From: Joerg Baumgartner (joe@toppoint.de)
Date: Sat 14 Sep 1996 - 00:50:00 EEST
Sandy on
>THE SCORPION FOLK
I said
>>Northern Heortland has gotten used to this kind of "locust hordes"
>>already - the Trollwood trollkin swarms had to be hunted down
>>regularly as well.
> Trollkin are NOTHING, compared to the Folk. In addition, the
>areas regularly scavenged by trollkin were, partly as a result,
>less-fertile. The region destroyed by the Folk was some of the best
>land in Heortland
We'll need a map to agree on this, I fear... I'll try to get one on WWW one
of these weeks.
> Is a scorpion plague worse than a trollkin surge?
To the plants, _NOT_, in my book. Trollkin devour even the fertile soil,
wherease scorpion men have a more human approach to food.
>Let's have
>a show of hands. How many RQ PCs would rather fight a trollkin than a
>scorpion man?
Unfair. How many characters with 5 quite heavily-armed companions would
rather fight twelve uppity (i.e. intelligent) food trollkin or twelve
6-month low-INT scorpion men? I'll take either with care (remember Rurik),
but I would not bet on the bugs.
Note that I use the scorpion folk description in Book of Drastic Resolution
I, which tells us that the outbreaks of Folk spawn are the less promising,
i.e. barely sapient, offspring of lesser breeders without significantly
intelligent parental food, ranging from fixed INT to INT 7.
>Remember that the trollkin involved in these uprisings
>are almost invariably of the "food caste". How many "food" trollkin
>would you rather fight than a scorpion man? Two? Three? Ten?
A grown-up, somewhat experienced and really intelligent scorpion man? About
half as many as I would to avoid a ZZ initiate Dark or Great troll. If I
meet them in the open, as cavalry with experience in earlier bug hunts on
spawn, I stand a fair chance, better than against anti-light magics of trolls.
> But yes, the scorpion men leave less life behind than a
>trollkin outbreak.
How so? The trollkin leave the dead soil below the fertile soil behind.
>After a scorpion plague ends, the scourged land
>had to recover in much the same way that the isle of Krakatoa
>"recovered" from its catastrophe. I.e., via colonization from
>outside.
Which settled on covered fertile soil, AFAIK. BTW, don't forget the mobile
plant population of Glorantha.
>>Are the scorpion men herbivorous as well? I used to regard them as
>>carnivores...
> They're not herbivores, nor are they true omnivores. While a
>scorpion person can survive on plant food,
For how long?
>the Folk cannot reproduce without access to meat.
That's no issue with spawn, anyway. We talk about the equivalent of Feral
Broos vs. Wild Broos when we have the great waves of 2nd generation lesser
birth scorpion beings, hardly regarded as Folk by the sapient parentage
scorpion men.
>Trollkin:
> 1) decrease in numbers and density as they spread.
As does spawn. Even the adult lesser birth females take some time to plant
spawn into the land, and before that spawn becomes a challenge, the wave has
gone by.
> 2) are readily trapped and killed with organized military or
>magical force.
As are scorpion folk spawn.
>Scorpion folk (outbreaks are _very_ rare)
Outbreaks of Folk, yes. Outbreaks of spawn are next to regular.
> 1) _increase_ in numbers and density as they spread.
So they take the queens along? Even with breeders available, the majority of
the Folk are non-reproducing males.
> 2) are difficult to kill, to say the least.
A lance through the torso will do the trick all the time. It's non-trivial
to place it there unless you have lancer forces trained to wedge formations
against heavier cavalry (i.e. other lancers) than SMs.
> 3) leave a nuclear wasteland behind.
How so? By magic?
> 4) are organized and cunningly led.
These are not only rare, but next to unique. Jab might be able to stage one
of these, at best, with quite devastating results, I grant. Still, IMG the
foothills are staunch Orlanthi land which has seen little Rokari or Lunar
presence, and still has some ecology of anti-chaos fighters and, more
importantly, magics. If the leaders are taken out (not that many Humakti
with Sever Spirit required, really), the spawn becomes managable if properly
fought.
> 5) after a battle, are stronger than before. (re: Ritual of
>Devouring)
How many of them? A minority. Their numbers decrease through a battle, and
it takes them about two seasons to field the devoured. This is not Delecti...
>>In the open farmlands of the western plateau the knights - even the
>>native, 3rd rate chivalry - would have stomped out the scorpion
>>breed.
> This is naive. The tiny percentage of the population that are
>active knights would stand no chance against the Folk. They would be
>a) outnumbered, b) outclassed, and c) outfought.
I pose that there are more knights than fully intelligent folk by far.
>A) outnumbered
> Every scorpion creature is able and willing to fight, from
>hatchlings to elderly. Even a SIZ 3 young can sicken or kill with a
>sting.
True. Still, these hatchlings and youngsters won't be commandable in any
other way than as a stampeding herd, and use of them will, while primarily
bringing wins to the folk, cause more attrition than Ritual of Rebirth can
replace.
>B) outclassed
> The knights are next-to-helpless against the Folk. What are
>the traditional conquerors of knights? Missile fire; as at Crecy or
>Liegnitz (1241). Frightening the horses; as with camels or elephants.
>Heavy infantry; as at Courtray or Loudon Hill.
> Scorpion men exhibit all three characteristics -- almost all
>are sling or javelin-armed,
Neither will rival either the missile weapons of Crecy or Liegnitz, which
battles were won by superior organisation anyway.
>can fight as superheavy foot,
They won't keep formation, thus are susceptible to chivalrous charges more
than even an Orlanthi shield wall.
>and terrify all but the best-trained horses.
There's the only major problem a knight force will encounter, IMG. A knight
wedge does something to prevent horse psychology, though...
>C) outfought
> An adult scorpion man is _significantly_ superior to a human
>warrior.
One on one. In formation, a shield wall of Orlanthi carls will be in a
situation similar to republican Romans against Italian Celts - take some
beatings, but learn and destroy later.
Given equal skill, a scorpion man warrior will kill a human warrior nine
times out of ten in single combat, yes, but giving equal skill is quite a
task for a moron scorpion man even against a Barntar plowman. The Orlanthi
has about thrice the personal magic the scorpion moron will have.
> Their might is well-known, which gives the scorpion folk an
>additional psychological advantage -- their foes are fear them, just
>as Renaissance soldiers feared the Swiss.
In my Glorantha the spawnings of scorpion men (not full outbreaks) led to
almost staged chaos hunts for virtuous Orlanthi before 1616. A large number
of semi-trained volunteers came and stamped on hatchlings. Thus, the fear
level is less than against the Lunars, at least initially. Later, the
desperation level will be equalled by a stronger increase in disorganisation
of the folk, as they spread their leaders more thinly.
> Add to this the fact that about every third scorpion man has
>a chaotic feature, and it's clear that a significant effort is needed
>to stop these beings on the march.
No doubt about this. However, the humans can count on spirits and naturals
of the land to support them, from ancient alliances and centuries of sacred
marriages, and even the wind children will leave their eyries and defend
their hunting grounds.
> 1) MAGICIANS.
Even with most mundane spirit spells. The magic of Kill Bug (Disrupt) will
disorganize any scorpion man command in no time short, more effectively than
English longbows did with knights at Agincourt.
> 2) COMBINED ARMS TACTICS.
> Therefore, by skilled cooperation between troop types, the
>humans can do things which the scorpions cannot. Example: threaten
>the Folk with a heavy cavalry charge, which forces them to bunch up
>defensively. Then harass them with missiles.
And aerial support.
> 3) SUPERIOR NUMBERS. So far, every scorpion man uprising
>since the Darkness has been outnumbered by the populace of the nation
>in which it occurred.
I admit that this is not necessarily the case with the big one of Jab, but
the folk will thin out if they really devastate all the land they cross -
which I doubt very much, given that they inhabit a forested region outside
of the Footprint, which hasn't been turned to desert during ages of dense
folk occupation.
Sorry, the ecological catastrophe you cite is hard to accept for me.
> 4) TECHNOLOGY. Stone fortresses, catapults, pontoon bridges,
>etc. All present difficult problems for the scorpion creatures to
>overcome, but they must be used credibly, and the human leaders must
>remember that the power of chaos can often cancel out seeming
>advantages.
Here I see a fallacy of human possibilities. What works against humans and
trolls won't necessarily hinder the climbing abilities of scorpion folk.
Especially the (IMO common) drystone wall forts will provide excellent
footing to scorpion men.
>But always remember, human victories over the scorpion people are the
>result of numbers and cunning over quality and ferocity.
Quality? The scorpion folk quality troops are about as numerous in their
general population as are quality troops in human society, and the moron
masses may be good at single combat or hunting, but not at facing formations.
> Locusts don't "build up their numbers" till they swarm. And
>neither do scorpion men. Scorpion men don't rely on normal
>reproductive methods.
But they require time to build up skill to their average level of 30 to 50%,
even with natural weapons. If they do have an organised command, they have
built up, if they haven't built up, their wave is about as cunning as a
stampede of herd men.
>SCORPION MAN REPRODUCTION
> Scorpion men have three means of reproduction:
> 1) by individual Folk, who lay small clutches of eggs. This
>is only important for small groups of the Folk who do not dwell in
>villages. Limited mainly by food supply.
Compare Book of Drastic Resolution. For a swarm, this must provide the main
numbers...
> 2) by magic. A Rune-spell, and a foe becomes of the Folk.
Limited ecology-wise...
> 3) by the queen's egglaying. Since the bulk of scorpion
>reproduction consists of eggs laid by a single individual, they do
>not need to "build up numbers". Instead, the rate of reproduction is
>controlled by the amount of food available to the queen -- especially
>proteinaceous food. When the Folk wish to expand their numbers, they
>overfeed their queen. She, in turn, produces vast quantities of eggs.
>The hatchlings are overfed (the more they eat, the faster they
>mature), and in a year or two, you have piles of monsters. Scorpion
>men, like most common chaos monsters, are genetic r-strategists.
And the spawn quality depends on food quality for the queen. Unless the
Lunars sent Sartarite slaves to Jab (now there's a scenario plot), I don't
see how the queen should produce anything but morons en masse.
> But the outbreak accelerates, like an engine going out of
>control. As the area covered by the scorpion folk grows, they
>ingurgitate more and more food, and transport ever-greater loads back
>to the Queen.
Who lays eggs, and has them hatch in say a year - sufficient time for humans
to bring in support from the hinterland and halt the expansion, and push it
back.
> As the numbers and territory of the Folk grow, the number of
>sentients (mainly humans) that are captured rises, too. Each prisoner
>strengthens the Folk in two ways -- he can be eaten, and thus
>heighten the Folk's skills, or he can be transformed into the Folk
>directly. Either way, the Folk grow in toughness or numbers.
Save for their attrition - even if the folk devours their own (ever more
numerous) dead, there will be an overall diminishing in built-up skills all
the time. If the queen breeds for quality, no large scale devastation can
occur, if she breeds for quantity, food supply will suffer with the queen as
the spawn will use up the food (for lack of able organisation) before it
arrives at the queen. Either way, some sort of self-regulating mechanism
comes in.
> Queen Gagix Twobarg probably had at least a 7d6 POW -- even
>pure chance produces such Folk every twenty or thirty thousand
>births. Since she could thus maintain a POW of 30 and still have a
>95% chance of a POW increase, she could have quite a large amount of
>one-use spells available to her -- namely, Rituals of Devouring &
>Rebirth. Heroquest-like special powers can add to the efficacy.
I refuse to discuss stats here, but I agree that Queen Gagix would have been
an absolutely superior queen, and the only one of her power east of Dorastor.
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