章 89: Chapter Eighty-Nine – Measure the Marks
"Damn, Sama," Briggs said in the middle of that, his pale violent eyes intense. "Instantaneous telepathic contact across any distance in real time. Can you do a sensory share?"
"There's no control over the other side, so if the other side is willing, they have to make the effort to share. Not a Caster, Briggs. Can they see out MY eyes if I want them to? Sure."
"Right, right." His excitement was visible to the others. "How many people can you handle?"
"Technically, there's no limit. I can broadcast without limit. Handling multiples talking to me is another matter. From experience in Nightmare, I generally set up chatboxes and relay commands among set groups of people, and then issue orders by box, or received them from set people to other people."
"That would take an immense amount of concentration and attention," he pointed out, but he was still bubbling with enthusiasm.
"Not really. You get a double thought-stream at 30 Int. I just ran it out of there." I wrinkled my nose at him. "Oh! You want to keep me off the battlefield and just run it for others, you wanker! Sure, that's possible. I suppose I could be smithing while running the whole operation."
Everyone except Briggs was looking at me as if I were a monster.
"What… would be involved in this communication?" To my surprise, it was Brother Shadowknife who spoke up first.
"Well, trust. Then I have to Tat a Mark on you, takes about five minutes. Plow a thousand Karma into it, and the telepathy comes on line. Another thousand, half the primary effect. Three more thousand, full effect."
"Describe this 'primary effect'," the general stated promptly.
"Hmm," I rolled my eyes up. "You are familiar with strength-enhancing magic, right?" He nodded slowly. "The effect is similar to, but stacks with such magic, and is equivalent to a Valence I version of such effects, or +2, to wit. I'd advocate the Constitution equivalent for elves, you're going to need the endurance, but you can also get an equivalent to Leatherskin, or Longstride." For some reason, the sex appeal wasn't on the table.
He realized the implications after only a little thought. That was equal to a primary, long-lasting combat buff, or a permanent magical item… for five minutes of work and some combat experience.
Raising a troop an entire tier like that was incredible. Five minutes per person. No top limit.
But it would require trust… which was naturally the most important edge.
"We would effectively be ceding you control over our troops." His words made it plain that such an event was not something easy to deliver.
"Including your own self." He blinked at me. "What, you think I don't know how to give orders to generals? You don't need to be in command, you need to be seen and killing, go everywhere the fighting requires you. To be honest, someone of your skill is completely wasted in a normal command position, as you've got other things to do. It's time for you to start getting back into the fighting and earning some real glory."
The flash of his eyes betrayed his excitement at the scene. "Will I be able to know and countermand any orders you give my people?" he pressed pointedly.
"Technically, yes. Realistically, no. If you sit there trying to follow everything I'm going to be doing, you're literally going to be sitting there trying to follow everything I'm doing, waiting to issue a countermanding order. I won't have time to explain my tactics or strategy to just you, because I'm going to be issuing a lot of orders very quickly." I wrinkled my nose. "I shouldn't have to tell you what it means for a commander to be able to instantly give orders and see them obeyed with total comprehension and clarity. You don't explain things in a battle. You give an order and see it obeyed."
He was silent for a long moment, glancing at Skycloud, who looked both worried and thoughtful. "It is an extraordinary thing, if it is true. May I ask how such a thing is possible?"
"It simply replicates the power of Succubus' Dark Blessing. No more, no less. The potential power of a Blessing is simply that incredible. The downside, of course, is that no one would trust a Succubus to be their general, if they are in their right mind, because such a Blessing is an enslavement tool." I tilted my head, then blinked my eyes. "Oh, you mean mechanically, so that you can replicate it with someone you trust, instead of me." I rubbed my nose as both elves flushed, ignoring them as I thought.
"Well, any succubus, naturally. Good luck with that.
"If you want a mortal… you're going to have to find another Forsaken Null. Then that Null is going to have to get a Blessing carved onto them by a Succubus, feed that Succubus to the Blessing, turn it into a Mark by shoving some high-value targets into the Mark via vivic immolation, at least a CR Twelve is best, and then Tatting it at a 36 with matching Spellcraft. Then they have to personally carve QL 32 matching Marks onto the recipients via Tattoo Artist, Spellcraft, and Alchemy checks, forming a Harmonic Minor Mark, which they can then Invest Karma in and make permanent."
I lowered my eyes back down as the two elves stared at me. "Of course, where you're also going to find a Ten Forsaken Null Warlord with over three thousand warband engagements at this size, I don't know, but you seemed pretty confident there."
They looked like they'd eaten something unpalatable.
"What… three thousand? In Nightmare?" Briggs asked, stunned at the number.
"Oh, yeah. I commanded a company of troops who eventually reached four thousand in number." Briggs blinked again, doing the math, and wondering how the heck I'd reached Twenty in my Warlord Rank. "I knew everyone's name, rank, position, strength, weakness, and mindset. We fought in so many different terrains and locations, so many different enemies… can't say the Warp was directly involved, but damn did we slaughter enough anthros, fey, Jotuns, and demons, and they aren't much different.
"At the end there, I only took up Tremble if something Big showed up. Otherwise, my lads could pretty much take care of it. My job was to tell them what to do, and theirs was to do it. You might say I got pretty good at it."
The elf was repeating "three thousand engagements" under his breath. He was long-lived, probably at least a few centuries old, but I could tell he hadn't had anything like that level of military experience.
"I dread to ask," Briggs sighed, "but what is your Battle Check?"
"It's in the neighborhood of +45." Briggs just took a deep breath and sighed very, very heavily.
"Battle Check?" the elven general asked, confused.
"It's a Mitharn short-hand representing tactical and strategic ability to command, deploy, and maneuver troops on a battlefield situation, with appropriate classifications based on size of troops, ranging from platoon all the way up to grand strategic oversight." Briggs relayed casually.
"Oh? And is this… 45… a good number?" the general inquired promptly.
"I'm guessing yours is between 20 and 25, sir. Unless you have a resounding reputation as a military genius extending far beyond the borders of the Sidhete that I am unaware of." Briggs sighed. "I used to rock a +35, but I'm very rusty and I've been restricting myself to the size of a company or smaller, for all the best reasons."
His large eyes narrowed. "You are a company commander? At your age?" he asked, almost in disbelief.
"Aye, sir. I led all the tribe's warriors on our last four raids into ogre and giant camps, and during the recent attack on our village. Three-hundred and fourteen hunters and foresters, personally leading half the tribe on one wing, while my chief led the other."
The elf looked back and forth between the two of us, and then at Skycloud, who was just shaking her pale hair in disbelief.
"I have personally seen your combat prowess. The fact you are experienced battlefield commanders on top of that, despite having no magical ability…" He seemed to find that hard to believe.
"Powered, like you elves, tend to rely on magic as a crutch to enhance your ability to solve all your problems," I mused aloud, totally neutral in tone, neither judgmental nor insulting. "Briggs and I don't have that luxury. Our alternative to being a good commander is not casting a spell and divining the best course of action. No, it's to be very, very good commanders.
"But I understand trust is a thing. I doubt you'll have any real problems doing things the old, slow way. Enhanced cooperation, coordination, control, responsiveness, communication, and real time intelligence gathering is hard for most commanders to properly visualize until they go through the experience, so they don't value it enough to compromise on the trust issue.
"No biggie. I can work with individuals as needed, and I don't need an army to wipe warbands."
The general opened his mouth, then closed it. He had intelligence on me that strongly claimed I had done just that, and without much effort. I had basically slaughtered a greater demon right before his eyes, it had no chance to fight back whatsoever… and I had taken the long way, just so I could Feed it to the Land!
General Moonriver finally realized he was dealing with an extraordinarily dangerous individual, perhaps equal to one of the legendary champions of his own people, and he'd best be treading very carefully…
"If that is true, then why would you propose this, Lady Sama?" he asked respectfully.
"Because I can't be everywhere at the same time, and the way for people to get tougher and be more able hands in the distance is to fight! If I start fighting for you, you just become a bunch of wimpy grunts who aren't useful to anyone."
"I do not want to fight over kills with Sama Rantha. Make her the Warlord and trot her out to deal with greater demons, sure sure. I'll take care of the light work!" Briggs added, earning more eyes for those words.
"Will these Marks work on Void Brothers?" Brother Shadowknife's non-memorable voice asked.
"Exactly one, yes, Brother. Your Voids will pick up on any disharmony between more and erode them all away." I felt their auras quaver at just how nonchalantly I talked about their Voids.
"Why are you able to sustain nine of them, then?" Brother Windarrow asked, clearly interested.
I just blinked at him. "You have to inscribe the Marks on flesh and soul. Nulls have hard souls. Sources can only take one, they have burning souls. Voids can only take one because of empty souls. Trying to put more than one on you would be like trying to carve a cloud into a sculpture piece. Briggs there would just burn any past the first one away.
"You can think of it all as the unique ability of being a Null. Your empty souls can do stuff, his burning soul can do stuff, and my hard soul can tolerate stuff yours never would."
"Ah." He probably wanted to know more, but Windarrow's dark eyes turned to Briggs. "We clearly felt the Oath the young Paladin has sworn… but what did you do afterwards?"
"Not much awareness of other Forsaken?" Briggs asked archly, keeping the older halvyr's eyes without effort. "Voids pass through energies. Sources generate them, Nulls ignore them or defy them. So Voids have no fate, Nulls ignore and are invisible to Fate, and Sources… generate Fate."
Both of the Void Brothers visibly flinched in amazement. "You made a promise on Fate…" breathed Brother Shadowknife...
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