an ancient time, the fungoids penetrated far into the Underdeep to a place of eternal rain, where the water of a Middledeep lake seeped through the thick rock and fell through blackness into an even greater lake. Whatever race had once made this place home was wiped away, and in their flesh the fungus-men planted their spores and sowed the seeds of their empire. Their queen had many progeny, and over the ages they sought other realms and other flesh, and the rainy lake was a bastion from which many plagues of fungoids burst forth into the upper reaches of the world to bedevil the races of flesh. In time, however, the queen of the lake turned her attention from the world above. She began to sense a strange and alien presence, for more than just water seeped through the rock.
Though other races feared the Ceremorphs, who too lurked deep below, she could feel the psychic ripples emanating from their distant minds. She began to sense their nature and the inconceivable essence of their thoughts. She drank the whispers like they were sweet water, and her mind wandered to strange visions and ineffable things known only in dreams. The queen forgot the real and grew lost within the unreal, growing more and more detached from the workings of the world, until one day she slipped beneath the cold waters of the lake and knew the waking world no more.
Her servants grew quiescent as she slept. The fungoids of the deep lake drove forth no more consuming progeny and drew back from the world, content to lurk in the forest by the lakeshore. A light began to grow in the deep waters, and then within the mushroom groves, and as the ages passed it crept up the chasms and tunnels until it glowed ever so dimly and fleetingly in one solitary corner of the Middledeep. The Glow was the reflection of the queen's dream, and as she drifted between realms out of space and time, the Glow shifted and flickered. She was the Glow, and the Glow was her, and there would be no end to the dream.
But something would one day rouse the Glow. Above, in the Great Mushroom Forest, a queen called Blackrot – a distant progeny of the dreaming queen from her waking past – was hewn unto death by the Prince of the Mhaldûlne, and her hordes decimated by the fury of his dwarves. Yet the spores of the fungus-folk are many, and a Queen's multitude surpasses all. Something drew the few survivors of her brood down into the faintly glowing pit and beneath the cold waters of the rainy lake, and they shed the fecund spore-dust of Blackrot upon the ancient dreaming queen who had long since devolved into a stew of radiant protoplasm on the lake's murky bottom.
After a time, a creature emerged from the waters – a new queen, not the dreamer and not Blackrot, yet born of both. The Dream would be made real.
Starting Dungeon: Fungoid players must always claim their first Colony in a cavern containing mushrooms. Fungoid Colonies begin with a Festering Palace, a Fungal Nursery, 1 Skin Farm, 1 Mushroom Grove, and 1 garrisoned Sporemother. Additional rooms, traps, and defences can be purchased before play commences, with two weeks maturation time already completed. Units purchased before play commences likewise have two weeks maturation time already completed.
Starting Resources: Fungoids have no use for Gold, Metal, or even conventional Food. The only resource they consume is Bodies; thus, Fungoid players begin the game with 250 Bodies.
Sporekin: Fungoids are naturally camouflaged by the giant cave-mushrooms that thrive throughout the Underdeep. All Fungoid units gain the Infiltrator ability while within regions containing mushrooms, and lose the ability as soon as they depart the mushroom-infested region. While within such regions, they gain a +5 bonus to Defence while fleeing. Fungoid Dungeons are still marked on the map. Fungoids units are also never impeded by mushroom forests and can pass through them as if they were normal terrain, and while entrenched in regions containing mushrooms, Fungoids gain an additional +1 Defence, for a total Defence bonus of +2.
Sunlight Sensitivity: Much like Undead, Fungoids loathe the sun, flourishing only in damp, dark places. For every two weeks that a Fungoid unit spends on the Surface it loses 1 Health. It immediately recovers this lost health if it returns underground. Units that reach 0 Health due to this deterioration are destroyed completely. Unlike Undead, Fungoids also suffer Morale penalties from sunlight as well.
Fungi: Fungoids are immune to poison but not to disease. They are vulnerable to fire and cold, taking double damage from either form of attack. Dead Fungoid creatures do not become Bodies. They receive +2 to Defence and any Morale checks vs. Mind-influencing spells or psychic damage, though friendly mind-influencing effects, such as Frenzy, work on them normally.
Growth and Decay: Unlike other races, Fungoids don't mine Gold or Metal, and they don't consume Food either – their only real resource is decomposing bio-matter (that is, Bodies). However, Fungoid units cannot be recruited instantly; they possess a "Maturation Time," growing just as buildings do. While maturing in decomposing corpse-matter, Fungoids are considered infiltrated; however, since Detectors discover infiltrated units, they can find maturing Fungoids and have them destroyed. After fully maturing, Fungoids are born with all necessary knowledge and skills required of them, but they possess a highly limited Lifespan. If this Lifespan is reached and the Fungoid unit is still alive, it withers and dies, eventually drifting apart into a cloud of spores (this is partly why the Underdeep is filled with mushrooms).
Dream Message: Once per week, in addition to its normal message allotment, the Glow may send a dream message that is received by all Ceremorph and Watcher players (and any NPC Ceremorph Overbrains and Watcher Sovereigns). This can never consist of coherent instructions or details (e.g. "Give me X resources," "send your forces to X next turn," "my enemy has X troops"), but instead takes the form of a strange, otherworldly dream. At most, it can communicate vague feelings or perceptions; it may at times communicate nothing comprehensible at all. The Glow cannot choose which Ceremorph Overbrains or Watcher Sovereigns receive this message (they all do), nor are Ceremorph players permitted a reply as per a normal message.
Units
[ic=Child of the Glow](http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/1612/thechild.jpg)
Deep in the bowels of the earth, where the mushroom forest meets the lake, the Heart of the Glow lies in psychedelic splendor. Spires like fluorescent fern-fronds glisten in the eternal rain, hanging above the congealed mass of structures and spawn below. Even the mushroom "trees" here are changed by the dream, covered in quivering polyps and blotched with neon hues.
The new scion moves among them all, a queen even more strangely beautiful than her subjects, glowing and shifting with colors never before glimpsed beneath the earth. Silently still lies the dreamer, the genesis of the Glow, a shimmering pool beneath the waters; if her psyche still endures at all, it wanders more distantly from the world than any mind could comprehend – save, perhaps, for the Ceremorphs themselves.
Ranged Attack: +8
Ranged Damage: 6
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 4
Defence: 18
Health: 25
Speed: 4
Morale: +7
Special Abilities: Detector, Confusion, Leadership, Slumberous Poison, Regeneration 12
The Child of the Glow increases the Health and Morale of any army she is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon she increases the Health and Morale of garrisoned troops by +1. The Child of the Glow's poisonous attacks affect both melee and ranged damage; if her attack roll exceeds the target's Defence, units in the regiment become extremely drowsy for one round, suffering -4 to Defence.[/ic]
[ic=Fungoid Thrall (Requires: Skin Farm)]Fungoid Thralls are humanoids that have been infested with certain spores that colonize the creature's brain and transform it into an automaton. While such creatures make useful thralls and fodder, they are poor combatants, and after a period of time they deteriorate entirely.
Cost: 1 Body
Maturation Time: 1 week
Upkeep: 1 Food or 1 Body
Lifespan: 8 weeks
Melee Attack: +1
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 14
Health: 8
Speed: 2
Morale: N/A
Fungoid Thralls can be converted into lifeless Bodies at any time.[/ic]
[ic=Fungoid Sporemother (Requires: Fungal Nursery)]Sporemothers are mobile spore-factories, seeding corpses with neonate Fungoid warriors and other creatures. Physically they are lumbering fungal beasts that walk slowly on three thick, trunk-like legs. Their backs seethe with spores, which the deposit using long, snaking tendrils. Though not powerful in battle they do have the ability to cloak a battlefield in a shroud of obfuscating spores, providing cover against ranged attacks, or exhale clouds of choking spores to distract enemy troops.
Cost: 12 Bodies
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Upkeep: 4 Bodies
Lifespan: 20 weeks
Ranged Attack: +4
Ranged Damage: 0
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 20
Health: 50
Speed: 4
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Distraction, Large, Obfuscating Shroud, Regeneration 25
Sporemothers can plant spores in Bodies that mature into Fungoid Warriors or Fungoid Puffball Mines. If garrisoned in Dungeons with certain rooms, she can implant spores to generate other units as well.
A Sporemother can also sacrifice herself in order to found a new Colony at no cost.[/ic]
[ic=Fungoid Warrior (Requires: Sporemother)]The main fighting force of any Fungoid army generally consists of a group of Fungoid warriors, strange creatures like walking mushrooms that fight with spiny growths on their fists and whipping tendrils.
Cost: 1 Body
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Upkeep: 1 Body
Lifespan: 12 weeks
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 15
Health: 10
Speed: 4
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Disease 2, Regeneration 5[/ic]
[ic=Fungoid Puffball Mine (Requires: Sporemother)]Puffball mines are fast, rolling balls of fungus that explode in clouds of spores and caustic liquid. Their lifespan is extremely short – just under a month – and so they need to be grown and utilized very quickly to be effective. In melee combat, puffball mines explode if enemy units destroy them, dealing additional damage.
Cost: 1 Body
Maturation Time: 1 week
Upkeep: None
Lifespan: 4 weeks
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 15 (Acid, Suicidal)
Defence: 12
Health: 4
Speed: 6
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Death Throes, Demolitions[/ic]
[ic=Fungoid Crawling Cap (Requires: Toxic Cluster)]Sometimes referred to as "mushroom mortars" by enemy troops, crawling caps are slow-moving Fungoids who walk on long, thick stalks, capable of climbing down vast chasms or over enemy walls. In combat, they discharge toxic spores that sicken enemy creatures, though crawling caps are weak in melee and require support.
Cost: 1 Body
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Upkeep: 3 Bodies
Lifespan: 12 weeks
Ranged Attack: +8
Ranged Damage: 0
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 14
Health: 12
Speed: 3
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Climbing, Poisonous Cloud, Regeneration 6[/ic]
[ic=Fungoid Deathcap Assassin (Requires: Deathcap Cluster)]Cloaked by chameleonic spores, the dreadful Fungoid creatures known as deathcap assassins are said by some to be the equals of trained Dark Elf killers; there is, in this, an element of truth, for Deathcap assassins can only be grown from the corpses of Dark Elves. They appear much as Fungoid warriors do, but their caps are shadowy and their eyes black, like those of Dark Elves.
Cost: 1 Dark Elf Body
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Upkeep: 5 Bodies
Lifespan: 20 weeks
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 12
Defence: 18
Health: 20
Speed: 5
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Assassinate, Infiltrator, Poison 6, Regeneration 10[/ic]
[ic=Fungoid Creeping Mould (Requires: Slime Pool)]Creeping moulds are disgusting tides of corruption that seethe over battlefields and enemy fortifications, simply absorbing any enemies they come across. Those few who survive the attacks of such horrid creatures find themselves afflicted with a wasting fungal rot.
Cost: 20 Bodies
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Upkeep: 5 Bodies
Lifespan: 20 weeks
Melee Attack: +7
Melee Damage: 25
Defence: 14
Health: 100
Speed: 2
Morale: +6
Special Abilities: Climbing, Disease 4, Huge, Regeneration 20
Creeping Moulds are unaffected by the Kobolds' Cramped and Confused racial ability or any other abilities that penalize Huge creatures (though they are still count as 8 creatures for regiment-splitting purposes).[/ic]
[ic=Fungoid Infestor (Requires: Infestation Mound)]Fungoid Infestors are mutated Sporemothers whose purpose is not to create new Fungoid warriors but to seed regions with poisonous moulds and toxic slimes. They can also release certain substances that cause other Fungoid creatures to enter a bloodthirsty frenzy.
Cost: 12 Bodies
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Upkeep: 6 Bodies
Lifespan: 20 weeks
Ranged Attack: +6
Ranged Damage: 3
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 15
Health: 15
Speed: 4
Morale: +6
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 20), Frenzy, Large, Regeneration 6, Trapmaker[/ic]
[ic=Fungoid Mindrot Horror (Requires: Ganglial Cluster)]The insidious Fungoids known as Mindrot Horrors are created when a strain of specialized Fungoid spores particular to the Glow infest a Ceremorph corpse. These abominable Fungoids can sense enemy creatures even when hidden, and specialize in a range of mind-influencing spores. They resemble Fungoid warriors but with masses of writhing tendrils sprouting from their bulk.
Cost: 1 Ceremorph Body
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Upkeep: 4 Bodies
Lifespan: 20 weeks
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 8 (Psychic)
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 17
Health: 16
Speed: 4
Morale: +6
Special Abilities: Agony, Detector, Dominate, Regeneration 8[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Heart of the Glow]A psychedelic whorl of colour, light, and texture, the chaotic, glimmering Heart of the Glow is saturated with strange hues and uncanny half-light, bathed in otherworldly phosphorescence.
Benefit: Benefit: Enemy units attacking the Fungoid Colony containing the Heart of the Glow suffer a -4 penalty to Attack and Morale rolls for the first round of combat, being daze and bewildered by the phosphorescent light.[/ic]
[ic=Skin Farm (Limit 10)]These monstrous farms contain breeding populations of toplanders and Underdeepers alike, hemmed in with fungal membranes impervious to any escape attempts. Specialized spores keep the humanoid cattle pacified at all times, though periodically pheromone spores are released to encourage breeding. Fungoids use the prisoners as incubators for their spores.
Cost: 15 Bodies
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can develop Fungoid Thralls. A skin farm also produces 25 Bodies per week.[/ic]
[ic=Mushroom Grove (Unlimited)]Fungoids feed their Thralls mushrooms to sustain them.
Cost: 20 Bodies
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A mushroom grove produces 20 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Fungal Nursery]This enormous cavern is festooned with fruiting bodies, most prominently an enormous conglomeration of phosphorescent fungi from which neonate Sporemothers bud, detaching once they reach full size.
Cost: 60 Bodies
Maturation Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: You can develop Sporemothers.[/ic]
[ic=Toxic Cluster]This biliously coloured coagulation of poisonous mushrooms provides Sporemothers with the spores they require to cultivate Crawling Caps.
Cost: 30 Bodies
Maturation Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Fungoid Sporemothers garrisoned in a Colony with a Toxic Cluster can implant spores that develop into Fungoid Crawling Caps.[/ic]
[ic=Deathcap Cluster]This tenebrous mass of fungi provides Sporemothers with the spores they need to cultivate the deadly, chameleonic Fungoids known as Deathcap Assassins.
Cost: 35 Bodies
Prerequisites: Toxic Cluster
Maturation Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: Fungoid Sporemothers garrisoned in a Colony with a Toxic Cluster can implant spores that develop into Fungoid Deathcap Assassins.[/ic]
[ic=Slime Pool]This seething pool of fungal sludge cultivates the surging horrors known as Creeping Moulds.
Cost: 60 Bodies
Maturation Time: 6 weeks
Benefit: You can develop Fungoid Creeping Moulds (you don't need a Sporemother, and Sporemothers can never implant Creeping Moulds in the field).[/ic]
[ic=Infestation Mound]This horrific, pestilential mound of spores is added to the Fungal Nursery, allowing it to mutate Sporemothers into Infestors.
Cost: 40 Bodies
Prerequisites: Fungal Nursery
Maturation Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can develop Fungoid Infestors (you don't need a Sporemother, and Sporemothers can never implant Infestors in the field).[/ic]
[ic=Transmutation Cluster]This puffball of spores, when inhaled by a Sporemother, transforms it into an Infestor; when inhaled by an Infestor, it transforms it into a Sporemother.
Cost: 40 Bodies
Prerequisites: Infestation Mound
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Sporemothers can be transformed into Infestors and vice versa. This process takes one week, during which time the Sporemother or Infestor retains their abilities.[/ic]
[ic=Gangial Cluster]This mass of fungi bears a superficial resemblance to a brain.
Cost: 35 Bodies
Prerequisites: Toxic Cluster
Maturation Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: Fungoid Sporemothers garrisoned in a Colony with a Ganglial Cluster can implant spores that develop into Fungoid Mindrot Horror.[/ic]
[ic=Maturation Bulb (Unlimited)]These bulbs can be used to augment existing Fungoid clusters, allowing them to develop Fungoids without a Sporemother's presence.
Cost: 8 Bodies
Prerequisites: Fungal Nursery, Toxic Cluster, Deathcap Cluster, or Ganglial Cluster (attaches)
Maturation Time: 1 week
Benefit: You can develop certain Fungoid units without a Sporemother, depending on which structure you attach the Maturation Bulb to. If you attach it to a Fungoid Nursery, you can develop Fungoid Warriors; if you attach it to a Toxic Cluster, you can develop Crawling Caps; if you attach it to a Deathcap Cluster, you can develop Deathcap Assassins; and if you attach it to a Ganglial Cluster you can develop Mindrot Horrors.[/ic]
[ic=Regeneration Bulb (Unlimited)]This bulb can be attached to certain Fungoid clusters and other structures, extending the lifespan of Fungoids produced by those clusters.
Cost: 12 Bodies
Prerequisites: Skin Farm, Fungal Nursery, Toxic Cluster, Deathcap Cluster, Slime Pool, Infestation Mound, or Ganglial Cluster (attaches)
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Units developed at a structure with a Regeneration Bulb attached add +4 weeks to their lifespan. This extended lifespan does
not carry over to units produced by Sporemothers, but does affect units developed directly at a structure equipped with a Maturation Bulb.[/ic]
[ic=Cultivation Bulb (Unlimited)]This mottled, pulsating bulb accelerates the maturation of developing Fungoids.
Cost: 20 Bodies
Prerequisites: Skin Farm, Fungal Nursery, Toxic Cluster, Deathcap Cluster, Slime Pool, Infestation Mound, or Ganglial Cluster (attaches)
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Units developed at a structure with a Cultivation Bulb attached take 1 less week to develop. This accelerated maturation time does
not carry over to units produced by Sporemothers, but does affect units developed directly at a structure equipped with a Maturation Bulb.[/ic]
[ic=Mindlink Bulb]This special bulb allows a Rotqueen to commune with other beings in the Underdeep.
Cost: 10 Bodies
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: While garrisoned at a Colony with a Mindlink Bulb, a Rotqueen gains the Mindlink spell, useable once per week.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=Living Wall (Limit 1)]This fibrous mass of fungal-matter is capable of repairing itself.
Cost: 25 Bodies
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Defence: 18
Health: 40
Special Abilities: Regeneration 10[/ic]
[ic=Flailing Wall (Limit 1, counts as Living Wall]Tendrils sprout from the living wall, flailing at attackers as they attempt to breach it.
Cost: 20 Bodies
Prerequisites: Living Wall (replaces)
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +5
Damage: 12
Defence: 18
Health: 40
Special Abilities: Regeneration 10[/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]This escape tunnel is concealed by mushrooms, making it hard for non-Fungoids to discover.
Cost: 5 Bodies
Maturation Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Defenders who fail their morale checks within a Dungeon with an escape tunnel can withdraw or flee to the nearest neighbouring territory instead of surrendering.[/ic]
[ic=Disguised Entrance (Limit 1)]Camouflage-mushrooms make the Fungoid Colony very difficult to find.
Cost: 15 Bodies
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Special Abilities: Units attacking the Colony must spend 1 Speed simply to locate the Colony, unless they possess Detection or are accompanied by those who do. Such entrances can only be built in Colonies, not Outposts.[/ic]
[ic=Lurker (Limit 5)]These innocuous-looking mushrooms are actually a species of murderous Fungoid that can lash out at unaware enemies.
Cost: 10 Bodies
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 12[/ic]
[ic=Vault Slime (Limit 3)]This disgusting blackish-grey slime is highly corrosive. It drips down in a rain of caustic dribble, burning the flesh of invaders.
Cost: 5 Bodies
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +5
Damage: 8 (Acid)[/ic]
[ic=Brown Mould (Limit 2)]This mottled, brownish mould feeds off the body heat of those who draw near it.
Cost: 8 Bodies
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 12 (Cold)[/ic]
[ic=Stranglevines (Limit 2)]These fungal tendrils drop down to choke incoming troops.
Cost: 14 Bodies
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +10
Damage: 20[/ic]
[ic=Giant Stinkhorn (Limit 1)]This overgrown stinkhorn is repellent to non-Fungoid troops.
Cost: 10 Bodies
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Special Abilities: Any attacking units assaulting a Colony or Outpost with a Giant Stinkhorn suffer -1 to Morale checks.[/ic]
[ic=Euphoria Cluster (Limit 1)]This enormous, fluting stalk of fungus releases spores that cause a mild euphoria in Fungoid troops.
Cost: 15 Bodies
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Special Abilities: Fungoids garrisoned at a Colony or Outpost with a Euphoria Cluster have a +2 Morale bonus.[/ic]
[ic=Restoration Cluster (Limit 1)]This gargantuan puffball releases spores that enhance the healing capabilities of Fungoid troops.
Cost: 20 Bodies
Maturation Time: 4 weeks
Special Abilities: Fungoids garrisoned at a Colony or Outpost with a Restoration Cluster are immune to disease and cured of any pre-existing diseases. If they possess Regenerative capabilities, these abilities increase by 10.[/ic]
[ic=Frenzy Cluster (Limit 1)]This bright crimson mass of spores causes Fungoids nearby to become wildly frenzied.
Cost: 18 Bodies
Maturation Time: 4 weeks
Special Abilities: Fungoids garrisoned at a Colony or Outpost with a Frenzy Cluster gain +2 Damage but -2 Defence.[/ic]
[ic=Poisonous Cluster (Limit 1)]This cluster of poisonous mushrooms can be cunningly placed in amongst a cluster of edible mushrooms. Unsuspecting enemies who forage for food in a poisoned patch find themselves sickened.
Cost: 12 Bodies
Maturation Time: 2 weeks
Special Abilities: Units who forage in a mushroom forest containing a Poisonous Cluster planted by a Fungoid Infestor or grown at an Outpost or Colony have their Health lowered by 4 for 2 weeks.[/ic]
[ic=Dreamcap (Limit 3)]These soporific mushrooms release spores that put enemy creatures or wandering monsters to sleep.
Cost: 12 Bodies
Maturation Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +6
Benefit: If the Dreamcap hits, it puts 1d6 units asleep, including Large units, but not Huge units. These units are unharmed, but they become Fungoid prisoners if Fungoid successfully repel their attackers. If a Dreamcap is placed by an Infestor in a region uninhabited by Fungoids, it is only effective if all of the units in the army are put to sleep – otherwise the remaining troops simply wake up their comrades. Like other traps, Dreamcaps can be activated by wandering monsters.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Ceremorphs]
Ceremorphs
Soundtrack (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?annotation_id=annotation_287740&feature=iv&src_vid=__3eZfU8tjA&v=2_ZsFD-irLs)
Alternate (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=__3eZfU8tjA)
Awaken, neonate, and open your mind to me, for I am the Overbrain, and you have been blessed with a seed of my undying will. Know that to defy me is to elect the path of torment unending. Serve me well, and you may one day become a part of me, if you are fortunate. The imperfect body of your host has been reshaped to my needs, as your mind has been bound to my will. Go, now, and join your brethren in the Hive. Feed on the minds of the Lesser Ones and taste of the eternal exaltation that will soon be ours, once Dominion is secured...The Ceremorphs are an ancient and alien race whose origins are lost in the mists of time. Some claim they are travelers from a far-flung plane, refugees of a collapsing reality or of foes even more terrible than they. Others say they are the bygone rulers of the world, driven into the darkest depths of the Lowerdeep long ago. Whatever the case, they are amongst the most terrifying creatures of the Underdeep. Those they do not feed upon they enslave or conduct experiments with; they reproduce only with the aid of humanoid hosts, implanting their squirming larvae – amphibious grubs somewhere between maggots and tadpoles – into the still-living skulls of captured prisoners. The larvae assume control of their host body and mould it into a new Ceremorph, a new subject under the control of a Ceremorph Overbrain. Though Ceremorphs are not mere puppets, possessing independent consciousnesses, they are ultimately bound into a telepathic hive-mind, and dissident intellects are ruthlessly weeded out by the ruthless Ceremorph Inquisitors. Thus they build their empire of fear and pain, an unending holocaust of subjugation and horror whose tendrils extend throughout the Underdeep, and even unto the Surface.
Starting Dungeon: Ceremorph players must always claim their first Hive in the Lowerdeep. This Hive begins with a Ceremorph Overbrain Chamber, a Spawning Pool, 1 Thrall Pen, 1 Mushroom Patch, and a Ceremorph Mine.
Starting Resources: The Ceremorphs are often left undisturbed, for the Lowerdeep is perilous. This allows them to generate a great number of resources. Their isolation and alien psychology – and their tendency to eat the brains of any they encounter – does tend to discourage trade, however. Ceremorph players begin the game with 800 Gold, 150 Metal, 100 Food, and 50 Bodies.
Domination: Ceremorphs can psychically dominate their enemies. When attacking a fleeing unit of normal or Large size, any casualties they inflict can be transformed into Thralls instead of being slain. Casualties inflicted by Ceremorph Larvae Swarms become Ceremorph Psions instead as per their Create Spawn ability. An actual Ceremorph (Psion, Inquisitor, or Overbrain) must be present for the Domination ability to function.
Telepathy: Ceremorph Overbrains are powerful psychic creatures with natural telepathy. They can send double the number of messages per week - four messages to each player. Players who receive Ceremorph messages can reply to all of them, even if this exceeds their normal 2 message/player limit.
The Hunger!: Ceremorphs possess an insatiable appetite. Ceremorphs not given their Body and/or Food Upkeep suffer double the penalties per week to morale and health from starvation.
Units
[ic=Ceremorph Overbrain]A pulsating, gelatinous mass at the center of the Ceremorph Hive, the Overbrain is in fact the accreted cerebral mass of thousands of Ceremorphs, the final stage in their alien life-cycle. The ultimate goals of Ceremorph Overbrains is known only to the Overbrains themselves, but it seems to include total domination of the Underdeep and the enslavement of all its denizens. Ceremorph Overbrains usually cooperate with one another, but curious rivalries – perhaps subtle differences in philosophical outlook or personality – have been observed to develop between them, and Ceremorph Hives do sometimes compete for slaves and territory.
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 20 (Psychic)
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 15
Health: 500
Speed: 0
Morale: +10
Special Abilities: Agony, Confusion, Detector, Dominate, Huge, Immunity (Fear), Scry
A Ceremorph Overbrain cannot move, but its increases the Morale and Ranged Damage bonus of any units garrisoned in its Hive by +2. A Ceremorph Overbrain cannot join a regiment. It can, however, cast spells and use ranged attacks on enemies attacking the capitol Hive from within its chamber.
All units garrisoned at a Hive with an Overbrain are immune to Fear effects.
If the Ceremorph Overbrain is ever destroyed, all Ceremorph units under its control must make an immediate morale check of DC 15 or instantly die from mental shock. Ceremorph units without a morale score, like Thralls, Larvae, or Brain Golems, die immediately.[/ic]
[ic=Thrall (Requires: Thrall Pen)]Ceremorphs psychically dominate their enemies, transforming them into mindless thralls, automatons that work their mines and act as fodder on the battlefield. Thralls require the presence of a Ceremorph to function properly.
Cost: 5 Gold
Upkeep: 1 Food
Melee Attack: +1
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 12
Health: 4
Speed: 4
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Thralls can be converted into Bodies at any time to feed Ceremorphs, or they can be sacrificed to help create Ceremorph Psions.
Thralls must be accompanied by at least one Ceremorph Psion or Ceremorph Inquisitor (i.e. in the same army) at all times, unless garrisoned in a Dungeon with an Overbrain. If the Psions or Inquisitors shepherding them perish, they immediately become inert, standing in place and doing nothing. They will continue in this state until a new Ceremorph Psion or Inquisitor (of their original Faction or a different Ceremorph Faction) approaches them, at which points they join the Ceremorph army containing said Psion or Inquisitor. While inert, Thralls accrue Upkeep costs but cannot receive Food, and thus begin starving to death (see Upkeep rules). If reclaimed, any Upkeep owing must be repaid immediately, if possible.
Ceremorphs can obtain control of Watcher Thralls, and vice versa.[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Larvae Swarm (Requires: Spawning Pool)]Writhing masses of Ceremorph larvae are often herded into battle alongside other troops, in order to generate new Ceremorphs in the field. These disgusting, worm-like creatures hurl themselves at enemies, attempting to violate their flesh and burrow into their skulls, to begin the process of Ceremorphosis.
Cost: 10 Gold
Upkeep: None
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 8 (Suicidal)
Defence: 14
Health: 8
Speed: 4
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Create Spawn (Ceremorph Psions), Vermin
Note: Dead Ceremorph Larvae swarms do not count as Bodies.[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Psion (Requires: Spawning Pool)]The aberrant, tentacled Ceremorph Psions are skilled in psychic attacks. Armour, shields, scales – all are worthless against a Ceremorph's mental barrage, an onslaught that can reduce a humanoid mind to bloody pulp, all the better to be slurped up by a Ceremorph's questing tentacles.
Cost: 10 Gold, 1 Thrall
Upkeep: 3 Gold, 2 Bodies
Ranged Attack: +6
Ranged Damage: 4 (Psychic)
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 16
Health: 8
Speed: 4
Morale: +4
Special Abilities: Detector[/ic]
[ic=Brainhound (Requires: Mutation Chamber)]These horrifying mutant things resemble brains sprouting chitinous, quasi-reptilian limbs and masses of tentacles. They are extremely stealthy attackers, fighting with claws and whipping pseudo-pods. Unlike true Ceremorphs they are omnivores, capable of feeding on sustenance apart from brains, though they willingly consume dead flesh.
Cost: 20 Gold, 1 Body
Upkeep: 3 Bodies or 3 Food
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 17
Health: 10
Speed: 6
Morale: +4
Special Abilities: Infiltrator[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Sentinel (Requires: Mutation Chamber)]These monstrous beings resemble enormous, rubbery stalactites. They are extremely slow-moving, but this actually helps their mode of attack – serving as sentries and guards, Ceremorph Sentinels use their natural resemblance to rocks to surprise attacking foes. They attack with their lashing tendrils, strangling enemies and then feeding on their brains and flesh.
Cost: 30 Gold, 2 Bodies
Upkeep: 5 Bodies or 5 Food
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 10
Defence: 18
Health: 40
Speed: 1
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Detector, Infiltrator, Large, Reach
Ceremorph Sentinels only take 1 Speed to set up an Ambush.[/ic]
[ic=Brain Golem (Requires: Experimentation Chrysalis)]This nauseating constructs are made entirely out of brain tissue. Apart from being indomitable fighters, they can project a mental blast that confuses and disorients enemies.
Cost: 50 Gold, 25 Bodies
Upkeep: 10 Gold, 5 Bodies
Ranged Attack: +6
Ranged Damage: 0
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 15
Defence: 18
Health: 75
Speed: 3
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Confusion, Construct, Large[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Inquisitor (Requires: Sanctum of Pain)]Elder Ceremorphs earn the title Inquisitor, charged with rooting out dissident consciousnesses. They are powerful Psions, inspiring terror in Ceremorph troops and enemy forces alike. With the ability cause excruciating pain with a twitch of their tentacles, they are not to be taken lightly. Armies containing Inquisitors tend to be far more disciplined than those without them.
Cost: 65 Gold, 1 Thrall
Upkeep: 8 Gold, 4 Bodies
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 8 (Psychic)
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 18
Health: 20
Speed: 4
Morale: +7
Special Abilities: Agony, Detector, Discipline, Fear (DC 18), Immunity (Fear)
Armies accompanied by a Ceremorph Inquisitor gain the Discipline ability.[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Severed (Requires: Metamorphic Cell)]The Severed are the mutated remnants of Ceremorph heretics and dissidents, created by Ceremorph Inquisitors in the deepest dungeons of a Hive. Appearing as overgrown, decapitated, floating Ceremorph heads, they serve as troop transports for Ceremorph troops.
Cost: 50 Gold
Upkeep: 5 Bodies
Defence: 20
Health: 60
Speed: 8
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Flying, Huge, Transport (50 normal-sized troops – Large troops count as 4 regular troops, Huge troops cannot be transported)[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Mindwyrm (Requires: Eldritch Cocoon)]A Mindwyrm is a type of mutated Ceremorph larva fed neural tissues from dead Ceremorphs. The creature grows to a prodigious size, a mass of hideous tentacles writhing from its maw; it can burrow through solid rock, and where it goes, terror follows. These fearsome abominations are amongst the most powerful creatures in the Ceremorph arsenal, able to contend with Dragons and other behemothic horrors.
Cost: 200 Gold, 30 Bodies
Upkeep: 20 Bodies
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 15 (Psychic)
Melee Attack: +15
Melee Damage: 30
Defence: 18
Health: 220
Speed: 8
Morale: +10
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 20), Huge, Tunneling[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Ceremorph Overbrain Chamber]This cavernous chamber houses the Ceremorph Overbrain. From here, the Overbrain sends its psychic commands to Ceremorph troops, while dying Ceremorphs relinquish their brains to the central pool in which the Overbrain squats. The chamber is heavily reinforced to prevent intruders from entering. This room has no cost, and is located in the Ceremorph capitol.
Defence: 22
Health: 100[/ic]
[ic=Mindlink Node]This special node allows an Overbrain to establish a link with another being.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequisites: Ceremorph Overbrain Chamber
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Your Overbrain gains the Mindlink spell, useable once per week. Llitul can use the node instead of the Overbrain, but she must be garrisoned in Dtoulth to do so.[/ic]
[ic=Teleportation Sphincter (Unlimited)]This horrible organic orifice connects to a twin elsewhere in the Underdeep, transporting creatures though its entrail-like length almost instantly.
Cost: 75 Gold
Prerequisites: Ceremorph Overbrain Chamber
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Teleportation Sphincters must be built in pairs to function (though they need not be built at the same time). Once per week, the Sphincters can be activated, transporting up to 50 units between locations. Teleportation Sphincters are always linked in pairs: a group of three Sphincters, for example, cannot be linked, though multiple pairs of Sphincters can be constructed. If a Teleportation Sphincter hasn't been used and troops wish to withdraw from a Dungeon under attack, it can be used to do so.
Note: although an Overbrain Chamber is required to create the Teleportation Sphincter, it need not be physically present in all Dungeons with a Circle, only one of them. If the Hive containing the Overbrain Chamber is lost, however, new Sphincters cannot be created.[/ic]
[ic=Restoration Pool]This pool of curative fluid is used to heal Ceremorphs of disease and other ailments.
Cost: 35 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Ceremorphs who bathe in the Restoration Pool are cured of any diseases they are carrying.[/ic]
[ic=Mushroom Patch (Unlimited)]Ceremorphs cultivate mushrooms primarily to feed their mentally dominated slaves, though Sentinels and Brainhounds can also feed on them if necessary.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A mushroom patch produces 20 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Thrall Pen (Limit 15)]This lightless cage of flesh and iron contains humanoid prisoners, a breeding population used by the Ceremorphs to create Thralls, and to supply themselves with fresh brains and hosts for reproduction.
Cost: 50 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Thralls. In addition, the Thrall Pen produces 20 Bodies per week.[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Mine]Ceremorph mines are always tended by thralls. They make tireless workers, and their tunnels echo with the eerie, synchronous sound of their picks striking rock, as each individual thrall performs identical motions.
Cost: 175 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Thrall Pen
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You mine up to 185 Gold and up to 20 Metal per week, provided your Dungeon is built over a suitable deposit. You can only have a single mine per deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Improved Ceremorph Mine]Additional thralls and improved mining technology stolen or traded from other races make this mine more efficient.
Cost: 225 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Ceremorph Mine (replaces), 3 Thrall Pens
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 325 Gold and 35 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Mine Complex]A teeming army of thralls tend this vast complex of tunnels.
Cost: 300 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Improved Ceremorph Mine (replaces), 6 Thrall Pens
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 450 Gold and 50 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Spawning Pool]This vast pool of brine, grey-matter, and alchemical ooze is central to most Ceremorph Hives. Here Ceremorph larvae are hatched and tended-to, before being implanted in still-living thralls to create new Ceremorphs.
Cost: 40 Gold, 10 Bodies
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Ceremorph Larvae Swarms and Ceremorph Psions.[/ic]
[ic=Grafting Workshop]In this blood-drenched hall of horrors, thralls are grafted with alien tissues scavenged from beasts and other creatures, in order to augment their abilities.
Cost: 20 Gold, 20 Bodies
Prerequisites: Spawning Pool
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Thralls recruited at a Hive with a Grafting Workshop can be recruited as Grafted Thralls, gaining +1 Melee Attack, +1 Melee Damage, and +1 Defence but costing 1 Body in addition to their regular costs. Thralls garrisoned in a Hive with a Grafting Workshop can be upgraded to Grafted Thralls for 1 Body.[/ic]
[ic=Mutation Chamber]This throbbing, semi-organic chamber contains vast vats of eldritch liquid in which Ceremorph creatures can be immersed, transforming them in various aberrant ways.
Cost: 125 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Spawning Pool
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Ceremorph Brainhounds and Ceremorph Sentinels.[/ic]
[ic=Evolution Cell]Sometimes, purely mindless thralls are less useful to Ceremorphs than those retaining some shred of sentience. Thralls cultivated in an Evolution Cell are just that – partially self-aware creatures who serve the Ceremorphs as spies and suicide troops.
Cost: 50 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Grafting Workshop, Mutation Chamber
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Thralls recruited at a Hive with an Evolution Cell can be recruited as Thrall Infiltrators. They are identical with Grafted Thralls save that they possess the Infiltrator ability, a Morale score of +3, and a suicidal attack which, if it hits, deals 15 points of Acid damage. They do not take Morale penalties on the Surface. They cost 12 Gold and 1 Body to recruit.[/ic]
[ic=Pupation Cell]In this grotesque chamber, Ceremorph larvae are exposed to transmutative gases and other substances and then grafted with certain esoteric glands and other augmentations, giving them strange new abilities.
Cost: 35 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Grafting Workshop, Mutation Chamber
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Ceremorph Larvae Swarms recruited at a Hive with a Pupation Cell can be recruited as Flensing Swarms. They gain the Flying ability, +2 Speed, and +1 Melee Attack, and cost an additional 2 Gold and 1 Metal.[/ic]
[ic=Experimentation Chrysalis]This strange, organic chamber is used for the assembly of the bizarre constructs known as Brain Golems.
Cost: 70 Gold, 15 Bodies
Prerequisites: Grafting Workshop
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can construct Brain Golems.[/ic]
[ic=Sanctum of Pain]The fearsome, organic citadels known as the Sanctums of Pain are the dungeons of Ceremorph Inquisitors, puissant Psions charged by the Overbrain with the discovery of heresies and renegade consciousnesses. It echoes constantly with the squealing screams of Ceremorphs under interrogation.
Cost: 150 Gold, 10 Metal
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Ceremorph Inquisitors.[/ic]
[ic=Metamorphic Cell]Within the deepest reaches of the Sanctum of Pain lie the metamorphic cells where the pitiful, shamed creatures known as Severed are mutated from renegade Ceremorphs as punishment for their thought-crimes.
Cost: 70 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Sanctum of Pain
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Ceremorph Severed.[/ic]
[ic=Neuromorphic Cell]In this diabolic room within the Sanctum of Pain, the brains of the worst heretics and radicals are forcibly extracted. Instead of being joined with the Overbrain, they are used in the creation specialized Brain Golems known as Blaspheme Golems.
Cost: 40 Gold, 15 Bodies
Prerequisites: Experimentation Chrysalis, Sanctum of Pain
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Brain Golems recruited at a Hive with a Neuromorphic Cell can be recruited as Blaspheme Golems, which possess a Ranged attack with a +10 bonus to hit and 6 Damage (Psychic) - this applies to their Confusion attack as well. These Golems cost an additional +20 Gold at recruitment and +5 Bodies for Upkeep.[/ic]
[ic=Eldritch Cocoon]This massive cocoon is pumped full of alchemical gas and liquids. Here, a Ceremorph Mindwyrm slowly matures, fed on the brains both of loyal volunteers willing to sacrifice their consciousnesses rather than join the Overbrain, along with the brains of dissident Ceremorphs harvested in the Sanctum of Pain.
Cost: 250 Gold, 40 Bodies
Prerequisites: Mutation Chamber, Sanctum of Pain
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Ceremorph Mindwyrms. You can only recruit one such creature a week per Cocoon, and can only construct one Cocoon per Hive.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=Ooze Wall (Limit 1)]This disgusting mass of semi-solidified ooze provides protection to a Ceremorph Hive. Unlike the stone walls of other races, these semi-living walls regenerate themselves rapidly.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Defence: 18
Health: 40
Special Abilities: Regeneration 20[/ic]
[ic=Slime Moat (Limit 1)]This moat, dug by thralls, is filled with caustic slime that rapidly turns enemies who fall into the sludge to slurries of blood and dissolving bones.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: -2
Damage: 12 (Acid)
Special Abilities: Ranged units can get off an extra volley of attacks if protected by a Slime Moat, exactly as if they were being shielded by melee units. It takes attackers 1 round to circumvent the moat. The moat still functions as a trap – units can fall in accidentally. They must still breach any other Defences, such as an Ooze Wall.[/ic]
[ic=Sphincter Gate (Limit 1)]This resilient orifice repels all but the most powerful attackers. If forced to unclench, it proceeds to belch acidic ooze on attackers.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Defence: 18
Health: 30
Special Abilities: Death Throes (+6 Attack, 20 Acid Damage), Regeneration 15[/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]This sally-port allows Ceremorphs to escape their Hive.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Defenders who fail their morale checks within a Ceremorph Hive can withdraw or flee to the nearest neighbouring territory instead of surrendering. Of course, an Overbrain can never flee its Hive, since its Speed is 0.[/ic]
[ic=Uncanny Architecture (Limit 1)]Ceremorph Hives are known for their confusing, even impossible architecture – corridors that bend back on themselves, stairways that seems infinite, twisted bends in space and time, angles that should not be. While Ceremorphs handle such uncanny architecture without trouble, those assaulting a Hive can find themselves lost and confused.
Cost: 60 Gold, 20 Metal
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: After breaching any outer defences, those attacking a Hive with Uncanny Architecture suffer a -1 penalty to Defence and Morale checks.[/ic]
[ic=Paradoxical Architecture (Limit 1)]This Ceremorph Hive boasts even more bewildering architecture than normal, including passages that permanently trap enemies in endlessly repeating loops and chambers that seem to shift in orientation. Some become snarled in time-loops, spending decades trapped in corridors, bumping into allies after having become old and withered. Who regiments can be devoured by such paradoxes, lost forever within a shifting labyrinth.
Cost: 80 Gold
Prerequisites: Uncanny Architecture (replaces)
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 20
Special Abilities: After breaching any outer defences, those attacking a Hive with Paradoxical Architecture suffer a -2 penalty to Defence and Morale checks.[/ic]
[ic=Maddening Architecture (Limit 1)]Those who spend too long within the truly mind-shattering passages of this Hive can go insane, attacking one another or simply wandering around in a helpless daze.
Cost: 100 Gold
Prerequisites: Paradoxical Architecture (replaces)
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: 25
Special Abilities: After breaching any outer defences, those attacking a Hive with Maddening Architecture suffer a -2 penalty to Defence and Morale checks. They must also make an immediate DC 15 Morale check (with the penalty) or become Confused for one round.[/ic]
[ic=Reverse Gravity Pit (Limit 3)]Ceremorphs prefer reverse-gravity pits to regular pits, reversing the gravitational pull around shafts dug into a ceiling. Because such traps are generally unexpected, they tend to catch enemies unawares.
Cost: 35 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +12
Damage: 8[/ic]
[ic=Poison Gas Trap (Limit 1)]This poisonous gas is cultured in the Mutation Chamber and then implanted in bladders which are rigged to explode if trespassers blunder in.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequisites: Mutation Chamber
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: A regiment hit by this trap has its Health of all its units lowered by 2 for the duration of the battle.[/ic]
[ic=Amplifier Node (Limit 1)]This node of ganglia tissue amplifies the psychic resonance of Ceremorphs nearby.
Cost: 20 Bodies
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Garisoned troops with Psychic or mind-influencing spells gain +1 to hit with those attacks or spells. Any spells that require a morale check have their DC boosted by +1. This includes traps, such as Maddening Architecture.[/ic]
[ic=Larval Well (Limit 1)]This peristaltic sphincter-tunnel deposits enemy units directly into the Ceremorph Spawning Pool.
Cost: 15 Gold
Prerequisites: Spawning Pool
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +4
Damage: None
Special Abilities: Instead of damage, a Larval Well chute deposits 1d6 enemy units in the Spawning Pool. If any Ceremorph Larvae Swarms are currently garrisoned in the Hive, they get a surprise round against the enemies, and then fight them apart from the main army. The Swarms can still participate in the rest of the battle to defend the Hive later on, provided they are still alive.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=The Abject (created by HippopotamusDundee)]
The Abject
Exiles and renegades locked and shackled in thrall to a blaspheming and heretical master, the Abject are a downcast and debased breed of Ceremorph refined and brought close to the distilled and perfected nadir of all life-forms – the horrifyingly elegant non-Euclidian symmetry of non-carbon-based alien life melded through fell and godless necromancy with the arrested perfection of rigid sinew and cold undying flesh.
Forged in the heat of the deathless tower's deathless innards and incubated in the many womb-caverns of the unliving Altar that is Yuddarath, the Ceremorphs unquestioningly serve the deranged enlightenment of the Cerelich Ktan-Ydheel, called the Abjected – they are born and exist and will enter the eternal sleep until their eternal fleshy prisons are recycled and birthed once more so they may undying live again should He command it.
The abjection of all that is – mindless, lifeless, deathless or slowly-expiring and mortal alike – is their only goal – to cast off, reject, degrade and debase – corrupting and polluting all that is so that like them it too can be cast out beyond the meaningless limits that mortals call life and death and even reality to join them in the perfected nadir of all existence, where order and even meaning break down along with the sanity-preserving illusion of separation between the Self and the great unknown, abjected Other.
Starting Dungeon: Abject Ceremorph players must always claim their first Hive in the Lowerdeep. This Hive begins with the Altar that is Yuddarath, a Spawning Pit, 1 Thrall Pen, and a Ceremorph Mine.
Starting Resources: The Abject Ceremorphs are often left undisturbed, for the Lowerdeep is perilous. This allows them to generate a great number of resources. Their isolation and alien psychology – and their tendency to eat the brains of any they encounter – does tend to discourage trade, however. Abject Ceremorph players begin the game with 800 Gold, 50 Metal, and 120 Bodies.
Abject: The Abject are traitors and blasphemers, and thus can never be allied with orthodox Ceremorphs. They are always hostile to such Ceremorphs, never neutral, and are attacked on sight. If other groups of rogue Ceremorphs are operating independently of an Overbrain, the Abject can still ally with them.
Undead: Many of the Abject creatures are Undead. Undead units never have to make morale checks, fighting till destroyed or until they are victorious. They are unaffected by disease, poison, cold damage, psychic damage, or mind-affecting spells like Frenzy or Agony. Hexes, Curses, Detection, Shield, and other magical effects affect them normally. They can still be fooled by illusions. Non-regenerating Undead do not heal injuries. Abject Undead with Upkeep starve if not paid their Body Upkeep, having their Health lowered by 2 per week (see The Hunger!, below) their Upkeep isn't paid until destroyed or until their Upkeep is paid in full, at which point they regain the Health they lost immediately. Regeneration and healing spells cannot reverse this effect.
Sunlight Vulnerability: Like other Undead, Abject creatures cannot stand the touch of sunlight. While other troops suffer Morale penalties if exposed to the sun, Abject Undead begin to deteriorate. For each full week that an Abject Undead unit spends on the Surface it loses 1 Health. It immediately recovers this lost health if it returns underground. Units that reach 0 Health due to this deterioration are destroyed completely. Regeneration and healing spells have no effect on sunlight-damage. Cereliches killed by sunlight still revivify with their Phylacteries.
Domination: Abject Ceremorphs can psychically dominate their enemies just as their living brethren can. When attacking a fleeing unit of normal or Large size, any casualties they inflict can be transformed into Zombie Thralls instead of being slain. Casualties inflicted by Unhallowed Larvae Swarms become Ceremorph Ghouls instead as per their Create Spawn ability. An actual Ceremorph (Ghoul, Synaptophage, or Cerelich) must be present for the Domination ability to function.
The Hunger!: Ceremorphs possess an insatiable appetite, an appetite undiminished by their transformation into Undeath. Abject Ceremorphs not given their Body and/or Food Upkeep suffer double the penalties per week to health from starvation.
Units
[ic=Ktan-Ydheel the Cerelich, called the Abjected](http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/7250/ktanydheell.jpg)
Architect of the Altar Yuddarath, Ktan-Ydheel the Traitor carried and bore the seed that grew to become Yuddarath after many long years of heresy and desecration – entwining and grafting together the psionic heritage of his too-proud forebears with the tainted magics of the mortal cattle. In the antediluvian oblivion of the vast unconscious sea from which wash up the personality and skills and memory of a new-spawned Ceremorph was the Altar seeded, a piece of the Abjected cast off and made abject Itself to become infused in hither-unforseen shapes of unlife drawn from the deepwater graveyards of species long dead and species that would have been had the flood never ebbed and seceded the world to breathing life.
Blasphemous misshapen life become unliving through foul ritual and dark purpose, the Cerelich sits enshrined in the cerebral throne-room of Yuddarath studying the echoes left by mortal will-working within the ancestral ocean of dreams – an unliving and independent brain dwelling more by habit than necessity within a hollow and decrepit skull (as much as the Altar could be said to possess skull or brain) – and lying beside it slumps the emptied 'skin' of the lobotomized Overbrain long-ago consumed to fuel the transformation beyond life and into the great Other beyond but still enslaved in deathless servitude to the Altar and It's Architect.
Through hollow eye-sockets as dark and deep as the further chasms of the artesian sea Ktan-Ydheel watches the world, withered and wizened tendricles the off-white of cancerous bone writhing as the Cerelich's fell will drives the Spawn of Yuddarath off in search of supplies for its 'experiments' and food for their parent.
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 8 (Psychic)
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 18
Health: 20
Speed: 4
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Detector, Dominate, Fear (DC 20), Leadership, Phylactery, Undead, Scry
Ktan-Ydheel increases the Health and Speed of any army it is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon it increases the Health and Defence of garrisoned troops by +1.
In addition, the Cerelich can recruit Zombie Thralls and Unhallowed Larvae Swarms in the field rather than at a Dungeon, provided the requisite Gold and Bodies are provided; he doesn't need a Thrall Pen or Spawning Pit to do so (a Pen or Pit simply lets the Abject player recruit those troops without the Lich being present). The Cerelich cannot recruit other Abject units in the field.
Like other Liches Cereliches have a special item known as a Phylactery, containing its soul. The Phylactery can be placed in any Dungeon or carried with the Cerelich. If the Cerelich is ever destroyed, its body reforms at the Phylactery's location in 1 week's time. Destroying the Phylactery, however, permanently destroys the Cerelich, wherever it may be, so most Liches keep their Phylacteries in especially secure locations.
If a Cerelich - and any other Cereliches or rogue Ceremorph-Necromancers in its service - is permanently destroyed, all Undead under its control instantly become wandering monsters. Zombie Thralls and Unhallowed Larvae swarms simply collapse, dying instantly.[/ic]
[ic=Zombie Thrall (Requires: Thrall Pen)]The necrotic thralls of a Cerelich resemble the mindless automatons in the service of other Ceremorphs, but never need be fed. Unhallowed larvae implant themselves directly in the zombies' dead flesh to produce the abhorrent creatures known as Ceremorph Ghouls, psychic carrion-feeders who devour both brains and rotting flesh.
Cost: 10 Gold, 1 Body
Upkeep: None
Melee Attack: +1
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 14
Health: 8
Speed: 2
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 10), Disease 2, Undead
Zombie Thralls can be converted into Bodies at any time to feed Abject Ceremorphs, or they can be sacrificed to help create Ceremorph Ghouls.
Thralls must be accompanied by the Cerelich or at least one Ceremorph Ghoul or Synaptophage at all times (i.e. in the same army). If the Ghouls or Synaptophages shepherding them perish, they immediately become inert, standing in place and doing nothing. They will continue in this state until a new Abject Ceremorph approaches them, at which points they join the Abject army containing a Ceremorph Ghoul or Synaptophage.
Zombie Thralls cannot be controlled by other Ceremorph players, or Watcher players. Undead Liches, however, can obtain control of them.[/ic]
[ic=Unhallowed Larvae Swarm (Requires: Spawning Pit)]These maggot-like Ceremorph larvae are specially adapted to bore into the skulls of corpses rather than living beings, in order to produce Ceremorph Ghouls. Technically, they are still living creatures, and so are still vulnerable to effects that the rest of the Abject army is immune to.
Cost: 12 Gold
Upkeep: None
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 8 (Suicidal)
Defence: 15
Health: 10
Speed: 4
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Create Spawn (Ceremorph Ghouls), Vermin
Note: Dead Unhallowed Larvae swarms do not count as Bodies. Unhallowed Larvae Swarms can create additional Ceremorph Ghouls using Bodies if they sacrifice themselves.[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Ghoul (Requires: Spawning Pit)]These monstrous creatures hunger for both flesh and brains. They retain the psychic ability of their living Ceremorph kindred but also spread disease and fear. Physically, they resemble gaunt, pallid Ceremorphs whose tentacles dribble a revolting infectious slime and whose eyes flicker with a ravenous hunger even their erstwhile brethren cannot fathom.
Cost: 12 Gold, 1 Body
Upkeep: 6 Gold, 3 Bodies
Ranged Attack: +6
Ranged Damage: 4 (Psychic)
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 16
Health: 8
Speed: 4
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Detector, Fear (DC 12), Diseased (5), Undead[/ic]
[ic=Hound of Yuddarath (Requires: Chamber of Obscenities)]These unspeakable dog-like beasts can slip through the angles of time and space to appear seemingly out of nowhere, descending on enemies in a blur of teeth and claws and leathery flesh.
Cost: 25 Gold, 1 Body
Upkeep: 3 Bodies or 3 Food
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 16
Health: 10
Speed: 6
Morale: +4
Special Abilities: Infiltrator, Teleporter [/ic]
[ic=Star Vampire (Requires: Chamber of Obscenities)]The fiendish things known as Star Vampires hail from some Other place, but with fell magic the Cerelich Ktan-Ydheel can call them to the caverns of the Underdeep. Bloated obscenities, faceless and eyeless but with a multitude of bloodsucking tendrils and gnashing mouths, Star Vampires are naturally near-invisible, though as they feed the sanguineous blush of their sustenance reveals them.
Cost: 25 Gold, 3 Sacrifices (Zombie Thralls are acceptable)
Upkeep: 4 Bodies
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 10
Defence: 15
Health: 15
Speed: 8
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Infiltrator, Flying[/ic]
[ic=Synaptophage (Requires: Plasma Pit)]Also known as Ceremorph Vampires, Synaptophages feed on the synaptic fluid of their prey. Like true vampires they abhor sunlight and flame, as well. They appear as bone-white Ceremorphs, semi-feral and possessed of a terrible thirst rather than an insatiable hunger.
Cost: 75 Gold, 1 Body
Upkeep: 10 Gold, 7 Bodies
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 8 (Psychic)
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 8
Defence: 20
Health: 25
Speed: 4
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Detector, Fear (DC 20), Regeneration 10, Undead, Vulnerability (Fire)
Ceremorph Vampires cannot cross running water, even over bridges. Synaptophages can also never endure sunlight – if they spend more than 1 turn on the Surface, they are instantly destroyed. [/ic]
[ic=Flesh Golem (Requires: Experimentation Chrysalis)]These horrifying constructs are pieced together out of scraps of decaying flesh scavenged from dozens of bodies. Squirming within is as a fetid, tenebrous jelly, a gelatinous mass that holds the construct together and directs the movements of its rotting limbs.
Cost: 50 Gold, 25 Bodies
Upkeep: 10 Gold, 5 Bodies
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 15
Defence: 18
Health: 75
Speed: 2
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Construct, Fear (DC 18), Large[/ic]
[ic=Brainfeeder Dragon (Requires: Putrescent Cocoon)]This particularly powerful abomination is created when unhallowed Ceremorph larvae are implanted into the skull of a Zombie Dragon. The horrific blend of Ceremorph, Wyrm, and Undead is a true terror on the battlefield, attacking with its potent psychic abilities and its writhing tentacles in equal measure.
Cost: 200 Gold, 1 Dragon Body
Upkeep: 20 Bodies
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 20 (Psychic)
Melee Attack: +15
Melee Damage: 30
Defence: 22
Health: 160
Speed: 7
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 22), Flying, Huge, Undead[/ic]
[ic=Spawn of Yuddarath (Requires: Necrotic Womb)]This writhing, squirming, glistening horror was birthed from the black sea over which the Altar that is Yuddarath presides. A thing of corpse-slime and primordial ooze infused with unholy life by the Cerelich Ktan-Ydheel, the Spawn is a powerful but slow-moving monstrosity able to consume whole armies. To look upon this thing-that-should-not-be is to go mad with terror.
Cost: 250 Gold, 100 Bodies
Upkeep: 30 Bodies
Melee Attack: +12
Melee Damage: 40
Defence: 20
Health: 350
Speed: 1
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Climbing, Fear (DC 22), Huge, Undead, Regeneration 25[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=The Altar that is Yuddarath] There is a cavern in the deeper parts of the Underworld, it is whispered, where rises from the barren rock something unwholesome and unnatural – like a twisted spiral tower built or a many-forked taproot grown upon a too-fertile foundation of rotted meat and still fouler things. Of bone and chitin are Its stones and sticky flesh and sinew Its mortar – or something as like to such mortal tissue as can be found in the deepest dreams of the oceanic void. Alien are the materials of this lifeless sense-ripping geometry; ever-digesting the mortal remains from which Its feet spring to fuel the imperceptible but unceasing growth of a mindless life that cannot be – for that which is not born and does not die cannot be said to live – and yet it does.
It breathes, the tower; It moans and sighs and mouthless babbles out the tale of Its sleepless ancient dreams as It with terrible and inexorable sureness blindly quests – seeking, ever seeking the life of the World Above to reshape into a more fit and pleasing mould for the future It knows is to come. Already it gestates within the womb-cells that line the outer stair the imperfect and unrefined substance of the Underworld; an alchemist passing dross to leave the purest distillation behind – things that cannot and should not be, both unliving and undea, cast in the mould of the prehistoric rulers of the world but remade to serve Its Architect.
The Altar that is Yuddarath has no cost, and is located in the Abject capitol.
Benefit: When garrisoned in the Hive with the Altar, the Cerelich can use its Scry ability three times per week instead of only once per week.[/ic]
[ic=Synapse Chamber]This unhallowed chamber high within the tower of Yuddarath gestates new spells and abilities for Ktan-Ydheel. Here the Abjected spends many an hour, absorbing the primeval wisdom of the chamber and brooding on the emptied and half-eaten carcasses of slain Overbrains.
Cost: 150 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: The Altar That is Yuddarath
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: The Cerelich Ktan-Ydheel can use the chamber to research new spells. Each spell takes 3 weeks to research; at the end of the week, it acquires the new spell permanently (only one spell can be researched at once). It can research any of the following spells: Agony, Confusion, Dispel, Frenzy, Mindlink, Necromantic Healing, and Summon (Star Vampire). The Cerelich must be garrisoned in the Hive with the chamber to perform research.[/ic]
[ic=Memory Womb]Deep below the tower of Yuddarath lies cavern where certain ossified things not entirely of this world squat in the bone-coloured gloom and whisper secrets to one another gleaned from elder aeons. Ktan-Ydheel has excavated this chamber, now, and meditates in the Memory Womb, surrounded by the susurrus of unliving voices. When he emerges his hollow sockets glimmer with newfound puissance.
Cost: 200 Gold
Prerequisites: Synapse Chamber
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: The Memory Womb reduces research times to 1 week per spell and adds the following possible spells for research: Curse, Haste, Illusory Duplicate, Obfuscating Shroud, Poisonous Cloud, and Ward.[/ic]
[ic=Teleportation Sphincter (Unlimited)]This horrible organic orifice connects to a twin elsewhere in the Underdeep, transporting creatures though its entrail-like length almost instantly.
Cost: 75 Gold
Prerequisites: Memory Womb
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Teleportation Sphincters must be built in pairs to function (though they need not be built at the same time). Once per week, the Sphincters can be activated, transporting up to 50 units between locations. Teleportation Sphincters are always linked in pairs: a group of three Circles, for example, cannot be linked, though multiple pairs of Sphincters can be constructed. If a Teleportation Sphincter hasn't been used and troops wish to withdraw from a Dungeon under attack, it can be used to do so.
Note: although a Memory Womb is required to create the Teleportation Sphincter, it need not be physically present in all Dungeons with a Circle, only one of them. If the Hive containing the Memory Womb is lost, however, new Sphincters cannot be created.[/ic]
[ic=Secret Chamber]This chamber is used to store a Cerelich's Phylactery. It remains undetected unless the enemy has a Detector, even if the Hive containing the chamber is conquered.
Cost: 50 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Only a Detector can find the secret chamber, in which a Phyalctery can be placed; up to 4 normal-sized units can be placed in the chamber as well, if desired. If a Cerelich revives in the secret chamber while enemies occupy the Dungeon, he has several choices. If the Dungeon contains an active Teleportation Circle or an escape tunnel he can use either to immediately withdraw to friendly territory (with or without his Phylactery). He can remain in the chamber while awaiting friendly troops to retake the Hive (in which case he can choose to participate in the attack if he wishes), or he can immediately choose to attack garrisoned troops, using any units hidden in the secret chamber with it.[/ic]
[ic=Thrall Pen (Limit 15)]This lightless cage of flesh and iron contains humanoid prisoners, a breeding population used by the Ceremorphs to create Zombie Thralls, and to supply themselves with fresh brains and hosts for reproduction. Of course, the Abject kill their prisoners when they wish to make them into troops or use them as hosts.
Cost: 50 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Zombie Thralls. In addition, the Thrall Pen produces 20 Bodies per week.[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Mine]Ceremorph mines are always tended by zombie thralls. They make tireless workers, and their tunnels echo with the eerie, synchronous sound of their picks striking rock, as each individual thrall performs identical motions.
Cost: 175 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites:Thrall Pen
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You mine up to 185 Gold and up to 20 Metal per week, provided your Dungeon is built over a suitable deposit. You can only have a single mine per deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Improved Ceremorph Mine]Additional zombie thralls and improved mining technology stolen or traded from other races make this mine more efficient.
Cost: 225 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Ceremorph Mine (replaces), 3 Thrall Pens
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 325 Gold and 35 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Mine Complex]A teeming army of zombie thralls tend this vast complex of tunnels.
Cost: 300 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Improved Ceremorph Mine (replaces), 6 Thrall Pens
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 450 Gold and 50 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Spawning Pit]This vast pool of brine, grey-matter, and alchemical ooze is central to most Ceremorph Hives. Here Unhallowed Ceremorph larvae are hatched and tended-to, before being implanted in still-living thralls to create new Ceremorph Ghouls.
Cost: 40 Gold, 10 Bodies
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Unhallowed Larvae Swarms and Ceremorph Ghouls.[/ic]
[ic=Grafting Workshop]In this blood-drenched hall of horrors, thralls are grafted with alien tissues scavenged from beasts and other creatures, in order to augment their abilities.
Cost: 20 Gold, 20 Bodies
Prerequisites: Spawning Pit
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Zombie Thralls recruited at a Hive with a Grafting Workshop can be recruited as Grafted Zombie Thralls, gaining +1 Melee Attack, +1 Melee Damage, and +1 Defence but costing 1 Body in addition to their regular costs. Zombie Thralls garrisoned in a Hive with a Grafting Workshop can be upgraded to Grafted Zombie Thralls for 1 Body.[/ic]
[ic=Chamber of Obscenities]The walls of this chamber are graven with unholy runes that allow the Cerelich to call up monstrosities from unclean realities.
Cost: 125 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Spawning Pit
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Hounds of Yuddarath and Star Vampires.[/ic]
[ic=Experimentation Chrysalis]This strange, organic chamber is used for the assembly of the bizarre constructs known as Flesh Golems.
Cost: 70 Gold, 15 Bodies
Prerequisites: Grafting Workshop
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can construct Flesh Golems.[/ic]
[ic=Plasma Pit]This foul pit of cerebral fluids is used to create Synaptophages by immersing undead Ceremorphs in the translucent neural ooze, an unholy baptism that instils in the Undead horrors an unquenchable thirst.
Cost: 150 Gold, 20 Bodies
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Synaptophages.[/ic]
[ic=Putrescent Cocoon]This massive cocoon is pumped full of alchemical gas and liquids. Here, a Brainfeeder Dragon slowly matures, the corpse of a Dragon interred within it and implanted with a specially adapated Unhallowed Ceremorph larva.
Cost: 250 Gold, 40 Bodies
Prerequisites: Chamber of Obscenities, Plasma Pit
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Brainfeeder Dragons. You can only recruit one such creature a week per Cocoon, and can only construct one Cocoon per Hive.[/ic]
[ic=Necrotic Womb]This pulsating, fecund cavern of brine and ooze gives birth to the twisted abominations known as the Spawn of Yuddarath.
Cost: 300 Gold, 50 Bodies
Prerequisites: Altar that is Yuddarath, Chamber of Obscenities, Memory Womb
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Spawn of Yuddarath. You can only recruit one such creature per week, and you can only construct the Necrotic Womb in your capitol.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=Ooze Wall (Limit 1)]This disgusting mass of semi-solidified ooze provides protection to a Ceremorph Hive. Unlike the stone walls of other races, these semi-living walls regenerate themselves rapidly.
Cost: 50 Gold,
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Defence: 18
Health: 40
Special Abilities: Regeneration 20[/ic]
[ic=Zombie Wall (Limit 1)]This wall is made out of reanimated corpses. You can only build a Zombie Wall if you do not already have an Ooze Wall - you cannot have both.
Cost: 20 Gold, 50 Bodies
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +2
Damage: 10
Defence: 14
Health: 100
Special Abilities: Disease 2[/ic]
[ic=Slime Moat (Limit 1)]This moat, dug by thralls, is filled with caustic slime that rapidly turns enemies who fall into the sludge to slurries of blood and dissolving bones.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: -2
Damage: 12 (Acid)
Special Abilities: Ranged units can get off an extra volley of attacks if protected by a Slime Moat, exactly as if they were being shielded by melee units. It takes attackers 1 round to circumvent the moat. The moat still functions as a trap – units can fall in accidentally. They must still breach any other Defences, such as an Ooze Wall.[/ic]
[ic=Sphincter Gate (Limit 1)]This resilient orifice repels all but the most powerful attackers. If forced to unclench, it proceeds to belch acidic ooze on attackers.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Defence: 18
Health: 30
Special Abilities: Death Throes (+6 Attack, 20 Acid Damage), Regeneration 15[/ic]
[ic=Miasma (Limit 1)]This bank of pestilential fog makes besieging a Hive difficult, to say the least.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequisites: Chamber of Obcsenities
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Special Abilities: Attackers or enemies besieging the Hive all contract a Disease of potency 3. All mushrooms in the Hive's Cavern or Outpost's Corridor become grey and etiolated, making them useless for Food, and Fungoids cannot hide in them.
All Abject creatures, including Unhallowed Larvae Swarms, Star Vampires, and Hounds of Yuddarath, are immune to the disease.[/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]This sally-port allows Abject Ceremorphs to escape their Hive.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Defenders who fail their morale checks within a Ceremorph Hive with an escape tunnel can withdraw or flee to the nearest neighbouring territory instead of surrendering.[/ic]
[ic=Uncanny Architecture (Limit 1)]Ceremorph Hives are known for their confusing, even impossible architecture – corridors that bend back on themselves, stairways that seems infinite, twisted bends in space and time, angles that should not be. While Ceremorphs handle such uncanny architecture without trouble, those assaulting a Hive can find themselves lost and confused.
Cost: 60 Gold, 20 Metal
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: After breaching any outer defences, those attacking a Hive with Uncanny Architecture suffer a -1 penalty to Defence and Morale checks.[/ic]
[ic=Paradoxical Architecture (Limit 1)]This Ceremorph Hive boasts even more bewildering architecture than normal, including passages that permanently trap enemies in endlessly repeating loops and chambers that seem to shift in orientation. Some become snarled in time-loops, spending decades trapped in corridors, bumping into allies after having become old and withered. Who regiments can be devoured by such paradoxes, lost forever within a shifting labyrinth.
Cost: 80 Gold
Prerequisites: Uncanny Architecture (replaces)
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 20
Special Abilities: After breaching any outer defences, those attacking a Hive with Paradoxical Architecture suffer a -2 penalty to Defence and Morale checks.[/ic]
[ic=Maddening Architecture (Limit 1)]Those who spend too long within the truly mind-shattering passages of this Hive can go insane, attacking one another or simply wandering around in a helpless daze.
Cost: 100 Gold
Prerequisites: Paradoxical Architecture (replaces)
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: 25
Special Abilities: After breaching any outer defences, those attacking a Hive with Maddening Architecture suffer a -2 penalty to Defence and Morale checks. They must also make an immediate DC 15 Morale check (with the penalty) or become Confused for one round.[/ic]
[ic=Reverse Gravity Pit (Limit 3)]Ceremorphs prefer reverse-gravity pits to regular pits, reversing the gravitational pull around shafts dug into a ceiling. Because such traps are generally unexpected, they tend to catch enemies unawares.
Cost: 35 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +12
Damage: 8[/ic]
[ic=Poison Gas Trap (Limit 1)]This poisonous gas is cultured in the Chamber of Obscenities and then implanted in bladders which are rigged to explode if trespassers blunder in.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequisites: Chamber of Obscenities
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: A regiment hit by this trap has its Health of all its units lowered by 2 for the duration of the battle.[/ic]
[ic=Amplifier Node (Limit 1)]This node of ganglia tissue amplifies the psychic resonance of Abject Ceremorphs nearby.
Cost: 20 Bodies
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Garisoned troops with Psychic or mind-influencing spells gain +1 to hit with those attacks or spells. Any spells that require a morale check have their DC boosted by +1. This includes traps, such as Maddening Architecture.[/ic]
[ic=Larval Well (Limit 1)]This peristaltic sphincter-tunnel deposits enemy units directly into the Spawning Pit.
Cost: 15 Gold
Prerequisites: Spawning Pit
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +4
Damage: None
Special Abilities: Instead of damage, a Larval Well chute deposits 1d6 enemy units in the Spawning Pit. If any Unhallowed Larvae Swarms are currently garrisoned in the Hive, they get a surprise round against the enemies, and then fight them apart from the main army. The Swarms can still participate in the rest of the battle to defend the Hive later on, provided they are still alive.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Watchers]
Watchers
Soundtrack (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=m4SwFhfNh1w)
Alternate (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=op0Ak65eunQ&playnext=1&list=PL3A6A785A36DE64DB&feature=results_video)
Even the most aged loremasters know little of the Watchers save for a few inchoate hints and ancient legends, stories of a leviathan eel-like race of primordial creatures that dwelt in lightless seas below the earth. Most dismiss such stories as fables, but the Watchers are all too real. Only the Ceremorph Overbrains – who once warred with the Watchers in aeons past, in the primordial dawn of the world – remember their Primal Sovereignty, a vast subterranean empire that puts the current fiefdoms of the Duergar, Dark Elves, and Dwarves to shame. Their dominion over all life was complete: some say they created the other races as slaves, and that all humanoid life owes its origins to the Watchers. Eventually, however, something occurred that caused the Watchers to enter a period of intense torpor, called the Long Dreaming. Whether this was a response to wars with the Ceremorphs or simply a natural part of the Watcher life-cycle, only the Elder Sovereigns can say, but whatever the case, the Watchers have slept for thousands of years.
That is, until now. The Long Dreaming is ending. The Watchers awake, their ages-long slumber finally dwindling. Tentacles stir in the murky blackness of the Lowerdeep, and once again their strange, mutant minions begin to breed in the ancient pools of their subterranean Vaults, watery chambers linked by flooded tunnels. The Sovereigns drowsily awake, rereading the ancient glyphs, shaking off their ancient torpor. Soon they will send their forces upwards, to forge the Primal Sovereignty anew.
Starting Dungeon: Watcher players must always claim their first Vault in the Lowerdeep, and they must select a region containing or bordering a body of water. This Vault begins with a Brood Pool, a Mucosal Pool, 1 Thrall Pen, 1 Algae Farm, and a Watcher Mine.
Starting Resources: Watchers are a very old race and once possessed great wealth, but they have slumbered for many aeons and so have had little time to gather new resources. Watcher players begin the game with 800 Gold, 125 Metal, and 125 Food.
Amphibious: All Watcher units (including Thralls, Scumspawn, etc) are amphibious and thus unimpeded by water. Watcher units in a cavern or corridor containing or bordering a body of water gain the Infiltrator ability, losing it as soon as they depart such regions. While entrenched in regions containing or bordering water they gain an additional Defence bonus of +1, for a total bonus of +2.
Subaquatic Vaults: Any new Vaults that Watchers found must be created in caverns containing or bordering a body of water. Watchers can still conquer enemy Dungeons and build Outposts on dry land, but they cannot build Watcher Rooms in conquered Dungeons without access to water.
Slumber: The Watchers periodically slip into an incredibly deep torpor. True Watcher units (Sovereign, Savants, and Fleshwarpers) must spend one week out of every four sleeping. During this period they cannot take any actions or even fight, although Watchers being drawn overland in tanks of water can still be moved by other units. While sleeping, however, Watchers experience vivid dreams in which they sometimes glimpse far-off places. All slumbering Watchers gain the Scry ability while they are sleeping, and lose it once they awake. Watchers cannot choose when to enter their slumber – it simply occurs after every three weeks of activity. Newly recruited Watchers enter their slumber on the fourth week after their recruitment, after three weeks of initial activity.
Units
[ic=Watcher Sovereign]Watcher Sovereigns are leviathans, enormous and incredibly ancient beings who have presided over their Broods for aeons. They are powerful psychic beings able to dominate and confuse enemies with their minds. As the Long Dreaming ended the Sovereigns were the first to awake. Now they strive to restore their Primal Sovereignty to its former glory.
Ranged Attack: +8
Ranged Damage: 10 (Psychic)
Melee Attack: +6 (Water only)
Melee Damage: 8
Defence: 16
Health: 80
Speed: 1
Morale: +8
Special Abilities: Detector, Dominate, Confusion, Huge, Leadership
The Watcher Sovereign increases the Ranged Damage (Psychic) and Morale of any army it is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon it increases the Ranged Damage (Psychic) and Morale of garrisoned troops by +1.
To move overland, Watcher Sovereigns must be dragged in enormous tanks of water by at least 12 Thralls or 6 Scumspawn (or 10 Thralls and 1 Scumspawn, 8 Thralls and 2 Scumspawn, 6 Thralls and 3 Scumspawn, 4 Thralls and 4 Scumspawn, or 2 Thralls and 5 Scumspawn). Sovereigns whose escorts perish are immobilized. Watcher Sovereigns are unable to fight in melee if not entrenched or garrisoned in regions with a body of water.[/ic]
[ic=Thrall (Requires: Thrall Grotto)]Like Ceremorphs, Watchers employ psychically dominated thralls as labourers and fighters. Such thralls must be in close proximity to a Watcher at all times, or they become drooling and inert. They are often used as raw material for various Watcher experiments.
Cost: 5 Gold
Upkeep: 1 Food
Melee Attack: +1
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 12
Health: 4
Speed: 4
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Thralls can be converted into Bodies at any time.
Thralls must be accompanied by at least one Watcher (Sovereign, Savant, or Fleshcrafter) at all times (i.e. in the same army). If the Watcher(s) shepherding them perish, they immediately become inert, standing in place and doing nothing. They will continue in this state until a new Watcher approaches them, at which points they join the Watcher army. While inert, Thralls accrue Upkeep costs but cannot receive Food, and thus begin starving to death (see Upkeep rules). If reclaimed, any Upkeep owing must be repaid immediately, if possible.
Ceremorphs can obtain control of Watcher Thralls, and vice versa.[/ic]
[ic=Scumspawn (Requires: Mucosal Pool)]Captured prisoners are transformed into Scumspawn by the Watchers. They are immersed in a pool of water filled with a cloud of Watcher mucus, at which point they begin developing webbed digits, membranous skin, additional eyelids, and a number of new internal organs, as well as greatly increased muscle-mass. When the transformation is complete they resemble slimy, amphibious humanoids with characteristics reminiscent of fish and frogs.
Cost: 10 Gold
Upkeep: 4 Food
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 15
Health: 10
Speed: 4
Morale: +4[/ic]
[ic=Watcher Savant (Requires: Mucosal Pool)]These lesser Watchers are relatively young for their kind – often only a few thousand years in age. They travel on land in enormous tanks of murky water pulled by Scumspawn servants. In battle they use their keen psychic abilities to attack enemies, and if out of their tanks in lakes or rivers they can employ their tentacles as well.
Cost: 25 Gold, 15 Metal
Upkeep: 5 Gold, 5 Food or 5 Bodies
Ranged Attack: +5
Ranged Damage: 6 (Psychic)
Melee Attack: +4 (Water only)
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 16
Health: 20
Speed: 3
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Detector, Large
To move overland, Watcher Savants must be dragged in enormous tanks of water by at least 4 Thralls or 2 Scumspawn (or 1 Scumspawn and 2 Thralls). Savants whose escorts perish are immobilized. Watcher Savants are unable to fight in melee if not entrenched or garrisoned in regions with a body of water.[/ic]
[ic=Guardian (Requires: Breeding Pool)]The lobster-like creatures referred to as Guardians are a race of crustaceans that the Watchers have carefully bred and modified using psychic techniques and eldritch secretions. Totally obedient to the Watchers, they resemble sallow, chitinous aberrations with a clutch of tentacles round their lamprey-like maws. Some have suggested that they may be an ancestor of the Ceremorphs, though the Ceremorphs themselves are disgusted by this suggestion.
Cost: 35 Gold
Upkeep: 10 Food
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 10
Defence: 20
Health: 35
Speed: 3
Morale: +6
Special Abilities: Large[/ic]
[ic=Gloomray (Requires: Breeding Pool)]Gloomrays are vile, flying creatures bred by the Watchers in their lightless caves as terror troops. Originally a species of manta ray, Gloomrays were modified through the Watchers' fleshwarping powers into monstrous, bat-like gliders (sometimes called "Cloakers" for their vague resemblance to floating cloaks). These screeching, fiendish servants of the Watchers sow fear and bewilderment amongst enemy troops.
Cost: 15 Gold
Upkeep: 6 Food
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 16
Health: 10
Speed: 8
Morale: +4
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 18), Flyer[/ic]
[ic=Fleshrider (Requires: Parturition Pool)]Bred from specially modified remoras, the disgusting worm-like parasites known as Fleshriders specialize in assuming control of enemy creatures, burrowing into their bodies and then secreting certain mind-influencing substances to transform them into puppets.
Cost: 20 Gold
Upkeep: 1 Food or 1 Body
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 2
Defence: 12
Health: 4
Speed: 6
Morale: +6
Special Abilities: Dominate, Infiltrator
Fleshriders use their Melee attack instead of a Ranged attack to activate their Dominate spell (they do not deal damage if they use this spell). Once their Dominate ability wears off, the Fleshrider is forcibly expelled from its host. Fleshriders which manage to fully Dominate enemy units long-term (as opposed to a single round) can be ordered to "lay low" and pretend to be regular members of an enemy regiment. The Dominated creature still incurs Upkeep costs if this is the case, but the Flesrider does. Dominated creatures still get their weekly Morale check to resist Domination.[/ic]
[ic=Slime Golem (Requires: Ooze Pool)]These revolting constructs are created out of Watcher mucus and other primordial slime; as a result they are very resilient to damage. They resemble quasi-amorphous, only vaguely humanoid constructs. In battle they attack with their fists, which burn enemies with caustic ooze.
Cost: 75 Gold
Upkeep: 8 Bodies or 8 Food
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 15 (Acid)
Defence: 16
Health: 80
Speed: 2
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Construct, Immunity (Acid), Large, Regeneration 10, Vulnerability (Fire)[/ic]
[ic=Watcher Fleshwarper (Requires: Augmentation Pool)]These experienced Watchers are skilled in the art of fleshwarping; they can modify thralls in the field, transforming them into Scumspawn or augmenting them with twisted grafts.
Cost: 50 Gold, 15 Metal
Upkeep: 10 Gold, 6 Food or 6 Bodies
Ranged Attack: +8
Ranged Damage: 6 (Psychic)
Melee Attack: +5 (Water only)
Melee Damage: 4
Defence: 16
Health: 30
Speed: 3
Morale: +6
Special Abilities: Detector, Frenzy, Haste, Huge
Outside of combat, Watcher Fleshwarpers can transform Thralls into Scumspawn at a cost of 5 Gold per Thrall. They will incur Scumspawn Upkeep the following week. They can also create Grafted Thralls or Scumspawn for a cost of 1 Body per unit. Grafted Thralls or Scumspawn gain +1 Melee Attack, +1 Melee Damage, and +1 Defence.
To move overland, Watcher Fleshwarpers must be dragged in enormous tanks of water by at least 4 Thralls or 2 Scumspawn (or 1 Scumspawn and 2 Thralls). Fleshwarpers whose escorts perish are immobilized. Watcher Fleshwarpers are unable to fight in melee if not entrenched or garrisoned in regions with a body of water.[/ic]
[ic=Protoplasmic Servitor (Requires: Protoplasmic Pool)]These colossal amoeba-like creatures were created by the Watchers as servants, specifically as labourers. They resemble enormous, tenebrous masses of black, tar-like slime, covered in eyes, strange sensory organs, and various orifices. They can extrude dextrous tendrils from their shapeless bodies at will and can survive both on land and in water.
Cost: 300 Gold
Upkeep: 30 Food or 30 Bodies
Melee Attack: +15
Melee Damage: 30
Defence: 16
Health: 300
Speed: 2
Morale: +10
Special Abilities: Climbing, Fear (DC 20), Huge, Immunity (Acid), Regeneration 50, Vulnerability (Fire)[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Brood Pool]The Brood Pool is a vast, cyclopean, underwater temple-palace devoted to the Watcher Sovereign. Here the monstrous creature contemplates its spreading Primal Sovereignty and dreams its mysterious dreams. This room has no cost and is located in the Watcher capitol.
Benefit: A slumbering Watcher Sovereign who is garrisoned in the Brood Pool can use its Scry ability three times per week instead of only once per week, and can (if it wishes) extend its hibernation indefinitely, awaking only when it chooses (at which points its slumber cycle restarts – in another three weeks, it must hibernate again). Other Watchers are forbidden from using this Pool for hibernation.[/ic]
[ic=Glyph Library]This library of ancient glyphs has been unearthed from its resting place at the bottom of the Vault. Now, the Watcher Sovereign can ponder the bygone runes and so recall spells that once it knew, aeons past.
Cost: 150 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Brood Pool
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: The Watcher Sovereign can use the study to research new spells. Each spell takes 3 weeks to research; at the end of the week, it acquires the new spell permanently (only one spell can be researched at once). It can research any of the following spells: Agony, Frenzy, Haste, Dispel, Distraction, Illusory Duplicate, Mindlink, Ward. A Sovereign must be garrisoned in the Vault with the Glyph Library to perform research.[/ic]
[ic=Teleportation Pool (Unlimited)]This mystical pool connects two Vaults to one another, warping space and time in uncanny ways.
Cost: 75 Gold
Prerequisites: Glyph Library
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Teleportation Sphincters must be built in pairs to function (though they need not be built at the same time). Once per week, the Pool can be activated, transporting up to 50 units between locations. Teleportation Pools are always linked in pairs: a group of three Pools, for example, cannot be linked, though multiple pairs of Sphincters can be constructed. If a Teleportation Pool hasn't been used and troops wish to withdraw from a Dungeon under attack, it can be used to do so.
Note: although a Glyph Library is required to create the Teleportation Pool, it need not be physically present in all Dungeons with a Pool, only one of them. If the Vault containing the Glyph Library is lost, however, new Teleportation Pools cannot be created.[/ic]
[ic=Restoration Pool]This pool of curative fluid is used to heal Watchers of disease and other ailments.
Cost: 35 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Watchers who bathe in the Restoration Pool are cured of any diseases they are carrying.[/ic]
[ic=Hibernation Pool (Limit 4)]This placid, dreamy pool, overgrown with soporific algae, allows a slumbering Watcher to hibernate for long periods of time.
Cost: 50 Gold, 10 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A hibernation pool allows a single Watcher Savant, Fleshwarper, or Sovereign to slumber for as long as they wish. While slumbering in a hibernation pool the Watcher can use its Scry ability twice per week instead of only once per week. When a Watcher awakes, its slumber cycle restarts – in another three weeks, it must hibernate again.[/ic]
[ic=Cave Fish Pool (Limit 10)]This large, cold, subterranean pool is stocked with blind, albino fish which the Watchers devour by the dozen.
Cost: 10 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: A cave fish pool produces 5 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Algae Farm (Unlimited)]Nourishing algae is cultivated within Watchers vaults to feed the enormous eel-like horrors and their various minions.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: An algae farm produces 20 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Thrall Grotto (Limit 15)]These horrific grottoes are lightless caves accessible only through underwater tunnels. Those few who manage to wrest free of psychic domination inevitably drown attempting to escape.
Cost: 50 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Thralls. In addition, the Thrall Grotto produces 20 Bodies per week.[/ic]
[ic=Watcher Mine]Watcher mines are always tended by thralls, often modified with gill-slits so that they can tend to subaqueous mining passages.
Cost: 175 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Thrall Grotto
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You mine up to 185 Gold and up to 20 Metal per week, provided your Dungeon is built over a suitable deposit. You can only have a single mine per deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Improved Watcher Mine]Additional thralls and improved mining technology stolen or traded from other races make this mine more efficient.
Cost: 225 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Watcher Mine (replaces), 3 Thrall Grottos
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 325 Gold and 35 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Watcher Mine Complex]A teeming army of thralls tend this vast complex of tunnels.
Cost: 300 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Improved Watcher Mine (replaces), 6 Thrall Grottos
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 450 Gold and 50 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Mucosal Pool]This pool is murky with the fetid, viscous mucus that Watchers secrete, a transformative agent that metamorphoses humanoid Thralls into the amphibious brutes known as Scumspawn. Watcher Savants oversee this process.
Cost: 75 Gold, 20 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Scumspawn and Watcher Savants.[/ic]
[ic=Breeding Pool]Within the teeming depths of the breeding pools, Watchers subtly modify other species, sculpting them into useful forms and instilling them with an instinctive loyalty to Watchers.
Cost: 100 Gold, 25 Metal
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Guardians and Gloomrays.[/ic]
[ic=Parturition Pool]Within the Parturition Pools Watchers develop the remora-like beings known as Fleshriders.
Cost: 100 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Breeding Pool
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Guardians and Gloomrays[/ic]
[ic=Ooze Pool]This disgusting semi-coagulate pool of gelatinous mucus used to sculpt the revolting constructs known as Slime Golems.
Cost: 100 Gold
Prerequisites: Mucosal Pool
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Slime Golems.[/ic]
[ic=Augmentation Pool]In this seething pit of bilious ooze Watcher Fleshwarpers perform their perverse experiments on Thralls and Scumspawn, twisting them into new forms.
Cost: 125 Gold Gold, 20 Bodies
Prerequisites: Mucosal Pool, Breeding Pool
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Watcher Fleshwarpers. Thralls and Scumspawn recruited at a Vault with an Augmentation Pool can be recruited as Grafted Thralls or Scumspawn, gaining +1 Melee Attack, +1 Melee Damage, and +1 Defence but costing 1 Body in addition to their regular costs. Thralls or Scumspawn garrisoned in a Vault with an Augmentation Pool can be upgraded to Grafted Thralls or Scumspawn for 1 Body.[/ic]
[ic=Protoplasmic Pool]This tarry slurry of blackish sludge is used to generate the horrific monstrosities known as Protoplasmic Servitors.
Cost: 300 Gold, 35 Bodies
Prerequisites: Ooze Pool
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Protoplasmic Servitors.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=Mucosal Wall (Limit 1)]This disgusting mass of semi-solidified ooze provides protection to a Watcher Vault. Unlike the stone walls of other races, these semi-living walls regenerate themselves rapidly.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Defence: 18
Health: 40
Special Abilities: Regeneration 20[/ic]
[ic=Caustic Wall (Limit 1, counts as Mucosal Wall)]This modification to the Mucosal wall makes it burn enemy attackers.
Cost: 30 Gold
Prerequisites: Mucosal Wall (replaces)
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +5
Damage: 12 (Acid)
Defence: 18
Health: 40
Special Abilities: Regeneration 20[/ic]
[ic=Slime Moat (Limit 1)]This moat, dug by thralls, is filled with caustic slime that rapidly turns enemies who fall into the sludge to slurries of blood and dissolving bones.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: -2
Damage: 12 (Acid)
Special Abilities: Ranged units can get off an extra volley of attacks if protected by a Slime Moat, exactly as if they were being shielded by melee units. It takes attackers 1 round to circumvent the moat. The moat still functions as a trap – units can fall in accidentally. They must still breach any other Defences, such as an Ooze Wall.[/ic]
[ic=Nightmare Gate (Limit 1)]These hideous glyph-graven pillars form gates into Watcher Vaults. Only by facing their worst fears can invaders pass the grotesque pillars and approach the dreaded depths of a half-sunken Watcher city.
Cost: 70 Gold, 10 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Special Abilities: To pass the Nightmare Gate and enter the Vault, all attacking units must pass a Morale check of DC 10.[/ic]
[ic=Chimerical Gate (Limit 1, count as a Nightmare Gate)]Additional glyphs of elder horror make the Nightmare gate even harder to pass.
Cost: 50 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Nightmare Gate (replaces), Glyph Library
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: To pass the Chimerical Gate and enter the Vault, all attacking units must pass a Morale check of DC 15.[/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]This underwater tunnel allows Watchers to escape their Vault in times of need.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Defenders who fail their morale checks within a Watcher Vault can withdraw or flee to the nearest neighbouring territory instead of surrendering.[/ic]
[ic=Flooding Room (Limit 1)]This cavern can be sealed, and then flooded full of water. The trap has no effect on units that don't need to breathe, such as Undead or plant-creatures such as Fungoids. This trap can only be built in Dungeons and Outposts with access to water.
Cost: 75 Gold, 10 Metal
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 60[/ic]
[ic=Vault Slime (Limit 3)]This disgusting blackish-grey slime is highly corrosive. It drips down in a rain of caustic dribble, burning the flesh of invaders.
Cost: 5 Bodies
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +5
Damage: 8 (Acid)[/ic]
[ic=Cave Leech Swarm (Limit 2)]These pallid cave-leeches ignore Watchers and their minions, but can seriously debilitate enemy attackers, sometimes even killing them. This trap can only be built in Dungeons with access to water.
Cost: 20 Gold
Prerequisites: Breeding Pool
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +4
Damage: 8[/ic]
[ic=Fangfish School (Limit 1)]These schools of vicious flesh-eating fish ignore Watchers and their minions but reduce invaders who wade into the shallows of a Watcher Vault to gnawed bones in moments. This trap can only be built in Dungeons with access to water.
Cost: 30 Gold
Prerequisites: Breeding Pool
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 12[/ic]
[ic=Poisonous Algae (Limit 1)]Watchers and their minions have built up a tolerance to this poisonous algae, which is highly toxic to other creatures. This trap can only be built in Dungeons or Outposts with access to water.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: A regiment hit by this trap has its Health of all its units lowered by 2 for the duration of the battle.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Shadow Elves (created by MsOrcsbane)]
Shadow Elves
Once the Dark elves of Maldozzogoth ruled these Deeps. In ages past, their empire sprawled from one end to the other, and even those in the World Above trembled to speak of it.
And then the unthinkable happened: The slaves revolted, lead by Duergar recently escaped from their Ceremorph masters, tearing down in days what had stood for thousands of years. The few survivors of the royal family fled to a hidden sanctum, and watched in silence as the Duergar empire was raised. During this time, they began to grow distant from their kin and the old ways. Slowly, gradually, a shift happened. The remaining slaves began being given rights. They warred less and their intrigues were less lethal.
The Goddess was displeased.
They were warned. If they did not return to the Old Ways, they would be cursed so that all may know her displeasure, and the slaves they cherished so much would be brought low.
That same day, a visitor arrived to their realm - an Elf, a surface Elf, who was starving and wounded and far from home. The Old Ways demanded they enslave this Elf, torture her for pleasure and fun, and then sacrifice her to their Goddess.
They couldn't stomach it. They fed the Elf, clothed her, healed her wounds, and Dolmar Lestridae, general of their armies, personally escorted her back to the surface to insure her safety.
It's unclear which of these acts, or if it was just their accumulation, brought down the the wrath of the Goddess, but it did. Their former slaves were transformed into arachnid horrors, and they were forced to flee their hidden home. Vaelri Lestridae, the former High Priestess, was cursed worse, blinded and crippled while her brother returned from the surface, but all were marked for their rebellion so all Dark Elves might know them as forsaken.
So they moved again, this time to a new hiding place where their former kin would not look for them, and they huddled in fear of the Goddess's wrath. And then, salvation came. They were approached by an avatar of Sylessiadil, the Goddess of Shadows, whose central tenant is that that her domain is not possible without light for true Darkness is merely Light's absence, while shadows, which are Holy, are where Light creeps in to brighten the Dark. To a one, they bowed before her, and from that day forth the Dark Elves of Maldozzogoth became the Nocae, the Shadow Elves, sworn to a path of bringing light to turn Darkness into Holy Shadow.
Or at least, so claim the Nocae that have emerged in the fall of the Duergar Empire. But Dark Elves are known for treachery, and only time will prove if this is a true attempt at redemption, or just another web of the Spider Queen.
Starting Dungeon: Shadow Elf players must always claim their first City in the Upperdeep. This City begins with a Shadow Spire, Cavern of the Accursed, War Spire, 1 Lichen Garden, and a Shadow Elf Mine.
Starting Resources: Shadow Elves are have been scattered and have little wealth remaining. Shadow Elf players begin the game with 750 Gold, 150 Metal, and 200 Food.
Forsaken: Dark Elves loyal to the Old Ways attack Shadow Elves on sight and cannot make alliances with them.
Compassion: Shadow Elves never attack Surface settlements unless provoked (adventurers, mistaking them for Dark Elves, will still attack them). They never take slaves during attacks, though they can imprison enemies who surrender to them.
Holy Shadow: Shadow Elves are blessed by Sylessiadil and can quickly swathe themselves in shadow. Shadow Elf Infiltrators only require 1 Speed to set up an Ambush and gain a +2 bonus to Attack rolls on their initial sneak attack.
Dazzled: Shadow Elves are easily dazzled by bright light. They suffer double the morale penalties for sunlight.
Units
[ic=Dolmar Lestridae](http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/297/dolmarlestridae.jpg)
Former General of the Empire in Exile, Dolmar has resumed that role for Umbrazzid. He is not embittered by their fate, but hopeful - maintaining a belief his kin can be brought out of the Darkness into Holy Shadow as well. He tries to avoid direct conflict with any groups he believes can be "redeemed", which covers pretty much every mortal race, under the logic of "Look how far out of darkness we pull ourselves." Still, he is a general and won't shy away from combat, especially in defense of innocents and his home. He reserves a special hatred for irredeemable creatures like the Undead, Demons, and Ceremorphs. He does his best to not put on airs and eats with his men when in the field, not trying to claim "divine right" or any other superiority, and is as affable as someone who has seen so many battles could be. The only source of angst he has is his sister's cursed nature. A warrior at heart, Dolmar favors the glaive which he wields with skill, though in his time he composes epics, currently working on the fall of the Old Empire.
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 12
Defence: 20
Health: 18
Speed: 6
Morale: +7
Special Abilities: Infiltrator, Leadership
Dolmar increases the Melee Damage and Morale of any army he is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon he increases the Melee Damage and Morale of garrisoned troops by +1. Any regiment he joins gains his Infiltrator ability.
If a Drake Nest has been constructed, Dolmar can be mounted on a Drake. If mounted on a Drake he gains the Cavalry and Flying abilities and gains +2 Speed, +2 Defence, and +7 Health. He can only join regiments of Shadow Elf Drake Riders. Mounting Dolmar on a Drake costs 25 Gold and 5 Metal (no Upkeep costs, however).[/ic]
[ic=Accursed (Requires: Cavern of the Accursed)]The former slaves of the Shadow Elves were transformed by the dread gods of the Dark Elves into the horribly twisted creatures known as the Accursed, pitiful hybrids of spider and humanoid, with glistening chelicerae, eight multi-jointed limbs, and pallid, greyish skin. Despite their horrific appearance the Accursed are useful in combat, able to climb over walls and down chasms.
Cost: 7 Gold
Upkeep: 2 Food
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 4
Defence: 15
Health: 5
Speed: 4
Morale: +1
Special Abilities: Climbing, Poison 1.[/ic]
[ic=Shadow Elf Swordsman (Requires: War Spire)]Elegant, preternaturally dextrous, uncannily graceful, and consummately deadly, Shadow Elf swordsmen wield long, two-handed blades, and are armoured in studded leather with rather ornate but still effective spiked metal bracers, greaves, helms, and pauldrons.
Cost: 12 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 1 Food
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 7
Defence: 16
Health: 7
Speed: 5
Morale: +2[/ic]
[ic=Shadow Elf Archers (Requires: War Spire)]The Shadow Elf ranged weapon of choice is the short bow, with which they are quite adept.
Cost: 12 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +5
Ranged Damage: 3
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 15
Health: 7
Speed: 5
Morale: +2[/ic]
[ic=Shadow Elf Paladin (Requires: Shrine of Sylessiadil)]Paladins of Sylessiadil are holy warriors charged with the destruction of creatures of darkness. When they enter the service of the Goddess of Shadows they swear sacred oaths to track down beings of unlight and purge them from the Underdeep.
Cost: 20 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 6 Gold, 1 Food
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 8
Defence: 18
Health: 10
Speed: 5
Morale: +4
Special Abilities: Bless, Grudge (choose one: Dark Elf, Demon, Undead)[/ic]
[ic=Shadow Elf Abomination (Requires: Shrine of Sylessiadil)]Many of the Nocae Witch-Priestesses of the Spider Goddess were given a special punishment from their former deity. When the Shadow Elves fell from the favour of the Dark Elf gods, their Witch-Priestesses were transformed into monstrous, half-arachnid horror. Some appear Elven from the waist-up but with the lower bodies of malformed, gigantic arachnids, while others are hairy, multitudinously limbed, many-eyed creatures, prodigious in stature. Such Abominations are regarded with pity by other Shadow Elves, but have become devoted servants of Sylessiadil.
Cost: 50 Gold
Upkeep: 7 Gold, 7 Food
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 10
Defence: 18
Health: 40
Speed: 6
Morale: +4
Special Abilities: Climbing, Fear (DC 18), Large, Poison 5, Regeneration 10[/ic]
[ic=Shadow Elf Drake Rider (Requires: Drake Nest)]Riding graceful silver-scaled cave-wyrms found in the Upperdeep, Shadow Elf drake riders are principally ranged warriors, wielding short bows in battle, though they also carry spears or long blades in case they need to engage in melee.
Cost: 25 Gold, 5 Metal
Upkeep: 6 Gold, 4 Food
Ranged Attack: +5
Ranged Damage: 4
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 18
Health: 15
Speed: 8
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Cavalry, Flyer, Large[/ic]
[ic=Shadow Elf Ranger (Requires: Rangers' Spire)]Rangers are the elite scouts and snipers of the Shadow Elf army, able to move silent as shadows through the endless gloom of the Underdeep. They are typically very lightly armoured, but they are both skilled swordsmen and archers.
Cost: 25 Gold
Upkeep: 8 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +6
Ranged Damage: 5
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 4
Defence: 15
Health: 8
Speed: 5
Morale: +4
Special Abilities: Infiltrator, Scout[/ic]
[ic=Shadow Elf Gloomdancer (Requires: Spire of Gloom)]The blessed of Sylessiadil, Shadow Elf Gloomdancers have learned secret ways to step from one patch of shadow to another, and so can move about the Underdeep very quickly. They can also manipulate the shadows to make doubles of themselves seem to appear.
Cost: 40 Gold
Upkeep: 15 Gold, 1 Food
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 15
Defence: 20
Health: 15
Speed: 6
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Illusory Duplicate, Infiltrator, Teleporter
Gloomdancers can only cast Illusory Duplicate on themselves.[/ic]
[ic=Shadow Elf Cleric (Requires: Temple of Sylessiadil)]The Clerics of the Goddess of Shadows revere her in their half-lit temples. They can cloak allies from the sight of others, wrapping them in obfuscating shadows.
Cost: 60 Gold
Upkeep: 13 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +8
Ranged Damage: 5
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 18
Health: 10
Speed: 5
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Detector, Invisibility, Obfuscating Shroud, Ward[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Shadow Spire]From this ornate spire of pale stone, Vaelri Lestridae stares into darkness and utters prophetic words, glimpsing places that fall into shadow. The Shadow Spire has no cost, and is located in the Shadow Elf capitol.
Benefit: Vaelri can use the Scry spell once per week from the Shadow Spire (Dolmar need not be present).[/ic]
[ic=Lichen Garden (Unlimited)]Though they will eat fungi, Shadow Elves prefer to consume a variety of purplish moss, which they are experts at cultivating.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A lichen garden produces 20 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Lizard Pen (Unlimited)]Shadow Elf-reared cave-lizards are bred for their tender flesh. They also lay eggs which Shadow Elves occasionally incorporate into their dishes.
Cost: 40 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: A lizard pen produces 35 Food per week. [/ic]
[ic=Shadow Elf Mine]Shadow Elf Mines are worked by the Nocae and their Accursed former slaves, though now such creatures are treated with compassion.
Cost: 175 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Cavern of the Accursed
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You mine up to 175 Gold and up to 15 Metal per week, provided your Dungeon is built over a suitable deposit. You can only have a single mine per deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Improved Shadow Elf Mine]Technological improvements – often borrowed or stolen from Duergar – make this Shadow Elf mine a bit more efficient.
Cost: 225 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Shadow Elf Mine (replaces)
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 300 Gold and 25 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Shadow Elf Mine Complex]This complex is an efficient network of tunnels tended to be experienced Accursed.
Cost: 300 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Improved Shadow Elf Mine (replaces)
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 400 Gold and 50 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Bat Roost]This cavern is filled with messenger bats, allowing for relatively rapid communication.
Cost: 50 Gold, 20 Food
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: If Dolmar is garrisoned at a Dungeon with a Bat Roost he can send an additional message per week per player.[/ic]
[ic=Cavern of the Accursed]This warren of tunnels houses the cursed slaves known as Accursed. They keep to themselves within the gloom of these caverns, though unlike the slaves of the Dark Elves they are permitted to wander the rest of a Nocae city.
Cost: 35 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Accursed.[/ic]
[ic=Spidersilk Armoury]The Accursed produce webs, which the Shadow Elves can craft into spidersilk armour.
Cost: 200 Gold
Prerequisites: Cavern of the Accursed, Armoury Spire
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Dark Elf Swordsmen, Archers, Paladins, Drake Riders, Rangers, and Gloomdancers recruited in a City with a Spidersilk Armoury all gain +1 Defence. Such units garrisoned in a City with a Spidersilk Armoury permanently gain +1 Defence.[/ic]
[ic=War Spire]This grim, militant structure is the principle barracks and training facility for Shadow Elf soldiers.
Cost: 75 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Shadow Elf Swordsmen and Shadow Elf Archers.[/ic]
[ic=Armoury Spire]This tower is often attached directly to the war spire; it contains additional arms and armour for Nocae to swiftly equip themselves.
Cost: 40 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: War Spire
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Shadow Elf Swordsmen can be converted into Shadow Elf Archers and vice versa.[/ic]
[ic=Shrine of Sylessiadil]This small shrine is dedicated to Sylessiadil; here, Nocae pray to the Goddess of Shadow, beseeching her protection and guidance. Here also the pitiful but terrifying Abominations lurk, deep in the inner sanctum of the temple.
Cost: 150 Gold
Prerequisites: War Spire
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Shadow Elf Paladins and Shadow Elf Abominations. In addition, garrisoned Shadow Elves who pray at the Shrine of Sylessiadil gain +1 to Morale for 1 week. Any units suffering from disease are cured, and return to full Health.[/ic]
[ic=Drake Nest]In this shadowy spire, Drakes are lovingly fed freshly-hunted game until they are big enough to ride. The silvery Wyrms form immutable bonds of loyalty with their riders.
Cost: 125 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: War Spire
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Shadow Elf Drake Riders.[/ic]
[ic=Rangers' Spire]The Rangers' Spire is an impressive, military-looking building crowned with spikes and statues of the Goddess of Shadows.
Cost: 85 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: War Spire
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Shadow Elf Rangers.[/ic]
[ic=Spire of Gloom]This spire somehow seems to never appear in exactly the same place twice, but shifts and flickers, moving throughout the city. Here Gloomdancers are trained, elite warriors able to step from shadow to shadow.
Cost: 100 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Shrine of Sylessiadil
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Shadow Elf Gloomdancers.[/ic]
[ic=Temple of Sylessiadil]This impressive temple is dedicated to the Goddess of Shadow; here her Clerics pray to protect their kindred from darkness.
Cost: 150 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisties: Shrine of Sylessiadil
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Shadow Elf Clerics. In addition, garrisoned Shadow Elves who pray at the Temple gain +2 to Morale and +2 Defence for 1 week. Any units suffering from disease are cured, and return to full health. This effect does not stack with the effects of praying at the Shrine of Sylessiadil.[/ic]
[ic=Gloom Portal (Unlimited)]This shadowy portal allows for the transportation of Shadow Elves from city to city.
Cost: 75 Gold
Prerequisites: Spire of Gloom, Temple of Sylessiadil
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Gloom Portals must be built in pairs to function (though they need not be built at the same time). Once per week, the Portals can be activated, transporting up to 25 units between locations. Teleportation Portals are always linked in pairs: a group of three Portals, for example, cannot be linked, though multiple pairs of Portals can be constructed. If a Gloom Portal hasn't been used and troops wish to withdraw from a Dungeon under attack, it can be used to do so.
Note: although a Spire of Gloom is required to create the Gloom Portal, it need not be physically present in all Dungeons with a Circle, only one of them. If the City containing the Spire of Gloom is lost, however, new Gloom Portals cannot be created.[/ic]
[ic=Gloom Gate]Stronger magic allows a Gloom Portal to be widened, admitting more troops.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequisites: Gloom Portal (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: This Gloom Portal can now transport up to 50 units. Its linked twin can still only transport 25 units and must be upgraded separately to send 50 units, but it can "receive" 50 units without being upgraded.[/ic]
[ic=Gloom-Glyphs]These strange glyphs are graven onto a building by a Cleric of the Goddess of Shadow, allowing the structure to vanish into shadow only to reappear elsewhere. A Shadow Elf Cleric must be garrisoned in the City while the Gloom-Glyphs are under construction.
Cost: 100 Gold
Prerequisites: Spire of Gloom, Temple of Sylessiadil
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: Gloom-Glyphs are inscribed on a single Room (not a trap or fortification). When construction is complete, the structure instantly disappears from the Shadow Elf City and reappears in a different Shadow Elf City. The Gloom-Glyphs then immediately disappear.
If the building is shifted to a city without its prerequisites, it still functions, and if it was a prerequisite for other structures, they function as well.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=City Wall (Limit 1)]This thick stone fortification provides protection to a Shadow Elf City.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Defence: 20
Health: 50[/ic]
[ic=Improved City Wall (Limit 1, counts as City Wall)]Additional battlements and scaffolding make the city wall even stronger.
Cost: 30 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: City Wall
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Defence: +5 to City Wall Defence and +10 to City Wall Health.[/ic]
[ic=Veil of Shadows (Limit 1)]A veil of shadows makes the Nocae city extremely difficult to find.
Cost: 100 Gold
Prerequisites: Spire of Gloom
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A Veil of Shadows ensures that the Shadow Elf City it is built in can only be automatically discovered by those with Detection. It still appears on the map, but can only be assaulted if the attacking army includes a Detector.[/ic]
[ic=Shadowy Architecture (Limit 1)]The architecture of this city is strangely insubstantial. Streets seem to shift and flicker, buildings to rearrange themselves queerly. Shadow Elves are unaffected, but other creatures find such flickering disturbing and disorienting
Cost: 60 Gold, 20 Metal
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: After breaching any outer defences, those attacking a City with Shadowy Architecture suffer a -1 penalty to Attack and Morale checks.[/ic]
[ic=Shadow Elf Ballista (Limit 3)]This intricate ballista can be mounted atop the walls of a Shadow Elf city. Though it rarely kills very many foes, it is extremely accurate.
Cost: 50 Gold, 20 Metal
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +12
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: A Shadow Elf Ballista must be manned by two garrisoned units.[/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]This sally-port allows Shadow Elves to escape their city.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Defenders who fail their morale checks within a Shadow Elf City can withdraw or flee to the nearest neighbouring territory instead of surrendering.[/ic]
[ic=Pit Trap (Limit 3)]These pit traps are slightly better-designed than most, and are relatively well-hidden.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 8[/ic]
[ic=Spiked Pit Trap (Limit 3, counts as Pit Trap)]A more vicious version of the pit trap, the spiked pit trap has long wooden stakes at the bottom to skewer those who fall in.
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 12[/ic]
[ic=Murder Holes (Limit 3)]These holes are bored in the roof of a cavern or passageway, allowing defenders to drop poisonous insects, starving rats, boiling water, pitch, or other unpleasant substances on attackers.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +5
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective. [/ic]
[ic=Spiked Moat (Limit 1)]This simple trench is filled with spikes, deterring invaders. Ranged units can assail enemies from behind the moat.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: -2
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Ranged units can get off an extra volley of attacks if protected by a Spiked Moat, exactly as if they were being shielded by melee units. It takes attackers 1 round to circumvent the moat. The moat still functions as a trap – units can fall in accidentally. They must still breach any other Defences, such as a City Wall.[/ic]
[ic=Gloom Beacon (Limit 1)]This strange, light-house like structure casts eerie shadows. When the beacon is lit, all that its light touches seems to fade and flicker, only to reappear elsewhere.
Cost: 200 Gold, 50 Metal
Prerequisities: Shadow Spire, Gloom Gate
Construction Time: 6 weeks
Special Abilities: Once per month, the Gloom Beacon can be lit. Instantly, the entire city in which the Beacon is constructed moves from its current location to any other region the Shadow Elf player has units in, provided a Dungeon or Outpost does not already exist in that location. Garrisoned units are also moved, but any besieging enemy units are not. The Gloom Beacon cannot be activated in battle.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=The Demented (created by Xathan)]
The Demented
Deep within the world in realms where sunlight has never shown is the decayed city of Dtoulth, the former seat of the Ceremorph Empire. Sunken by its inhabitants aeons ago when the light of the sun burst forth onto the formerly perfect world, Dtoulth is guarded by its six passages of entry, hidden at first behind walls of angles that would appear to be only 126 degrees but are in actuality angles with degrees in excess of four hundred yet never forming a circle. Once one passes through the Mobius Gate the city of Dtoulth sprawls before them, a realm lit by a sickly color that can only be described by the Dtoulthi Synthesians as the color made by the sound of a dream breaking.
Once one becomes accustomed to the light, however, the city holds more unreality. Gravity and normal laws of connection hold no sway, and a Ceremorph entering a building on the ceiling by walking up a path that should stretch horizontal will exit through the same buildings rear door on the western wall - or at least, the wall that is western from this vantage, as from another that wall is now the ceiling but passing through a door puts that same back door on the floor beneath. The paths all twist to the point where the flat surfaces only have one walking edge or perhaps have three, and it takes the sane mind some time to adjust and begin categorizing. Soon, if it does not break, their mind adjusts and lays the city flat before them.
And what a city it is. Made of pale green stone that can only be found in these unholy depths, the entire city is drowned in a near-perfect silence, with only footsteps and the breaths of the thralls providing sound. The entire city is built like an amphitheater - excepting the thrall larders build upon the tops of the stalactites that adorn the cavern, given them a position that for surface dwellers would be revered but for the beings that live below is the most insulting home to have. However, only visible are the larders of the thralls and the structures of the ancient empire that they maintain through their masters telepathic commands as well as the Thralls themselves. It is rumored that deeper, living in alchemically created stones warped from the discarded bones of Food (for Food's brains are for the Ceremorphs and their flesh is for the Thralls) are true tunnels of the Ceremorphs and their Overbrain...but none has ever entered those depths and returned to report.
Until recently Dtoulth has been completely isolated from the mortal, sane world - save for raids to replenish the Larders and occasional excursions that make no sense to the rational mind - but that has changed with the birth of the Queen of the Ceremorphs, a formerly beautiful elven warrior who was warped and twisted into something with a disgusting beauty of her own. She has begun a more external policy and even begun looking at forging alliances with food. A few escaped Thralls have hinted in their mad ramblings of a division between the Overbrain and the Queen, though they also are so far beyond sanity it's hard to tell what truth their ramblings may hold. It is confirmed that the success in creating the Queen has emboldened the Ceremorphs of Dtoulth to experiment with other forms, starting with the abhorrent ropers they use are guardians.
Now, however, it turns those mad Thralls had the absolute right of it. Llitul is in open rebellion against the Overbrain, and her followers have abandoned the name Exalted – since that name is still claimed by those followers of Dtoulth – and taken up the name the Demented.
Starting Dungeon: Ceremorph players must always claim their first Hive in the Lowerdeep. This Hive begins with a Ceremorph Overbrain Chamber, a Spawning Pool, 1 Thrall Pen, 1 Mushroom Patch, and a Ceremorph Mine.
Starting Resources: The Ceremorphs are often left undisturbed, for the Lowerdeep is perilous. This allows them to generate a great number of resources. Their isolation and alien psychology – and their tendency to eat the brains of any they encounter – does tend to discourage trade, however. Ceremorph players begin the game with 800 Gold, 150 Metal, 100 Food, and 50 Bodies.
Domination: Ceremorphs can psychically dominate their enemies. When attacking a fleeing unit of normal or Large size, any casualties they inflict can be transformed into Thralls instead of being slain. Casualties inflicted by Ceremorph Larvae Swarms become Ceremorph Psions instead as per their Create Spawn ability. An actual Ceremorph (Psion, Exarch, Llitul, or Overbrain) must be present for the Domination ability to function.
Telepathy: Ceremorph Overbrains are powerful psychic creatures with natural telepathy. They can send double the number of messages per week - four messages to each player. Players who receive Ceremorph messages can reply to all of them, even if this exceeds their normal 2 message/player limit.
The Hunger!: Ceremorphs possess an insatiable appetite. Ceremorphs not given their Body and/or Food Upkeep suffer double the penalties per week to morale and health from starvation.
Units
[ic=Llitul the Demented, Lady of Madness](http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/1385/exalted.jpg)
My name doesn't matter. I don't know if I remember it anymore. I once had one. I think. Back when I walked under that bright orb of light that showered the...something. The grind? That sounds close. That showered the grind with light. The orb. The...gods, what was it called? The Shun. Yes. I had a name when the shun gave light to the grind and I sensed it with the orbs that adorn my face. The orbs itched once. I used to do something to keep them from itching, from drying. I blanked. That word seems right. Blanking my orbs in the light of the shun from the drought of the grind.
And then the Masters came, and I was one with the Masters, a Thrall. And the Masters never commanded that I blank, so I did not, and my orbs grew scarred and white and scratched and useless which does not matter for the Masters gave me their sight, the mindsight, and I do not need my orbs.
So I keep faced to the edge of my cell, though that word is only a echo, an echo with words like room and shun and glow and day and hope. An echo that makes me odd to the Masters, for I should not have echos, I should not have I. I should only have the Masters and the Will. But I also have I and the echos, and that makes me of interest to the Masters.
I am to be exalted. I did not know this until just now, but now I know I am to be exalted and I do not question for that is now I how know things. The Masters make it so for me, it is now known, and I know I am of interest because there is a me to make things known to. I rise because I am to rise. I walk for I am to walk. I see in front of me a pit, and I the part of me that is me begins to pray to somethings. They had a name once. Gones. I pray to the Gones though I know the only beings to hear my prayers are the Masters and I know now that they find it amusing the same way I knew to rise and knew to walk and now know I must kneel at the edge of the pool before me. I know that I am about to experience terror.
And then I do. My Masters leave my mind and for moments, simple moments, I am Llandri the Brightstar again, champion of the Elves of Thylassipsyl, and I am blind and the captives of the Ceremorphs who are forcing my head into their breeding pool and I know what awaits me but my head is submerged and all I can do is thrash as I feel them, little inch long worms poking at my face, looking for an orifice. I clamp my mouth shut but my nose and ears and scarred, pitted, and useless orbs that once were eyes offer no protection and I can feel them begin to bore into me when suddenly there is a Voice. The Voice. There are no words, not free of my masters, and no understanding or knowledge, but the tadpoles comprehend and flee from my face. I wonder for a moment if maybe they'll just kill me when I feel more, feel tentacles the width of my fingers affix themselves to the sides of my head and feel a mass, a pulsating, wrinkled mass push itself against my mouth, and I know I must open my mouth as the masters reassert momentary control and my mouth is open and it's entering.
Then they release my mind and I try to bite, to kill whatever new horror is happening, but I am paralysed by those tendrils drilling into my temples and the mass is in my throat and in my stomach and then there is only pain.
Pain. Pain that I cannot describe, pain that words do not exist for, not in any of the tounges I know. It is eating me but not my brain, it is eating my stomach and lungs and liver and heart and veins and replacing them with its horrid mass and suddenly Llandri the Brightstar is dead and Llitul is born. I house a portion of the Overbrain. I am its Amygdala, and when my physical body is reborn I will truely be Sthaephl, the Exalted, the Mind, but Llandri mind is free to live and pray and do almost all it could do in life and Llandri uses those brains at first to beg with then curse and then revile her gods. The gods have forsaken him. The gods have no mercy, they have no goodness, they have no love.
If they did, they would allow her to scream.
But now my Beloved Children tend to me as the Overbrain, my father, commands them further. I am the Queen of the Ceremorphs, the first of their kind, a fusion of elf and Elder. My body retains its elven sleekness of form and mobility though it is far different, gray and soft, bones replaced with tentacles. My feeding mouths are in my hands, my fingers are tentacles like those that adorn the face of my Beloved Children. My ruined orbs are masses of nerves now, dendrites and axions so tightly packed that they sheen silver and give me telepathic sight. I am stronger and faster, able to move along ceilings and walls as smoothly as I once did the trees see you remember trees you know that word you loved the trees why can't you remember trees of the grind, using four limbs or two or six as easily as I once merely used two.
I silence Llandri. I can see myself now, through my Beloved Childrens' eyes, and I realize that despite the long tentacles, twice a long as I once stood, that jut in a pair from the base of my spine and three each from my shoulders, despite the hungry starfish mouths that ring them, despite my once golden hair replaced with tentacles coated in the color of spilled oil, I am Beauty, true Beauty, and I am to lead the City of Madness Dtoulth into glory, for Food is going to War and we must be ready. I am the Queen of the Ceremorphs and Queen of Thralls, and I will lead Dtoulth in the Wars of Food. I know from the Beloved that I was born this way for the Ceremorphs do not understand the thinking of Food and need a Queen with enough of a Food brain so She can think as Food does, but who's Beloved nature comes from the Overbrain itself so none can ever doubt that She is Not Food.
I give Llandri her wish. I push back my head and scream, and the part of me that is her can only weep because my scream is not of terror but of joy at being Exalted.
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 8 (Psychic)
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 18
Health: 20
Speed: 5
Morale: +8
Special Abilities: Climbing, Confusion, Detector, Dominate, Immunity (Fear), Leadership
Llitul increases the Ranged Damage and Morale of any army she is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon she increases the Ranged Damage and Morale of garrisoned troops by +1. Any regiment she leads is also Immune to Fear.[/ic]
[ic=The Overbrain that is Dtoulth]
If Dtoulth is ever destroyed, all Ceremorph units under Llitul's control must make an immediate morale check of DC 15 or instantly die from mental shock, since her control over them is being "stolen" from Dtoulth. Ceremorph units without a morale score, like Thralls, Larvae, or Brain Golems, die immediately.[/ic]
[ic=Thrall (Requires: Thrall Pen)]Ceremorphs psychically dominate their enemies, transforming them into mindless thralls, automatons that work their mines and act as fodder on the battlefield. Thralls require the presence of a Ceremorph to function properly.
Cost: 5 Gold
Upkeep: 1 Food
Melee Attack: +1
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 12
Health: 4
Speed: 4
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Thralls can be converted into Bodies at any time to feed Ceremorphs, or they can be sacrificed to help create Ceremorph Psions.
Thralls must be accompanied by at least one Ceremorph Psion or Ceremorph Exarch (or Llitul) at all times (i.e. in the same army) , unless garrisoned in a Dungeon with an Overbrain. If the Psions or Exarchs shepherding them perish, they immediately become inert, standing in place and doing nothing. They will continue in this state until a new Ceremorph Psion or Exarch (of their original Faction or a different Ceremorph Faction) approaches them, at which points they join the Ceremorph army containing said Psion or Exarch. While inert, Thralls accrue Upkeep costs but cannot receive Food, and thus begin starving to death (see Upkeep rules). If reclaimed, any Upkeep owing must be repaid immediately, if possible.
Ceremorphs can obtain control of Watcher Thralls, and vice versa.[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Larvae Swarm (Requires: Spawning Pool)]Writhing masses of Ceremorph larvae are often herded into battle alongside other troops, in order to generate new Ceremorphs in the field. These disgusting, worm-like creatures hurl themselves at enemies, attempting to violate their flesh and burrow into their skulls, to begin the process of Ceremorphosis.
Cost: 10 Gold
Upkeep: None
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 8 (Suicidal)
Defence: 14
Health: 8
Speed: 4
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Create Spawn (Ceremorph Psions), Vermin
Note: Dead Ceremorph Larvae swarms do not count as Bodies.[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Psion (Requires: Spawning Pool)]The aberrant, tentacled Ceremorph Psions are skilled in psychic attacks. Armour, shields, scales – all are worthless against a Ceremorph's mental barrage, an onslaught that can reduce a humanoid mind to bloody pulp, all the better to be slurped up by a Ceremorph's questing tentacles.
Cost: 10 Gold, 1 Thrall
Upkeep: 3 Gold, 2 Bodies
Ranged Attack: +6
Ranged Damage: 4 (Psychic)
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 16
Health: 8
Speed: 4
Morale: +4
Special Abilities: Detector[/ic]
[ic=Brainhound (Requires: Mutation Chamber)]These horrifying mutant things resemble brains sprouting chitinous, quasi-reptilian limbs and masses of tentacles. They are extremely stealthy attackers, fighting with claws and whipping pseudo-pods. Unlike true Ceremorphs they are omnivores, capable of feeding on sustenance apart from brains, though they willingly consume dead flesh.
Cost: 20 Gold, 1 Body
Upkeep: 3 Bodies or 3 Food
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 17
Health: 10
Speed: 6
Morale: +4
Special Abilities: Infiltrator[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Sentinel (Requires: Mutation Chamber)]These monstrous beings resemble enormous, rubbery stalactites. They are extremely slow-moving, but this actually helps their mode of attack – serving as sentries and guards, Ceremorph Sentinels use their natural resemblance to rocks to surprise attacking foes. They attack with their lashing tendrils, strangling enemies and then feeding on their brains and flesh.
Cost: 30 Gold, 2 Bodies
Upkeep: 5 Bodies or 5 Food
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 10
Defence: 18
Health: 40
Speed: 1
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Detector, Infiltrator, Large, Reach
Ceremorph Sentinels only take 1 Speed to set up an Ambush.[/ic]
[ic=Brain Golem (Requires: Experimentation Chrysalis)]This nauseating constructs are made entirely out of brain tissue. Apart from being indomitable fighters, they can project a mental blast that confuses and disorients enemies.
Cost: 50 Gold, 25 Bodies
Upkeep: 10 Gold, 5 Bodies
Ranged Attack: +6
Ranged Damage: 0
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 15
Defence: 18
Health: 75
Speed: 3
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Confusion, Construct, Large[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Dementist (Requires Asylum of the Demented)]
These abominable things were Elves once, but now they have been implanted with Ceremorph larvae and warped with Llitul's madness, turning them into Llitul's Dementists, her elite soldiers and enforcers. Their particular mania takes the form of an obsession with pleasing her that takes a near-religious fervor.
Cost: 65 Gold, 1 Elf Thrall (Dark Elves count as Elves)
Upkeep: 8 Gold, 4 Bodies
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 8 (Psychic)
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 18
Health: 18
Speed: 5
Morale: +7
Special Abilities: Agony, Detector, Discipline, Fear (DC 18), Immunity (Fear)
Armies accompanied by a Dementist gain the Discipline ability.[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Severed (Requires: Metamorphic Cell)]The Severed are the mutated remnants of Ceremorphs who are uselessly mad or mutated beyond any ability to function – or those captured in rebellion against Llitul - created by Ceremorph Dementists in the deepest dungeons of a Hive. Appearing as overgrown, decapitated, floating Ceremorph heads, they serve as troop transports for Ceremorph troops.
Cost: 50 Gold
Upkeep: 5 Bodies
Defence: 20
Health: 60
Speed: 8
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Flying, Huge, Transport (50 normal-sized troops – Large troops count as 4 regular troops, Huge troops cannot be transported)[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Mindwyrm (Requires: Eldritch Cocoon)]A Mindwyrm is a type of mutated Ceremorph larva fed neural tissues from dead Ceremorphs. The creature grows to a prodigious size, a mass of hideous tentacles writhing from its maw; it can burrow through solid rock, and where it goes, terror follows. These fearsome abominations are amongst the most powerful creatures in the Ceremorph arsenal, able to contend with Dragons and other behemothic horrors.
Cost: 200 Gold, 30 Bodies
Upkeep: 20 Bodies
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 15 (Psychic)
Melee Attack: +15
Melee Damage: 30
Defence: 18
Health: 220
Speed: 8
Morale: +10
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 20), Huge, Tunneling[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Teleportation Sphincter (Unlimited)]This horrible organic orifice connects to a twin elsewhere in the Underdeep, transporting creatures though its entrail-like length almost instantly.
Cost: 75 Gold
Prerequisites: Ceremorph Overbrain Chamber -OR- Arcane Library
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Teleportation Sphincters must be built in pairs to function (though they need not be built at the same time). Once per week, the Sphincters can be activated, transporting up to 50 units between locations. Teleportation Sphincters are always linked in pairs: a group of three Sphincters, for example, cannot be linked, though multiple pairs of Sphincters can be constructed. If a Teleportation Sphincter hasn't been used and troops wish to withdraw from a Dungeon under attack, it can be used to do so.
Note: although an Overbrain Chamber is required to create the Teleportation Sphincter, it need not be physically present in all Dungeons with a Circle, only one of them. If the Hive containing the Overbrain Chamber is lost, however, new Sphincters cannot be created.[/ic]
[ic=Mindlink Node]This special node allows an Overbrain to establish a link with another being.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequisites: Ceremorph Overbrain Chamber
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Your Overbrain gains the Mindlink spell, useable once per week.[/ic]
[ic=Mindlink Amplifier]This amplifier makes the Mindlink node resonate throughout the Underdeep.
Cost: 35 Gold
Prerequisites: Mindlink Node
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Llitual gains the Mindlink power spell permanently, useable once per week, no matter where she is.[/ic]
[ic=Restoration Pool]This pool of curative fluid is used to heal Ceremorphs of disease and other ailments.
Cost: 35 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Ceremorphs who bathe in the Restoration Pool are cured of any diseases they are carrying.[/ic]
[ic=Mushroom Patch (Unlimited)]Ceremorphs cultivate mushrooms primarily to feed their mentally dominated slaves, though Sentinels and Brainhounds can also feed on them if necessary.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A mushroom patch produces 20 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Thrall Pen (Limit 15)]This lightless cage of flesh and iron contains humanoid prisoners, a breeding population used by the Ceremorphs to create Thralls, and to supply themselves with fresh brains and hosts for reproduction.
Cost: 50 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Thralls. In addition, the Thrall Pen produces 20 Bodies per week.[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Mine]Ceremorph mines are always tended by thralls. They make tireless workers, and their tunnels echo with the eerie, synchronous sound of their picks striking rock, as each individual thrall performs identical motions.
Cost: 175 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites:Thrall Pen
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You mine up to 185 Gold and up to 20 Metal per week, provided your Dungeon is built over a suitable deposit. You can only have a single mine per deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Improved Ceremorph Mine]Additional thralls and improved mining technology stolen or traded from other races make this mine more efficient.
Cost: 225 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Ceremorph Mine (replaces), 3 Thrall Pens
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 325 Gold and 35 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Ceremorph Mine Complex]A teeming army of thralls tend this vast complex of tunnels.
Cost: 300 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Improved Ceremorph Mine (replaces), 6 Thrall Pens
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 450 Gold and 50 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Spawning Pool]This vast pool of brine, grey-matter, and alchemical ooze is central to most Ceremorph Hives. Here Ceremorph larvae are hatched and tended-to, before being implanted in still-living thralls to create new Ceremorphs.
Cost: 40 Gold, 10 Bodies
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Ceremorph Larvae Swarms and Ceremorph Psions.[/ic]
[ic=Grafting Workshop]In this blood-drenched hall of horrors, thralls are grafted with alien tissues scavenged from beasts and other creatures, in order to augment their abilities.
Cost: 20 Gold, 20 Bodies
Prerequisites: Spawning Pool
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Thralls recruited at a Hive with a Grafting Workshop can be recruited as Grafted Thralls, gaining +1 Melee Attack, +1 Melee Damage, and +1 Defence but costing 1 Body in addition to their regular costs. Thralls garrisoned in a Hive with a Grafting Workshop can be upgraded to Grafted Thralls for 1 Body.[/ic]
[ic=Mutation Chamber]This throbbing, semi-organic chamber contains vast vats of eldritch liquid in which Ceremorph creatures can be immersed, transforming them in various aberrant ways.
Cost: 125 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Spawning Pool
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Ceremorph Brainhounds and Ceremorph Sentinels.[/ic]
[ic=Evolution Cell]Sometimes, purely mindless thralls are less useful to Ceremorphs than those retaining some shred of sentience. Thralls cultivated in an Evolution Cell are just that – partially self-aware creatures who serve the Ceremorphs as spies and suicide troops.
Cost: 50 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Grafting Workshop, Mutation Chamber
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Thralls recruited at a Hive with an Evolution Cell can be recruited as Thrall Infiltrators. They are identical with Grafted Thralls save that they possess the Infiltrator ability, a Morale score of +3, and a suicidal attack which, if it hits, deals 15 points of Acid damage. They do not take Morale penalties on the Surface. They cost 12 Gold and 1 Body to recruit.[/ic]
[ic=Pupation Cell]In this grotesque chamber, Ceremorph larvae are exposed to transmutative gases and other substances and then grafted with certain esoteric glands and other augmentations, giving them strange new abilities.
Cost: 35 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Grafting Workshop, Mutation Chamber
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Ceremorph Larvae Swarms recruited at a Hive with a Pupation Cell can be recruited as Flensing Swarms. They gain the Flying ability, +2 Speed, and +1 Melee Attack, and cost an additional 2 Gold and 1 Metal.[/ic]
[ic=Experimentation Chrysalis]This strange, organic chamber is used for the assembly of the bizarre constructs known as Brain Golems.
Cost: 70 Gold, 15 Bodies
Prerequisites: Grafting Workshop
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can construct Brain Golems.[/ic]
[ic=Asylum of the Demented]
The semi-organic Asylums of the Demented are where Dementists are created from Elves captured alive by Llitul's forces; her elite warriors, tasked with hunting down her foes and spying on her follower's minds for any evidence of dissent. Throughout the Aslyum ring the manic, desperate laughter of those being "treated."
Cost: 150 Gold, 10 Metal
Construction time: 4 Weeks
Benefit You can recruit Ceremorph Dementists.[/ic]
[ic=Asylum of the Demented]
The semi-organic Asylums of the Demented are where Dementists are created from Elves captured alive by Llitul's forces; her elite warriors, tasked with hunting down her foes and spying on her follower's minds for any evidence of dissent. Throughout the Aslyum ring the manic, desperate laughter of those being "treated."
Cost: 150 Gold, 10 Metal
Construction time: 4 Weeks
Benefit You can recruit Ceremorph Dementists.[/ic]
[ic=Treatment Ward (Unlimited)]This escape-proof cell is used by the Dementists to hold especially troublesome prisoners, powerful heretics, unique specimens, and the like.
Cost: 15 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Asylum of the Demented
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: The Holding Cell can hold one creature of up to Huge size, allowing Ceremorphs who've lost control of a Dominated monster to keep it penned up.[/ic]
[ic=Metamorphic Cell]Within the deepest reaches of the Asylum of the Demented lie the metamorphic cells where the pitiful, shamed creatures known as Severed are mutated from renegade Ceremorphs as punishment for their thought-crimes.
Cost: 70 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Asylum of the Demented
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Ceremorph Severed.[/ic]
[ic=Neuromorphic Cell]In this diabolic room within the Asylum of the Demented,the brains of uselessly deranged or pitifully mutated Ceremorphs are forcibly extracted. In a twisted mockery of the the Overbrain, they are used in the creation specialized Brain Golems known as Blaspheme Golems.
Cost: 40 Gold, 15 Bodies
Prerequisites: Experimentation Chrysalis, Asylum of the Demented
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Brain Golems recruited at a Hive with a Neuromorphic Cell can be recruited as Blaspheme Golems, which possess a Ranged attack with a +10 bonus to hit and 6 Damage (Psychic) this applies to their Confusion attack as well. These Golems cost an additional +20 Gold at recruitment and +5 Bodies for Upkeep.[/ic]
[ic=Eldritch Cocoon]This massive cocoon is pumped full of alchemical gas and liquids. Here, a Ceremorph Mindwyrm slowly matures, fed on the brains both of loyal volunteers willing to sacrifice their consciousnesses rather than join the Overbrain, along with the brains of dissident Ceremorphs harvested in the Inquisition of the Exalted.
Cost: 250 Gold, 40 Bodies
Prerequisites: Mutation Chamber, Asylum of the Demented
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Ceremorph Mindwyrms. You can only recruit one such creature a week per Cocoon, and can only construct one Cocoon per Hive.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=Ooze Wall (Limit 1)]This disgusting mass of semi-solidified ooze provides protection to a Ceremorph Hive. Unlike the stone walls of other races, these semi-living walls regenerate themselves rapidly.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Defence: 18
Health: 40
Special Abilities: Regeneration 20[/ic]
[ic=Slime Moat (Limit 1)]This moat, dug by thralls, is filled with caustic slime that rapidly turns enemies who fall into the sludge to slurries of blood and dissolving bones.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: -2
Damage: 12 (Acid)
Special Abilities: Ranged units can get off an extra volley of attacks if protected by a Slime Moat, exactly as if they were being shielded by melee units. It takes attackers 1 round to circumvent the moat. The moat still functions as a trap – units can fall in accidentally. They must still breach any other Defences, such as an Ooze Wall.[/ic]
[ic=Sphincter Gate (Limit 1)]This resilient orifice repels all but the most powerful attackers. If forced to unclench, it proceeds to belch acidic ooze on attackers.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Defence: 18
Health: 30
Special Abilities: Death Throes (+6 Attack, 20 Acid Damage), Regeneration 15[/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]This sally-port allows Ceremorphs to escape their Hive.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Defenders who fail their morale checks within a Ceremorph Hive can withdraw or flee to the nearest neighbouring territory instead of surrendering. Of course, an Overbrain can never flee its Hive, since its Speed is 0.[/ic]
[ic=Uncanny Architecture (Limit 1)]Ceremorph Hives are known for their confusing, even impossible architecture – corridors that bend back on themselves, stairways that seems infinite, twisted bends in space and time, angles that should not be. While Ceremorphs handle such uncanny architecture without trouble, those assaulting a Hive can find themselves lost and confused.
Cost: 60 Gold, 20 Metal
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: After breaching any outer defences, those attacking a Hive with Uncanny Architecture suffer a -1 penalty to Defence and Morale checks.[/ic]
[ic=Paradoxical Architecture (Limit 1)]This Ceremorph Hive boasts even more bewildering architecture than normal, including passages that permanently trap enemies in endlessly repeating loops and chambers that seem to shift in orientation. Some become snarled in time-loops, spending decades trapped in corridors, bumping into allies after having become old and withered. Who regiments can be devoured by such paradoxes, lost forever within a shifting labyrinth.
Cost: 80 Gold
Prerequisites: Uncanny Architecture (replaces)
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 20
Special Abilities: After breaching any outer defences, those attacking a Hive with Paradoxical Architecture suffer a -2 penalty to Defence and Morale checks.[/ic]
[ic=Maddening Architecture (Limit 1)]Those who spend too long within the truly mind-shattering passages of this Hive can go insane, attacking one another or simply wandering around in a helpless daze.
Cost: 100 Gold
Prerequisites: Paradoxical Architecture (replaces)
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: 25
Special Abilities: After breaching any outer defences, those attacking a Hive with Maddening Architecture suffer a -2 penalty to Defence and Morale checks. They must also make an immediate DC 15 Morale check (with the penalty) or become Confused for one round.[/ic]
[ic=Reverse Gravity Pit (Limit 3)]Ceremorphs prefer reverse-gravity pits to regular pits, reversing the gravitational pull around shafts dug into a ceiling. Because such traps are generally unexpected, they tend to catch enemies unawares.
Cost: 35 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +12
Damage: 8[/ic]
[ic=Poison Gas Trap (Limit 1)]This poisonous gas is cultured is cultured in the Mutation Chamber and then implanted in bladders which are rigged to explode if trespassers blunder in.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequisites: Mutation Chamber
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: A regiment hit by this trap has its Health of all its units lowered by 2 for the duration of the battle.[/ic]
[ic=Amplifier Node (Limit 1)]This node of ganglia tissue amplifies the psychic resonance of Ceremorphs nearby.
Cost: 20 Bodies
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Garisoned troops with Psychic or mind-influencing spells gain +1 to hit with those attacks or spells. Any spells that require a morale check have their DC boosted by +1. This includes traps, such as Maddening Architecture.[/ic]
[ic=Larval Well (Limit 1)]This peristaltic sphincter-tunnel deposits enemy units directly into the Ceremorph Spawning Pool.
Cost: 15 Gold
Prerequisites: Spawning Pool
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +4
Damage: None
Special Abilities: Instead of damage, a Larval Well chute deposits 1d6 enemy units in the Spawning Pool. If any Ceremorph Larvae Swarms are currently garrisoned in the Hive, they get a surprise round against the enemies, and then fight them apart from the main army. The Swarms can still participate in the rest of the battle to defend the Hive later on, provided they are still alive.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Legio I Draco (created by zcynthr)]
Legio I Draco
Report, 10.1.49We have escaped annihilation at the hands of the elemental spirits of the enemy during a river crossing - much equipment was lost or destroyed, but the spirits of the survivors are bolstered with the knowledge that our standard, the Lion, and the legionary shrine to the Twin Dragons have been preserved. Our unwilling journey has taken us beneath the earth through some uncharted underground passage, and there is little to tell us the full measure of our escape. The only light is from a foul-smelling fungus that appears to be natural to these caverns, and we appear to be alone.
Report, 7.4.49Never let it be said that a soldier's life is a simple one! In weeks past we have discovered enemies and allies alike, each stranger than the next. Our first attempt to camp in an abandoned citadel in a great cavern filled with glowshrooms (I find no better name than the one the men have given the stuff) met with disaster when the crypts and cellars disgorged a horde of undead barbarians, insensate to heavy blows and howling with hunger for our lives. Ten legionnaires died before we managed to organize a fighting retreat and fall back to a thicket of mushroom trees. Centurion Vorenus says that there are traps among the trees, evidence of thinking creatures, but...
The trapmakers are called Kobolds, and some of the barbarian recruits swear that they used to set out milk at night for the beasts as children. They seem impressed that we survived the city and did not blunder into their traps, perhaps we can reach an accommodation in this dark place.
Report, 8.12.49We have established an encampment with the Kobolds, trading our military might for food and shelter against the other creatures that inhabit the deeps. Some of them have begun to mimic our command structure, though assassination and bribery tend to rule who possesses a centurion's crest rather than regular promotion through the ranks. Perhaps we can influence them into further cooperation in stabilizing the region and seeking a way out of this place.
Report, 12.6.47The Kobolds have taken to the worship of our gods as their own. If a senator had told me that I would see a half-size scaled rat-man kneeling and chanting prayers at a Quarthian shrine, I would have called him a liar and an incompetent. Their own god seems to be some kind of mythical beast, a great dragon that burrows through the earth, eating the stone in its way. I call it close enough, and overlook some of the men who have been fraternizing with the auxilia at their ceremonies.
The earthenworks and traps are well-made, surely nothing could succeed in assaulting this camp.
Report, 9.4.43There are so few of us left now - Tertius, Decius, Brutus, and Marcus each lead a cohort of auxilia while I lead an entirely kobold Legion XIII Gemina. They are our Legion, as we are their tribe. We have lost all hope of return to the surface, if we are indeed not already in the Underworld. All our knowledge is being passed on in the polyglot script that has become our shared language. May the kobolds preserve the honor of the Legion when the last of us men are gone.
Report, 1 Blood 39Quarthians dead, all. Legion ours, kobold, Legio I Draco now. We preserve standard, shrine - honor is ours and Quarth's. Legions are Quarth, Quarth is Legion – ergo we are Quarthian. We are the dark, we are the steel, we are the teeth and claws of Quartha eterna!
Starting Dungeon: Kobolds can be found virtually anywhere. They may claim their first Warren anywhere but the Surface. This Warren begins with a Chieftain's Den, a Burrow, 1 Mushroom Patch, and a Kobold Mine. Additional rooms, traps, and defences can be purchased before play commences, with two week's construction already completed.
Starting Resources: Kobolds are not the wealthiest race, being often scattered or enslaved. Kobold players begin the game with 750 Gold, 150 Metal, and 100 Food.
Cramped and Confusing: Kobold Warrens are extremely cramped and labyrinthine, making them difficult to navigate for attacking troops. Dungeons constructed by Kobolds – as opposed to those seized by Kobolds in conquest – are thus harder to assail: all enemy troops attacking such a Warren suffer -2 to Attack and Morale. Large monsters suffer a -4 penalty and Huge monsters suffer a -6 penalty. The only exception is other Kobolds, who suffer no penalty when attacking a rival tribe's Warren.
Carrion Eaters: Kobolds are avid scavengers and will eat just about anything. They can convert 1 Body into 1 Food, including partially rotten Bodies taken from battlefields. They have no compunctions against cannibalism, and indeed Kobold funerals are usually cannibal feasts.
Agoraphobia: Kobolds are most comfortable in small, confined spaces, and hate large open ones (nowhere to hide!). They suffer -1 to Attack and Morale rolls in caverns that are larger than 1 region in size, or on the Surface. The only exception is if they're attacking or defending a Kobold Warren in such a cavern.
Units
[ic=Marius Krinak, Legatus of the Legio I Draco]Marius, Legate for kobolds who carry souls of Quarth. No one left behind, we cheat the Long Dark by feasting body and soul with departed. Register of Legion is full to bursting, we trade for vellum and papyrus, keep the annals true. Ten years since the Twin Dragons came to us fleeing spirits and demons, safe with us, fighting for their would-be Caesar above, no hope to return. Each battle-death mourned, joined with Kobolds, now we are all Legion. Spirit of the Dragons is with us, we are closer to gods with our service.
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 8
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 22
Health: 15
Speed: 4
Morale: +6
Special Abilities: Infiltrator, Leadership
Marius increases the Ranged Attack and Morale of any army he is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon he increases the Ranged Attack and Morale of garrisoned troops by +1. His Infiltrator ability is imparted to any regiment he leads.
If a Midden has been constructed, Marius can be mounted on a dire rat. He gains the Cavalry, Climb and Disease 3 abilities and can only join a regiment of Kobold Dire Rat Equites. He also gains +2 Defence, +2 Speed and +6 Health. Mounting Marius on a dire rat costs 17 Gold and 1 Metal (no Upkeep costs, however). [/ic]
[ic=Kobold Veles (Requires: Burrow)]These Kobold troops are light skirmishers typically armed with slings or throwing-spears.
Cost: 5 Gold
Upkeep: 1 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +2
Ranged Damage: 2
Melee Attack: +1
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 16
Health: 4
Speed: 4
Morale: +1[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Legionary (Requires: Burrow)]The elite warriors of the Legion, the Legionaries are a disciplined heavy infantry force consisting of the toughest Kobolds in the Legion, trained extensively and equipped with spears and heavy armour. Undyingly loyal to the Legio I Draco, they are the last line of defence against invaders.
Cost: 10 Gold, 3 Metal
Upkeep: 3 Gold, 1 Food
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 17
Health: 7
Speed: 4
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Discipline[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Immune (Requires: Burrow)]Kobolds are amazing tunnel-makers, and their burrowing troops specialize in boring into enemy Dungeons. They're armed with picks and shovels, which make decent weapons, in a pinch.
Cost: 10 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 3 Gold, 1 Food
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 16
Health: 4
Speed: 4
Morale: +1
Special Abilities: Tunnelling[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Sagittarius (Requires: Workshop)]Though not nearly sophisticated as the Dwarves, Kobolds are quite inventive, and they're learned enough alchemy to create very crude explosives which can be used to blow up bridges and fortifications, or simply lobbed as grenades at enemy forces.
Cost: 13 Gold, 5 Metal
Upkeep: 4 Gold, 2 Metal, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +4
Ranged Damage: 8 (Fire)
Melee Attack: +1
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 17
Health: 6
Speed: 4
Morale: +2
Special Abilities: Demolitions, Obfuscating Shroud[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Architecti (Requires: Workshop)]The cunning Kobold Architectii have a knack for constructing murderous clockwork and artfully concealed pits and snares. Being trapmakers, they're also adept at spotting and disabling enemy traps.
Cost: 13 Gold, 8 Metal
Upkeep: 6 Gold, 4 Metal, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +3
Ranged Damage: 4
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 2
Defence: 17
Health: 6
Speed: 4
Morale: +2
Special Abilities: Disarm Traps +5, Repair, Trapmaking[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Praetorian (Requires: Command Post)]Kobolds are cunning and resourceful, but they're not cowardly like Goblins, as their extremely disciplined and courageous Praetorians prove. Elite warriors, Kobold Praetorians are armed with cunning hand crossbows and shortspears.
Cost: 20 Gold, 4 Metal
Upkeep: 5 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +5
Ranged Damage: 6
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 4
Defence: 18
Health: 6
Speed: 5
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Discipline, Infiltrator [/ic]
[ic=Kobold Dire Rat Eques (Requires: Midden)]Kobolds feed certain rats special fungal drugs in order to encourage their growth. The resulting mutant beasts are employed as mounts for their elite spear-wielders. Such creatures are not only ferocious, they can spread disease through enemy ranks.
Cost: 17 Gold, 1 Metal
Upkeep: 3 Gold, 3 Food
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 18
Health: 10
Speed: 6
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Cavalry, Climb, Disease (3)[/ic]
[ic=Black Dragon (Requires: Dragon's Pool)]The terrifying Black Dragons are claimed by some Kobolds to be the forefathers of the Kobold race, though most other denizens of the Underdeep consider such stories foolish tales told by the Kobolds only to aggrandize themselves. Whether or not the rumours are true, Kobolds know special tricks to lure Black Dragons to prepared pools, where they pamper the enormous wyrms with meat and treasure in tribute. Of course, the wyrms are extremely territorial, so Kobolds take care to ensure that two Black Dragons never meet one another in the field. Gloomdrakes are not only exceptional combatants, they can also eat through stone, and if promised gold and food, they will accompany Kobolds into the field.
Cost: 185 Gold
Upkeep: 20 Gold, 15 Food
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 15 (Acid)
Melee Attack: +15
Melee Damage: 30
Defence: 20
Health: 180
Speed: 8
Morale: +10
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 20), Flying, Huge, Immune (Acid), Tunneling
A single army can only ever contain one Black Dragon. If multiple Black Dragons meet, they immediately fight to the death.[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Augur (Requires: Augur's Fane)]Kobold Augurs are crafty, manipulative creatures who wear ornate headdresses made from the skulls of juvenile drakes. They can hex opponents, bolster the speed of their allies, or use pools of stagnant water to scry with.
Cost: 50 Gold
Upkeep: 7 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +6
Ranged Damage: 4
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 18
Health: 10
Speed: 4
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Detector, Haste, Hex, Scry[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Legatus War-Room]Marius' war-room is cluttered with tactical maps, symbols of the Legion, and similar objects. He spends great lengths of time in this chamber concocting schemes and complex battle-plans for defending the Kobold Warren in case of attack. This room has no cost, and is located at the Kobold capitol.
Benefit:While Marius is garrisoned in the Warren with the Chieftain's Den, all garrisoned troops (including the Chieftain) gain +1 Defence in addition to normal bonuses for having their general present.[/ic]
[ic=Fishing Pool (Limit 5)]This large, cold, subterranean pool is stocked with blind, albino fish which the Kobolds catch by hand and use to supplement their meagre diet.
Cost: 10 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: A fishing pool produces 5 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Mushroom Patch (Unlimited)]The rambling mushroom farms of the Kobolds are winding, maze-like warrens festooned with fungi which the Kobolds eat whole or stew.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A mushroom patch produces 20 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Mushroom Grove (Unlimited)]Once several mushroom patches have been established they can be linked together to form a gigantic mushroom grove.
Cost: 40 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Prerequisites: 4 Mushroom Patches (replaces)
Benefit: A mushroom grove produces 140 Food every week.[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Mine]Kobold mines are winding labyrinths, often with little distinction from the rest of the Kobold Warren.
Cost: 150 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You mine up to 150 Gold and up to 15 Metal per week, provided your Dungeon is built over a suitable deposit. You can only have a single mine per deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Improved Kobold Mine]Some stolen mining tools and a handful of rather ingenious contraptions developed at the workshop makes this improved mine far, far more efficient.
Cost: 225 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Kobold Mine (replaces), Workshop
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 300 Gold and 25 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Mine Complex]Complex mechanical lifts and a variety of fairly sophisticated custom-built mining tools, not to mention a large number of stolen or traded picks, lanterns, carts, and the like, combine to make this mine extremely productive.
Cost: 300 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Improved Kobold Mine (replaces)
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 400 Gold and 50 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Coliseum]This huge arena is used to stage combats for the entertainment of the Kobold masses. Here, snared monsters battle those the Kobolds have taken prisoner, while Kobold gladiators spar on a more regular basis, and criminals who betray the Legion are executed.
Cost: 50 Gold, 5 Metal
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: All troops garrisoned in a Warren with a Kobold Coliseum gain +1 to Morale checks. Prisoners and trapped monsters can also be placed in this pit and made to fight, increasing this bonus depending on the size of the spectacle (DM's discretion).[/ic]
[ic=Bat Roost]This cavern is filled with messenger bats, allowing for relatively rapid communication.
Cost: 50 Gold, 20 Food
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A Kobold Chieftain garrisoned at a Dungeon with a Bat Roost can send an additional message per week per player.[/ic]
[ic=Slave Pit]Here, slaves taken on Surface raids and prisoners from enemy Dungeons are kept, auctioned off for food or as labourers. Kobold Chieftains take a cut from every transaction.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Slaves and prisoners can be sold at the Slave Pit for 2 Gold each, or converted into 2 Food each instead. You can also buy slaves for 2 Gold each, if you wish. Such slaves are fed on scraps and gruel and do not have an Upkeep cost.[/ic]
[ic=Dragon Shrine]This elaborate shrine is dedicated to Black Dragons. Here fossils and other relics of such creatures – scales, teeth, coins from Dragon hoards, and the like – are kept as sacred relics.
Cost: 75 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Troops who pray at a Dragon Shrine gain +1 to Morale and Defence and are immune to disease (if they are suffering from a disease, it is cured, and they return to full health). These benefits remain for 2 weeks.[/ic]
[ic=Burrow]This confused maze of tunnels serves as a communal living space, barracks, guard-room, and training ground for Kobolds, littered with their weapons and other possessions.
Cost: 35 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Kobold Velites, Kobold Legionaries, and Kobold Immunes.[/ic]
[ic=Workshop]This clattering, messy cavern is used by Kobold Architectii to design new (and horrible) traps and inventions, including the crude fire-bombs used by Sagittariis.
Cost: 65 Gold, 25 Metal
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Kobold Sagittariis and Kobold Architectii.[/ic]
[ic=Legion Forge]In this structure the armour of the Legion is forged, worn by all members of the Legio I Draco.
Cost: 100 Gold, 50 Metal
Prerequisites: Workshop
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit:At a cost of +1 Metal, Marius Krinak, Kobold Legionaries, Kobold Velites, Kobold Immunes, Kobold Sagittariis, and Kobold Praetorians garrisoned at a Warren with a Legion Forge can gain +1 Defence. Units of the above types recruited at a Warren with a Legion Forge can pay the +1 Metal at the time of recruitment to gain this bonus.[/ic]
[ic=Poison Kitchen]This slovenly laboratory is used by Kobolds to concoct a variety of poisons. It's mostly stocked with stolen alchemical equipment.
Cost: 75 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Workshop
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Kobold Legionaries, Praetorians, and Dire Rat Equites recruited at a Warren with a Poison Kitchen all gain Poison 1, and garrisoned units of those types permanently gain Poison 1. Kobold Sagittariis recruited or garrisoned at a Warren with a Poison Kitchen can choose to lose their Fire damage to acquire Poison 1 instead.[/ic]
[ic=Command Post]In contrast with the unorganized chaos of the rest of the Warren, Kobold command posts are maintained to exacting standards, and the troops trained here possess the height of military discipline.
Cost: 100 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Burrow, Workshop
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Kobold Praetorians.[/ic]
[ic=Midden (Limit 1)]The midden is a revolting, pestilential den of filth where rats are bred in great numbers. The fattest, largest, meanest rats are given strange fungal drugs that greatly increase their size, making them suitable for mounts. The other rats make good eating, or can always be placed in pits or dropping down murder holes.
Cost: 125 Gold
Prerequisites: Burrow
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Kobold Dire Rat Equites. The midden also produces 35 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Dragon's Pool]This specially prepared chamber is adorned with all manner of bone fetishes, scrawled markings, and other holy signs, for Black Dragons are sacred creatures to Kobolds, worshipped as their supposed forebears. The pool always has a special, enlarged tunnel that the Dragon can use to enter and exit the Warren through.
Cost: 300 Gold
Prerequisites: Burrow, Dragon Shrine
Construction Time: 6 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit a single Black Dragon. Additional Dragons require their own pool, which must be placed in a different Dungeon, unless the Black Dragon dies.[/ic]
[ic=Augur's Fane]This shadowy cavern is the personal domain of a Kobold Augur, filled with the reek of strange reagents. Sorcerous gewgaws litter the cave, and a stolen cauldron simmers over a fire.
Cost: 125 Gold
Prerequisites: Burrow
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Kobold Augurs.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=Palisade (Limit 1)]This crude palisade of sharpened stakes protects Kobold Warrens from attackers, with a single gate allowing entrance and exit.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Defence: 20
Health: 30[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Trebuchet (Limit 3)]This ramshackle trebuchet is lashed together out of whatever is at hand. It sometimes misfires, with destructive (and hilarious!) results, but when the stones it slings connect with enemy forces it can devastating indeed.
Cost: 35 Gold
Prerequisites: Palisade
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: 25
Special Abilities: Kobold Trebuchets must be manned by 2 garrisoned units to be effective. If a Kobold Trebuchet rolls a 1 it misfires and deals 25 damage to whatever unit was manning it.[/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]This crudely dug tunnel allows Kobolds to escape their Warren if things go ill.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Defenders who fail their morale checks within a Dungeon can withdraw or flee to the nearest neighbouring territory instead of surrendering.[/ic]
[ic=Maze (Limit 1)]Kobolds often dig mazes into the outer defences of their Warrens, confusing invading troops even further. This defence can only be built in Warrens founded by Kobolds.
Cost: 100 Gold
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Special Abilities: The Cramped and Confusing Penalties increase by 1 for all troops – so regular units suffer -3 to Attack and Morale, Large units suffer -5, and Huge units suffer -7. Other Kobolds are still completely immune.[/ic]
[ic=Labyrinth (Limit 1, counts as Maze)]This expanded maze is so bewildering it would drive even a Dwarven engineer totally mad.
Cost: 200 Gold
Prerequisites: Maze (replaces)
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Special Abilities: The Cramped and Confusing Penalties increase by 2 for all troops – so regular units suffer -4 to Attack and Morale, Large units suffer -6, and Huge units suffer -8. Other Kobolds are still completely immune.[/ic]
[ic=Spiked Moat (Limit 1)]This simple trench is filled with spikes, deterring invaders. Ranged units can assail enemies from behind the moat.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: -2
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Ranged units can get off an extra volley of attacks if protected by a Spiked Moat, exactly as if they were being shielded by melee units. It takes attackers 1 round to circumvent the moat. The moat still functions as a trap – units can fall in accidentally. They must still breach any other Defences, such as a Palisade.[/ic]
[ic=Poisonous Spiked Moat (Limit 1, counts as Spiked Moat)]Debilitating venom has been smeared on the spikes in this moat.
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Spiked Moat (replaces), Poison Kitchen
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: -2
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Poison 4.[/ic]
[ic=Reinforced Gate (Limit 1)]This reinforced gate is strengthened with scrap metal.
Cost: 15 Gold, 5 Metal
Prerequisites: Palisade
Construction Time: 1 week
Defense: +5 to Palisade Defense.[/ic]
[ic=Disguised Entrance (Limit 1)]Carefully positioned rocks and fungi make the Warren entrance difficult to locate.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Special Abilities: Units attacking the Warren must spend 1 Speed simply to locate the Warren, unless they possess Detection or are accompanied by those who do. Such entrances can only be built in Warrens, not outposts.[/ic]
[ic=Improved Disguised Entrance (Limit 1, counts as Disguised Entrance)]Additional camouflage makes the Warren's entrance even harder to find.
Cost: 25 Gold
Prerequisite: Disguised Entrance (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Units attacking the Warren must spend 2 Speed simply to locate the Warren, unless they possess Detection or are accompanied by those who do. Such entrances can only be built in Warrens, not outposts.[/ic]
[ic=Invisible Entrance (Limit 1, counts as Disguised Entrance)]The Warren entrance is so well disguised as to be virtually invisible.
Cost: 25 Gold
Prerequisite: Improved Disguised Entrance (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: The Warren entrance cannot be found except by units with Detection or those accompanied by those who possess Detection. Such entrances can only be built in Warrens, not outposts.[/ic]
[ic=Snare (Limit 3)]This clever snare will trap an enemy unit without killing it.
Cost: 10 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Special Abilities: If the snare hits, it traps 1d2 units, though Large units are unaffected. These units are unharmed, but they become Kobold prisoners if Kobolds successfully repel their attackers. If a snare is placed by a Trapmaker in a region uninhabited by Kobolds, it is only effective if all of the units in the army are snared – otherwise the remaining troops simply free their comrades. Like other traps, snares can be tripped by wandering monsters.[/ic]
[ic=Cage Trap (Limit 1)]This cleverly concealed cage trap can hold quite sizeable monsters! Some fresh meet or similar bait makes it especially effective.
Cost: 50 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +8
Special Abilities: If the cage trap hits, it traps 1d4 units or 1 Large unit. These units are unharmed, but they become Kobold prisoners if Kobolds successfully repel their attackers and/or travel to the region the trap is in to collect the prisoners. If a cage trap is placed by a Trapmaker in a region uninhabited by Kobolds, it is only effective if all of the units in the army are caged – otherwise the remaining troops simply free their comrades. Like other traps, snares can be tripped by wandering monsters. Truly Huge monsters cannot be caged in this way.[/ic]
[ic=Caltrops (Limit 2)]A small explosive spreads painful caltrops everywhere.
Cost: 10 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Workshop
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +4
Damage: 5[/ic]
[ic=Metal Jaws (Limit 2)]These nasty little traps clamp around the ankles of enemies.
Cost: 20 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Workshop
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +5
Damage: 10[/ic]
[ic=Pit Trap (Limit 5, counts as Pit Trap)]These pit traps are slightly better-designed than most, and are relatively well-hidden.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 8[/ic]
[ic=Spiked Pit Trap (Limit 5, counts as Pit Trap)]A more vicious version of the pit trap, the spiked pit trap has long wooden stakes at the bottom to skewer those who fall in.
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 12[/ic]
[ic=Poisonous Spiked Pit Trap (Limit 5, counts as Pit Trap)]The spikes on this pit trap are smeared with poison.
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Spiked Pit Trap (replaces), Poison Kitchen
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Poison 4.[/ic]
[ic=Pit of Rats (Limit 5, counts as Pit Trap)]This pit is filled with starving, diseased rats.
Cost: 12 Gold
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces), Midden
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 10
Speical Abilities: Disease 3[/ic]
[ic=Acid Pit (Limit 5, counts as Pit Trap)]This pit is filled with powerful acid.
Cost: 15 Gold
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces), Poison Kitchen
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 15 (Acid)[/ic]
[ic=Monster Pit (Limit 5, counts as Pit Trap)]This pit has been stocked with a monster from the Underdeep, snared in a Kobold trap and deposited here.
Cost: None
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces)
Construction Time: None
Attack: +6
Special Abilities: This trap must be stocked with a wandering monster caught in a Kobold snare or cage trap and taken prisoner.[/ic]
[ic=Murder Holes (Limit 5)]These holes are bored in the roof of a cavern or passageway, allowing defenders to drop poisonous insects, starving rats, boiling water, pitch, or other unpleasant substances on attackers.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +5
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective. [/ic]
[ic=Rat Cages (Limit 5, counts as Murder Holes)]These bone cages of diseased rats can be emptied down murder holes.
Cost: 15 Gold
Prerequisites: Murder Holes (replaces), Midden
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: Disease 3. Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective.[/ic]
[ic=Buckets of Acid (Limit 5, counts as Murder Holes)]These caustic fluids can be emptied down murder holes.
Cost: 15 Gold
Prerequisites: Murder Holes (replaces), Poison Kitchen
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 10 (Acid)
Special Abilities: Poison 4. Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective.[/ic]
[ic=Grenades (Limit 5, counts as Murder Holes)]These crude bombs can be lobbed down murder holes.
Cost: 15 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Murder Holes (replaces), Workshop
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 15 (Fire)[/ic]
[ic=Rockfall Trap (Limit 1)]A simple tripwire activates this crude trap, which dumps boulders on attackers.
Cost: 35 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 20[/ic]
[ic=Collapsing Tunnel (Limit 1)]This tunnel is rigged to collapse on top of foes.
Cost: 45 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +10
Damage: 30[/ic]
[ic=Poison Gas Trap (Limit 1)]This poisonous gas is carefully harvested from certain fissures and secluded chambers, placed in bladders, and then rigged to be released if trespassers blunder in.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequisites: Poison Kitchen
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: A regiment hit by this trap has its Health of all its units lowered by 2 for the duration of the battle.[/ic]
[ic=Flooding Room (Limit 1)]This chamber can be sealed, and then flooded full of water. The trap has no effect on units that don't need to breathe, such as Undead or plant-creatures such as Fungoids. This trap can only be built in Dungeons and Outposts.
Cost: 75 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Workshop
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 60[/ic]
[ic=Acidic Flooding Room (Limit 1)]What's better than a room that floods with water? A room that floods with acid, of course! This trap can only be built in Dungeons and Outposts.
Cost: 30 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Flooding Room (replaces)
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 80 (Acid)[/ic]
[ic=Mimic (Limit 2)]Kobolds have tamed the bizarre, wild creatures known as mimics, strange shapeshifters said to originally be the creature of some demented wizard. Mimics disguise themselves as treasures – often chests of gold – only to attack enemies attempting to plunder them with clawed arms and teeth. Kobolds keep such creatures starved in isolated caverns for maximum deadliness.
Cost: 25 Food
Prerequisites: Workshop, Augur's Fane
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +12
Damage: 15[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Grolhund the Heartscrew (created by Nomadic)]
Grolhund the Heartscrew
Come hatchlings and mama sharpclaw is be telling you tale of caution to which all little ones must listen or they is never being bigger ones. You is understand mama yes? Good. You is hearing of the dark war when is our sharpclaws make mighty travels in search of home. And you is heard how is our fallen leader Fenyip Sharpclaw of the lost talon overthrew them weak orcses and is make our home here in the underplaces. But I tells you now of other tale, tale not of hope and victory but of warning. We is sharpclaw and sharpclaw is meaning strength but is also meaning wisdom...
There lives in forgotten tunnels great machine thing of wicked ways. He is Grolhund and he is seeking always for bodies, bodies to be twisting and breaking how he sees bestest. Grolhund likes bestest the young ones, he is snapping them up with claw and trap and taking thems away to his dark lab which is walksing on a thousand scurrying claws. Grolhund takses them and puts tubes and cogs in thems bodies and they do his will always and never find nest or nestmates for rest of time. They is knowing only horrors for all time because they is not die but live forever in his smokey workshop of sickly smells and they work and never sleep and eat only rotten flesh forevers and evers. You is listening closely because Grolhund, he likses bestest the naughty ones who do no what Mama Sharpclaw is says and be bad. Grolhund, he is comes for them in the sleeptime and he finds them, he is sniffing out their badness and he is knowing where they sleep and he is snatching them. Yes he snatch you if you bad no matter how deep you dig, Grolhund he find you if you bad and screw dark machines into your heart. You is be his slaves. So you is being good and is listening to Mama or Grolhund comes, and when he is coming you is leaving and never be returning ever.
The mournful bellow fills the air. Though they cannot see, still they know. It is coming, a sickly green light that shines out from the thick of the mushroom forest. Great fungi are brushed aside or ripped whole from the cavern floor. Spears fall from dead hands and the quicker thinking of the scouts turn and run. The slower, those paralyzed in fear or fascination, stand unmoving until it is too late. From the forest he comes, a nightmare told to frighten children given being. Gears whirring and green lanterns hunting the towering construct bursts forth from the stalks, quick claws seeking living flesh. One kobold finds a reserve of bravery and charges the seemingly unstoppable monstrosity, it is a charge worthy of song but he is casually tossed aside. Bleeding and battered he lays on the ground, watching as his compatriots are snatched up screaming into great dangling cages. Nearby a shaking scout clutches a broken arm and rocks back and forth uttering a single word over and over, "Grolhund". This continues even as one weaving tentacle seeks the terror-struck creature, pulling it up into the air as its cries become more and more frantic. "Grolhund, Grolhund, GROLHUND, GROLHUNDGROLDHUNDGROLHUND..." Then the machine turns to face the injured one. Within the shaking clockwork he can dimly make out the figure of a sickly kobold. It's one good eye gleams with an unnatural lust. It lurches forward and the broken one is lifted out of life and into a living hell.
Starting Dungeon: Grolhund's Scuttling Laboratory begins in any region. It only begins play with the Scuttling Laboratory structure, but any structures you build with your starting resources have 2 weeks construction already complete.
Starting Resources: Grolhund begins the game with 250 Gold, 50 Metal, 20 Food, 20 Bodies, and 10 Prisoners.
Snatcher: Grolhund needs many prisoners for his experiments. When attacking a fleeing unit, any casualties his forces inflict can be taken as prisoners instead of being killed.
Units
[ic=Grolhund the Heartscrew](http://imageshack.us/a/img839/941/grolhundtheheartscrew.jpg)
Grolhund the Heartscrew is an insane kobold biomancer who has long gone mad in his search to understand the flesh. His tinkering, grafting all manner of living flesh to cold metal, shows no level of mercy. Grolhund seeks only to understand the body of all living things and bend it to his will. He has within him no shred of mercy or ethics. All is thrown aside in the pursuit of his twisted science. Indeed he has thrown aside his own body in favor of his experiments. Where once stood a simple kobold now walks a massive clockwork creature. Six clawed legs support an unnatural architecture of furnaces and pipes attached to spinning gears and clanking pistons. The entire machine clanks about with a great screech of metal, wobbling to and fro on an unsteady stack of arcane machination. From its top sprouts a mighty array of flailing tentacles, each tipped in a grabbing claw or intricate tool. Hanging from the back, great iron cages swing from rusty chains. Within can be heard the weeping and fearful cries of the doomed, captured slaves for Grolhunds workshop.
The workshop, an arachnid construct which skitters about on many hundreds of individual legs, follows in Grolhund's path of destruction. Mindlessly it obeys its master, waiting only to be filled with more slaves. Within it scuttle the turned, strange zombies of flesh and copper who carry out Grolhund's most intricate experiments and tend to his needs.
Grolhund desires no friends, though he has been known to turn aside from those who offer him living slaves and resources willingly. He seeks in the end to unlock the secrets of life and craft from them an undying empire of immortal slaves.
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 15
Defence: 20
Health: 100
Speed: 6
Morale: +6
Special Abilities: Climbing, Fear (DC 18), Huge, Paralyzing Poison, Regeneration 10, Trapmaker
Grolhund's paralyzing poison works as normal poison except that instead of dealing normal damage it paralyzes a single unit that would have been killed by Grolhund's attack for the remainder of the combat. Huge units cannot be paralyzed in this way. If Grolhund and his forces are forced to withdraw, he takes any prisoners with them. If he is forced to flee (or is killed), then his prisoners are abandoned.
Casualties inflicted on fleeing opponents are taken as prisoners instead.[/ic]
[ic=Grafted Servitor (Requires: Scuttling Laboratory]This poor creature has been augmented with a variety of mechanical and biological components. A steady stream of alchemical drugs keeps it obedient. Blades, claws, and similar weapons open replace its hands.
Cost: 5 Gold, 1 Prisoner, 1 Body
Upkeep: 1 Food
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 4
Defence: 13
Health: 4
Speed: 4
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Grafted Servitors can be converted into Bodies at any time.[/ic]
[ic=Flesh Golem (Requires: Vivisection Chamber)]These horrifying constructs are pieced together out of scraps of decaying flesh scavenged from dozens of bodies. Strange machines are linked to its patchwork musculature to help it move.
Cost: 50 Gold, 25 Bodies
Upkeep: 10 Gold, 5 Bodies
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 15
Defence: 18
Health: 75
Speed: 2
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Construct, Fear (DC 18), Large[/ic]
[ic=Paralyzing Jelly (Requires: Ooze Cauldron)]These vividly coloured gelatinous slimes attack with paralyzing pseudopods.
Cost: 35 Gold, 5 Bodies
Upkeep: 3 Bodies
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 10 (Non-lethal)
Defence: 20
Health: 50
Speed: 2
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Large, Regeneration 10
Casualties inflicted by the Paralyzing Jelly are taken as prisoners instead.[/ic]
[ic=Bilious Servitor (Requires: Caustic Brewery)]These grotesque servitors are bloated with corrosive acids. They can detonate themselves violently, destroying fortifications or enemies.
Cost: 5 Gold, 1 Prisoner, 1 Body
Upkeep: 1 Food
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 12 (Acid, Suicidal)
Defence: 12
Health: 4
Speed: 4
Morale: N/A[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Scuttling Laboratory]This scuttling, semi-mobile laboratory is where Grolhund conducts his twisted experiments, producing all manner of warped servitors and grafted horrors. This chamber has no cost. While Grolhund is garrisoned in the laboratory it has a Speed of 2. If the Scuttling Laboratory ever acquires more than 10 Rooms or Attachments (but not Traps or Defences) it becomes immobile.
Benefit:While garrisoned at the Scuttling Laboratory Grolhund the Heartscrew can create Grafted Servitors.[/ic]
[ic=Arcane Study]This section of the laboratory is filled with eldritch grimoires and magical texts.
Cost: 200 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Grolhund can use use the study to research new spells. Each spell takes 2 weeks to research. He can research the following spells: Agony, Dispel, Distraction, Frenzy, Haste, Invisibility, Illusory Duplicate, Obfuscating Shroud, Rune Trap, Shield, and Ward.[/ic]
[ic=Scrying Chamber]Using this room, Grolhund can utilize certain techno-magical instruments to survey other regions from a distance.
Cost: 100 Gold, 10 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: When garrisoned in the Scuttling Laboratory, Grolhund can use the Scry spell once per week.[/ic]
[ic=Drilling Machine]This automatic drill extracts valuable resources from a cavern, such as gold and metal. It is installed in Scuttling Laboratory. Using the Drilling Machine requires the Laboratory to remain stationary for 1 week.
Cost: 100 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Scuttling Laboratory
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: The Drilling Machine produces 75 Gold and 10 Metal per week, provided it is stationed over a suitable deposit (i.e. in a cavern whose Gold and Metal have not been exhausted).[/ic]
[ic=Fungal Greenhouse]This small greenhouse is attached to the Scuttling Laboratory, providing food for Grolhund's servitors.
Cost: 35 Gold
Prerequisites: Scuttling Laboratory
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: The greenhouse produces 20 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Cage]These cages are used to store prisoners for Grolhund's hideous experiments.
Cost: 25 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Scuttling Laboratory
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A Cage can hold up to 10 Prisoners at a time.
Without a Cage, Grolhund must be garrisoned in the Scuttling Laboratory for prisoners to be kept (otherwise they wake up and escape, fighting any other garrisoned units), as he must keep them constantly dosed with his paralytic serum – delicate work that cannot be trusted to Servitors.[/ic]
[ic=Contagion Workshop]Here, Grolhund perfects a wide range of vile diseases, which he gleefully implants into his servitors.
Cost: 50 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Scuttling Laboratory
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Grafted Servitors now have Disease 3. Grolhund gains the Contagion spell.[/ic]
[ic=Venom Workshop]In this section of the laboratory, Grolhund concocts various toxins, working on ways to implant venomous sacs and poison-glands into his troops.
Cost: 50 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Scuttling Laboratory
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Grafted Servitors now have Poison 1. Grolhund gains the Poisonous Cloud spell.[/ic]
[ic=Alchemical Workshop]In this section of the laboratory, Grolhund creates certain potions and other alchemical extracts.
Cost: 75 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Scuttling Laboratory
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: While garrisoned in the Scuttling Laboratory, Grolhund can brew potions to add to his inventory. Each potion takes 1 Speed to brew and costs 20 Gold to create. When imbibed (a free action in battle situations), the potion mimics the effect of a spell, cast only on Grolhund himself. Grolhund can brew potions that mimic the following spells: Dispel, Frenzy, Haste, Invisibility, Shield, Ward.[/ic]
[ic=Vivisection Chamber]In this monstrous room, a grotesque hybrid of abattoir and embalming chamber, Grolhund creates the hideous constructs known as Flesh Golems.
Cost: 70 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Scuttling Workshop
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Grolhund can construct Flesh Golems if garrisoned in the Scuttling Laboratory.[/ic]
[ic=Ooze Cauldron]Grolhund uses the Ooze Cauldron to cultivate alchemical oozes to assist him in capturing more specimens for experimentation.
Cost: 50 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Alchemical Workshop
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Grolhund can create Paralyzing Jellies if garrisoned in the Scuttling Laboratory.[/ic]
[ic=Caustic Brewery]Grolhund uses the caustic brewery to concoct a number of potent acidic compounds.
Cost: 50 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Alchemical Workshop
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Grolhund can create Bilious Servitors if garrisoned in the Scuttling Laboratory.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=Iron Gate]This reinforced, iron gate is extremely thick and difficult to breach, protecting the laboratory from attackers.
Cost: 30 Gold, 20 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Defence: 22
Health: 50[/ic]
[ic=Snare (Limit 3)]This clever snare will trap an enemy unit without killing it.
Cost: 10 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Special Abilities: If the snare hits, it traps 1d2 units, though Large units are unaffected. These units are unharmed, but they become Kobold prisoners if Kobolds successfully repel their attackers. If a snare is placed by a Trapmaker in a region uninhabited by Kobolds, it is only effective if all of the units in the army are snared – otherwise the remaining troops simply free their comrades. Like other traps, snares can be tripped by wandering monsters.[/ic]
[ic=Cage Trap (Limit 1)]This cleverly concealed cage trap can hold quite sizeable monsters! Some fresh meet or similar bait makes it especially effective.
Cost: 50 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +8
Special Abilities: If the cage trap hits, it traps 1d4 units or 1 Large unit. These units are unharmed, but they become Grolhund's prisoners if Grolhund successfully repel the Laboratory's attackers and/or travels to the region the trap is in to collect the prisoners. If a cage trap is placed by Grolhund in an uninhabited region, it is only effective if all of the units in the army are caged – otherwise the remaining troops simply free their comrades. Like other traps, snares can be tripped by wandering monsters. Truly Huge monsters cannot be caged in this way.[/ic]
[ic=Invisibility Generator]This ingenious, puissant generator powers a sphere of invisibility sphere that cloaks the laboratory from prying eyes.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: The Laboratory essentially gains the Infiltrator ability, disappearing from the map. It is still discovered if it ends in move in the same region as enemy units.[/ic]
[ic=Wards]These wards ensure that the Laboratory cannot be Scried.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: The Laboratory cannot be Scried. Scrying the region in which it is located does not reveal it.[/ic]
[ic=Poison Gas Trap (Limit 1)]This poisonous gas is carefully harvested from certain fissures and secluded chambers, placed in bladders, and then rigged to be released if trespassers blunder in.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequisites: Venom Workshop
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: A regiment hit by this trap has its Health of all its units lowered by 2 for the duration of the battle.[/ic]
[ic=Flamethrower (Limit 2)]This gallery is manned by grafted thralls, shooting flames at any who dare to assail the laboratory.
Cost: 40 Gold, 20 Metal
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +5
Damage: 25 (Fire)
Special Abilities: A Flamethrower must be manned by two garrisoned units.[/ic]
[ic=Acid Sprayer (Limit 2)]This acidic sprayer vomits forth gouts of corrosive chemicals to burn the flesh of attackers.
Cost: 50 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Caustic Brewery
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: 30 (Acid)
Special Abilities: An Acid Sprayer must be manned by two garrisoned units.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Cleversmart Kobolds (created by Light Dragon)]
Cleversmart Kobolds
Blackness is all she sees. Then she opens her eyes and turns her head; allowing her ears to slowly unclog. Waxlike liquid spills out of them and she flails, caught in a typical Kobold honeytrap. Then she hears and feels the pokes; ten foot poles pricking from aloft, down into the hole. She thinks she can understand their wielders. She speaks their language.
"Eik! Eeek! Eikitikkk! Prisonerpoke we will! Swee-smell Prisonercook we will! And prisonertale we will spin; traditional tale we spin- of vim vigor vin!"
Other spear toting koboldkind heft their spears to the air. "Vin! Vin! Vin!"
"You in land of CLEVERSMART Kobolds, yes you are, DUMBHAUGHTY Elf!"
The crowd went wild. "Dumb Haughty! Dwelf! Elf! Fail! Failelf!"
"EPIC! Tale we spin!" Another kobold corrected the first speaker.
The crowd repeated. "Epic Failelf! Epic! Pick! Puck! Poke!"
The first speaker, voice higher pitched and peeved, continued. "Epic tale go like this. Cleversmart Kobolds find this land and big bad good kobold serve stupid fat old dwarf as slave."
"Noooooooo!!!" The crowd screamed in anguish.
The first speaker waved them down. "Not for long! Not for long!"
"Cook it now!" One in the crowd suggested.
"Then he trickses the dwarvesesis. Dwarvesesis not know what to do and he eatses the dwarveseis. At least partseses of the dwarveseis not consumdesis by lavaseis. Then rebellion!"
"Hellion!" The crowd cheers.
"And now his great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great"
"Great! Great!" The cheering crowd continues.
"Grandniece's tribe is gonna eatses you!"
Spears descend.
Starting Dungeon: Kobolds can be found virtually anywhere. They may claim their first Warren anywhere but the Surface. This Warren begins with a Mystery Chamber, a Burrow, 1 Mushroom Patch, and a Kobold Mine. Additional rooms, traps, and defences can be purchased before play commences, with two week's construction already completed.
Starting Resources: Kobolds are not the wealthiest race, being often scattered or enslaved. Kobold players begin the game with 750 Gold, 150 Metal, and 100 Food.
Cramped and Confusing: Kobold Warrens are extremely cramped and labyrinthine, making them difficult to navigate for attacking troops. Dungeons constructed by Kobolds – as opposed to those seized by Kobolds in conquest – are thus harder to assail: all enemy troops attacking such a Warren suffer -2 to Attack and Morale. Large monsters suffer a -4 penalty and Huge monsters suffer a -6 penalty. The only exception is other Kobolds, who suffer no penalty when attacking a rival tribe's Warren.
Carrion Eaters: Kobolds are avid scavengers and will eat just about anything. They can convert 1 Body into 1 Food, including partially rotten Bodies taken from battlefields. They have no compunctions against cannibalism, and indeed Kobold funerals are usually cannibal feasts.
Agoraphobia: Kobolds are most comfortable in small, confined spaces, and hate large open ones (nowhere to hide!). They suffer -1 to Attack and Morale rolls in caverns that are larger than 1 region in size, or on the Surface. The only exception is if they're attacking or defending a Kobold Warren in such a cavern.
Units
[ic=Shee-Ra Cleversmart the Sixteenth](http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/2192/sheera.jpg)
Shee-Ra Cleversmart the Sixteenth, Queen of all That is Under the Ground ("Shee-Ra"), was the twelfth of her litter. After eleven mildly suspicious deaths involving stabbings, drownings, hangings, chokings, food poisoning, and one mysterious case of fungoid addeling, Shee-Ra became next in line to the throne of Hye-Mun Cleversmart the Fifth, Master of the Universe That Is Under the Ground, who promptly died the day after Shee-Ra became his next legitimate successor. Shee-Ra rules the Cleversmart Kobolds with a mailed fist and an iron-ruby-encrusted tail, sweeping aside all challengers and punishing dissent by the bite of her Myrmidions' diamond-studded 'grilled' teeth, or in special cases, by the bite of her own interchangeable Wyvrenstone incisors.
Shee-Ra is known for her ambition and planning. She makes use of the oft-forgotten Mystery Chamber, created by Skyl-Dor Cleversmart the First, Advisor to King Ryen-Dor the First, Master of the Universe That Is Under the Ground, and briefly his successor during the reign that is known as the reign of Skyl-Dor, the Evil One Who Is Not Related to the Masters of the Universe by Close Blood Lineage But Who Seized the Power By Killing Someone Who Was Not a Second Cousin Or Closer and by Ignoring Intermediate Relatives Thereby Snubbing the Proper System of Succession. The Mystery Chamber includes such interesting creations as a "strategic planning table", an "obfuscatory truthtechtable", which contains all known kobold knowledge of traps and dungeon rooms, and an "occluded saviorsystem," which calculates probabilities. All this technology was lost when Skyl-Dor Cleversmart the First was overthrown in the great upheaval by an alliance of kobolds, forty seven ronin goblins from the court of Kira Kozuke-no-Suke Yoshinaka, and one lost minotaur- The Great Old One Who May Not Have Intended to Help, But Who Aided Our New Ruler By Mauling the Evil One Who Trafficked with Ceremorphs and May Have Actually Been A Lich and likely did Fungal Drugs, and Certainly Had Intercourse With Orcs, and Who Trafficked With Dwarves, and Who Had A Dumbelf Concubine! Eww. (All Good Cleversmart Kobolds Must Hiss At Mention of This Name).
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 8
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 22
Health: 15
Speed: 4
Morale: +6
Special Abilities: Infiltrator, Leadership
Shee-Ra increases the Ranged Attack and Morale of any army she is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon she increases the Ranged Attack and Morale of garrisoned troops by +1. Her Infiltrator ability is imparted to any regiment she leads.
If a Midden has been constructed, Shee-Ra can be mounted on a dire rat. She gains the Cavalry, Climb and Disease 3 abilities and can only join a regiment of Kobold Dire Rat Cavalry. She also gains +2 Defence, +2 Speed and +6 Health. Mounting Shee-Ra on a dire rat costs 17 Gold and 1 Metal (no Upkeep costs, however). [/ic]
[ic=Kobold Slinger (Requires: Burrow)]These Kobold troops form the core of any Kobold army – a legion of slingers, hurling rocks and other hard objects at enemies.
Cost: 5 Gold
Upkeep: 1 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +2
Ranged Damage: 2
Melee Attack: +1
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 16
Health: 4
Speed: 4
Morale: +1[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Skulker (Requires: Burrow)]Kobolds are a naturally stealthy race, adept in the creation of ambushes and sneak-attacks. Their skulking infantry are generally armed with bone spears and javelins as well as bone knives, though some also manage to get their hands on scavenged metal weapons.
Cost: 7 Gold, 1 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 1 Food
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 17
Health: 4
Speed: 4
Morale: +1
Special Abilities: Infiltrator, Scout[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Blunderdig (Requires: Burrow)]Kobolds are amazing tunnel-makers, and their burrowing troops specialize in boring into enemy Dungeons. They're armed with picks and shovels, which make decent weapons, in a pinch.
Cost: 10 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 3 Gold, 1 Food
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 16
Health: 4
Speed: 4
Morale: +1
Special Abilities: Tunnelling[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Bottlethrower (Requires: Workshop)]Though not nearly sophisticated as the Dwarves, Kobolds are quite inventive, and they're learned enough alchemy to create very crude explosives which can be used to blow up bridges and fortifications, or simply lobbed as grenades at enemy forces.
Cost: 13 Gold, 5 Metal
Upkeep: 4 Gold, 2 Metal, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +4
Ranged Damage: 8 (Fire)
Melee Attack: +1
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 17
Health: 6
Speed: 4
Morale: +2
Special Abilities: Demolitions, Obfuscating Shroud[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Trapspringer (Requires: Workshop)]The cunning Kobold trapspringers have a knack for constructing murderous clockwork and artfully concealed pits and snares. Being trapmakers, they're also adept at spotting and disabling enemy traps.
Cost: 13 Gold, 8 Metal
Upkeep: 6 Gold, 4 Metal, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +3
Ranged Damage: 4
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 2
Defence: 17
Health: 6
Speed: 4
Morale: +2
Special Abilities: Disarm Traps +5, Repair, Trapmaking [/ic]
[ic=Kobold Kontraption (Requires: Kontraption Factory)]The cacophonous, chaotic constructs known as Kontraptions are the speciality of Cleversmart inventors, bizarre and (usually) deadly machines that sometimes look like rickety tanks and sometimes like malformed Iron Golems and sometimes like gigantic mechanical insects. Each one is a unique work, and indeed the things sometimes seem to change from day to day, esoteric clockwork shifting, new blades or catapults or rockets or poisonous darts or acid-blasters or enormous hammers unfolding from its bulk. On some days it works perfectly, but on others it malfunctions horribly and breaks down in the middle of a cavern. Some of them fly, others possess enormous drill-bits.
Cost: 60 Gold, 20 Metal
Upkeep: 10 Gold, 10 Metal
Ranged Attack: +5
Ranged Damage: 3+1d12 (roll each battle)
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 5+1d20 (roll each battle)
Defence: 15+1d10 (roll upon creation)
Health: 20+1d100 (roll upon creation)
Speed: 2+1d6 (roll each week)
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Construct, Huge, and roll 1d4 upon creation (1: Flying, 2: Poison 4, 3: Climbing, 4: Tunneling)[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Dire Rat Cavalry (Requires: Midden)]Kobolds feed certain rats special fungal drugs in order to encourage their growth. The resulting mutant beasts are employed as mounts for their elite spear-wielders. Such creatures are not only ferocious, they can spread disease through enemy ranks.
Cost: 17 Gold, 1 Metal
Upkeep: 3 Gold, 3 Food
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 18
Health: 10
Speed: 6
Morale: +3
Special Abilities: Cavalry, Climb, Disease (3)[/ic]
[ic=Black Dragon (Requires: Dragon's Pool)]The terrifying Black Dragons are claimed by some Kobolds to be the forefathers of the Kobold race, though most other denizens of the Underdeep consider such stories foolish tales told by the Kobolds only to aggrandize themselves. Whether or not the rumours are true, Kobolds know special tricks to lure Black Dragons to prepared pools, where they pamper the enormous wyrms with meat and treasure in tribute. Of course, the wyrms are extremely territorial, so Kobolds take care to ensure that two Black Dragons never meet one another in the field. Gloomdrakes are not only exceptional combatants, they can also eat through stone, and if promised gold and food, they will accompany Kobolds into the field.
Cost: 185 Gold
Upkeep: 20 Gold, 15 Food
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 15 (Acid)
Melee Attack: +15
Melee Damage: 30
Defence: 20
Health: 180
Speed: 8
Morale: +10
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 20), Flying, Huge, Immune (Acid), Tunneling
A single army (i.e. forces encamped in one region) can only ever contain one Black Dragon. If multiple Black Dragons meet, they immediately fight to the death.[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Shinycaster (Requires: Shinycaster's Cave)]Clavermsart Kobold Shinycasters are crafty, manipulative creatures who wear ornate headdresses made from the skulls of juvenile drakes. They can bolster the speed of allies, use pools of stagnant water to scry with, or summon unpleasant Mudspriggans.
Cost: 50 Gold
Upkeep: 7 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +6
Ranged Damage: 4
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 18
Health: 10
Speed: 4
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Detector, Hex, Bless, Summon (Mudspriggan)[/ic]
[ic=Mudspriggan (Summoned Unit)]The ugly little sprites called Mudspriggans are the mewling, quasi-elemental familiars favoured by Kobold Shinycasters. They have no attacks, but they are useful scouts and can distract enemy units. A Shinycaster can summon one Mudspriggan per week, and it remains alive for 4 weeks until dissipating into mud.
Ranged Attack: +8
Ranged Damage: 0
Defence: 22
Health: 8
Speed: 8
Morale: +6
Special Abilities: Distraction, Flying, Scout[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Mystery Chamber]Shee-Ra's personal den is the strange Mystery Chamber, which contains a variety of bizarre devices of Skyl-Dor Ckeversmart the First, including the obfuscatory truthtechtable, the occluded saviorsystem, and the strategic planning table. Here, Shee-Ra obsessively calculates probabilities
Benefit:While Shee-Ra is garrisoned in the Warren with the Mystery Chamber she gains the Scry ability, which can be cast once per week.[/ic]
[ic=Fishing Pool (Limit 5)]This large, cold, subterranean pool is stocked with blind, albino fish which the Kobolds catch by hand and use to supplement their meagre diet.
Cost: 10 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Benefit: A fishing pool produces 5 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Mushroom Patch (Unlimited)]The rambling mushroom farms of the Kobolds are winding, maze-like warrens festooned with fungi which the Kobolds eat whole or stew.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A mushroom patch produces 20 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Mushroom Grove (Unlimited)]Once several mushroom patches have been established they can be linked together to form a gigantic mushroom grove.
Cost: 40 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Prerequisites: 4 Mushroom Patches (replaces)
Benefit: A mushroom grove produces 140 Food every week.[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Mine]Kobold mines are winding labyrinths, often with little distinction from the rest of the Kobold Warren.
Cost: 150 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You mine up to 150 Gold and up to 15 Metal per week, provided your Dungeon is built over a suitable deposit. You can only have a single mine per deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Improved Kobold Mine]Some stolen mining tools and a handful of rather ingenious contraptions developed at the workshop makes this improved mine far, far more efficient.
Cost: 225 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Kobold Mine (replaces), Workshop
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 300 Gold and 25 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Mine Complex]Complex mechanical lifts and a variety of fairly sophisticated custom-built mining tools, not to mention a large number of stolen or traded picks, lanterns, carts, and the like, combine to make this mine extremely productive.
Cost: 300 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Improved Kobold Mine (replaces)
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 400 Gold and 50 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Bat Roost]This cavern is filled with messenger bats, allowing for relatively rapid communication.
Cost: 50 Gold, 20 Food
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: If Shee-Ra is garrisoned at a Dungeon with a Bat Roost she can send an additional message per week per player.[/ic]
[ic=Slave Pit]Here, slaves taken on Surface raids and prisoners from enemy Dungeons are kept, auctioned off for food or as labourers. Kobold Chieftains take a cut from every transaction.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Slaves and prisoners can be sold at the Slave Pit for 2 Gold each, or converted into 2 Food each instead. You can also buy slaves for 2 Gold each, if you wish. Such slaves are fed on scraps and gruel and do not have an Upkeep cost.[/ic]
[ic=Dragon Shrine]This elaborate shrine is dedicated to Black Dragons. Here fossils and other relics of such creatures – scales, teeth, coins from Dragon hoards, and the like – are kept as sacred relics.
Cost: 75 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Troops who pray at a Dragon Shrine gain +1 to Morale and Defence and are immune to disease (if they are suffering from a disease, it is cured, and they return to full health). These benefits remain for 2 weeks.[/ic]
[ic=Burrow]This confused maze of tunnels serves as a communal living space, barracks, guard-room, and training ground for Kobolds, littered with their weapons and other possessions.
Cost: 35 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Kobold Slingers, Kobold Skulkers, and Kobold Blunderdigs.[/ic]
[ic=Workshop]This clattering, messy cavern is used by Kobold Trapspringers to design new (and horrible) traps and inventions, including the crude fire-bombs used by Bottlethrowers.
Cost: 65 Gold, 25 Metal
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Kobold Bottlethrowers and Kobold Trapspringers.[/ic]
[ic=Poison Kitchen]This slovenly laboratory is used by Kobolds to concoct a variety of poisons. It's mostly stocked with stolen alchemical equipment.
Cost: 75 Gold, 15 Metal
Prerequisites: Workshop
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Kobold Skulkers, Commandoes, and Dire Rat Cavalry recruited at a Warren with a Poison Kitchen all gain Poison 1, and garrisoned units of those types permanently gain Poison 1. Kobold Bottlethrowers recruited or garrisoned at a Warren with a Poison Kitchen can choose to lose their Fire damage to acquire Poison 1 instead.[/ic]
[ic=Kontraption Factory]This rambling, dangerous room is full of half-completed projects, menacing metal automata that belch sulphurous fumes. The air is full of the sound of ticking gears and boiling liquids.
Cost: 125 Gold, 40 Metal
Prerequisites: Burrow, Workshop
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: You can construct Kobold Kontraptions.[/ic]
[ic=Midden (Limit 1)]The midden is a revolting, pestilential den of filth where rats are bred in great numbers. The fattest, largest, meanest rats are given strange fungal drugs that greatly increase their size, making them suitable for mounts. The other rats make good eating, or can always be placed in pits or dropping down murder holes.
Cost: 125 Gold
Prerequisites: Burrow
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Kobold Dire Rat Cavalry. The midden also produces 35 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Dragon's Pool]This specially prepared chamber is adorned with all manner of bone fetishes, scrawled markings, and other holy signs, for Black Dragons are sacred creatures to Kobolds, worshipped as their supposed forebears. The pool always has a special, enlarged tunnel that the Dragon can use to enter and exit the Warren through.
Cost: 300 Gold
Prerequisites: Burrow, Dragon Shrine
Construction Time: 6 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit a single Black Dragon. Additional Dragons require their own pool, which must be placed in a different Dungeon, unless the Black Dragon dies.[/ic]
[ic=Shinycaster's Cave]This shadowy cavern is the personal domain of a Kobold Shinycaster, glimmers with hundreds of trinkets. Sorcerous gewgaws litter the cave, and a stolen cauldron simmers over a fire.
Cost: 125 Gold
Prerequisites: Burrow
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Kobold Shinycasters.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=Palisade (Limit 1)]This crude palisade of sharpened stakes protects Kobold Warrens from attackers, with a single gate allowing entrance and exit.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Defence: 20
Health: 30[/ic]
[ic=Kobold Trebuchet (Limit 3)]This ramshackle trebuchet is lashed together out of whatever is at hand. It sometimes misfires, with destructive (and hilarious!) results, but when the stones it slings connect with enemy forces it can devastating indeed.
Cost: 35 Gold
Prerequisites: Palisade
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: 25
Special Abilities: Kobold Trebuchets must be manned by 2 garrisoned units to be effective. If a Kobold Trebuchet rolls a 1 it misfires and deals 25 damage to whatever unit was manning it.[/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]This crudely dug tunnel allows Kobolds to escape their Warren if things go ill.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Defenders who fail their morale checks within a Dungeon can withdraw or flee to the nearest neighbouring territory instead of surrendering.[/ic]
[ic=Maze (Limit 1)]Kobolds often dig mazes into the outer defences of their Warrens, confusing invading troops even further. This defence can only be built in Warrens founded by Kobolds.
Cost: 100 Gold
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Special Abilities: The Cramped and Confusing Penalties increase by 1 for all troops – so regular units suffer -3 to Attack and Morale, Large units suffer -5, and Huge units suffer -7. Other Kobolds are still completely immune.[/ic]
[ic=Labyrinth (Limit 1, counts as Maze)]This expanded maze is so bewildering it would drive even a Dwarven engineer totally mad.
Cost: 200 Gold
Prerequisites: Maze (replaces)
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Special Abilities: The Cramped and Confusing Penalties increase by 2 for all troops – so regular units suffer -4 to Attack and Morale, Large units suffer -6, and Huge units suffer -8. Other Kobolds are still completely immune.[/ic]
[ic=Spiked Moat (Limit 1)]This simple trench is filled with spikes, deterring invaders. Ranged units can assail enemies from behind the moat.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: -2
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Ranged units can get off an extra volley of attacks if protected by a Spiked Moat, exactly as if they were being shielded by melee units. It takes attackers 1 round to circumvent the moat. The moat still functions as a trap – units can fall in accidentally. They must still breach any other Defences, such as a Palisade.[/ic]
[ic=Poisonous Spiked Moat (Limit 1, counts as Spiked Moat)]Debilitating venom has been smeared on the spikes in this moat.
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Spiked Moat (replaces), Poison Kitchen
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: -2
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Poison 4.[/ic]
[ic=Reinforced Gate (Limit 1)]This reinforced gate is strengthened with scrap metal.
Cost: 15 Gold, 5 Metal
Prerequisites: Palisade
Construction Time: 1 week
Defense: +5 to Palisade Defense.[/ic]
[ic=Disguised Entrance (Limit 1)]Carefully positioned rocks and fungi make the Warren entrance difficult to locate.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Special Abilities: Units attacking the Warren must spend 1 Speed simply to locate the Warren, unless they possess Detection or are accompanied by those who do. Such entrances can only be built in Warrens, not outposts.[/ic]
[ic=Improved Disguised Entrance (Limit 1, counts as Disguised Entrance)]Additional camouflage makes the Warren's entrance even harder to find.
Cost: 25 Gold
Prerequisite: Disguised Entrance (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Units attacking the Warren must spend 2 Speed simply to locate the Warren, unless they possess Detection or are accompanied by those who do. Such entrances can only be built in Warrens, not outposts.[/ic]
[ic=Invisible Entrance (Limit 1, counts as Disguised Entrance)]The Warren entrance is so well disguised as to be virtually invisible.
Cost: 25 Gold
Prerequisite: Improved Disguised Entrance (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: The Warren entrance cannot be found except by units with Detection or those accompanied by those who possess Detection. Such entrances can only be built in Warrens, not outposts.[/ic]
[ic=Snare (Limit 3)]This clever snare will trap an enemy unit without killing it.
Cost: 10 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Special Abilities: If the snare hits, it traps 1d2 units, though Large units are unaffected. These units are unharmed, but they become Kobold prisoners if Kobolds successfully repel their attackers. If a snare is placed by a Trapmaker in a region uninhabited by Kobolds, it is only effective if all of the units in the army are snared – otherwise the remaining troops simply free their comrades. Like other traps, snares can be tripped by wandering monsters.[/ic]
[ic=Cage Trap (Limit 1)]This cleverly concealed cage trap can hold quite sizeable monsters! Some fresh meet or similar bait makes it especially effective.
Cost: 50 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +8
Special Abilities: If the cage trap hits, it traps 1d4 units or 1 Large unit. These units are unharmed, but they become Kobold prisoners if Kobolds successfully repel their attackers and/or travel to the region the trap is in to collect the prisoners. If a cage trap is placed by a Trapmaker in a region uninhabited by Kobolds, it is only effective if all of the units in the army are caged – otherwise the remaining troops simply free their comrades. Like other traps, snares can be tripped by wandering monsters. Truly Huge monsters cannot be caged in this way.[/ic]
[ic=Caltrops (Limit 2)]A small explosive spreads painful caltrops everywhere.
Cost: 10 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Workshop
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +4
Damage: 5[/ic]
[ic=Metal Jaws (Limit 2)]These nasty little traps clamp around the ankles of enemies.
Cost: 20 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Workshop
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +5
Damage: 10[/ic]
[ic=Pit Trap (Limit 5, counts as Pit Trap)]These pit traps are slightly better-designed than most, and are relatively well-hidden.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 8[/ic]
[ic=Spiked Pit Trap (Limit 5, counts as Pit Trap)]A more vicious version of the pit trap, the spiked pit trap has long wooden stakes at the bottom to skewer those who fall in.
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 12[/ic]
[ic=Poisonous Spiked Pit Trap (Limit 5, counts as Pit Trap)]The spikes on this pit trap are smeared with poison.
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Spiked Pit Trap (replaces), Poison Kitchen
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Poison 4.[/ic]
[ic=Pit of Rats (Limit 5, counts as Pit Trap)]This pit is filled with starving, diseased rats.
Cost: 12 Gold
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces), Midden
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 10
Speical Abilities: Disease 3[/ic]
[ic=Acid Pit (Limit 5, counts as Pit Trap)]This pit is filled with powerful acid.
Cost: 15 Gold
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces), Poison Kitchen
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 15 (Acid)[/ic]
[ic=Monster Pit (Limit 5, counts as Pit Trap)]This pit has been stocked with a monster from the Underdeep, snared in a Kobold trap and deposited here.
Cost: None
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces)
Construction Time: None
Attack: +6
Special Abilities: This trap must be stocked with a wandering monster caught in a Kobold snare or cage trap and taken prisoner.[/ic]
[ic=Murder Holes (Limit 5)]These holes are bored in the roof of a cavern or passageway, allowing defenders to drop poisonous insects, starving rats, boiling water, pitch, or other unpleasant substances on attackers.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +5
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective. [/ic]
[ic=Rat Cages (Limit 5, counts as Murder Holes)]These bone cages of diseased rats can be emptied down murder holes.
Cost: 15 Gold
Prerequisites: Murder Holes (replaces), Midden
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: Disease 3. Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective.[/ic]
[ic=Buckets of Acid (Limit 5, counts as Murder Holes)]These caustic fluids can be emptied down murder holes.
Cost: 15 Gold
Prerequisites: Murder Holes (replaces), Poison Kitchen
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 10 (Acid)
Special Abilities: Poison 4. Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective.[/ic]
[ic=Grenades (Limit 5, counts as Murder Holes)]These crude bombs can be lobbed down murder holes.
Cost: 15 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Murder Holes (replaces), Workshop
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +6
Damage: 15 (Fire)[/ic]
[ic=Rockfall Trap (Limit 1)]A simple tripwire activates this crude trap, which dumps boulders on attackers.
Cost: 35 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 20[/ic]
[ic=Collapsing Tunnel (Limit 1)]This tunnel is rigged to collapse on top of foes.
Cost: 45 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +10
Damage: 30[/ic]
[ic=Poison Gas Trap (Limit 1)]This poisonous gas is carefully harvested from certain fissures and secluded chambers, placed in bladders, and then rigged to be released if trespassers blunder in.
Cost: 50 Gold
Prerequisites: Poison Kitchen
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: A regiment hit by this trap has its Health of all its units lowered by 2 for the duration of the battle.[/ic]
[ic=Flooding Room (Limit 1)]This chamber can be sealed, and then flooded full of water. The trap has no effect on units that don't need to breathe, such as Undead or plant-creatures such as Fungoids. This trap can only be built in Dungeons and Outposts.
Cost: 75 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Workshop
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 60[/ic]
[ic=Acidic Flooding Room (Limit 1)]What's better than a room that floods with water? A room that floods with acid, of course! This trap can only be built in Dungeons and Outposts.
Cost: 30 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Flooding Room (replaces)
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 80 (Acid)[/ic]
[ic=Mimic (Limit 2)]Kobolds have tamed the bizarre, wild creatures known as mimics, strange shapeshifters said to originally be the creature of some demented wizard. Mimics disguise themselves as treasures – often chests of gold – only to attack enemies attempting to plunder them with clawed arms and teeth. Kobolds keep such creatures starved in isolated caverns for maximum deadliness.
Cost: 25 Food
Prerequisites: Workshop, Shinycaster's Cave
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +12
Damage: 15
Mimics can travel with a Shinycaster, but cannot move on their own. They can also be abandoned in a region by a Shinycaster.[/ic][/spoiler][spoiler=Succubi (created by sparkletwist)]
Succubi
Beyond even the nightmares of Elves and Men, there is another world of fire and strife, the Abyss. Horrific aberrations run amok, ruled over by ghastly personifications of all of the woes of this dark place; yet, here, even the loftiest rulers are still prisoners of the Abyss itself. They are confined to this place by lakes of fire and by the barriers between planes, but, most of all, they are kept confined to the Abyss by their own endless anguish and rage. They destroy each other, they destroy themselves, and they destroy the Abyss itself, endlessly.
Of course, not every Abyssal creature is exactly the same. They all carry its taint, but some also carry with them the touch of something more lofty that once dared to reach into this foul, foresaken place.
Such is the nature of the Succubi.
Aeons ago, a god of light (whose name has long since been forgotten) tried to redeem the Abyss. He ventured deep within, until he was face-to-face with the dread Queen of the Abyss-- or at least some immensely powerful being of darkness that called itself such. He soothed her pain and rage and spoke to her kindly, and, for the briefest time, she felt love. Eventually, though, as the scorpion stings the turtle, she devoured him and destroyed them both. There is no redemption in the Abyss.
Yet, from that union, the daughters (and granddaughters, and so on down their lineage) live on, each one containing a spark of light from their forefather that tempers the Abyssal horror that also lurks within them, making their forms beautiful and their desires pleasurable.
With that spark of light within her, a Succubus can more easily escape the prison of the Abyss, and most do, at some time or other. They venture out into other planes; however, while they can be taken out of the Abyss, it is not so easy to take the Abyss out of a Succubus. Most Succubi live simple lives of decadent debauchery, thinking only of themselves, seducing and discarding mortals with little care for anything but indulging their own base impulses.
For the first millennium of their lives, the Seven Sisters were those kind of Succubi. A misspent youth, as it were. Reality intervened, in the form of haughty heroes who banished them back to their accursed home. Sent screaming back into the Abyss, they swore an oath to any god, goddess, or other eldritch thing that would listen that, should they be able to escape once again, they would no longer be mere hollow hedonists, but, rather, they would
do something with their talents. They would grow. They would achieve.
It is a promise they are honor-bound to keep, in some way or other...
Unholy: Succubi cannot abide the touch of holy objects and are uncomfortable on hallowed ground. If assaulting a Dungeon with a shrine, temple, or other religious building, they suffer -2 to Attack and Morale checks - unless the building is a Dark Shrine or Profane Temple. In addition, a spellcaster proficient with the Bless spell can use it to attack the Seven Sisters, rolling a ranged or melee attack to use the spell against one of the Sisters (or more than one if they are in a regiment together), opposed by a morale check by the Sister(s). If the spellcaster's attack exceeds the Sister's Morale check, the Sister flees from combat at the end of the round.
Spy Network: The Seven Sisters have a network of charmed spies and other skilled espionage agents. This network allows them to read the weekly Briefings delivered to other players to glean valuable information. They still cannot read messages, the orders of other players, scry requests, or private parleys. The Seven have been known to sell the information they acquire, but such knowledge always comes at a high price.
Souls: The Seven do not require a Gold Upkeep or Food, but they do have a Soul Upkeep. If not paid this Upkeep they begin to starve, just like a unit with a Food Upkeep that has not been paid. Souls are also used to fuel certain powers which the Sisters possess. If garrisoned in a Dungeon, Sisters can use the Debauchery action to essentially "forage" for Souls mush as other creatures forage for Food. Using 1 Speed generates 1 Soul for the Succubus player, but the action can only be used in Dungeons, where there are sufficient populations to support such activities.
Starting Location: The Sucucbus player begins wherever the Seven Sisters are summoned.
Starting Resources: The Succubus player begins play with 100 Souls.
Units
[ic=Succubus]These seductive fiends prefer subterfuge and deceit to combat. They resemble comely maidens with bat-like wings and other traits that betray their demonic nature, but they are adept shape-changers and can disguise themselves with glamers to pass as mortals. They are most at home in large cities where they can feed on the souls of other creatures, which they require to survive.
Upkeep: 1 Soul
Ranged Attack: +10
Ranged Damage: 8 (Fire)
Melee Attack: +6
Melee Damage: 5
Defence: 20
Health: 15
Speed: 8
Morale: +6
Special Abilities: Detector, Disguise, Distraction Aura (DC 10), Dominate, Flyer, Follower, Immunity (Fire), Invisibility (Self Only), Mindlink, Regeneration 5, Vanish
Any unit engaging the Succubus in melee combat must make a Morale check of DC 10 or suffer from her Distraction Aura (as per the Distraction spell).
When a Succubus kills an enemy unit, she harvests its Soul (+1 Soul to the player controlling the Succubus). Undead units and Constructs do not have harvestable souls.[/ic]
[ic=Demonic Guardian (Summoned Unit)]These hideous Demons are summoned by Sucucbi as protectors and bodyguards. Such creatures vary in appearance, but often take the form of towering horned brutes with eyes of flame and gleaming black armour.
Cost: See Ritual (below)
Upkeep: 5 Souls
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 15
Defence: 18
Health: 50
Speed: 4
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Immunity (Fire), Large, Regeneration 20[/ic]
Rituals
Instead or building rooms, traps, or defences in Dungeons, Succubi can cast Rituals, complex spells that require Souls to power. Each Ritual has a Soul Cost and a series of Effects. Rituals can never be cast in combat. Succubi who are somehow taken prisoner cannot cast Rituals.
Casting a Ritual uses up 2 Speed. Forced March cannot be used to cast additional Rituals.
[ic=Back For More]The Seven Sisters have been given another chance at escape from the Abyss, and they are determined to make the most of it. They have bound their souls tightly together, allowing any of them to recall the soul of a Sister who should happen to fall back into the Abyss.
Soul Cost: 50 Souls
Effect: One Succubus that has been banished (mechanically speaking, killed) is returned to the mortal plane. The Succubus reappears wherever the Ritual takes place. Any items she had remain where she fell, however. If multiple Succubi have been banished, the one that returns is randomly determined.[/ic]
[ic=I Like To Watch]Although Succubi typically excel at obtaining information, sometimes there's no substitute for seeing it with their own eyes. It's unclear if they originally created this Ritual for spying or voyeurism. It works equally well either way, of course.
Soul Cost: 20 Souls
Effect: The Succubus gains the Scry spell for 1 week.[/ic]
[ic=Come Hither]The Seven Sisters often operate independently, communing with each other in shared dreams and otherwise psychically communicating with each other over great distances. However, sometimes a real physical presence is necessary. For that reason, they have developed this Ritual. It is typically prepared in advance, so that the actual teleportation can be triggered at any point that week with but a snap of the fingers.
Soul Cost: 25 Souls
Effect: Another Succubus is instantly teleported to the location of the Ritual's caster, with all of her remaining Speed still intact.[/ic]
[ic=Lickety Split]Sometimes being fashionably late just won't do. When a Succubus is under the effect of this Ritual, all of her movements are quick and precise. A few seconds are shaved off nearly every motion, and the net result is a great increase in her potential for action, even after considering the time taken to perform the Ritual.
Soul Cost: 15 Souls
Effect: One Succubus gains +6 Speed for this week. (i.e., +4 after the Ritual).[/ic]
[ic=I Like It Rough]Succubi are known to be quite... enthusiastic. They frequently need to grant their mortal playmates a bit of their own magical vitality to be able to survive their depredations. Through
diligent research a lot of crazy experimentation, the Seven Sisters have expanded and strengthened that aura of vitality into a potent Ritual suitable for the rigors of combat.
Soul Cost: 10 Souls +1 Soul per unit
Effect: Units augmented with this Ritual gain +10 Regeneration for 1 week. If they normally have no Regeneration, they now have Regeneration 10 (units must initially be present in the same region as the Ritual's casters when the Ritual is cast).[/ic]
[ic=Ready For Action]A Succubus can motivate the libido of the most listless lover, causing a fiery passion to surge from deep within. Further refinement of the ability by the Seven Sisters has yielded a Ritual that prompts a strong lust for blood, instead.
Soul Cost: 10 Souls +1 Soul per unit
Effect: Units strengthened with this Ritual gain a +2 bonus to Melee Attack rolls and Melee Damage for 1 week (units must initially be present in the same region as the Ritual's casters when the Ritual is cast).[/ic]
[ic=Pret-a-Porter]Succubi are adept at the art of weaving magic into alluring attire, both for themselves and their retinues. As with the previous two Rituals, the Seven Sisters have expanded upon this power and created a Ritual suitable for combat purposes, allowing them to fashion armor and other protective gear out of their soul energy.
Soul Cost: 10 Souls +1 Soul per unit
Effect: Units toughened with this Ritual gain +2 Defence and +2 Health for 1 week(units must initially be present in the same region as the Ritual's casters when the Ritual is cast).[/ic]
[ic=Good Boy]Succubi are not insignificant in combat, particularly with the development of their potent combat Rituals, but it is still not their forte. Numerous perils of the Abyss could tear a Succubus apart without a second thought. Many Succubi protect themselves by taking what they affectionately term a "pet," a large and inhuman demonic entity of lesser intelligence that has thoroughly fallen for the Succubus's charms. Using this Ritual, the Succubus can bring forth her "pet" to the mortal plane.
Soul Cost: 25 Souls
Effect: The Succubus summons a Demonic Guardian to her location.[/ic]
[ic=Kneel Before Me]Powerful creatures that have been thoroughly dominated by the Seven Sisters are brought before their mistresses in a special "ceremony" that is a profane, salacious parody of a noble investiture. There, their will is forever bound to the Succubus that dominated them.
Soul Cost: 50 Souls
Effect: A creature that has been semi-permanently Dominated by a Succubus now passes fully under her control and can never be freed unless the Succubus is banished or she voluntarily releases her control.[/ic]
[ic=Dirty Sexy Money]Succubi that have not become wealthy in their own right are often kept women; either way, material want is not something known by many Succubi. After performing this Ritual, riches seem to come to the Succubus in any number of ways, be it the sudden appearance of a wealthy benefactor, a lucrative command performance, or simply a chance to excel at the world's oldest profession.
Soul Cost: 50 Souls
Effect: The Succubus player's income increases by 100 Gold for the next week.[/ic]
[ic=Home Sweet Home]While Succubi can make themselves at home nearly anywhere, for her to be truly comfortable, she needs a boudoir with all of the finer things in life at her disposal, and, of course, sanctified with the proper Abyssal incantations.
Soul Cost: 25 Souls
Effect: The location (which must have an established Dungeon) gains a "Succubus Boudoir" room. For each Succubus that begins her turn at the Succubus Boudoir that week, the Succubi get 1 Soul. In addition, as long as there is at least one Succubus present there, the location has the same effect as a "harem" building for the host faction's leader. (Typically granting a +1 bonus to Melee and Morale)[/ic]
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Derro]
Derro
Soundtrack (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=CdOfsDHJfXA&list=PL67D0F20EA91AF8EB)
Alternate (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=oZktSPrGSck)
The strange, sinister creatures known as Derro were once Deep Gnomes, nomadic traders and merchants who roamed the Underdeep looking for opportunities for commerce. One such group of Gnomes, stumbling through forgotten tunnels in the Lowerdeep, wandered accidentally into caverns conjoined with a plane of chaos and lunacy known as the Madrealm, thought by some to be the original home of the Ceremorphs. Trapped within the twisted, alien vistas of the Madrealm, the Derro became hopelessly deranged; some claim they were altered by certain horrific, cacodaemoniacal powers of eldritch perversity. Whatever the case, when they emerged from the amorphous, sanity-shattering regions of the Madrealm they were
altered, transformed from curious Gnomes into demented, illimitably cruel beings who delight in violence and suffering. The Deep Gnome penchant for pranks has been retained in the Derro, but now their tricks have taken on a decidedly more murderous character. The race mostly consists of brigands and raiders, though they lurk in the nethermost depths of the Underdeep for sunlight now burns their skin. Skilled in Chaos-Wizardry and warped alchemy, the Derro are perhaps the least predictable creatures in the Underdeep.
Starting Dungeon: Derro players must always claim their first Oubliette in the Lowerdeep. The Oubliette contains an Overlord's Bastion, a Derro Hideout, 1 Mushroom Patch, and a Derro Mine. Additional rooms, traps, and defences can be purchased before play commences, with two week's construction already completed.
Starting Resources: Derro aren't careful with their wealth, but they have no compunctions and stealing from the dead or the living. Derro players begin the game with 850 Gold, 100 Metal, and 150 Food.
Madness: Derro are thoroughly, and their deranged minds are strangely impervious to sorcerous tampering. All Derro have a +4 bonus to Defence and Morale checks to mind-influencing spells or effects, as well as Psychic attacks. They are immune to Confusion spells and effects.
Sadism: Derro take delight in acts of senseless brutality, especially against helpless victims, and they often engage in such acts before battle to "get their blood up." Derro can torture and kill any prisoners or slaves they possess to gain Attack and Morale bonuses. For every 5 units they torment and kill before a battle, they gain +1 to Attack and Morale during the battle, to a maximum of +4 Attack and Morale.
Sunlight Vulnerability: Derro have been tainted by dark magic and cannot stand the touch of sunlight. For each full week that a Derro unit spends on the Surface it loses 1 Health. It immediately recovers this lost health if it returns underground. Units that reach 0 Health due to this deterioration are destroyed completely. Regeneration and healing spells have no effect on sunlight-damage. Like Dark Elves and Duergar, they suffer double the normal Morale penalties from sunlight.
Units
[ic=Derro Overlord]Derro Overlords usually suffer from extreme delusions of grandeur and similar derangements. As a rule they are boundlessly cruel but also enormously charismatic, engendering absurd degrees of loyalty from their minions. In battle they frequently wield punching daggers, serrated knives, short blades, and similar weapons. While fighting they shriek commands at their troops, emboldening them to acts of horrific violence, or project agonizing screams at enemy forces.
Ranged Attack: +6
Ranged Damage: 4
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 12
Defence: 17
Health: 20
Speed: 4
Morale: +7
Special Abilities: Agony, Detector, Frenzy, Leadership
The Derro Overlord increases the Melee Damage and Morale of any army he is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon he increases the Melee Attack and Morale of garrisoned troops by +1. [/ic]
[ic=Derro Brigand (Requires: Derro Hideout)] Derro brigands are a bloodthirsty bunch, shifty, stealthy warriors skilled with the knife and garrotte, as well as with clubs and small hatchets. They are best used as ambushers and skirmish troops, being only lightly armoured.
Cost: 8 Gold, 1 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 1 Food
Melee Attack: +3
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 15
Health: 5
Speed: 4
Morale: +2
Special Abilities: Infiltrator[/ic]
[ic=Derro Aklys-Hurler (Requires: Derro Hideout)] These cunning warriors throw the whistling, hooked clubs known as aklys in battle. Though not as stealthy as brigands they can be incredibly vicious in battle, hurling their cruel weapons with manic abandon.
Cost: 6 Gold, 2 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +4
Ranged Damage: 3
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 15
Health: 5
Speed: 4
Morale: +2[/ic]
[ic=Derro Filcher (Requires: Derro Hideout)]Derro are accomplished thieves, and their quick-fingered filchers can strip a dungeon bare in minutes. Though they make poor combat troops they can be extremely useful to Derro Overlords nonetheless, disarming traps and infiltrating enemy territory.
Cost: 10 Gold, 1 Metal
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 1 Food
Melee Attack: +5
Melee Damage: 2
Defence: 15
Health: 5
Speed: 4
Morale: +2
Special Abilities: Disarm Traps +3, Infiltrator, Thieving[/ic]
[ic=Derro Mutant (Requires: Cave of Chaos)]These malformed Derro have been exposed to the mutagenic energies of Chaos itself. Some have two-heads, membranous wings, poisonous stingers, or other twisted deformities. They make superb shock troops, flailing with multitudinous limbs at enemy warriors.
Cost: 12 Gold
Upkeep: 2 Gold, 2 Food
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 16
Health: 10
Speed: 4
Morale: +2
Special Abilities: Multiattack 3, Mutation (Choose 1: Double-Headed, Flyer, Immunity [any], Poison 3, Regeneration 10)[/ic]
[ic=Gibbering Mouther (Requires: Cave of Chaos)]These revolting, slithering, quasi-liquescent creatures of viscous, jabbering flesh are said to be native to the Madrealm, the plane of chaos and lunacy. Their horrific babbling has been known to temporarily confuse enemies, though Derro are immune to its effects.
Cost: 50 Gold
Upkeep: 10 Bodies
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 12 (Acid)
Defence: 16
Health: 40
Speed: 3
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Confusion Aura (DC 10), Regeneration 20
The Gibbering Mouther's Confusion Aura affects anyone who directly engages it (Morale save or suffer from Confusion).
Gibbering Mouthers cannot stand sunlight and are immediately destroyed if they spend more than 1 week on the Surface.[/ic]
[ic=Jabberling (Requires: Jabberling Pit)]Thought to be indigenous to the Madrealm, Jabberlings are revolting, black-furred creatures that breed in lightless pits and abysses. The Derro use them as fodder, sending tides of these vicious, writhing beasts at their enemies. Jabberlings are cowardly creatures and always travel in massive herds, refusing to enter a battle without a large number of their fellows present.
Cost: 2 Gold
Upkeep: 1 Food or 1 Body
Melee Attack: +1
Melee Damage: 2
Defence: 14
Health: 2
Speed: 4
Morale: +1
Special Abilities: Climbing, Confusion Aura (DC 10)
A regiment of fewer than 10 Jabberlings refuses to fight and automatically withdraws from any combat.[/ic]
[ic=Derro Screecher (Requires: Cavern of Cacophony)]Some Derro develop the ability utter a piercing lunatic scream able to deafen and bewilder their foes. Fortunately other Derro are resistant to this effect. Derro Screechers are often employed by Overlords as defensive troops, literally shrieking enemies away.
Cost: 10 Gold
Upkeep: 3 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +4
Ranged Damage: 5 (Sonic)
Melee Attack: +2
Melee Damage: 1
Defence: 14
Health: 5
Speed: 4
Morale: +2
Special Abilities: Deafening[/ic]
[ic=Derro Alienist (Requires: Alienist's Dementarium)]These obscene, twittering alienists are well-versed in Chaos-Wizardry and other abhorrent arts, summoning tenebrous, misshapen horrors from the Madrealm. They can also shift through dimensions, or induce confusion in enemy troops.
Cost: 50 Gold
Upkeep: 7 Gold, 1 Food
Ranged Attack: +6
Ranged Damage: 4
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 3
Defence: 14
Health: 12
Speed: 4
Morale: +5
Special Abilities: Confusion, Detector, Phase-Shift, Summon (Random Madspawn)
A Derro Alienist can use the Summon (Random Madspawn) spell once per week, requiring 5 sacrifices (usually slaves or prisoners, though he can also sacrifice Derro units). The spell summons a random Madspawn, determined by the DM.[/ic]
[ic=Gibbering Orb (Requires: Atrium of Abhorrence)]These horrific creatures are said by some to be Eye Tyrants twisted by the forces of Chaos, by others to be some evolved form of Gibbering Mouthers. They resemble amorphous blobs of levitating flesh covered in constantly shifting mouths and eyes. Their endless babbling unhinges those around them, though fortunately Derro are immune to its effects.
Cost: 150 Gold
Upkeep: 25 Bodies
Ranged Attack: +8
Ranged Damage: 12 (Psychic)
Melee Attack: +10
Melee Damage: 30 (Acid)
Defence: 16
Health: 150
Speed: 2
Morale: N/A
Special Abilities: Confusion Aura (DC 15), Detector, Huge, Flyer, Regeneration 50
The Gibbering Orb's Confusion Aura affects anyone who directly engages it (Morale save or suffer from Confusion).
Gibbering Orbs cannot stand sunlight and are immediately destroyed if they spend more than 1 week on the Surface.[/ic]
Rooms
[ic=Overlord's Bastion]From within their often excessively fortified bastions, Derro Overlords concoct their lunatic plans and outrageous, frequently obscene schemes. Many Derro Overlords, wretchedly paranoid, refuse to leave their bastions for weeks at a time, until eventually emerging having decided to embark on some absurd, nonsensical quest, swearing not to rest till bathing in Dragon's blood, acquiring a vast collection of ears, devouring the heart of an Orc warlord, or painting a mural with Elf-blood. This room has no cost and is located in the Derro capitol.
Benefit: While garrisoned in the Bastion a Derro Overlord can declare a new obsession. Only one obsession can be declared at a given time, and a new obsession cannot be declared until the terms of an existing obsession are fulfilled. Like a Dwarven boast, Derro obsessions can take any form, but commonly they are extremely bizarre and often violent. While actively pursuing an obsession, a Derro Overlord and all under his direct command gain +2 to Attack and Morale; however, if the Derro Overlord neglects his obsession he begins to become depressed, suffering a -1 penalty to Morale for each week he ignores it. If the terms of the obsession are fulfilled, the Derro Overlord's Leadership bonuses increase by +2 for 2 weeks.[/ic]
[ic=Overlord's Study]This confused, utterly disorganized collection of weird texts, glyph-stones, whispergems, scrolls, grimoires, magically preserved brains, and other objects constitutes the Derro equivalent to an arcane study.
Cost: 125 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Overlord's Bastion
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: The Overlord an use the study to research new spells. Each spell takes 3 weeks to research; at the end of the week, he acquires the new spell permanently (only one spell can be researched at once). However, which spell is acquired is unknown and until it is fully researched. An Overlord must be garrisoned in the Oubliette with the Overlord's study to perform research.[/ic]
[ic=Overlord's Library]Additional stone tablets, stolen spellbooks, knowledge-prisms, memory crystals, and similar supplements expand the Overlord's study into a proper library, albeit one without any cohesive form of categorization.
Cost: 100 Gold
Prerequisites: Overlord's Study, Alienist's Dementarium
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: The Overlord's Library reduces research times to 1 week per spell, though the spell learned is still totally random.[/ic]
[ic=Mushroom Patch (Unlimited)]The chaotic mushroom-farms of the Derro are filled with colourful and often hallucinogenic fungi.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: A mushroom patch produces 20 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Centipede Farm (Unlimited)]Derro often eat insects, arachnids, and other creeping, crawling, ad slithering things. In particular they are skilled in the farming of centipedes which they prefer to devour raw.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: A centipede farm produces 50 Food per week.[/ic]
[ic=Derro Mine]Derro mines are extremely haphazard, unsafe affairs, with little rhyme or reason to the layout of tunnels or shafts. Passages meander seemingly at random, as crews of Derro and their slaves labour chaotically.
Cost: 150 Gold, 15 Metal
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You mine up to 150 Gold and up to 15 Metal per week, provided your Dungeon is built over a suitable deposit. You can only have a single mine per deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Improved Derro Mine]Zanily criss-crossing and dangerously ill-maintained mining equipment make this Derro mine somewhat more effective, in a dubious sort of way.
Cost: 225 Gold, 20 Metal
Prerequisites: Derro Mine (replaces)
Construction Time: 4 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 250 Gold and 25 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Derro Mine Complex]Strange Chaos-Magic enhances the efficacy of this Derro mine in strange ways, revealing a kind of twisted method to the madness of the complex.
Cost: 300 Gold, 25 Metal
Prerequisites: Improved Derro Mine (replaces), Cave of Chaos
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: Your mine now produces up to 400 Gold and 50 Metal per week provided it is built over a suitable deposit.[/ic]
[ic=Derro Hideout]This slovenly hideout is usually littered with rusted weapons, random body-parts, and strange oddments. Here unscrupulous Derro rogues gamble, sleep, fight impromptu duels, tell lurid jokes, and plot their next insane prank.
Cost: 30 Gold, 10 Metal
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Derro Brigands, Aklys-Hurlers, and Filchers. Unlike other Rooms, Derro Hideouts can be constructed in Outposts.[/ic]
[ic=Cave of Chaos]These amorphous caverns drip with mutagenic slime, and pools of viscous effulgent ooze simmer and boil. Here Derro Mutants can be created, and Gibbering Mouthers spawned. The caves constantly echo with a variety of mewls, whines, and burbles, and the air is unimaginably foul.
Cost: 125 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Derro Mutants and Gibber Mouthers[/ic]
[ic=Mutagenic Laboratory]This alchemical laboratory is used by Derro Alienists to experiment on other Derro, or on captured prisoners, warping them with chaotic magic and potent eldritch substances into nightmarish horrors.
Cost: 40 Gold
Prerequisites: Alienist's Dementarium, Cave of Chaos
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: Derro Brigands, Aklys-Hurlers, and Filchers exposed to the mutagenic pool permanently become Derro Mutants. Other units can also be immersed in the pool, with unpredictable results.[/ic]
[ic=Jabberling Pit]These noisome abysses are actually Jabberling breeding-pits, used by the Derro to produce massive numbers of the disgusting, whining beasts.
Cost: 40 Gold
Prerequisites: Cave of Chaos
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Jabberlings.[/ic]
[ic=Cavern of Cacophony]These twisted caves are designed specifically as training grounds for Derro Screechers, containing certain echoing passages and chambers that help such Derro hone their abilities. Lingering residues of their psychic screams are always audible here.
Cost: 50 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Derro Screechers.[/ic]
[ic=Alienist's Dementarium]This bizarre laboratory is filled with the warped apparatus of Chaos-Wizardry – strange reagents, esoteric alchemical devices, uncanny machines. Cages of frogs, severed Dwarf-feet, vats of tumorous flesh, unidentifiable balls of hair, small centipedes iwth the faces of humanoid infants... all these things and hundreds more can be found gracing the noxious Dementariae of Derro Alienists.
Cost: 150 Gold
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Derro Alienists[/ic]
[ic=Atrium of Abhorrence]This twisted chamber contains a semi-stable portal to the Madrealm itself from which the hideous monstrosities known as Gibbering Orbs can be called. The sticky, fleshy walls of this room are covered in eyes and mouths.
Cost: 200 Gold, 20 Bodies
Prerequisites: Cave of Chaos, Cavern of Cacaphony
Construction Time: 5 weeks
Benefit: You can recruit Gibbering Orbs, although only one can be summoned per week from the Atrium.[/ic]
[ic=Chaos Portal]This vortex of entropic puissance leads to parts unknown – a shimmering, iridescent orifice that whisks those who enter it off to seemingly random locations. Derro use these concentrations of chaotic energy for raids, reconnaissance, and exploration.
Cost: 60 Gold
Prerequisites: Alienist's Dementarium
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: A Chaos Portal leads to totally randomized (and initially unknown) region of the Underdeep or Surface, opening a rift in that region. Though the portal is two-way, its destination changes every month. Once per week, up to 50 units can be transferred through the portal to the random destination, and up to 50 can be transported back.[/ic]
[ic=Madgods' Shrine]This bizarre temple is sanctified to whatever bizarre entities from the Madrealm a particular tribe of Derro have chosen to revere. Frequently such shrines are filled with the unusual sacrifices of the Derro.
Cost: 75 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: Troops who pray at the Madgods' Shrine gain +2 to a randomized statistic – either Attack, Damage, Defence, Health, Speed, or Morale (the DM will roll 1d6 to determine, and 1d2 to determine Ranged or Melee if the unit is capable of Ranged Attacks) – and are immune to disease (if they are suffering from a disease, it is cured, and they return to full health). These benefits remain for 2 weeks.[/ic]
Traps and Defences
[ic=Palisade (Limit 1)]This crude palisade of sharpened stakes protects Derro settlements from attackers, with a single gate allowing entrance and exit.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Defence: 20
Health: 30[/ic]
[ic=Gibbering Wall (Limit 1)]This horrific mass of semi-liquescent flesh is covered in hundreds of gibbering mouths whose constant babbling and gnashing teeth deter invaders. If you build a Gibbering Wall and you already have a Palisade, the Palisade is replaced.
Cost: 60 Gold, 20 Bodies
Prerequisites: Cave of Chaos
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack:+8
Damage: 12 (Acid)
Defence: 16
Health: 100
Special Abilities: Confusion Aura (DC 10), Regeneration 20[/ic]
[ic=Escape Tunnel (Limit 1)]This crudely dug tunnel allow Derro to escape their Dungeon if things go ill.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Defenders who fail their morale checks within a Dungeon can withdraw or flee to the nearest neighboring territory instead of surrendering.[/ic]
[ic=Spiked Moat (Limit 1)]This simple trench is filled with spikes, deterring invaders. Ranged units can assail enemies from behind the moat.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: -2
Damage: 12
Special Abilities: Ranged units can get off an extra volley of attacks if protected by a Spiked Moat, exactly as if they were being shielded by melee units. It takes attackers 1 round to circumvent the moat. The moat still functions as a trap – units can fall in accidentally. They must still breach any other Defences, such as a Palisade.[/ic]
[ic=Mutagenic Moat (Limit 1)]This bubbling moat is filled with a chaotic stew of mutagenic liquids. If you build a Mutagenic Moat and you already have a Spiked Moat, the Spiked Moat is replaced.
Cost: 25 Gold
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: -2
Damage: 12 (Acid)
Special Abilities: In addition to taking damage, a unit that survives the moat's attack has all of its statistics lowered by 1d4 for the remainder of the combat. This effect can be Dispelled.
Ranged units can get off an extra volley of attacks if protected by a Mutagenic Moat, exactly as if they were being shielded by melee units. It takes attackers 1 round to circumvent the moat. The moat still functions as a trap – units can fall in accidentally. They must still breach any other Defences, such as a Palisade.[/ic]
[ic=Reinforced Gate (Limit 1)]This reinforced gate is strengthened with scrap metal.
Cost: 15 Gold, 5 Metal
Prerequisites: Palisade
Construction Time: 1 week
Defense: +5 to Palisade Defense.[/ic]
[ic=Pit Trap (Limit 3)]These poorly disguised pit traps rarely fool enemies, but every now and then a reckless Dwarf or blundering Orc falls foul of one.
Cost: 15 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +3
Damage: 8[/ic]
[ic=Spiked Pit Trap (Limit 3, counts as Pit Trap)]A more vicious version of the pit trap, the spiked pit trap has long wooden stakes at the bottom to skewer those who fall in.
Cost: 5 Gold
Prerequisites: Pit Trap (replaces)
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +4
Damage: 12[/ic]
[ic=Murder Holes (Limit 3)]These holes are bored in the roof of a cavern or passageway, allowing defenders to drop poisonous insects, starving rats, boiling water, pitch, or other unpleasant substances on attackers.
Cost: 20 Gold
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +5
Damage: 10
Special Abilities: Murder Holes must be manned by 1 garrisoned unit to be effective.[/ic]
[ic=Derro Harpoon Gun (Limit 4)]These huge harpoons are typically mounted atop Derro walls and used to brutally impale invaders as they approach.
Cost: 40 Gold, 10 Metal
Prerequisites: Palisade or Gibbering Wall
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: 25
Special Abilities: Derro Harpoon Guns must be manned by 2 garrisoned units to be effective.[/ic]
[ic=Scarecrows (Limit 1)]Nothing quite demoralizes enemy attackers like the sight of mutilated corpses suspended from chains, dangling from the cavern ceiling.
Cost: 5 Gold, 5 Bodies
Construction Time: 1 week
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 15). Each attacking regiment must pass the morale check or suffer -2 to hit in the coming battle.[/ic]
[ic=Echoing Passages (Limit 1)]These snarled, carefully excavated corridors are designed to unnerve attackers with unearthly echoes.
Cost: 10 Gold
Prerequisites: Cavern of Cacophony
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Special Abilities: Fear (DC 20). Each attacking regiment must pass the morale check or suffer -2 to hit in the coming battle. If Scarecrows are also constructed, attackers must make two checks.[/ic]
[ic=Deafening Passage (Limit 3)]These intricate tunnels are filled with shrieking winds that can deafen intruders.
Cost: 20 Gold
Prerequisites: Echoing Passages
Construction Time: 2 weeks
Attack: +8
Special Abilities: Any regiment hit by a Deafening Passage becomes Deafened, taking -2 to Attack and Defence for 1 combat round.[/ic]
[ic=Unstable Architecture (Limit 1)]This twisted, nonsensical architecture shifts and changes, constantly flickering between states, walls suddenly sprouting horrible faces that shriek obscenities or grasping limbs, passages twisting in maddening ways.
Cost: 50 Gold, 10 Metal
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Benefit: After breaching any outer defences, those attacking an Oubliette with Unstable Architecture suffer -2 to Morale checks to resist Confusion effects.[/ic]
[ic=Amorphous Architecture (Limit 1)]The architecture of the Derro Oubliette becomes even more malleable and frustrating, suddenly shifting those within through space and time in unlikely and bewildering ways, growing hungry maws disguised as doors or trapping intruders in sealed chambers.
Cost: 80 Gold
Prerequisites: Unstable Architecture (replaces)
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +6
Damage: 20
Special Abilities: After breaching any outer defences, those attacking an Oubliette with Amorphous Architecture suffer -4 to Morale checks to resist Confusion effects.[/ic]
[ic=Chaotic Architecture (Limit 1)]The Derro Oubliette becomes truly nightmarish, a pocket of the Madrealm itself made manifest in this world. Those non-Derro who venture within rarely return with their sanity intact.
Cost: 100 Gold
Prerequisites: Amorphous Architecture (replaces)
Construction Time: 3 weeks
Attack: +8
Damage: 25
Special Abilities: After breaching any outer defences, an Oubliette with Chaotic Architecture suffer -6 to Morale checks to resist Confusion effects.[/ic]
[ic=Jabberling Pit Chute (Limit 1)]This pit trap simply dumps enemies into a Jabberling pit, where a ravenous horde of the creatures awaits
Cost: 15 Gold
Prerequisites: Jabberling Pit
Construction Time: 1 week
Attack: +4
Damage: None
Special Abilities: Instead of damage, a Jabberling Pit chute deposits 1d20 enemy units in a Jabberling Pit. If Jabberlings are currently garrisoned in the Dungeon, they get a surprise round against the enemies, and then fight them apart from the main army. The Jabberlings can still participate in the rest of the battle to defend the Dungeon later on, provided they are still alive.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Communication]
Communication
Communication is key to Underdeep, as (unless you're an Orc player) you probably don't want to be at war with everyone. However, the tunnels are vast, and sending messages takes time. The most common method of communicating in the caverns of Underdeep is through messenger bat – specially bred bats trained to hone in on a particular frequency unique to certain caverns of the Underdeep. Other methods include couriers, messenger spores (in the case of Fungoids), telepathy (Ceremorphs*), and trained rats (Kobolds). Of course, meeting face-to-face is also always an option.
*Ceremorphs are an exception to the regular communication rules. As natural telepaths, they can project messages throughout the Underdeep psychically, and thus can send double the number of messages as other species, and Overbrains can communicate with one another instantly, sending as many messages as they wish.
[ic=Messages]
Each player can send two message to each player each week. These messages can be sent to any layer of the Underdeep, or to the Surface.
Example:
Wysratha Shadesong wants to send messages to Warlord Brogg and Snikkit the Crafty. She can send one message to each player. Brogg and Snikkit then receive those messages. Each crafts a reply to Wysratha, who then receives the replies. She also gets one more message for each, and so she can reply in kind to both Brogg and Snikkit. This, however, would exhaust her messages for Brogg and Snikkit for the week. If she decided she also wanted to send a message to Throm Steelbeard, as well, she would be free to, since she hasn't used up any of her messages/replies for Throm.[/ic]
[ic=Parleys]If two Characters (leaders, Commanders, or Captains) meet face-to-face, they can communicate as much as they please. They must physically meet on the map by moving to adjacent regions or (if they're currently neutral, friendly, or engaged in a siege) to the same region, at which point they can communicate with one another directly. I think the best way to resolve such communications while avoiding a very large number of posts is in fact to meet on IRC at a time agreed on in the discussion thread or by private message. The players in question then roleplay their characters accordingly, I save and edit the logs (or have them sent to me if I couldn't be present for some reason – though I should always be informed of parleys) and post them (in spoiler tags, of course) in the game thread. Common reasons to parley would include negotiating sieges, alliances, trade agreements, and similar complex matters not easily resolved in a small number of messages.[/ic][/spoiler][spoiler=Trade]
Trade
Trade in Underdeep is relatively simple. Trade agreements are conducted by exchanging messages with other players (see the Communication rules above). To actually exchange resources, however, players must have Dungeons or Outposts with sixteen regions or fewer between them. Regions need not be on the same level, but goods cannot be conveyed via Chasms (as with movement, regions on different levels linked by cave entrances are considered adjacent). Units in proximity are insufficient for trade purposes. If two Dungeons or Outposts belonging to the trade partners are within sixteen regions of one another, trades are conducted in the following manner:
1) During week 1, the trade partners make their agreement of exchange.
2) At the beginning of week 2, the week after the trade has been agreed on, the partners receive each others' goods.
3) If enemy units blocked off or besieged one of the Dungeons or Outposts receiving resources for trade during week 1, the trade is aborted. The resources return to their original players (see Blocking Trade, below).
If you and an ally have units in adjacent regions or in the same region, you can exchange resources instantly.
Be sure to note all trades in the Trade tab of your Orders. Remember that this should be a record of impending trades, not completed trades. The DM should note whether a trade was completed in the weekly briefing.
[ic=Blocking Trade]Besieged Dungeons or Outposts cannot be used for trade purposes. Enemy troops can also block off trade routes to a Dungeon or Outpost to prevent it from being used for trade. If no route of sixteen regions or less can be traced between two Dungeons or Outposts without being blocked by an enemy army of at least twenty-five normal-sized units, twelve Large units, or a single Huge unit, then those two Dungeons/Outposts are not considered close enough to trade. Enemy Outposts similarly block trade in this way, though enemy Dungeons do not.
Infiltrated units cannot be used to limit trade in this way, unless they choose to show themselves and forgo their Infiltration.
The Surface
cannot be used to create trade routes, and any captured Surface settlements do not count as Outposts or Dungeons for trade purposes.
Example 1: Let's say that a Goblin player and an Undead player have Dungeons in Upperdeep 4 and Upperdeep 48. There are only 11 regions between them, so they can trade. But now let's say an Orc player moves troops to Upperdeep 45. Now, no route can be traced of sixteen regions or less between the two Dungeons. Unless the Goblin player and the Undead player have another pair of Dungeons or Outposts with 16 or fewer regions between them, they cannot trade while the Orc blockade persists.
Example 2: Let's say a Dark Elf player has a Dungeon in Middledeep 96 and wishes to trade with a Ceremorph player who has an Outpost in Lowerdeep 63. The two Dungeons/Outposts are close enough to trade – Middledeep 90 and Lowerdeep 67 are considered adjacent for trade purposes. A Duergar player attempts to disrupt this trade by stationing units in Lowerdeep 66. However, since an alternate route of sixteen regions or fewer can be used (using Lowerdeep 65), the Dark Elf and Ceremorph player can still trade.
The Duergar player now moves his units to Lowerdeep 67 instead to try and block trade. But this also will not work, as the Dark Elf Dungeon and the Ceremorph Dungeon can trade using the cave entrance linking Middledeep 80 and Lowerdeep 69 and still have fewer than 16 regions between them.
Frustrated, the Duergar player now moves sufficient troops to block trade to Lowerdeep 64 and 68. The Outpost is now blocked off, and though alternate routes could still be drawn, they are all more than 16 regions in length. Unless the Dark Elf player and the Ceremorph trader have another pair of Dungeons and/or Outposts within 16 regions of one another, they cannot trade while the Duergar blockade persists.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Battle]
Battle
Battle is central to the game of Underdeep, and the battle rules are probably the most complex. The good news is that you don't really need to understand how they work to play the game. As a player, you won't be making a single roll – the DM runs all battles for you, and you just give your troops orders. However, an understanding of the battle rules may be helpful in making strategic decisions, so I present them here in any event.
[ic=When Combat Occurs]Combat can occur in several situations:
1) When two hostile armies accidentally meet one another while travelling through the same region. In this case, there is no official attacker or defender, and so units like Orcs who benefit from being the attacker do not gain bonuses.
2) When an army deliberately moves into a region occupied by an enemy force. In this case, the enemy who moved into the occupied region is the attacker, and the forces in the occupied region are defenders.
3) When an army assaults an Outpost or Dungeon, in which case they are the attackers and the garrisoned troops are defenders.
4) When infiltrated units ambush enemy regiments moving through the region they set up an ambush in. In this case the infiltrated units are the attackers and the ambushed units are the defenders.
5) When wandering monsters or other creatures attack a player's creatures.
6) When units are investigating a ruin or other feature and trigger an attack by creatures living there.[/ic]
[ic=The Combat Mechanic]During combat, two statistics come into play unique to regiments rather than individual units: Combined Health, and a Combined Damage Score. The former is simply all of the health of the units in the regiment added up; the latter, the total damage of the unit added up and divided by 10. During combat, both sides make an attack roll (1d20 + Attack) and compare their result to their opponent's Defence score. The amount of damage they deal is equal to their Combined Damage Score multiplied by 10, -1 for every point they missed by. This damage is then dealt to the Combined Health of the enemy regiment. Finally, casualties are calculated. The remaining Combined Health of each regiment is divided by the individual Health of its constituent units to calculate casualties.
Regiments attack as one. You cannot, for example, sending half of your regiment to attack one enemy regiment and the other half to attack a different regiment. However, sometimes multiple regiments
can target a single regiment, in which case the regiment does end up fighting multiple regiments (see Complex Combats, below).
Example:
20 Goblin Grunts vs. 15 Dwarf Axemen
The Goblin Grunts have a Combined Health of 100 and a Combined Damage Score of 6 (3x20, divided by 10). The Dwarf Axemen have a Combined Health of 120 and a Combined Damage Score of 7.5 (5x15, divided by 10).
In combat, both sides roll 1d20 + their Attack rating against one another's Defence. Let's say the Goblins roll 14, adding 2 for their Attack rating (total: 16). The Dwarves roll a 14, adding 3 for their attack rating (total: 17).
The Goblins are 1 under the Defence of the Dwarves. 10-1 = 9, so they multiply their Combined Damage Score of 6 by 9 for a total of 54 damage. The Dwarves, however, are 2 over the Defence of the Goblins; however, they don't get to multiply their Combined Damage Score by 12, but only 10, for a total of 75 damage.
Calculating casualties is simple. Take the damage dealt and subtract it from the Combined Health of both regiments. The Goblins' new Combined Health is thus 25 and the Dwarves' new combined health is 66. Now divide the new Combined Health scores by the Health scores of the individual units to calculate how many troops remain. Goblins have 5 Health each, 25/5 = 5, so 5 Goblins remain. Dwarves have 8 health and 66/8 = 8.25. We round up: 9 Dwarves remain, although one is at only 2/8 Health.[/ic]
[ic=Morale]Many combats will end not with the total slaughter of one force by another but with an army retreating. During combat, whichever army (or armies) received more than the average amount of damage dealt (in a two-army battle, this will mean whoever received more damage) must make morale checks (1d20 + Morale bonus) for all of their regiments. If a regiment gets 10 or above, it continues to fight. If more than half of their entire army has been killed, they must score a 15 or higher to continue fighting.
If it fails the check, it immediately withdraws from combat, suffering no additional damage and retreating to the nearest unoccupied region before using any of its remaining Speed to the nearest friendly Dungeon, Outpost, or army. If it fails the check by 10 or more, it flees outright. All units currently targeting it get bonus attacks against it immediately. It still attempts to flee to the nearest friendly Dungeon, Outpost, or army.
Fleeing units cannot use the Forced March action to flee further than their Speed.
Many factors, such as fatigue, lack of pay, starvation, grudges, sunlight, etc can affect a regiment's Morale bonus.
If a regiment is, for some reason, unable to flee to a nearby territory (perhaps it is surrounded on all sides by multiple enemy armies) but fails it morale check, it surrenders instead. The units become prisoners.[/ic]
[ic=Voluntary Withdrawal]Sometimes, a regiment may have standing orders to withdraw in certain situations, such as if they're heavily outnumbered, or if they're attempting a hit-and-run attack. If a regiment chooses to voluntarily withdraw, it forgoes all of its attacks for the round and immediately withdraws. Melee regiments engaged with it do not get any attacks in the round the regiment withdraws. Ranged regiments targeting a regiment that is voluntarily withdrawing
do get an attack against the withdrawing regiment.[/ic]
[ic=Ranged Combat]Some units possess ranged weapons which they can use to attack enemies from a distance. So long as a regiment with ranged attacks remains outside of melee, it can use its ranged attack and damage in place of its melee attack and damage. In the first round of combat, ranged attackers always get to attack with ranged weapons. In the first round a ranged attacker fires, ranged attacks, damage and casualties are calculated before melee attacks, damage, and casualties; in subsequent rounds, they are calculated simultaneously. Shooting into a melee carries a -2 penalty.
If a regiment of ranged attackers is engaged in melee, then in all subsequent rounds it remains in melee it switches to its melee attack. It does not get to make two attacks per round, however: if it made a ranged attack in a round, and then gets engaged in melee, it doesn't get to immediately respond with a melee attack.
To keep ranged regiments shielded, melee regiments must engage all other enemy melee regiments targeting the ranged regiments.[/ic]
[ic=Sneak Attacks]During ambushes, infiltrators get to make special sneak attacks against enemy forces. This takes the form of a bonus attack resolved exactly as a regular attack, but in which the enemy units do not get to fight back. They also do not check morale. After the sneak attack is resolved and any casualties are deducted, combat formally begins.[/ic]
[ic=Psychic Attacks]Attacks with the type (Psychic) require a regiment to make a Morale check in lieu of its Defence score. Damage is otherwise calculated as normal, exactly as if the Morale result was the Defence of the targeted unit. Units without a Morale score are immune to Psychic attacks.[/ic]
[ic=Suicidal Attacks]Attacks with the type (Suicide) destroy the unit who made them, unless they missed by 10 or more, in which case their attack completely failed and they did not manage to hit their opponents at all. The only exception to this rule is with Defences like walls. If suicidal units attack a wall but miss by more than 10, the wall simply absorbed their attack, and they are still destroyed.[/ic]
[ic=Flanking]If two armies of attack a third army from different directions (separate regions), they may receive a flanking bonus. One flanking army must be at least 50% as numerous as the other flanking army for flanking to occur. Flanking units receive +2 on all of their attack rolls during the battle. Whether a particular angle of attack will confer a Flanking bonus or not is up to the DM to decide.[/ic]
[ic=Bridges]In certain cases, units may be defending a bridge. Units entrenched in a region with a Bridge can use it to their advantage if they wish. They can station a regiment on the bridge which all attacking enemy regiments must fight in order to proceed to the rest of the defender's army. However, the attacker can only send one regiment at a time over the bridge to attack the defending regiment holding the bridge. Ranged regiments and spellcasters on both sides attack as normal.
If the regiment defending the bridge is destroyed or withdraws but another regiment is available to take its place, it can.[/ic]
[ic=Spells]Spells can be cast in combat by certain units. Casting a spell uses up a combat round, unless otherwise noted. The details of each spell can be found in the spell list – some require attack rolls, others do not. If a spell requires a ranged attack roll, it can only be cast by a unit that could normally make a ranged attack (i.e. if the spellcaster is engaged in melee, it cannot cast a spell requiring a ranged attack).
Sometimes, spellcasters of the same type may form a regiment. In this case, the individual spellcasters can still choose which spells they wish to cast and which regiments they wish to target – they do not all need to target the same regiment. Some of the spellcasters can choose to cast spells while others use ranged attacks, as well: in this case, recalculate the Combined Damage Score of the spellcaster regiment accordingly.
Spells are resolved before other attacks are calculated. In the event that knowing the order of spells being cast becomes necessary, spell-order is determined randomly.[/ic]
[ic=Complex Combats]In many situations, there will be more regiments on one side than on another. In this case, regiments are "split" into blocks for the purposing of attacking and damage dealing while still treating them as a single regiment for morale purposes and casualties.
Example:
If the 20 Goblin Grunts were attacked by 10 Dwarf Axemen and 5 Dwarf Hammerers, two thirds of the Goblins (about 13) will fight the Axemen and on third (about 7) will fight the Hammerers, though if the Axemen dealt enough damage to kill more than 13 Goblins, they would do so.
Large units count as 4 units for the purposes of regiment-splitting, and Huge units count as 8.
Leaders attached to a regiment also use these rules to calculate their attacks and damage. See the Leadership ability for further details.[/ic]
[ic=Dungeon Assaults]Often, you may wish to assail an enemy Dungeon or Outpost directly. In this case, move your army into the region with the Outpost or Dungeon in question and declare an assault on that Dungeon (
not a siege).
Dungeon assaults are similar to regular combats, but the defenders have certain defences which they can employ to keep attackers out of their Dungeon. Any defending units garrisoned in the Dungeon or Outpost under assault are found within the Dungeon, and cannot be attacked by any melee units until Defences have been breached and traps braved.
Any defenders in the region containing the Dungeon or Outpost but not actually garrisoned in that Dungeon or Outpost engage the attackers outside of the Dungeon or Outpost, just like a regular battle.
To breach defences, attackers must destroy any walls or gates leading into the Dungeon. Gates and walls have Defence and Health scores, and sustain damage exactly as if they were regiments. They must be reduced to 0 before attacking units can proceed inside an enemy Dungeon.
Meanwhile, any ranged attackers, spellcasters, or units manning defences garrisoned in the Dungeon being assaulted can make ranged attacks and cast spells at enemies outside. Defending units can also man other defences, such as murder holes (which can attack units in melee combat with a wall) or ballistae (which are treated as ranged combatants). These defending units
can be targeted by attacking ranged units but at a -4 penalty.
Manned defences such as murder holes or catapults, as well as flailing walls, zombie walls, and similar defences, do not count as traps but attack like defending units.
Once defences are breached, all defending units – including any ranged units or other units manning defences – withdraw into the Dungeon proper. At this point, traps are activated. When enemy units storm a Dungeon, make an Attack roll for each trap the Dungeon contains. If the Attack hits or exceeds one enemy regiment's Defence, deal the listed damage to the regiment. If the attack fails, the trap has been evaded by that regiment, but gets an attack roll against the next regiment, and the next, until it either hits or all regiments have evaded it. Note that if a regiment hit by a trap is immune to the trap's damage type (such as a fire-immune unit hit by an Incinerator trap, for example), the trap is still activated and does not continue attacking other regiments.
Traps that have been activated need to be reset by defenders after the battle. Some traps are one-use only.
Defenders who fail morale checks during a Dungeon assault and who do not possess an escape tunnel surrender. They are taken prisoner by enemy forces and could be killed or sold into slavery, ransomed back to the player they were taken from, kept as hostages for negotiations, etc.[/ic]
[ic=Sieges]Sometimes, you may wish to besiege a Dungeon or Outpost instead of directly assaulting it. To do this, move your army into the region containing the Dungeon or Outpost and entrench it to declare a siege. A siege does not result in an immediate battle, as enemy forces remain just out of range of ranged attackers.
A besieged Dungeon or Outpost can only utilize resources that it itself generates – it cannot use resources gathered elsewhere. Upkeep on units at the Dungeon or Outpost, and any new rooms or defences you wish to build at the besieged Dungeon or Outpost, must be funded by the resources gathered at the besieged Dungeon or Outpost only. Similarly, resources gathered at a besieged Dungeon or Outpost can
only be spent at the besieged Dungeon or Outpost! Effectively, the resource-output of a besieged Dungeon or Outpost becomes segregated from the rest of that player's production. This should be noted in the Production tab of a player's Orders.
Example:
An army of Goblins besieges a Dark Elf city, one of two the Dark Elf player controls. One city has an Improved Dark Elf Mine and six Lichen Gardens, and the other only has a Dark Elf Mine and no Food-producing structures at all. The second city has been besieged. This means that while the Dark Elf player receives a total of 475 Gold, 40 Metal, and 120 Food per week, only 175 Gold and 15 Metal can be used by the besieged city, and these resources
cannot be used by the other city. Without food-producing structures, units garrisoned in the besieged city will begin to starve (it would thus make a great deal of sense to use some of that 175 Gold to start building Food-producing structures immediately!).
Besieged Dungeons and Outposts in regions with mushroom forests and crystals lose their ability to generate extra production until the siege is lifted. Crystals still affect magic as normal.
A siege is only broken when all enemy units are cleared from the region with the Dungeon ore Outpost. Of course, garrisoned defenders can be given orders to emerge from a Dungeon and attack their besiegers directly.
If a friendly army arrives to break the siege, the resulting battle is fought
outside of the Dungeon and does not include the garrisoned defenders, although the garrisoned defenders could be ordered to charge forth from the Dungeon or Outpost and attack. If this is the case, Flanking bonuses apply.
A besieging army can decide to assault the Dungeon it besieges at any point. This does not use any additional Speed.[/ic]
[ic=Tunnels]If a Dungeon or Outpost has been successfully tunneled into and a Dungeon assault declared, the Defenders immediately breach all outer outer defences. They are still subject to traps, but they enter the Dungeon without having to breach walls or gates, and they cannot be attacked by outer defences that need to be manned, like Murder Holes or Catapults.
If a tunnel has been completed but an attack not yet declared, it is assumed the tunnelers have not quite tunneled into the dungeon quite yet and are waiting for the order to dig through the last few inches of rock.
Any garrisoned units with Detection are aware of tunnels being dug but not their precise location; there's nothing defenders can do to stop the tunnels being dug, short of immediately attacking the besieging foes.
Once a siege ends (one way or another), tunnels are collapsed unless, for some reason, the Dungeon's owner wants it to remain. A tunnel dug in this way cannot be used as an Escape Tunnel.[/ic]
[ic=Sacking Enemy Dungeons]If you attack an enemy Dungeon and are victorious, you can choose to sack it, looting it of supplies but leaving it essentially intact (though you can always raze it later if you have Demolitions). In this case, you can choose to steal 2d100 Gold, 1d20 Metal, 1d100 Food, and 2d20 Bodies, all taken directly from the enemy's Wealth. Orcs steal up to double this amount. If the enemy possesses insufficient Wealth, you steal whatever they have.
The only exception to these rules is you sack an enemy faction's last remaining Dungeon (i.e. they have no other Dungeons anywhere on the map). In this case you take control of
all resources that player controls. If the player manages to get garrisoned defenders out of the Dungeon in time (through an escape tunnel or Teleportation Circle, for example), they also manage to salvage 10% of their remaining resources (even Orcs don't get to steal these back).
In addition to the Bodies of any defenders you slew and any stockpiled Bodies you gained from the sack, you gain 1d3x1d100 prisoners – enemy non-combatants – from a sacked Dungeon. These prisoners can be executed if you wish. If the Dungeon possessed an Escape Tunnel, this amount is reduced by 150 prisoners. If this drops the amount below 0, then you gain no prisoners from the attack.
Outposts cannot be sacked.[/ic]
[ic=Razing Enemy Dungeons and Outposts]Units with the Demolitions ability can use their Speed to plant charges under the rooms (see the Demolitions ability for details) of conquered Dungeons. If every single room, defence, and trap in a Dungeon or Outpost is destroyed in this way, the Dungeon is totally wiped off the map.
If you do not have Demolitions-capable troops, you can still destroy and abandon the Dungeon, but you leave it a ruin which can be re-inhabited later, with all of its rooms essentially intact (see Re-inhabiting Ruins).[/ic]
[ic=Capturing Enemy Dungeons and Outposts]In many cases, you will wish to seize control of an enemy Dungeon. For details on this, see the Dungeons and Outposts rules, under "Capturing Enemy Dungeons and Outposts."[/ic]
[ic=Raiding Settlements]Raiding settlements on the Surface works much the same as sacking enemy Dungeons. First, you must move an army into the same region as a settlement and declare an assault (or siege, although Surface sieges are risky as your troops' Morale will deteriorate swiftly in the sunlight). You can use any of the normal resources and abilities available to you to do so, such as Infiltrators, Climbing, etc. The assault or siege is conducted normally, with the defenders of the settlement fighting back against their assailants. Typically these defenders take the form of local militia. Fortunately for the denizens of the Underdeep, such militias tend to be few in number and poorly trained (a major exception can be found in the Giant settlements of the northeastern plateau). Repeated attacks against a settlement, however, will provoke them to improve their defences.
If you win the assault, you must choose whether to simply sack the settlement, to seize control of it, or to raze it. Whatever your choice, you gain resources from the raid.
Most settlements, when raided, yield 1d6x1d100 Gold, 1d2x1d100 Metal, and 1d4x1d100 Food. If you wish, you also gain 1d3x1d100 prisoners, which can be sold as slaves if you possess the correct structures (or a good trading partner) or converted into Bodies (this is in addition to the Bodies of any defenders you slew). This total doesn't represent the entire population of the town – many members of the settlement will have fled in the aftermath of a raid. Orcs double the number of resources stolen during a raid.
Some settlements may use a different multiplier for their various resources gained. For example, most Halfling settlements have much less Gold and Metal (1d3x1d100 Gold, 1d100 Metal) but vast stores of Food (1d8x1d100 Food). High Elf cities will yield fewer Bodies but more Gold, Gnome cities will yield additional Metal, etc.
If you depart the settlement after simply sacking it, the settlement will begin rebuilding. It takes a settlement four weeks (starting the rebuilding process at the beginning of the week after being sacked) to rebuild to a point where raiding it again becomes worthwhile – a settlement raided while rebuilding yields no resources, and it must begin the rebuilding process again. Expect settlements that have been raided to strengthen their defences. Many will also hire adventurers or other mercenaries to help them deal with raiders. They may also call on allies and other towns to help them defend themselves against further attack.
If you raze the settlement, it is permanently destroyed. Its inhabitants will disperse to other settlements, and the settlement can no longer be raided. There may be tactical reasons to raze a settlement – like denying another player a source of resources.
If you conquer the settlement, your troops assume control of it and become garrisoned within it. They incur the usual morale penalties for spending multiple turns on the Surface. The settlement may generate a few resources from farms or other structures, though not nearly as much as a Dungeon would, as most of the townsfolk will be dead or fled. Conquering a Surface settlement may again serve tactical purposes – such as serving as a base for future raids – but it is sure to attract the attention of other Surface races. Long-term occupation of Surface settlements is thus very risky (one tactic to reduce morale penalties might be to swap out troops from the Underdeep for a turn garrisoning a captured Surface settlement). A captured settlement does not gain a Commander, and you cannot build any Rooms in one. You can build Traps and Defences if you wish, such as a Palisade or Pit Traps. Normal limits and prerequisites apply.
The moment your troops withdraw from a captured settlement, it ceases to be under your control and immediately begins rebuilding as if it had simply been sacked.[/ic]
[ic=Bodysnatching]Some Factions may be less interested in a settlement's Gold and more interested in its Bodies. Local graveyards around settlements can provide such resources. Troops who simply want to go bodysnatching may enter a region with a settlement without initiating a siege or assault. They can instead use the Scavenge action (1 Speed) to gather 1 Body apiece from local graveyards around the settlement. So long as they depart the settlement in the same week with their remaining Speed, and provided 50 or fewer troops (i.e. one full regiment) were involved in the bodysnatching, they do not provoke any attacks from defenders. Graveyards can be repeatedly raided in this way, but do have a finite supply of bodies (the exact number known only to the GM) that is renewed periodically.
Vampires (or Synaptophages) and Liches (or Cereliches) can also use graveyards as a place to rest, interring themselves in mausoleums and so protecting themselves from the sun. This is accomplished using the entrench action (see Movement rules). Only these particular units can use graveyards this way.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Orders]
Orders
As the ruler of a faction of the Underdeep, your job consists chiefly of giving orders. To make sure that everything is clear and that I am given all the important information for a turn, your orders should follow a very specific format. If executed properly, a single post should suffice for any given week, in the absence of special circumstances where units need to be given additional orders after parts of their orders are carried out.
Note that you will have 6 days each week to finalize your orders, which aren't considered "official" until the 7th day. You may wish to change orders as you send and receive messages.
It goes without saying that you should not read the Orders or open the spoiler tags of any other player - even an ally. The only exception is a message intended for you, which you can (and should!) open.
This all may look complicated and time-consuming, but about 75%+ of it is going to be copy/paste, so don't be discouraged. There'll be a wee bit of math as you calculate income, upkeep, and construction/recruitment costs, but that's about the worst of it. Being fastidious and thorough about record-keeping will save WAY more time in the long run than if we were laxer with things, I'm certain.
Here is the format I would like everyone to use for their orders. If you don't use this format, I can't guarantee that I won't miss something, so try to stick to the format as closely as possible. If I've missed something in the orders format that you think should be included, PM me or post in the discussion thread.
Note: the example character here will not appear in the game.
[ic=Flavour Text (Title this something good)]This area should be devoted to flavour text describing your character's actions for the week. It can be as long or as short as you like, but it should never be omitted. It might take the form of a diary entry, a chronicle written in the past tense, a third person description, a stream of consciousness or other first person narrative, or some other form. The minimum length for this area is a single sentence.
Example:
Ragnar Thundershield traced the markings graven on the newly constructed Hall of Runes and smiled grimly. With the power of these glyphs his Runeseers would make his troops all but invulnerable in battle. Then the Orcs of Ghol-Borab would answer for the burning of Kharthagrond!
Note: Placing spoiler tags around your Flavour Text - which might potentially reveal some aspect of strategy - is optional, but discouraged, since other players will enjoy reading your text. Consequently, metagaming on the basis of an enemy's flavour text is also highly discouraged. You may wish to err on the side of vagueness in your flavour text if you're worried about metagaming.[/ic]
[spoiler=Messages]Include here a message you wish to send. Put additional messages in spoiler tags, and remember to include the names of characters meant to receive those messages in the spoiler tag title so players know when a message is intended for them. Remember that you can send one message and one reply to each other character every week.
Example:
Warlord Brogg,
Withdraw from the ruins of Kharthagrond immediately or face the wrath of the Thundershield Clan. You have been warned.
Thane Ragnar Thundershield[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Production]Here, include all production for the turn generated by your dungeons, including the sources of that production. Much of this can be copy/pasted from previous posts, so tedious bookkeeping should at a minimum – but be sure to include production from any rooms that were completed this week!
Example:
Thundershield ClanholdImproved Dwarf Mine: +350 Gold, +50 Metal
1 Tuber Garden: +25 Food
2 Apiaries: +30 Food
4 Mushroom Patches: +20 Food[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Upkeep]Here, calculate all Upkeep costs for your troops, noting troop numbers and types.
Example:
20 Dwarf Ironbound: -60 Gold, -40 Food
15 Dwarf Riflemen: -60 Gold, -15 Metal, -30 Food[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Construction]Here, note any rooms, traps, or defences under construction (deducting 1 week from their construction time as weeks pass) and any new rooms, traps, or defences you wish to construct. Make sure to note
where the rooms, traps, and defences are being constructed as well, and the cost of any new rooms you wish to create.
Example:
Thundershield Clanhold (Upperdeep 28)Under Construction:Brewery: 1 week remaining
Artificer's Hall: 2 weeks remaining
Beginning Construction:Reinforced Walls: -100 Gold, 3 weeks remaining
Runegate: -75 Gold, 2 weeks remaining[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Recruitment]Here, note any units you wish to recruit this turn. Fungoid players should also note maturation times for units still developing. Be sure to include locations and costs for all your troops.
Example:
Thundershield Clanhold (Upperdeep 28)Recruit 2 Dwarf Cannoneers: -50 Gold, -40 Metal[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Wealth]Here, add up your current resource amounts, adding in any resources produced and subtracting any Upkeep incurred, the cost of any new rooms, traps, or defences constructed, abnd the cost of any new units recruited. The example below assumes that the Dwarf player being used for the example was broke at the beginning of the turn, before production kicked in.
Do not deduct expenditures for Dungeons or Outposts yet to be founded.
Example:
Gold: 5
Metal: 10
Food: 5 Food
Bodies: 0[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Dungeons and Outposts]Here, include a list of all Dungeons and Outposts and associated rooms and defences. Include only completed rooms, traps, and defences on this list - do NOT include any rooms under construction here. Again, this can be copy/pasted from turn to turn, just make sure to add in any additional rooms.
Example:
Thundershield Clanhold (Upperdeep 28)Thane's Hall
Forge Hall
Shield Hall
Gunsmithy
Hall of Gears
Hall of the Ancestors
Hall of Runes
Improved Dwarf Mine
1 Tuber Garden
2 Apiaries
4 Mushroom Patches
Outer Wall
Iron Gate
Escape Tunnel
Outpost at Khul-Dothar (Upperdeep 31)Outer Wall
2 Murder Holes[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Armies]Here, place a record of all your units and their current location (at the BEGINNING of the week - not their destination for that week!), including Infiltrated units not marked on the map. Remember to include any new units you recruited this turn, as well. Leave a space between armies in different locations. Fungoid players may wish to note Lifespans here for reference.
It is very important to note
starting unit locations here, not just unit numbers, and not the destinations of your units.
Example:
Thane Ragnar Thundershield – Garrisoned at Thundershield Clanhold (Upperdeep 28)
2 Dwarf Cannoneers – Garrisoned at Thundershield Clanhold (Upperdeep 28)
10 Dwarf Ironbound – Garrisoned at Thundershield Clanhold (Upperdeep 28)
Thori Thundershield, Captain of Khul-Dothar (Dwarf Ironbound) – Garrisoned at the Outpost at Khul-Dothar (Upperdeep 31)
9 Dwarf Ironbound – Garrisoned at the Outpost at Khul-Dothar (Upperdeep 31)
15 Dwarf Riflemen – Garrisoned at the Outpost at Khul-Dothar (Upperdeep 31)[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Characters]Here, record the current statistics of your leader and any Captains and Commanders, along with any magical items he or she might possess.
Example:
[ic=Ragnar Thundershield]
Melee Attack: +8
Melee Damage: 8
Defence: 23
Health: 25
Speed: 3
Morale: +8
Special Abilities: Leadership, Grudge (choose one: Orc, Goblin, Troll, Ogre, Dark Elf, Kobold, Duergar, Fungoid)
Inventory: Ring of Protection (+1 Defence)
Ragnar increases the Defence and Morale of any army he is leading by +1. If garrisoned in a Dungeon he increases the Defence and Morale of garrisoned troops by +1. His Grudge ability applies to all units in the specific regiment he leads.[/ic]
[ic=Thori Thundershield]
Melee Attack: +4
Melee Damage: 6
Defence: 21
Health: 15
Speed: 2
Morale: +4
Special Abilities: Leadership
Inventory: -[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Trade]Note any and all impending trades with other players in this tab.[/spoiler][spoiler=Orders]Here, list any orders you wish to give your units. This includes movement, attacking, and any other orders you can conceive of. Remember to always include unit numbers, locations, and Speed spent in your orders. Any spells you wish to cast, abilities you wish to use, or other "things units can do" should go here. When in doubt, post it to orders.
Do NOT include recruitment or construction in Orders. That's what the other tabs are for!
Example:
Spend 1 Speed to move 2 Dwarf Cannoneers from Upperdeep 28 to Upperdeep 31 and spend 1 Speed to garrison at the Outpost at Khul-Dothar.
Spend 2 Speed to move 10 Dwarf Ironbound led by Ragnar Thundershield from Upperdeep 28 to Upperdeep 26 with orders to hold the bridge against the Orcs at all costs, withdrawing immediately to the Thundershield Clanhold only if outnumbered 2:1 or more.[/spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler=The First Turn]
The First Turn
A few details of the first turn of the game need to be clarified to prevent confusion.
1) You don't have to pay Upkeep for any units on the first turn.
2) The production structures included in your "Starting Dungeon" package do not produce resources in the first turn (these are assumed to be part of your "Starting Resources" package).
3) Any other production structures you built (to completion, of course) with your "Starting Resources" package
do produce resources.
4) Any bonus resources you would get from local Mushroom Forests (+25 Food), Crystals (+20 Gold), or Pools (+10 Food)
are added to your resources on the first turn.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Abilities]
Abilities
[ic=Animosity]Units with the Animosity ability must quench their bloodlust one way or another. For each week that they don't participate in a battle, they gain a temporary +1 bonus to their attack and damage statistics the following week. However, they must also make a Morale check (DC 10+1/week they've spent without a battle) at the start of the week. If they fail, they make an attack against themselves: roll a single attack against their own Defence and then calculate damage and casualties. Single units who fail such a check attack other friendly regiments. If a single unit is the only unit in a given territory it deserts, becoming a wandering monster.[/ic]
[ic=Assassinate]Units with this ability can target specific enemy units (not just regiments) if infiltrated, and can even infiltrate enemy Dungeons and Outposts. To circumvent defences they must make an attack roll that
exceeds the walls'/doors' Defence scores, though they must still face any traps; they could also be let in by a tunneling unit. If they fail to bypass enemy defences, their assassination for that week fails. If they fail by 10 or more, they are seen by enemy units, and any ranged defenders garrisoned can make an attack against the assassin.
Once they've infiltrated an enemy camp, Outpost, or Dungeon, the assassin selects his or her target and makes a single surprise attack against them. If the initial surprise attack succeeds and the target is killed, the assassin can elect to immediately disengage to the nearest territory. If it fails, the assassin is revealed and must fight. In the first round after being revealed the assassin only fights their target; in subsequent rounds, they must fight the entire army stationed with the leader.
In regular battles in which assassins are part of a larger army, assassins can target specific units within enemy regiments.[/ic]
[ic=Cavalry]Cavalry units get +2 to their first melee attack in a battle, even if they'd previously made ranged attacks or cast spells.[/ic]
[ic=Climbing]Climbing units ignore walls just as Flying units do. They can crawl up or down Chasms to different layers of the Underdeep if the Chasms are continuous. They ignore magma pools and water as well (at least while underground – crossing river on the Surface is another matter). They are still impeded by mushroom forests, and cannot cross over bridgeless Chasms without descending to the bottom of them and then crawling up the other side.[/ic]
[ic=Construct]These units are mechanical or otherwise artificial. They ignore psychic attacks, poison, disease, mind-influencing effects and spells such as Agony, Confusion, Dominate, Frenzy, or Distraction, and never make Morale checks, always fighting till destroyed (they lack the judgment necessary to withdraw). They can still be fooled by illusions. Constructs can be healed by expending 1 Metal per point of Health, or 1 Body per point of Health in the case of Brain Golems, Flesh Golems, and other organic Golems. Units with the Repair ability make this twice as effective.
Constructs cannot use the Forced March movement action.[/ic]
[ic=Create Spawn]Those killed by a unit that can create spawn rise from the dead as units of the indicated type after the battle resolves (not during). If the army whose units created the spawn was destroyed or fled, the victorious army can elect to burn, decapitate, or otherwise disable the spawn before they rise (they will do this unless specifically ordered not to). In this case, the spawn are not created, but any Bodies the victorious army might have harvested from the spawn are not gained. If specifically ordered not to dispose of friendly corpses in this manner, the spawn still rise, but the victorious army get one free attack against them before fighting them normally.[/ic]
[ic=Death Throes]A unit with the Death Throes ability that is killed in melee combat but that missed its own attack completely (dealing 0 damage) deals half of its melee damage to the regiment that destroyed it.[/ic]
[ic=Demolitions]Units with the Demolitions ability can plant explosives. Explosives can be used to blow bridges (4 charges), or destroy rooms and defences in Dungeons or Outposts that have been tunneled under (such structures gain the "Broken" condition - see more under Traps and Defences in the Dungeons & Outposts rules). Each unit with demolitions can place one charge for every 2 Speed, destroying exactly 1 room or trap or dealing 40 damage to a fortification. A tunnel needs to be completed for charges to be laid.[/ic]
[ic=Detector]Units with the Detector ability can automatically Detect infiltrated units. Detectors garrisoned in a Dungeon can also tell when tunnelers are digging underneath it (this does not directly stop the tunnelers, however).[/ic]
[ic=Disarm Traps]Units with the Disarm Traps ability can attempt to disable traps in enemy Dungeons, Outposts, and other situations. They make a Disarm Traps roll (1d20+ their listed Disarm bonus). The Trap then makes an attack roll. If the disarmer's roll beats the trap, the trap is disarmed. If the trap is not disarmed and hits the disarmer's Defence, they have sprung the trap and suffer damage. If the trap misses but the disarmer's roll is still less than its attack, the disarmer has failed to notice the trap and it is treated as normal, gaining attack rolls against attacking regiments until it goes off or until all enemy regiments have passed through unscathed.[/ic]
[ic=Discipline]Units with the Discipline ability never flee from combat. if they fail a morale check made to determine if they flee or withdraw from battle, they always withdraw.[/ic]
[ic=Disease]Diseased units spread terrible infections amongst enemy units. When a regiment is injured in melee by a unit with disease, that regiment becomes infected. The next week, if the infected regiment survived the battle, the Health of every unit in that regiment is lowered by 1. It is lowered by another point each additional week for a number of weeks equal to the Diseased creature's Disease score. If the regiment survives the disease, they return to full Health after it has run its course.
For example, say a regiment of Duergar Halberdiers (Health 8) fight a regiment of Zombies (Disease 2) and survive, either destroying the Zombies or withdrawing from combat. The week after their battle, their Health will be decreased by 1 to 7. The week after that, it will be reduced to 6. The week after that they will have suffered through the illness and return to 8 Health.
Certain spells, such as Bless, remove diseases, as does praying at shrines and temples of the appropriate deities.[/ic]
[ic=Double-Headed]Two-headed units are rare, but their multiple brains give them certain advantages. Double-headed units always roll twice to attack and take the higher result.[/ic]
[ic=Fear]When a regiment fights units that cause Fear, it must make a Morale check of the indicated DC or suffer -2 to hit. If multiple units have a different Fear DC, use the highest. This roll is made at the beginning of the battle by all regiments opposed to the Fearful army.[/ic]
[ic=Flyer]Flying units ignore terrain of all kinds and also ignore outer walls, palisades, and certain ground-based traps such as minefields or pits. Once inside a Dungeon they are still affected by other traps like Rockfall Traps, Poison Gas, Glyph Traps, etc. Ground-based units can make attacks against Flyers with a -4 penalty if the Flying unit is making ranged attacks, but the Flying ranged attacker is not considered "engaged" in the melee in the normal sense and can continue to make ranged attacks (only another Flying unit's melee attack can engage a Flying ranged attacker in this way). If the Flying unit is making melee attacks, this penalty is decreased to -2. Ranged attackers can fire on Flyers without penalty. Huge units and units with reach also attack Flyers without a penalty.[/ic]
[ic=Follower]Followers can be attached to regiments (including regiments with Leaders) but do not impart any special bonuses to them.[/ic]
[ic=Grudge]Some units bear grudges against units of particular races or types. Those who possess such hatreds get +2 to Attack and Damage against enemies of that type and +4 to Morale when enemies of that type are present on the battlefield.[/ic]
[ic=Huge]Huge units count as 8 units for the purposes of regiment-splitting in combats with more than two regiments in a single engagement. Huge creatures also often ignore certain types of terrain (see Movement and Terrain, below).
Huge units cannot be harmed by Pit Traps of any kind. They also never take a penalty against Flying units.[/ic]
[ic=Immunity]Units with Immunity from a certain damage type take no damage from attacks that deal that damage type.[/ic]
[ic=Infiltrator]Infiltrating units move about the map unseen, their position known only to the Game Master and their own owner. They can move directly through regions occupied by enemy troops (including caverns with Dungeons). If a unit ends its movement in a region where the infiltrating unit is located, and that unit has
not set an ambush, the infiltrating unit is discovered. Units with Detection also automatically discover infiltrating units they come into contact with, and Detectors who are Scouting a region also reveal any infiltrated units there. If a Faction has units entrenched in a region with a bridge, they are able to block non-flying infiltrating units from passing through that region.
Infiltrating units can attempt to move past Outposts and into Dungeons, but such attempts are risky. They must make an Attack roll and beat the Defence of any walls or doors present in the Dungeon or Outpost. If they
exceed the Defence of the walls/doors, they move past the Outpost undetected or into the enemy Dungeon undetected (they are still attacked by any traps present). They can choose to then attack the defenders without first breaching their walls/door, or (in the case of an Outpost) they can choose to continue moving if they have Speed remaining.
Infiltrating units can also set up ambushes. Setting up an ambush takes 2 Speed. Enemy units who pass through a region or end their movement in a region containing infiltrated units who have set up an ambush are attacked by the infiltrated ambushers, who get a free attack against them before combat formally begins. In the next round, the ambushers and enemy forces fight normally, though the ambushers may have been given orders to withdraw after this round concludes (the enemy still get at least one attack against ambushers, if they survived the initial sneak-attack).
Scry also reveals infiltrated units.
Note: Infiltrated units can pass through regions where other infiltrated units have set up an ambush without setting it off. Of course, if they end their movement in a a region containing enemy units - whether those units are infiltrated or not - they will be attacked, as per normal, and if an ambush has been prepared in that region, they will be ambushed. In the somewhat uncommon but amusing event that two separate regiments of infiltrators, hostile to one another, both attempt to enter a region and set up an ambush, they discover one another and engage in battle![/ic]
[ic=Large]Large units count as 4 units for the purposes of regiment-splitting in combats with more than two regiments in a single engagement.[/ic]
[ic=Leadership]Certain units – Captains, Commanders, and Generals – have the Leadership ability. This allows them to join a regiment and lead that regiment into battle. They can join any regiment they choose, but to join a Flying regiment they must have the Flying ability and to join a Cavalry regiment they must have the Cavalry ability. They can join an Infiltrating regiment, but if they do not have Infiltration the regiment temporarily loses Infiltration as well.
While attached to a regiment, a Leader generally imparts bonuses and abilities, listed in their description. For the purposes of combat, they are treated as part of the regiment, but calculate their attack and damage separately from the regiment. Enemy attackers who target the regiment treat the leader as a separate target that they also must engage, using the rules for regiment-splitting and multiple combatants.
For example, say that a Goblin King is leading a regiment of 10 Hobgoblin Warriors and is fighting a regiment of 20 Dark Elf Swordsmen. If the Dark Elf Swordsmen engage the Hobgoblins, they must also engage the Goblin King. Now, the Goblin King counts as a regiment of 1 for the purposes of regiment-splitting, so 2 Dark Elf Swordsmen (round up from 1.82) will engage the King and the remaining 18 will engage the rest of the Hobgoblin Warriors. As per the rules of multiple combatants, if the Dark Elves attacking the King were able to deal damage in excess of the King's Health, they would kill the King and deal additional damage against his regiment. The opposite also applies, so if the Goblin King could deal more than enough damage to kill both Dark Elves, the excess damage would affect additional Dark Elf Swordsmen.
If a regiment led by a Leader has to make a Morale check, it uses its Leader's Morale instead of its own.
Note that a Leader does not increase his or her own stats![/ic]
[ic=Poison]When a regiment with the Poison ability
exceeds an enemy's Defence when rolling to attack, all units in the attacking regiment immediately deal bonus Poison damage equal to the amount indicated.
So, for example, if a regiment of 10 Dark Elf Spider Cavalry (Poison 2) are fighting a regiment of Orc Raiders (Defence 14) and they get a 15 or higher on their attack, they deal an additional 20 (10 Riders x 2 Poison) damage to the Orcs. If they had scored a 14 or lower, they would not deal Poison damage.[/ic]
[ic=Reach]Units with Reach can attack Flying units and units on walls without penalty.[/ic]
[ic=Regeneration]Regenerating units heal a certain number of hit points per round of combat and return to full health immediately after combat ends (regular units return to full Health at the beginning of the week after the battle, but if subsequent battles took place, they are still injured). Regeneration has no effect on attacks that lower a unit's Health score (rather than dealing damage), such as Disease, or Sunlight damage in the case of Undead.[/ic]
[ic=Repair]Units with the Repair ability allow friendly Constructs in the same region to heal at double the normal rate (1 Metal for 2 Health or 1 Body for 2 Health for organic Constructs).[/ic]
[ic=Scout]Units with the Scout ability automatically Scout all regions adjacent to the one they end their move on without using any additional Speed.[/ic]
[ic=Teleporter]Teleporting units can move their Speed without traversing the intervening regions, allowing them to bypass enemy armies, defences, terrain, etc. They cannot teleport through walls. For example, a regiment of Hounds of Yuddarath (Speed 6) could teleport from Upperdeep 49 to Upperdeep 61, teleporting over the chasm and any enemy armies or Outposts in the way.[/ic]
[ic=Thieving]Thieving creatures know how to filch items and gold from enemies without their knowledge. Infiltrated thieving creatures that set an ambush can choose not to launch a sneak attack but to "pick the pockets" of enemy units. The Thieving regiment makes a single attack role against an enemy regiment. If they meet or exceed the defence of the enemy regiment, they gain Gold equal to the Gold Upkeep cost of the units in that regiment. Each Thieving unit can steal from only one enemy unit. Any items carried by members of the regiment are also stolen. Stolen Gold is not deducted from the Wealth of enemy factions (it represents the Gold spent on unit Upkeep during that week, and so has already been deducted), but the units stolen from suffer Morale penalties as if they had been unpaid.
A regiment of Thieving creatures can also target enemy Dungeons while infiltrated. They must make an attack roll to exceed the Defence of any Defences to gain entry into the Dungeon or Outpost they are targeting. If they succeed, they loot the Dungeon or Outpost for 1d10 Gold for each Thieving unit. Note that any traps present still target Thieving units as normal, but defenders do not.
If a Thieving regiment fails their "pickpocket check" by more than 10, they are instantly exposed and attacked by any enemy units present.[/ic]
[ic=Transport]Some units can transport large numbers of other units. Units can enter a transport freely, and if they do so, they gain the transport's Speed while they remain with it, though this Speed can only be used to move. Battles involving troops in transports assume that the transported troops disembark. The only exception is in ambushes. If the ambushing units can destroy the transport with their initial sneak attack, all units aboard the transport suffer the same amount of damage the transport did. If the initial sneak attack does not destroy the transport, troops disembark unharmed from the transport and attack as normal.
In the rare case of aerial battles in Chasm areas when enemy flyers attack a transport moving between levels of the Underdeep, ranged units can fire from a transport and spellcasters can cast spells, but melee units cannot attack while inside the transport. In this unusual situation, if a transport is destroyed, all units within it are lost as well.
Large units count as 4 for Transportation purposes. Huge units cannot be transported.
If units leave a transport before it completes its full move, they can still perform actions or move on their own provided they do not exceed their own Speed
or the total speed of the Transport. So, for example, if a Ceremorph Severed carrying 10 Ceremorph Psions and 1 Ceremorph Sentinel moved a total of 6 Speed and then unloaded its troops, the Psions would have 2 Speed remaining (their Speed is 4, but they can only use 2 of it, since the Severed's Speed is 8), while the Sentinel could only move 1 Speed.[/ic]
[ic=Trapmaking]Trapmakers can set up traps in any territory, even without a Dungeon or Outpost. Each trapmaker can work on up to one trap per week, but must be present for it to continue building. Traps with specific room prerequisites (such as a Dwarven Incinerator) cannot be built in the field.
Traps in Dungeons and traps in the region are considered distinct; you can build traps to their limit in both a Dungeon and the cavern outside. The same is not true of Outposts, however - traps in Outposts count to the total number of traps in a region.[/ic]
[ic=Tunneling]Tunneling units that have besieged an enemy Dungeon or Outpost (see Sieges in the section on Dungeons) can spend 3 Speed to dig a tunnel under enemy fortifications. In this case, all Defences and Traps are effectively bypassed during a subsequent attack on the Dungeon. Some special Dungeon walls take twice as long – 6 Speed – to dig through. If a unit doesn't have enough Speed to dig a tunnel but still has remaining Speed, they can begin the tunnel in one week and finish it in the next. If a Dungeon is impervious to tunneling, it can still be tunneled
under, at which point explosives can be set by those with the Demolitions ability.[/ic]
[ic=Undead]Undead units never have to make Morale checks, fighting till destroyed or until they are victorious (unlike Constructs, they can be ordered to deliberately withdraw). They are unaffected by disease, poison, cold damage, psychic damage, or mind-affecting spells. Hexes, Curses, Detection, Shield, and other magical effects affect them normally. They can still be fooled by illusions. Non-regenerating Undead do not heal injuries.
Most Undead have no Upkeep. Those with Upkeep, however, do starve if not paid their Body Upkeep, having their Health lowered by 1 per week their Upkeep isn't paid until destroyed or until their Upkeep is paid in full, at which point they regain the Health they lost immediately. Regeneration and healing spells cannot reverse this effect.
Undead creatures cannot stand the touch of sunlight. While other troops suffer Morale penalties if exposed to the sun, Undead begin to deteriorate. For each full week that an Undead unit spends on the Surface it loses 1 Health. It immediately recovers this lost health if it returns underground. Units that reach 0 Health due to this deterioration are destroyed completely. Regeneration and healing spells have no effect on sunlight-damage. Liches killed by sunlight still revivify with their Phylacteries.
Undead cannot use the Forced March movement action.[/ic]
[ic=Vanish]Creatures that can Vanish can only be hit while fleeing if their attackers have Detection.[/ic]
[ic=Vermin]Vermin have no Morale score and are unaffected by mind-influencing spells or psychic attacks. They are too stupid to withdraw in combat and fight to the death.[/ic]
[ic=Vulnerability]Units vulnerable to a certain form of damage take double damage from attacks of that type. Regenerating units with vulnerabilities cannot regenerate damage of the type they are vulnerable to, though they heal such damage eventually as regular units would.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Spells]
Spells
Unless otherwise noted, Spells do not stack. For more on casting spells in combat, see the Battle rules, below.
[ic=Agony (Combat, Mind-Influencing)]This spell wracks enemy units with pain. The caster targets an enemy regiment with a Ranged Attack roll, opposed by a Morale check. If the caster's roll exceeds the defender's Morale check, all members of the target regiment are wracked with pain for that round, suffering -2 to all Attack and Damage rolls.[/ic]
[ic=Bless (Utility)]This spell beseeches a deity or other power to bless a friendly target. This spell can be cast once per week. A single regiment becomes immune to disease and gains +2 to Morale for the week's duration.[/ic]
[ic=Blight (Combat, Utility)]This vile spell destroys vegetation, rapidly putrefying plant or fungal creatures. To use the spell in combat, the caster must hit a target regiment with a Ranged Attack roll. If they hit, they deal 4 damage to all Plant or Fungoid creatures in the regiment. The spell can also be cast once per week out of combat on Food-producing structures that generate mushrooms, lichens, and the like in an occupied dungeon, permanently destroying one such structure. Alternatively, in lieu of casting Blight on a structure, the spell can be cast on a patch of mushroom forest to remove all mushrooms from the region (they may, eventually, grow back). Using Blight in this way does not prevent it from being used in combat.[/ic]
[ic=Blinding Light]This spell creates a flash of bright light that dazzles and sometimes injures those who dwell Below. The caster must hit a target regiment's Defence with a Ranged Attack roll. If they hit, the regiment suffers -2 to Attack and Morale scores for one round. If they possess the Dazzled racial drawback then these penalties are doubled. If they possess Sunlight Vulnerability, all units in the regiment sustain 3 damage.[/ic]
[ic=Blood Boil (Combat)]This horrific spell causes the blood of enemies to boil in their veins. To use the spell, the caster must hit a targeted regiment's Defence with a Ranged attack. If they succeed, every unit in the regiment immediately sustains 2 Fire damage. Creatures without blood (Constructs, Skeletal Warriors, Fungoids, etc – DM's judgement) are unaffected.[/ic]
[ic=Chain Lightning (Combat)]This spell shocks enemies with eldritch lightning. To use the spell, the caster must hit a targeted regiment's Defence with a Ranged attack. If they succeed, they deal 1 Shock damage to every unit in that regiment and make another Ranged attack roll against another enemy regiment. If they hit the enemy's Defence the units in that regiment all 1 take 1 Shock damage as well, and the caster makes yet another Ranged attack against yet another enemy regiment. This continues until the caster misses; regiments can be hit more than once, but there must be at least two regiments present for the lightning to continue chaining.[/ic]
[ic=Confusion (Combat, Mind-Influencing)]This spell bewilders foes. The caster targets an enemy regiment with a Ranged Attack roll, opposed by a Morale check. If the caster's roll exceeds the defender's Morale check, the enemy unit must immediately roll 1d6; on a 1-2 they do nothing for a round but suffer -2 to Defence, on a 3-4 they attack a random unit (friendly or enemy), on a 5 they attack themselves, and on a 6 they flee. This condition persists for one combat round.[/ic]
[ic=Contagion (Combat)]This spell afflicts enemies with a rotting illness. The caster targets the enemy regiment with a Ranged attack roll. If they hit the enemy's Defence, the target regiment has contracted a disease of strength 6.[/ic]
[ic=Curse (Combat)]This spell curses enemy creatures with bad luck. The caster targets an enemy regiment with a Ranged Attack roll. If they hit the enemy's Defence, the target regiment has been cursed. They must reroll all Attack rolls and take the lower result in the round they were cursed.[/ic]
[ic=Disguise (Utility)]This spell allows a unit to change their physical appearance, potentially deceiving other creatures as to the being's identity. A Disguised unit can choose to appear on the map using a different Sigil if they wish (note this in Orders to the unit). Units with Detection can see through a Disguise.[/ic]
[ic=Dispel (Combat, Utility)]This spell negates other magical effects. Dispel can be cast during a combat round to remove any magical effects from a regiment or to counter any spells being cast on a regiment by enemies. It has others uses as well, such as the deactivation of certain traps or defences. Dispelled glyphs, runes, or other markings are permanently erased.[/ic]
[ic=Distraction (Combat, Mind-Influencing)]This annoying spell creates some sort of distraction – buzzing insects, hallucinations, or something similar – to distract enemies. To use it, the spellcaster makes a Ranged Attack roll which is opposed by the Morale check of a targeted regiment. If the attack roll exceeds the enemy's Morale check, the spell causes one enemy regiment to suffer -4 to all Attack rolls for that round.[/ic]
[ic=Dominate (Combat, Mind-Influencing)]This rare and powerful spell allows a caster to assume complete control over a single enemy unit. The caster makes a Ranged Attack roll, opposed to a single unit's Morale check. If the caster's roll exceeds the enemy's check, the caster gains control over the enemy creature immediately – including during the round it was Dominated. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to the amount the creature failed by. If the caster's attack doubled the unit's Morale check or more, the unit is Dominated on a more permanent basis. It gets a Morale check once per week to break the spell, opposed to another Ranged Attack roll by the Caster, but it must beat the caster's check completely to break free.
A unit that has passed its save vs. Dominate cannot be Dominated by the same caster for 1 week.[/ic]
[ic=Frenzy (Combat, Mind-Influencing)]Frenzied creatures attack with incredible ferocity. Frenzy can be cast during a combat round to give a single regiment +2 to Damage but -2 to Defence for that round. Frenzied units automatically pass all Morale checks made to flee or withdraw during the round they are Frenzied. They do not gain any Morale bonus to spells or psychic attacks.[/ic]
[ic=Haste (Utility)]Haste quickens friendly units. This spell can be cast once per week. A single regiment adds +4 to its Speed for one week.[/ic]
[ic=Hex (Combat)]Similar to a Curse, a Hex makes the target vulnerable. The caster targets an enemy regiment with a Ranged Attack roll. If they hit the enemy's Defence, the target regiment has been hexed. All units that attack the target this round roll their Attacks twice and take the higher result. Double-headed units roll three times.[/ic]
[ic=Illusory Duplicate (Utility)]This spell creates an illusory double of the target. Illusory Duplicate can be cast once per week on a single regiment. An illusory double of that regiment comes into being. This illusory regiment appears on the map (unless it is an Infiltrator) and seems, for all intents and purposes, to be real. If it is engaged in battle, it will be treated as a legitimate target, but if it sustains any damage it vanishes. Detection and Scrying reveal illusory units as illusions.
Only one illusory double of a unit can exist at a single time.[/ic]
[ic=Invisibility (Utility)]This spell cloaks an enemy unit from sight. Invisibility can be cast once per week on a single friendly regiment. That regiment gains the Infiltrator ability for one week. Detection and Scrying function normally, and the units are revealed if they attack as with normal Infiltrated units. This spell has no effect on units that already possess the Infiltrator ability. Detection and Scrying reveal Invisible units.[/ic]
[ic=Mindlink (Utility)]Once per week, you can link minds with one other being, temporarily sharing thoughts. A mindlink allows you to send and receive unlimited messages with a single player of your choice. You can only have a single mindlink active at one time.[/ic]
[ic=Necromantic Healing (Combat, Utility)]A surge of dark energy restores vitality to the Undead. This spell allows the caster to return any injured members of an Undead regiment to full Health. It can also be cast out of combat to heal any injured Undead units.[/ic]
[ic=Obfuscating Shroud (Combat)]This spell creates a haze or fog that makes ranged combat difficult and covers retreating units. When cast the spell imposes a -4 penalty on all ranged attacks made by either side for one round. During the round when an Obfuscating Shroud is cast, any fleeing units on either side cannot be hit.[/ic]
[ic=Petrify (Combat)]This spell transmutes flesh to stone. You must hit a single unit with a ranged attack. If your attack beats their Defence, the unit is turned to stone. This effect is permanent, but can be Dispelled. Large creatures have a +2 bonus to Defence against Petrify, while Huge units have a +4 bonus to Defence against it.[/ic]
[ic=Phase-Shift (Utility)]This spell allows the targeted regiment to phase in and out of reality. Phase-Shift can be cast once per week. The regiment targeted by Phase-Shift gains the Teleporter ability for one week.[/ic]
[ic=Poisonous Cloud (Combat)]This spell creates a toxic cloud over enemies. The spellcaster must make a Ranged Attack roll and hit or exceed a target regiment's Defence. If it hits, the spell creates a poisonous cloud over enemy units, temporarily reducing the Health of all units in an enemy regiment by 2 for one round. Multiple poisonous clouds do not stack.[/ic]
[ic=Rune Trap (Utility)]A Rune Trap can be graven once per week in any region and functions as a one-time use trap with +10 to hit, dealing 50 damage (fire, acid, or cold) to enemies if it hits. Units with Detection or accompanied by a unit with Detection bypass the trap without activating it. The Rune Trap can be Dispelled.[/ic]
[ic=Scry (Utility)]Scrying allows a spellcaster to spy on his enemies over a great distance. Scry can be cast once per week, though certain rooms or items may increase this number. The caster selects one region on any level of all four maps. All units – enemies, allies, infiltrated units, maturing units, wandering monsters, neutral units, and other creatures – are immediately revealed to the caster, along with any traps, defences, and other features present in the region. Scrying does not reveal resource amounts, but reveals everything else of note in the region.
Scry reveals the conditions of the region at the start of the week. It does not include units recruited in the region during the week, or who move into the region over the course of the week.[/ic]
[ic=Shield (Combat)]Shield protects a friendly regiment from damage. The caster selects a single friendly regiment as the target of the spell. A shielded regiment gains +3 to Defence for one round.[/ic]
[ic=Summon (Utility)]This spell, which can usually be cast once per week, allows a spellcaster to summon a single unit. The player must pay any appropriate costs. The type of unit summoned is indicated in parentheses in the spellcaster's entry.[/ic]
[ic=Ward (Utility)]Warded units are cloaked from Scrying and Detection and gain a +2 bonus to Defence and Morale against any magical attacks or mind-influencing effects, including ranged attacks that deal psychic damage. This spell can be cast once per week on a single friendly regiment. For one week, the regiment is immune to Detection and Scrying from all sources. This spell does not grant the Infiltration ability to units that don't already possess it.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Dungeons and Outposts]
Dungeons and Outposts
Dungeons are central to the game of Underdeep, providing troops, producing resources, defending your forces from enemies, and standing as symbols of your subterranean empire. Also important are Outposts – smaller, defensive bastions designed to protect choke-holds and guard your territory. Dungeons are built in the Underdeep regions known as caverns: the larger, open spaces on the map, often filled with mushrooms, crystals, magma pools, lakes, ruinous cities, and similar features. Outposts are built in the regions known as corridors: the narrower, winding tunnels that connect caverns together. A few regions might seem ambiguous – in this case, check with the DM as to whether they're a cavern or corridor. Dungeons can contain Rooms, Traps, and Defences; Outposts can only contain Traps and Defences.
All players in Underdeep begin the game with a single Dungeon, called their capitol. This will be their center of operations, containing their headquarters, a unique structure that cannot be built in any other Dungeon. As the game progresses, players can capture enemy Dungeons and Outposts or found new Dungeons and Outposts of their own. They can also attempt to re-inhabit old ruins, if they wish. The rules in this section will provide players with everything they need to know to build rooms, traps, and defences in their Dungeon, found new Dungeons, and colonize the Dungeons of others. Rules for sieges and Dungeon assaults are covered in the Battle rules, below.
[ic=Building Rooms]Dungeon features, as a whole, are called structures. The most important structures in a Dungeon are called Rooms, which include everything from production structures like mines and mushroom patches to recruitment structures to shrines to marketplaces. Much of your time in Underdeep will be spent deciding which Rooms to build, and where.
No Dungeon can ever contain more than 50 Rooms. HQ structures and add-ons (anything with an HQ structure as its prerequisite) do not count to this total. Traps and defences do not count either.
Every Race has their Rooms list, located under their list of Units. You can build any of the Rooms on this list in a Dungeon (
not an Outpost) that you control, even a captured enemy Dungeon – so, for example, if your Kobolds capture a Goblin Dungeon, you could build Kobold Rooms there, not Goblin ones. Room-building follows only a few simple rules; most of these rules are, to my mind, fairly intuitive and common-sense, but in case of any confusion, here they are:
1) You can build any number of Rooms at a time. There is no "building queue" for Rooms.
2) You can build one Room of each type in each Dungeon you control, unless otherwise noted in the Rooms description – so, for example, most Food-production Rooms are "Unlimited," meaning you can build as many of them as you like.
3) You must have all the necessary resources to construct a Room in order to begin construction: you can't spread out payments over the Room's construction time.
4) You must have all prerequisite Rooms already complete before beginning construction on a Room with prerequisites. However, note that if you complete a prerequisite Room, you can immediately begin construction on the Room for which it was a prerequisite. So, for example, if you want to build an Artificer's Hall, which has a Hall of Gears as its prerequisite, you can begin construction immediately as the Hall of Gears finishes, provided you have the funds for the Artificer's Hall.
5) Prerequisite Rooms must be located in the same Dungeon as the Room they are a prerequisite for. So, in the above example, if the Dwarf player had a Hall of Gears in one Clanhold but not another, he could build his Artificer's Hall in the Clanhold with the Hall of Gears, but not in the Clanhold without the Hall of Gears.
6) Once you begin construction on a Room, make a note of it, along with its costs and construction time remaining, in your "Construction" tab of your Orders post. So, for example, if you are beginning construction on a Duergar Armoury (Construction time of 2 weeks), you would put "Duergar Armoury: -35 Gold, -20 Metal, 2 weeks remaining" under your "Beginning Construction" heading under your Construction tab (see Orders, above, for more on these tabs and how to organize your Rooms and Dungeons).
7) Once you've paid for a Room – again, such payments must be "up front" and cannot be spread out – the Room simply continues construction until complete. After the first week of construction passes, move the Room from the "Beginning Construction" heading to your "Under Construction" heading in your Construction tab. Remember to deduct one week from the construction time for each week that has passed. So, for example, the Duergar player from the example above would write "Duergar Armoury: 1 week remaining" on the week after he or she began construction.
8) As soon as a building's construction time is complete, it can be used immediately. If it produces resources, it immediately begins doing so, if it can recruit units, it can be used to do so immediately, etc.[/ic]
[ic=Building Traps and Defences]Traps and Defences are built exactly as rooms are, but make sure to note the limit on the number of a particular Trap or Defence you are allowed per Dungeon or Outpost (or, for those with Trapmakers, in a particular region). These limits are there to ensure that players don't build hundreds of outer walls or dozens of pits, making their Dungeons ludicrously impregnable.
Also, make sure to note if a Trap or Defence replaces a similar Trap of Defence: many Traps and Defences are actually upgrades to pre-existing structures. This is always noted in the Trap or Defence's description.
Traps and Defences become operational as soon as their construction time is complete.
Most Traps are reset after every battle automatically (certain traps are one-use only; this is always noted in the Trap's description). Defences that are reduced to 0 Health during a Dungeon assault gain the "Broken" condition, which should be noted in your "Dungeons and Outposts" tab under your Orders. Broken Defences can be repaired for 50% of their original cost. Repairs take 1 week to complete, no matter their original construction time.
Demolitions can also give the Broken condition to Rooms and Traps. The same rules for repairs apply. Broken structures with no cost (like headquarters structures found in capitols) are simply repaired for free after 1 week.[/ic]
[ic=Canceling Structures]A structure can be canceled at any time while it's still being constructed. All funds spent on the structure are refunded. Once completed, structures cannot be dismantled to gain resources back.
Note that if an enemy faction takes control of a Dungeon with incomplete structures, they gain control of those structures. They can choose to let those structures complete construction, or they can cancel them and gain the refund. For this reason, it may be wise in some instances to include orders to cancel the construction of certain structures in the event of any attack.[/ic]
[ic=Production Structures]Production structures generally come in three broad varieties: mines, which generate Gold and Metal, farms and similar Rooms that produce Food or Bodies, and trade structures which produce additional Gold or act as marketplaces for the conversion of certain goods (such as slaves) into Gold.
Mines (and Undead Bonegardens) are always linked to finite deposits of resources (usually Gold and Metal, though especially lucky miners may occasionally uncover other strange resources). Dwarves and Duergar, who possess the "Miners of Great Skill" ability, always know the size of any deposits in regions they have a Dungeon in. All other races do not know the size of their deposits, and will eventually be informed that their mine (or Bonegarden) has run dry. Upgraded mines – Improved Mines and Complexes – mine greater amounts of Gold and Metal, which means that they exhaust deposits faster than smaller mines. The fact that deposits are finite means that every player will eventually need to expand if they wish to perpetuate their empire. Some Deposits will be very rich in Gold, others in Metal, others still in both.
A depleted deposit can still produce a small trickle of resources. Such deposits, if mined, produce a meager 20 Gold and 2 Metal every week, no matter the size or complexity of the mine attached to them, or any other factors (like the presence of Dwarf Engineers).
Very, very rarely, miners in a Dungeon may discover a fresh vein of Gold or Metal unexpectedly in a deposit they thought had been mined dry. Even Dwarves and Duergar cannot predict such windfall.
Other production structures are more "renewable" than mines, and generate resources every week that never become depleted.
Production structures begin producing immediately upon being constructed. All production is carried out before Upkeep costs and any Construction or Recruitment costs are incurred. Production should be noted under the "Production" tab of your Orders.[/ic]
[ic=Recruitment Structures]Some structures are used for the recruitment of units. Once a recruitment Room is completed it can immediately be used to begin recruiting units. It only allows the recruitment of units in the Dungeon in which it is located. Units recruited at a Dungeon can be given orders immediately. They are considered garrisoned in the Dungeon in which they were produced. Newly recruited units do not incur Upkeep costs immediately: the first Upkeep payment is incurred in the week after they were initially recruited.
So, for example, if a Dark Elf player builds Web Caverns (construction time of 3 weeks) – beginning construction in week 1 and thus completing construction at the beginning of week 4 – he or she could immediately recruit a War Spider (in week 4) provided he or she has the funds (35 Gold). He or she could give orders to the War Spider during week 4, but the War Spider would not incur its 7 Food Upkeep cost until week 5.[/ic]
[ic=Founding New Dungeons and Outposts]Eventually, you will want to build new Dungeons and Outposts to expand your territory and protect it from invaders. To found a new Dungeon or Outpost, you must have troops stationed in the region you wish to found it in. Founding a new Dungeon costs 100 Gold (or 60 Bodies for a Fungoid player); founding an Outpost costs 50 Gold (or 30 Bodies for a Fungoid player). In either case, laying the foundations for a new Dungeon or Outpost takes 1 week. After this week has elapsed, your forces can depart from the region if they wish: the Dungeon or Outpost has now been officially founded. Once a Dungeon or Outpost has been founded you can immediately begin construction on Rooms (if it's a Dungeon) and/or on Traps and Defences (either in a Dungeon or an Outpost).
Dungeons and Outposts that come under attack during their construction are aborted if the player doing the founding is defeated in battle.
There can only be one Dungeon or Outpost per region. The only exception is with ruins (see Re-inhabiting Ruins, below), and if two Dungeons or Outposts are established on either side of a region containing a chasm but lacking a bridge, which is permissible.
When you found a new Dungeon or Outpost, you must appoint a Commander (for a Dungeon) or a Captain (for an Outpost) – see below.
Note: you cannot found a Dungeon or Outpost on the Surface.[/ic]
[ic=Capturing Enemy Dungeons and Outposts]Players can also capture the Dungeons and Outposts of their enemies. If they successfully capture a Dungeon or Outpost (see Dungeon Defence in the Battle rules below), they gain control of all of its structures.
When you capture an enemy Dungeon you can use:
- Its production structures, including its mines and all other production Rooms.
- Any Traps and Defences
without prerequisites (for example, Murder Holes or Pits).
- Teleportation Circles.
- Arcane Libraries/Memory Wombs/Studies –
if your leader is a Spellcaster (Liches, Matriarchs, etc).
You cannot use:
- Its recruitment buildings –
unless you're of the same race as the previous owners.
- It's HQ structure i.e. Thane's Hall, Hall of the Goblin King, etc (except for spell rooms like the Lich's study) in a capitol, even if you're of the same race.
- Its Trade structures like Hall of Trade or Slave Market -
unless your rooms list also includes these structures (so Duergar could use a Dwarf Hall of Trade, for example).
- Its Armouries - again
unless you're a member of the same race.
- Its Shrines -
unless you're the same religion as the previous owners (i.e. Kirr Dark Elves couldn't use a regular Dark Elf Shrine).
- Traps and Defences with specific Prerequisites (for example, Dwarf Cannon Batteries).
You also cannot build any new Rooms, Traps, or Defences from the original owner's list - any additional structures you build have to be from your own list. This means that if you capture a Dwarf Mine as Goblins, for example, you can't build an Improved Dwarf Mine (though if you wanted to I'd let you build an Improved Goblin Mine to replace it).
When you capture a new Dungeon or Outpost, you must appoint a Commander (for a Dungeon) or a Captain (for an Outpost) – see below.[/ic]
[ic=Re-inhabiting Ruins]Ruins can be re-inhabited by your forces and renovated into functioning Dungeons once again. Re-inhabiting an old Dungeon is exactly the same as founding a new Dungeon except that the initial cost of 100 Gold and the week's wait are waived. There may even be pre-existing Rooms or Defences in the ruin that you can assume control of. However, ruins are frequently the lairs of monsters and may contain traps; your troops must first clear the ruins of any squatters before re-inhabiting the ruin.
If a ruin is in the same space as a player's Dungeon, they can exceed the normal 1 Dungeon per cavern limit. They can even build an additional mine in the Dungeon, breaking the normal "one mine per deposit" rule. Of course, having multiple mines on the same deposit will only deplete it faster.
When you re-inhabit a ruin, you must appoint a Commander (for a Dungeon) or a Captain (for an Outpost) – see below.[/ic]
[ic=Commanders and Captains]When you found a new Dungeon or Outpost, capture an enemy's, or re-inhabit a ruin, the new Dungeon or Outpost must be given into the care of a Commander (for a Dungeon) or a Captain (for an Outpost). This happens after the 1 week construction time in the case of new Dungeons. This is accomplished by promoting one of the units in the region containing the Dungeon or Outpost. The unit in question must be given a name and a brief back-story; perhaps they are kindred to the Faction's leader, or they are a trusted officer being rewarded for their service. Commanders and Captains immediately gain the Leadership ability. Fungoid Commanders and Captains lose their Lifespan, surviving indefinitely (if later demoted, their Lifespan resumes). Commanders and Captains have no Upkeep cost, and are assumed to be paid and fed out of the same special reserves as your leader. You don't have to pay the Upkeep costs of a Commander or Captain in the turn they're promoted.
Commanders also gain +10 Health and +2 to all Attack, Damage, Defence, and Morale characteristics (Melee or Ranged, if they possess a Ranged attack). Troops garrisoned in a Dungeon with a Commander gain +1 Morale. Undead Commanders impart +1 Health to other Undead units instead.
Captains gain +5 Health and +1 to all Attack, Damage, Defence, and Morale characteristics. Troops garrisoned in an Outpost with a Captain gain +1 Morale. Undead Captains impart +1 Health to other Undead units instead.
Commanders and Captains should be garrisoned in their Dungeon or Outpost. They should not leave this garrison unless the Dungeon or Outpost is conquered and they escape, or in times of extreme crisis. Ultimately no concrete rule binds a Commander or Captain to their Dungeon or Outpost, but they should only leave their post under unusual circumstances.
If you feel that no unit in the region containing the new Dungeon qualifies to be made Commander or Captain – perhaps your current army consists entirely of Tunnel Hulks or Iron Golems – you can appoint another unit elsewhere as Commander or Captain. In this case, the new Commander or Captain should travel immediately to their new Dungeon or Outpost. If no appropriate units can be found in your entire army anywhere on the map, the Dungeon or Outpost must do without a Commander or Captain until a suitable individual can be assigned to the post.
If a Commander or Captain is killed but their Dungeon or Outpost remains in your possession, a replacement must be appointed, preferably from the ranks of those units garrisoned at the Dungeon or Outpost. if you are dissatisfied with a Commander or Captain you can choose to demote them and replace them with a different unit. They lose all of their bonuses and Leadership abilities if you do so.[/ic]
[ic=Building Bridges]Bridges are constructed similarly to Dungeons or Outposts, taking 1 week and costing 75 Gold and 50 Metal. If enemy units hold one side of the bridge, it cannot be constructed.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Units]
Units
Units are used to carry out almost any order you give in Underdeep. They vary wildly in power, quantity, type, and ability, and so a thorough understanding of how your various creatures act and interact is vital. A full compendium of both unit Abilities and Spells can be found above. These rules explain how to recruit, maintain, and give orders to units.
It is important to realize that while you give orders to units, you do not directly control them. You play as a leader or general, a Dwarven Thane, Goblin King, Ceremorph Overbrain, etc. Your units are usually loyal to you and will do their best to carry out your orders, but sometimes they do unexpected things. They are characters in and of themselves and may have opinions, fears, and desires of their own. Bear this in mind as you play, and while you should generally expect your units to do as they're told, don't be too surprised if occasionally they don't follow out your orders to the letter.
[ic=Recruiting Units]Recruiting units is very simple. You recruit units at Dungeons, and in order to recruit a unit, you must possess its prerequisite structures in the specific Dungeon they were recruited at. To recruit a unit, you must immediately pay its costs, in full. You do not have to pay its Upkeep during the first week it is recruited: Upkeep only comes into play after one week following a unit's recruitment. Units are recruited instantly, with one major exception – Fungoids, which have a maturation time (explained in the Fungoid rules).
Newly recruited units should be noted, with their costs, in the Recruitment tab of your Orders. They should be recorded a second time along with other units in the Armies tab. Their numbers, type, location, and current state (garrisoned, entrenched, diseased, etc) should be noted here as well.
Newly recruited units can act immediately. They are automatically garrisoned in the Dungeon in which they were recruited.[/ic]
[ic=Grouping Units]Units are organized into two types of group: armies and regiments. Armies consist of all regiments garrisoned in a given Dungeon or Outpost, or located in a region together. Armies can be split and divided as you wish – they are not bound together but can be ordered as you please into different regions, at which point they become distinct armies.
Example:
20 Orc Raiders and 10 Orc Axe-Throwers are stationed in Upperdeep 10. Because they share a region, these units are considered a single army. The Orc Warlord orders the Axe-Throwers to remain in Upperdeep 10 but sends the Raiders to Upperdeep 15. At this point the two regiments become two armies, one in Upperdeep 10 and the other moving to Upperdeep 15.
Regiments consist of groups of units of the same type (and sometimes an attached Leader – see the Leadership ability, above). Regiments consist of up to 50 individual units. At 50 or 51 units (your choice), the regiment is split into two regiments of 25 each or 25 and 26.
Example 1:
53 Dark Elf Swordsmen are garrisoned in a Dungeon. Instead of forming one regiment of 50 Swordsmen and one of 3 Swordsmen, the Dark Elves form two regiments, one of 26 Swordsmen and one of 27 Swordsmen.
Example 2:
75 Goblin Grunts are stationed in a region. Instead of forming one regiment of 50 Grunts and one of 25 Grunts, they would be split into two regiments, one of 37 Grunts and one of 38 Grunts.
Example 3:
103 Dwarven Axemen are garrisoned at an Outpost. Instead of forming two regiments of 50 each and one of 3, the Axemen are split into regiments of 25, 26, 26, and 26 Axemen.
Being absolutely exact about splitting regiments isn't vitally important, but consider the above rules definite guidelines – you can't decide to have 10 regiments of 5 units each, for example!
Large and Huge units of the same type form regiments exactly as normal-sized units do. Spellcasters likewise form regiments if they're of the same type.
You can still split up regiments if you need to send some units to different regions. So, in the Orc example above, if the Warlord wanted to leave 5 of the Raiders with his Axe-Throwers (or whatever), that would be quite possible. Like armies, regiments are not "bound" together or stuck in one formation; regimentation is simply a way of organizing troops to facilitate combat.[/ic]
[ic=Upkeep]With some exceptions – notably many Undead units – units incur Upkeep costs. These costs are incurred every turn, and vary from unit to unit. Upkeep
must be paid if you are able to pay it: you cannot withhold Upkeep to pay for additional defences or units, for example. Upkeep costs are deducted from your total Wealth after your production structures generate resources, hopefully ameliorating any cash-flow issues.
There may be circumstances in which you cannot pay a unit's Upkeep – perhaps your mine was captured or your mushroom farms were blown up (or maybe you just planned your army poorly). Several things can happen at this point.
1) If the unpaid Upkeep was Gold, your units suffer a cumulative -1 to Morale for each week they go unpaid. So, for example, if a Dark Elf Crossbowman (2 Gold Upkeep, +2 Morale under normal conditions) isn't paid her Gold Upkeep, her Morale bonus will drop to +1 the first week she goes unpaid, +0 the second week, -1 the third week, etc.
If a unit's Morale bonus ever drops a number of points below zero equal to their normal Morale bonus, they must immediately make a DC 10 Morale check or desert, becoming wandering monsters and fleeing to the nearest unoccupied region. So, in the above example, if the Corssbowman's Morale dropped to -2, she would have to pass a DC 10 Morale check (with a -2 modifier, of course!) or immediately desert. Desertion checks continue for each week the Unit remains unpaid.
To restore a unit's Morale, it must be paid all Gold Upkeep owing it in full. Its Morale continues to drop until all owing Gold Upkeep is repaid; paying part of this Gold Upkeep does
not improve its Morale correspondingly.
2) If the unpaid Upkeep is Metal, the unit's weapons begin to deteriorate. For each week of unpaid Metal Upkeep the unit suffers a cumulative -1 penalty to all Attacks. So, for example, if a Dwarf Rifleman (1 Metal Upkeep, +4 Ranged Attack, +2 Melee Attack) isn't paid his Metal Upkeep, his Attacks drop to +3 and +1 the first week, +2 and +0 the second week, etc. This continues until the Metal Upkeep owing is paid in full. Again, partially paying Upkeep owed does
not restore part of the penalty. Metal Upkeep can represent ammunition, spare parts, replacement weapons, and similar gear.
3) If the unpaid Upkeep is in Food or Bodies, the unit begins to starve. They not only suffer a Morale penalty exactly as if their Gold Upkeep were paid, they have their Health lowered by 1 for each full week they go without being fed. Healing and Regeneration have no effect on this. As with all other forms of Upkeep, Food and Bodies owing must be repaid in full to remove penalties and restore a unit to full Health. Units whose Morale is lowered due to starvation must also make desertion checks as with unpaid Gold Upkeep.
4) Constructs whose Upkeep isn't paid – whatever form it takes – immediately come to a full halt and cannot move, attack, or otherwise function until its Upkeep is paid in full. Having no Morale scores, they never desert.
Note: Units make Morale checks for desertion and suffer Upkeep penalties
individually, not as a regiment. This is because it's quite possible that some members of a regiment may be paid/fed/maintained and others not. In this case, they will be treated distinctly in battle for Morale checks etc but will still be considered part of the same regiment for targeting purposes and the like.[/ic]
[ic=Ordering Units]Units can be given orders of any complexity you like. They can be told to move, attack, entrench themselves, scout, forage, cast spells – any number of actions, many of which are described below in Movement or Battle rules. Do not feel limited by these actions, however, and feel free to give your units unusual orders. The DM will figure out any relevant Speed requirements for unorthodox or creative actions. Some units, of course, may not be capable of certain actions: only units with the Tunneling ability can dig tunnels, only Infiltrators can set up ambushes, etc.[/ic]
[ic=Dissmissing Units]Very occasionally, you may wish to dismiss units from your service. You can do so at any time. Dismissed units are removed from your Army list and no longer incur Upkeep. However, beware dismissing units with unpaid Gold Upkeep. Such units have a nasty tendency to turn to banditry or even to join the enemies of their former masters. Dismissed units may also show up later as mercenaries, hiring themselves out to other armies; a dismissed Dark Elf Assassin, for example, might decide to offer its services to an Orc Warlord or Duergar Despot. Once you've dismissed a unit, of course, you lose control of that unit permanently. You can sometimes hire back specific units you've dismissed, but they may be wary of joining your forces given their dismissal.[/ic]
[ic=Hiring Mercenaries]Mercenaries of a variety of races roam the Underdeep selling their services to the highest bidder. Such mercenaries often have much in common with Adventurers, but are willing to enter the service of the less savoury races (some may still have particular prejudices – Duergar mercenaries would never let themselves be hired by Ceremorphs, for example).
Mercenaries companies may approach you, or you may be informed of their presence in or near your territory and may approach them yourself. They tend to be expensive and charge especially high amounts of Upkeep, and generally expect to be fed as well as paid. However, mercenary units often have abilities that your own units may lack, including unique abilities not available to the units of other races. For this reason they can be an excellent investment. Hired mercenaries instantly come under your control just as if they were recruited.
If mercenaries aren't paid their Upkeep in full every week, they immediately desert without any Morale check.
Mercenaries are often attracted to wealthy empires. Those with stockpiled Gold (who choose not to spend all of their income every turn) are often approached by mercenaries seeking to hire themselves out.
Mercenaries can also be paid upfront for a certain contracted period, at an amount negotiated by you and the mercenary leader, in which case you don't need to pay their weekly Upkeep while the contract remains. They may charge a premium for such contracts. When such contracts expire the mercenaries may decide to leave your service or may offer to remain in it provided you pay their Upkeep every week.[/ic][/spoiler]
[spoiler=Movement and Terrain]
Movement and Terrain
Movement
During a unit's turn it can move a number of regions equal to its Speed. There are a number of actions, however, that use up Speed.
If a unit simply lacks sufficient Speed to move through terrain, it needs to find a way to get its Speed increased (like a Haste spell or Forced March) or it just can't traverse the terrain - it'd get swept away in a river, too clumsy for mountains, etc.
Outposts block the movement of enemies and wandering monsters - corridors are too narrow to traverse if an outpost blocks the path. Caverns, however, are vast and spacious, and so Dungeons do not impede enemy movement, unless you have units entrenched in your Dungeon's cavern.
Moving between levels (except if using chasms - see terrain below) uses no additional Speed - regions connected by a cave entrance are considered adjacent.
[ic=Setting Up an Ambush]Only Infiltrator units can use this action, which takes 2 Speed unless otherwise noted. See the Infiltrator ability for details.[/ic]
[ic=Scouting]An entire regiment can use 1 of its collective Speed (i.e. the entire regiment uses 1 Speed/unit) to scout a neighbouring region. Scouting reveals the numbers and types of any enemy troops, the quality of any defences, and any other significant features of the region. Infiltrated troops are not revealed (unless you possess a Detector), nor are traps or other hidden features.
Note: Scouting a region is
not considered moving into it. Thus, sneak-attacks and traps are not activated, battle is not joined with enemy troops encamped in the region, wandering monsters in the scouted region are not encountered, and features like magma and other hazards do not affect the scouts. You might think of Scouting as similar to a short-range Scry (see Spells, above) that doesn't reveal hidden features like infiltrated units or traps.[/ic]
[ic=Fishing]Use 2 Speed to fish for 1 Food per unit, provided you're in a region with water. You can spend more Speed to fish for additional Food. Remember to calculate amounts
per unit – 10 Goblin Grunts who spend all 4 of their Speed fishing would thus come away with 20 Food total. Garrisoned or entrenched units cannot fish.[/ic]
[ic=Foraging]Use 1 Speed to gather 1 Food, provided you're in a region with a mushroom forest. You can spend more Speed to forage more Food. Remember to calculate amounts
per unit – 20 Dwarven Axemen who spend 2 Speed each Foraging come away with a glorious 40 Food total. Garrisoned or entrenched units cannot forage.[/ic]
[ic=Entrenching]An entire regiment can use 1 of its collective Speed (i.e. the entire regiment uses 1 Speed/unit) to take up a defensive position, perhaps digging trenches or setting up other fortifications. Entrenched troops gain +1 Defence. You can entrench troops outside of a Dungeon or Outpost if you wish – in this case, they are encamped outside the Dungeon walls instead of being positioned within it.
Once entrenched, units remain entrenched until given additional orders. If told to do something that breaks entrenchment - foraging, fishing, investigating a ruin, moving, scouting, etc - you must use 1 Speed to re-entrench a regiment.
Units entrenched in a territory with an enemy Dungeon or Outpost have besieged it. You can choose to assault a Dungeon or Outpost instead of besieging it (see the Battle rules, below). Non-garrisoned defenders in the region attack you as normal, and garrisoned defenders can later choose to charge forth and attempt to break the siege on subsequent turns, if they wish.[/ic]
[ic=Garrisoning]Use 1 Speed to garrison a friendly Dungeon or Outpost. Garrisoned troops gain +1 Defence and can't be attacked until all Defences are breached, though ranged troops and spellcasters can still attack enemy units with impunity. Note that
leaving a Dungeon doesn't use extra Speed.[/ic]
[ic=Tunneling]See the Tunneling ability for details.[/ic]
[ic=Setting Demolition Charges]See the Demolitions ability for details.[/ic]
[ic=Investigating]A unit can use 1 Speed investigating a ruin or other Underdeep feature. If there are hostile creatures in the ruin, they will automatically engage them in battle unless given explicit orders to withdraw.[/ic]
[ic=Fording a River]Use 2 Speed to ford a river or traverse a lake (your units build boats if necessary). The Darksea takes 4 Speed to traverse, and can take multiple turns to navigate, except for Amphibious units like Watchers, who treat it as a single region. Bridges, of course, can be navigated without using additional Speed.
Rivers and lakes cannot be scouted across if they form part of a region's border.[/ic]
[ic=Avoiding Magma]Use 1 Speed to reduce the Attack roll of magma by 1. You can reduce this below 0, but the magma still gets an attack against you, just at a penalty.[/ic]
[ic=Forced March]In extreme circumstances, troops can be pushed to travel very quickly with minimal rest. Units can be made to move additional spaces, up to double their Speed. For each space they move in excess of their Speed, however, they suffer a -1 penalty to Attack and Morale scores. Thus, for example, a regiment of Goblin Grunts could be made to move up to 8 regions, but they would suffer a -4 to penalty to Attack rolls (meaning their Attack score would be at -2) and Morale rolls (their Morale would be at -3). These penalties remain until the regiment spends at least 1 turn moving normally; if they continue on a Forced March the penalties are cumulative. Thus, using the example above, if the Goblins were made to move 8 regions for 2 weeks in a row, they would suffer -8 penalties to Attack and Morale, for a dismal total of -6 to Attack and -7 to Morale. Woe be to the fatigued army that stumbles into an ambush or happens upon a wandering monster!
While you can nominally use Speed to perform actions other than moving and then use Forced March to move additional regions, you
must use Forced March to move. Thus, for example, a Goblin Grunt could
not use the "Forced March" action to forage in a mushroom forest using 8 Speed and so gather 8 Food. He
could use his normal 4 Speed to forage for 4 Food and
then use Forced March to move up to 4 regions.
Note: Constructs, Vermin, Undead, and any other creatures without a Morale score cannot use the Forced March action.[/ic]
[ic=Scavenge]Bodies can be scavenged from battlefields and used for a variety of unsavoury purposes. A unit can use 1 Speed to scavenge 1 Body if a Body is present in the region being scavenged. Graveyards can also be scavenged in this way (for further details, see the Raiding rules).
Note that immediately after a battle, the victor automatically claims control of any Bodies if he wishes, and need not spend additional Speed scavenging for the dead.[/ic]
[ic=Other Actions]Check with the DM to see how much Speed other actions take.[/ic]
Terrain
[ic=Mushrooms]Mushrooms grow wild in the Underdeep, and can be a valuable source of Food. A Dungeon or Outpost built in a region with mushrooms produces an additional +25 Food per week. Large swathes of mushrooms can be moved through, using 2 Speed. Huge creatures ignore this penalties, since they simply rush through the mushrooms. Flying units likewise move unimpeded through thickly forested regions. Monsters and Fungoids often lurk in mushroom forests, so beware!
Note: Caverns and corridors that simply possess mushrooms do count for bonus Food and can be foraged, but do not impede units. The only time units are impeded is when they must cross through thickly forested areas (for example, moving from Middledeep 37 to Middledeep 39).[/ic]
[ic=Crystals]Certain regions of the Underdeep are rich in valuable crystals. A Dungeon built in a region including a crystal field produces +20 Gold per week. Crystals are also useful in magic. Spells cast during battle in a region with crystals last twice as long as normal. Utility spells can be cast twice as many times (so if a spell can be cast 1/week it can now be cast 2/week). If a room adds to the number of times a spell can be cast per week – such as a Hall of Runes for Dwarf Runeseers – these additional uses are added
after the crystals double the normal number of times the spell can be cast (so a Runeseer in a Dungeon with a Hall of Runes and crystals could cast Scry three times per week, for example).
Crystal-rich regions can sometimes attract unusual monsters and produce unexpected magical effects. If a spell calls for an attack roll, a natural 1 or 20 will produce some unusual effect when the spell is cast. For example it might enlarge every unit in a targeted regiment (+2 Attack, +2 Damage, +5 Health, -2 Defence, Large size) for a combat round; or it might make them temporarily Vulnerable to Acid damage; or it might transform them all into Cave Beetles for a combat round. There is no way to predict such chaotic effects.[/ic]
[ic=Water]Underground streams, lakes, and even seas are common in the Underdeep and on the Surface. Regions containing water can be fished; a Dungeon or Outpost built in a region with a lake, pool, or stream produces an additional 10 Food per week. Water can be crossed through – rivers forded, for example – at a cost of 2 Speed. Aquatic monsters are common, as are creatures dwelling along the shores of subterranean lakes.
Bridges negate the fording penalty. Units with insufficient Speed to cross a river simply cannot cross.[/ic]
[ic=Magma]Magma is treacherous. Any regiment entering, passing through, or encamped (or entrenched) in a region with magma gets "attacked" by the magma up to once per week, just as if they'd set off a trap; the magma has +6 to hit and deals 30 Fire damage if it hits. This hazard is negated only if the troops in question have a Dungeon or Outpost in the region. Battles fought in regions with magma are also perilous: magma affects both sides, unless one side owns a Dungeon or Outpost in the region, in which case the magma only affects the attacker(s).
Flying and Climbing units ignore magma, as do those with Immunity to Fire. Duergar, with their Magmacraft ability, also ignore magma.
Note: Dungeons and Outposts that have not yet been formally founded do not count for magma-negation purposes.[/ic]
[ic=Chasms]Chasms are impassable save for Flying units, unless they are spanned by a bridge. Flying units can not only pass over chasms, they can use them to travel between layers of the Underdeep if the chasm is continuous, using 1 Speed per level traversed. In some cases they can also travel
along chasms (as opposed to across them) to other regions, which also uses 1 Speed.
Climbing units can also pass down chasm walls, but they cannot pass over shasms unless sthey first descend to the bottom of the chasm and then climb up the other side. This means that if a Climbing unit begins in the Upperdeep and wants to get to the other side of a shasm that extends all the way down to the Lowerdeep, it must use a total of 6 Speed to do so (1 to climb down to the Middledeep, 1 to climb down to the Lowerdeep, 1 to climb down to the bottom of the shasm, 1 to ascend again to the Lowerdeep, 1 to ascend to the Middledeep, and 1 more to ascend to the Upperdeep again).[/ic]
[ic=Mountains]Mountains on the Surface require 3 Speed to traverse and are perilous, attacking like a trap (+3 Attack, 10 Damage, affects every regiment impeded by mountains; unlike magma, this cannot be mitigated). Climbing and Flying units can pass over or through mountains unimpeded. If a unit lacks sufficient Speed to traverse mountains in a single turn, it is too clumsy to navigate the mountains, though the Forced March action
can be used to boost a unit's speed to pass through mountains, since traversing them is considered movement.[/ic]
[ic=Woodlands]The strange woods of the Surface impede troops in the Underdeep. Traversing a wooded region uses 2 Speed, though Huge and Flying units move through woodlands unimpeded. Woodlands can also be foraged like mushroom forests, but require 2 Speed to generate 1 Food, since the woods are unfamiliar. Wood Elves, Treants, and other unpleasant Toplanders often lurk in woodlands, along with wolves and other creatures.[/ic]
[ic=Swamps]These murky marshlands are difficult to move through and contain dangerous sinkholes. Moving through a swampy region uses 2 Speed, except for Flying and Huge creatures, which pass through unimpeded. Those impeded by swamps are also "attacked" by the sinkholes (+4 Attack, 10 Damage, affects every regiment impeded by swamps; unlike magma, this cannot be mitigated).[/ic]
[ic=Oceans]Oceans are impassable, though Watchers and other aquatic or amphibious units may be entrenched in the brackish shallows if they wish. Units can also fish in coastal regions.[/ic]
[ic=Sunlight]Units who spend more than 1 week on the Surface begin to take Morale penalties from sunlight. They take a -1 penalty every week they spend on the Surface past the first (they can even desert if their Morale gets too low - see under Upkeep in the Unit rules). Some creatures, like Undead, are also damaged by sunlight (see the Undead rules).[/ic][/spoiler]