Across the stars there exists a legend walking among the myriad species of the stars, and his name is Zarus.Zarus is a creature that is known as a human, a species that came from somewhere unknown. In truth, they aren't too much unlike those of the intergalactic community, with meager lives only a fraction as long as yours, of flesh and blood and with hands and feet, spacedust given fleeting form. Only, Zarus himself isn't like other humans - at least, not to your or anyone else in the galaxy's knowledge. Zarus is the most powerful of all psykers in the galaxy. This is by far, no contest. He doesn't perform acts as directly lifting his enemies and sending them flying, no. His reality changing powers are matched only by his warped perspective and inflated ego. Many have tried to kill him, and the world itself bends over backwards to protect him. Bullets sheer by him, laser weapon systems malfunction as they pull the trigger, bombs spontaneously detonate before he enters their blast radius, and other psykers lose their powers as he draws near. Some speculate you could catch him off guard with orbital bombardment or destroying the very planet he stands on, but the empires of the galaxy know he is more precious alive than dead. If it weren't for his self-centered attitude and racial prejudice, he would have had any seat he desired in any empire of his choice, but he prefers the free life of a gun for hire.If you were to believe the man himself, he was once part of a crew of fifty men sailing through the stars, incidentally struck by debris of an ancient errant missile smashing into a nearby asteroid. The lone survivor, he landed on a fertile planet in the process of colonization and took it as a sign he was still protected by his gods. The planet he refused to name, but rumor has it he calls his home the "mystic city of Agartha." Many have gone to search for it. Some empires are running vast intelligence operations to acquire any information they can about the city. You know better than to actively go and find a planet where there may be hundreds, thousands, millions of humans just as capable as Zarus in the psychic arts. Their elevation to a spacefaring race would upheave the order of the entire galaxy.So of course, you came across the planet on pure accident.
>>6337935The unnamed and undiscovered system was obscured from most of the galaxy by its proximity to a black hole which both obscured it from the most dense areas and warped how those on fringe systems perceived it. It had only caught your attention from the faint chirping of a colony ship's decade old beacon. The bright blue and green planet was speckled with signs of what would be an advanced civilization, only it seems to lack a sophisticated space program. Perhaps one nation is able to send out a vessel every few decades, maybe. A handful of sites in the northern hemisphere catch your interest; a gold city at the subarctic region, a black expanse of basalt pillars that have the unmistakable signs of a seaport, a bustling topical city that preliminary examinations have fascinating biodiversity on some of the most fertile soil in your empire's records, and a tree that breaches the vault of the sky, the largest of its kind you've seen on this side of the galaxy. Those from the gold city seem to share the same language of communication as Zarus, making observations and study of that region in particular a relief. All of this, and they are all carbon-based lifeforms that breathe oxygen and consume hydrogen, same as you. It is technically safe to land.There are a number of factors that prevent you from communicating with the capitol about the discovery. The most obvious of which are the raw logistics of the idea. The speed of light is barely sufficient for global communication networks, and your hypralight communications are slower than turning the ship around and delivering the message with your own mouth. Further, there's always the possibility there are other elements capable of intercepting the message and arriving before a response from the top can even be sent. Lastly, and most personally of all, you know for certain that your naive elders would command you to uplift them into the galactic community as their first command. Not that you are flirting with genocide, but they pose a danger that it would be tactless to ignore, like introducing boars unto an unsuspecting world.Such a hypothetical global assault is a task your fleet is not capable of performing. You are not commandeering a capital-class ship capable of any viable amount of orbital bombardment, let alone shattering the planet like you imagine you would need to kill a million men like Zarus. So outright violence is not the strategy here. The fact that you are as of yet unknown to them is your ally. You, Fleet Captain Ygdrun of the Second, have to work with what you have.
>>6337937https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5GD0Pbvmx4These humans have likely named the planet, but to your commission it shall be known as KTISIS. Lest your empire fumble in its bureaucratic way or other less harmonious factions of the galaxy come to sink their teeth into this planet, you must take this responsibility by yourself and your crew. It may take you years. Dozens, hundreds. You have time. Your kind may change with age, but let it be known that you and your kin are truly immortal.By studying different parts of Ktisis, you will come to know the secrets of Agartha. There are three branches of research; Anthropology, Biology, and Psychic Potential. Anthropology regards their past and the factors which made them how they are today, their history or challenges as a species that may have had an affect on them. Biology refers purely to the study of the biomechanical construction of the fauna of Ktisis, including Humans. How their brains function, what they eat, what those things they eat do to their brains, which species are naturally occurring. Psychic Potential involves reading the noospheric realm of sapient consciousness. Psychic power is humanity's greatest strength, and yet no researcher has ever had the chance to properly measure just how much Zarus is capable of. It would be of great worth to properly measure a human's capability and come to an understanding of how they can do it - and perhaps increase the strength of psychics within your own empire and commission.There is a Veil of Secrecy you might wish to uphold. Studies and actions you perform will lower the Veil, while time will passively recover the Veil. When the Veil is lowered, the native humans will begin to notice your actions. Their reactions depend on what things they see you perform when the Veil is low. Some groups may see through the Veil much easier than others, though fortunately they would scarcely communicate the secrets they keep. Generally, low-yield research offers net positive returns on your Veil, but as time passes, the situation on the planet may change.Studies are done in 3d20 pools against a target DC. Upon success, you gain a set value of Progress into that Research. Harder Studies have the chance of higher rewards than simple studies, with each success counting as additional Progress Points. Veil starts at 100% secrecy, and all Studies reduce a number from 10-30%. After each Study you regain 12% Veil. For any number of turns you lay below a given society's Veil of Secrecy threshold, you make yourselves known to them. Performing Studies while the Veil is beneath societies' threshold invites Contact - a mutual meeting between native and alien, which complicates every subsequent study.
>>6337938>Choose your ship.DEALBHÓIR - Terraformer - A cruiser with thousands of staff capable of performing advanced changes to a planet's climate, transforming even barren rocks into resplendent forests or wild jungles in a manner of years. While this can be devastating upon an unprepared civilization, it is extremely noticeable and paints you as an enemy to all of the planet. It would be more prudent to use the ship's resources to understand the properties of fauna and flora.Provides an extra D20 on Anthropology studies. Can fertilize land and bolster a chosen faction's farming yields to give them an advantage in conflicts.TOMHAISEOIR - Research Superyacht - A part-commercial ship staffed with hundreds of scientists from across the empire with the purpose of finding and studying reservoirs of rare deep-space resources, such as metals that have been compressed into unfathomably dense and durable materials by the gravity of passing black holes, multidimensional objects, and cognitohazards. These brilliant minds should be able to reverse engineer most technology these people could have made.Provides an extra D20 on Biology studies. Any recovered technology is immediately understood and reverse engineered, and can "donate" new technology to desired societies.ITHREACH - Greater Colony Ship - Unlike most races, you do not colonize by homesteading unknown environs until you have civilization. This ship is capable of gathering large amounts of deep-space gasses and using nuclear fusion to fabricate it into materials and resources. From fertilizer to iron to gold, anything can be made. In addition, it sends the fastest signal your empire can manage; a request to send materials to your location faster than anyone can safely travel to the very heart of your empire's automated logistic system.Permits the establishment of a colony in the canopy of the World Tree. The Veil will start at 80% rather than 100%, but all DCs will be lowered by 1.And your mission? By your decree:>Choose one.Through charity and subversion, you must domesticate a people to be loyal and faithful allies of your empireThrough science and study, you must understand what it is that makes humans psychically capableThrough espionage and sabotage, you must send them back to the stone age and leave them to rot on this rock
>>6337940ITHREACHThrough charity and subversion, you must domesticate a people to be loyal and faithful allies of your empire
>>6337940>Through espionage and sabotage, you must send them back to the stone age and leave them to rot on this rock
>>6337940>>6338011DEALBHÓIR - TerraformerForgot the ship.
>>6337940>TOMHAISEOIR>Through science and study, you must understand what it is that makes humans psychically capableWe must unlock the secrets of human Vril
>>6338000>>6338011>>6338049>>6338135a more perfect tie there never wasif there's no new votes soon i will roll
>>6338414TOMHAISEOIR - Biological Ascendancy to Overman is di wae.
>>6338135>Through science and study, you must understand what it is that makes humans psychically capable>We must unlock the secrets of human vrilVery trve. I am in complete agreement.
>>6338461>>6338460>>6338135>>6338049>>6338011>>6338000So it shall be that through your study of the human race that you will find what their psychic secret. There are many places to look, but with enough study, you will be able to find them. You're certain your superiors would approve of this change of mission, should they ever hear of it. Your Superyacht is capable of sending out multiple ships at a time to the planet to perform studies. Your first orders, of which you may select up to two:>Investigate the weak colony beacon. The pattern is a decade out of standard. Your kind have already found this place, but did they live to tell the tale? What did they learn? (Free Study. Veil: 0, No DC. Reward: ???)>Abduct some small common animals and dissect them. You may get to humans later; for now, it is important to discover the obvious things that would later be embarrassing for remaining ignorant about. (Biology Veil: 10, DC 5. Reward: 5 Progress.)>Abduct a human and examine them on the planet. It's important to establish if psychic powers are a trait all humans have, or if it is something limited to certain subspecies. It is also important to quarantine humans until you are aware none carry any life-threatening disease your kind may be subject to - however unlikely that is. (Biology. Veil: 17, DC 7. Reward: 5 Progress/Success.)>Examine the more unique and strange endemic life forms. Large creatures are threatening to soar straight into space, shifting figures beneath the waters of the basalt port. Understanding these hazards might be worth your while. (Biology. Veil: 5, DC 9. Reward: 4 Progress/Success.)>Infiltrate Agarthan channels and dig up information on the other civilizations of Ktisis. This will help narrow and focus your research, or tie other potentially relevant factors in to the development of Zarus' psychic might. (Anthropology. Veil: 10, DC 5. Reward: 5 Progress.)>Abduct some humans and force them to provide fundamental language and general global knowledge. You will immediately understand all of the languages of Ktisis. (Anthropology. Veil: 30, DC 7. Reward: 7 Progress/Success.)>Drop a Noospheric Resonance Device into the middle of the ocean. This will permit you to detect the global level of passive psychic influence. (Psychic Potential. Veil: 0, no DC. Reward: 5 Progress.)>Drop Noospheric Resonance Devices into populated areas. Between different readings in different places, you estimate this can also help measure the population of psychics in each area, as well as measure how strong they are. (Psychic Potential. Veil: 20, DC 9. Reward: 7 Progress/Success.)
>>6338705So, if I understand the veil system correctly, it heals 12 veil per turn, and therefore the efficient way to do this is to damage the veil slightly more than that each turn.>Abduct some small common animals and dissect them. You may get to humans later; for now, it is important to discover the obvious things that would later be embarrassing for remaining ignorant about. (Biology Veil: 10, DC 5. Reward: 5 Progress.)>>Examine the more unique and strange endemic life forms. Large creatures are threatening to soar straight into space, shifting figures beneath the waters of the basalt port. Understanding these hazards might be worth your while. (Biology. Veil: 5, DC 9. Reward: 4 Progress/Success.)15/12 veil damage and DCs we are almost guaranteed to pass. We can save the Veil 0 items to do on turns after we do big ticket items. Say we do a 30 veil item, we can do a 0 veil item the following turn and then after 12*2=24 veil healing, it would only cost 6.
>>6338925+1
>>6338925>>6338970Get me two rolls for 3d20.
Rolled 14, 3, 19 = 36 (3d20)>>6339096Extra d20s for biology?
>>6339098Oh slipped my mind. Do an extra D20 for the first study, and the next roll will be 4d20.
Rolled 15 (1d20)rolling
Rolled 13, 19, 12, 19 = 63 (4d20)
>>6339118Nice numerals
Rolled 20, 16, 14 = 50 (3d20)>>6339096>>6339100
>>6339118>>6339098>>6339108Judiciously you decide that it is best to keep your hands off the political sphere of this planet until you are made aware of what forces you are dealing with. And for this, basic study of the fauna of Ktisis is necessary.>Animal Abduction - SUCCESSOver the subsequent week, your men have stolen animals of many varieties; monkeys from the jungle, elk from the forests, and serpents from the north, among many other things, and have come across rather mundane findings. Well, you say mundane, but what you mean is that the common wildlife themselves do not seem to be at all psychically capable. What is certainly not mundane about these creatures is that they are almost cartoonishly juvenile in their appearance. Never in your years have you ever seen a more fish-like fish. Those with unique traits have them in spades. A snake with spines to protect itself has them of a uniquely hard keratin akin to goat horns. One breed of fish seems to have a face more resembling most bipedal species.In regards to psychic potential, only the fish and serpents seem to have that, particularly those unique kinds mentioned before. They meet the conditions for sapient creatures, though the specimens you captured did not display a capacity to communicate.While you were overseeing some research of the more curious specimens, a researcher quipped that perhaps these animals are exceptions from the norm due to their closeness to the more exotic endemic lifeforms. What a quaint idea. You'll take him up on that theory.
>>6339196>Examine Exotic Lifeforms - GROUNDBREAKING SUCCESSThe optics on your superyacht are, pardon your pun, stellar. They are capable of looking down onto the ground below and reading large signage without drawing any closer. From here, you can perform a cursory examination of several of these massive creatures from thousands of miles away. Of course, you will have to draw nearer to get details on their specifics, but simply setting your sights to the mountain range north of the World Tree, you and your deck see one particularly gargantuan specimen of the creatures that seem capable of atmospheric flight. In the seconds as it dialed in, one could have been forgiven for identifying the being as a large manner of insect. A tough hard carapace on a flying creature is a rare trait, even among the myriad lifeforms of the galaxy. As the magnification intensified, it became obvious that it bore more similarities to a lizard. Moreover, with the intensity of magnification, it became clear that it was much further away than initially anticipated, marking it as positively gargantuan and flying higher than previously estimated. This flying lizard is not just capable of atmospheric flight, it is showing capability of reaching orbit, perhaps even leaving it. While there are zero signs that it is even capable of surviving in the void of space, this creature may become a threat to your operations in that northern region should you draw its ire.Over the next few days as one scouting ship draws closer, you come to understand that these endemic lifeforms are thankfully not all that size and share a capability of near-space-flight. These creatures have also been seen engaging in some form of communication with local humanoids. This would explain how Zarus adjusted well to the culture shock of alien life; there are non-human creatures capable of communication. Further, the ship examined their bodies with thermal imaging, and found something quite odd; On the surface and in their caves, they are cold-blooded, but while flying, an organ in their body heats up with heat approaching that of a nuclear reactor which doesn't damage its insides at all. It can even fly through a stream of its own hot breath to warm its exterior. Your team could not identify how long these creatures lives, but could only identify scarce few corpses across the entire range. They are rare creatures, or are picked completely clean upon the moment of their demise. It's hard to imagine a predator for them, so you will simply assume they eat each other.
What has Yakub wrought on this world?
>>6339211The other curious creature that you could see from space is something very large lurking underneath the waters. With the same optics you used to spy the flying lizard, your ship's computers had initially identified it to be a space-faring race known as the Sabyll, a squid-like semi-bipedal race not too unlike your own in shape and stature. This computer did not take into account it was viewing the waters from one thousand miles above the surface of the waters and with intense magnification. But this was the first you had observed, of three similarly exotic sea creatures. The next you had seen was a smaller, curious race of amphibians. These were mistaken to be large as well, but it became obvious that they were not large, but simply floating down from the sky in the middle of the night to land on ships with black sails. Your scouting vessels drawing near immediately detected intense readings of psychic energy from these ships; if your estimations are accurate, they would rank the eighteenth most psychically powerful race in the galaxy, a middling position on the scale but well above average.The third such creature was seen through a crack in a coastal cave. Imagery was poor, described by pilots and researchers as "a tumbleweed of eels." Recordings plainly show it conducting a manner of ceremony.At face value, these creatures are complete biological nonsense. But that is why you seek to understand. Everything has a reason. Perhaps beings as powerful as Zarus had a hand in creating these outlandish fauna. votes after turkeyday celebrations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWksqXzkvbkAfter a period of deliberation with your crew, it would be of zero surprise to any of you that the peoples of Ktisis still believed in "gods." Myriad peoples commune with these intelligent beasts as if they were divine spirits, but not explicitly Agarthans. Being without such strange creatures must clearly set them apart from the rest of their homeworld. Perhaps their gods are beings of raw faith alone. Or they worship much smaller things. Speculation at this point is pointless conjecture. You need hard proof.... There was a period where your kind held a belief in gods of the sun and earth, of wind and storm. Most of them fell into antiquity, but the two which resonated with them in the old days were the Fires of Rebirth and Calamity. In a sense, you still worship them. Together, your kind temper tools to break new ground, and forge shields strong enough to survive tomorrow. You bear the Fire of Rebirth.For everything begins with fire.WEEK 2Veil: 97/100 (-3 from last week)Anthropology Progress: 0/100Biology Progress: 21/100Psychic Potential Progress: 0/100From your research into exotic lifeforms, it dawns on you that any singleminded pursuit of understanding of the life of Ktisis would be full of blind risks.As you progress through any given Research branch, Studies in other Research Branches become slightly easier to perform, while the one in the lead becomes proportionally harder as you lack the context to pursue anything other than more heavyhanded and intrusive Studies.Choose two researches.>Investigate Colony Beacon. (Free Study. Veil: 0, No DC. Reward: ???)>Steal Agarthan Crops. The proof might literally be in the pudding. (Biology, Veil 5, DC 7 Reward: 5 Progress.)>Abduct a Human for light ground studies, limited only to scouting ship tools. (Biology. Veil: 15, DC 7. Reward: 5 Progress/Success.)>Investigate "Sea Peoples". (Biology. Veil: 20, DC 11. Reward: 17 Progress.)>Investigate "Sky Geckos." (Biology: Veil 10, DC 14. Reward: 15 Progress.)>Infiltrate Agarthan Channels for world knowledge. (Anthropology. Veil: 10, DC 5. Reward: 5 Progress. If known to Agartha, creatures will be named.)>Abduct humans for language and world knowledge. (Anthropology. Veil: 25, DC 7. Reward: 7 Progress/Success.)>Drop a Noospheric Resonance Device into the WILDERNESS. You now know the Ocean has rare highly psychic creatures that would inhibit accurate readings. (Psychic Potential. Veil: 3, no DC. Reward: 8 Progress.)>Drop Noospheric Resonance Devices into populated areas. You now know which the Basalt Port would give you higher than normal readings. (Psychic Potential. Veil: 20, DC 9. Reward: 8 Progress/Success.)
>>6339467>Abduct humans for language and world knowledge. (Anthropology. Veil: 25, DC 7. Reward: 7 Progress/Success.)Time to get a working knowledge of the subject of our study. Ready the cavity probes.
>>6339467>Abduct a Human for light ground studies, limited only to scouting ship tools. (Biology. Veil: 15, DC 7. Reward: 5 Progress/Success.)>Investigate Colony Beacon. (Free Study. Veil: 0, No DC. Reward: ???)
>>6339467>Abduct humans for language and world knowledge. (Anthropology. Veil: 25, DC 7. Reward: 7 Progress/Success.)>Investigate Colony Beacon. (Free Study. Veil: 0, No DC. Reward: ???)
>>6339473>>6339586>>6339619One of your crewmembers remarked how you have been ordering them backward, that they should have laid groundwork for the world's politics and the colony beacon first. Nonsense. You had to make sure that the lifeforms on this planet would complicate matters- which, as you are all now well aware, they are very capable of. You are a larger form of life than others, and as such your ships are scaled to a large degree, but the common form of those sky beasts are comparable to one of your scouting ships in size, the largest of which is a rather large fraction of your superyacht's size; which is no small feat, and would nevertheless wreak havoc upon the exterior should it get close. Clearly they have never heard of looking before leaping.Now that you have marked off certain regions as requiring clearance to even be near, you can perform more safer tasks. Now, you will humor that crew member by sending him on the scouting ship to identify and "acquire" some multilingual and knowledgeable Agarthans. The Agarthan tongue is familiar to you, so one of them is the easiest starting point to learning other languages and cultures.It may be risky; none of your casual observations have shown the average human performing the reality-warping acts of Zarus, but perhaps they may not have been pressed to...Conducting Human Abduction. Roll 3d20, target DC 7.
Rolled 13, 9, 15 = 37 (3d20)>>6341333
>>6341354>Investigate Colony BeaconOff to the forests of southern Agarthan territory, a thick natural border between the metropolitan area of the golden megacity and a nearby desert, there is a now overgrown crash site of a small colonizing ship of your origin. The initial scan of the area was bleak, but the scouting returned grim results.Your kind descended onto this planet in the most haphazard and reckless fashion aboard this space-faring ship. It is mostly intact, but inside the ship are bodies snapped out of shape in ways even your kind cannot recover from. They clearly died on impact.Most colonizer ships are staffed with a crew of 50, bearing themselves, capsules containing the future of your species, and relevant beacons to beckon the automated colonization system to wherever they deem fit to plant their roots.This vessel had no distinct mission, just to survey and mark outer regions of the galaxy for viable planets for assimilation into the empire and to lay the groundwork when they do. Whether or not these planets were occupied were of little import; the way your colonization works, hovering over the planet and beckoning resources hither would have been enough. Under zero circumstances should it have even attempted landing. Checking the itinerary, the crew included mostly standard volunteers and experts in colonization, but also a very peculiar VIP; an admiral of repute, one who had went missing nearly a decade ago on a personal leave.After triple-checking the nearby surrounds, your crew has found 48 bodies of your kind. Between the horrific mangling of the bodies aboard and the natural decay of particular features, none of them are even remotely identifiable. Any survivors made zero attempt to seed this planet and zero attempt to escape it. No landing program or poor piloting can be the cause of this. All in all, the report offers a chilling suggestion: someone with authority of the controls had put the nose down and said good night for themselves and everyone aboard. What would compel someone to perform such suicidal assassination has been beyond your kind for eons. To convince one of your own to end the lives of their peers is... unfathomable.You dread that the perpetrator lived to tell the tale, and collect whatever reward they had on the admiral's head. Or that the Agarthans found the wreckage and extracted two bodies of your kind for whatever purposes they see fit. Frankly, you do not know which would be worse.
OP?
