Secret of the Garden

[theLuckyDragon]

...REVEALED!

STAY TUNED FOR MORE INFO!

During the last few months, me and ThunderTitan have been working on a little project of our own regarding a new faction. It all started out as a joke, but gained momentum as all sorts of stuff happened around the forum. So we put together a faction sheet and now we've decided to make it public. I'll present in the following posts.

The first thing to remember when reading it is that it's supposed to be funny, lighthearted, but in the same time valid for gameplay. I repeat: amusing first, valid second. As a secondary mention, in the faction sheet you will encounter lots of references to various popular books and such; they're all on purpose! Finally, we don't know if this could ever be implemented somehow, but let's all just have some fun for now, ok?

[theLuckyDragon]

Leprechaun Faction
"Anything is possible."

AKA: the Greenfolk, the Wee Folk, the Little People
ASSOCIATED COLORS: green, brown, white
WORSHIP: Valath the Shalaur, the Primordial Dragon of Chance, Dropper of the Cosmic Egg
CORE PHILOSOPHY: "Nothing is impossible, things are just improbable. Tip the scales in your favour "
COUNTRY: Twinbridge Land
CAPITAL CITY: Town of All Leprechauns Everywhere (Tale for short)
KEY SYMBOLS: Four-leaf clover, Horseshoe, Green hat



NOTE: Twinbridge gets it's name from the huge twin rainbows that run across it's sky night and day.



HISTORY:

The Unlikely Age: Valath comes into existence with a sudden *pop*, out of pure chance; he prances around the Multiverse, exploring the various things contained within; he gives a nudge to a little ball of fire which then explodes with a big BANG! and starts expanding; later on, he comes upon a gigantic egg, at which moment he instantly thinks: OMLET!

The Mythic Age: Valath accidentally drops the Cosmic Egg, which breaks and gives birth to the Twin Dragons; Urgash starts swearing and insulting Valath because of the bumps while Asha, ever-wise and calculated, gives him for all eternity (and beyond) the title of "the Shalaur", which means "He-who-shouldn't-have-been-but-IS-against-all-odds" in the highly flexionary language of the Dragons*; she then proceeds to create the world and the well known war takes place, during which Valath is off exploring other regions of the Multiverse.

*incidentally, in modern-day Common Ashanian, the word "Shalaur" has the unusual meaning "devourer-of-omlet"

The Ancient Age: Valath returns from his explorations with three shiny white jewels to find the world of Ashan freshly devastated after the war; he is deeply impressed and decides to leave, but he accidentally drops the three jewels: one on the Sky, one in the Earth and one in the Seas; Ashan miraculously heals; a giant tree grows where the second jewel fell on earth and the elven communities slowly gather around it, naming it Brythigga and considering it sacred.

The Modern Age:

Year -1: Valath returns once again to find the world blooming; he decides to create a race of his own so he makes the Leprechauns, places them in the Land of Twinbridge, far to the east, away from the Elder Races, and gives them a social structure based on wandering tribes and one central Town of All Leprechauns Everywhere (Tale for short); the young Leprechaun nation becomes a merry little kingdom where all sorts of interesting things happen, but no contact with the west is established; Valath starts wandering Ashan in disguise.

YSD 0: Valath comes upon an amateur astronomer named Elam and decides to help him in his studies of the Moon; he uses his powers to send him to the Moon to study what seemed to be craters, but during the process a flower pot suddenly materializes and hits Valath on the head*, who gets amnesia and forgets to bring Elam back; however, on the Moon Elam lands on the edge of a "crater", discovers it's actually one of Asha's eyelids and attracts her attention, so she teaches him the nature of matter and spirit and shows him the higher path of power; Elam becomes the Seventh Dragon; it is also on this occasion that the Tears of Asha fall into the world, because Elam irritated her eyes.

*according to tradition, the flower pot's last words were "Oh no! Not again!"

YSD 64: Sar-Shazzar gives the prophecy of the Demon Messiah; among other things, it contains a few lines about little green men coming from the east in the year 1000 that scholars haven't been able to decipher completely.

Throughout the Modern Age, Valath has been seen sporadically wandering without aim and washing windows in imperial palaces. In 843 YSD, during the 4th Eclipse, an expedition from Twinbridge lands on the southeastern shores of the Empire but with all the war going on, they decide the place is not merry enough and leave back home, but not before taking embarrassing snapshots of royalty with their pants down.

As the millennium approaches, the Leprechaun nation is more and more restless and bored of Twinbridge Land. In 988, after the dissappointing results of the Annual Twinbridge Games*, large fleets of emigrants leave for the western lands, now percieved as full of adventure and action. In 989 the fleets reach the southeastern shores of the Empire and found a colony there, which they name Narrow-water. [Thus, the Leprechauns establish a presence on the main stage of the events in Ashan; they will be involved in the events of DM, the H5 expansions and beyond...]

*the Annual Twinbridge Games are a central point in Greenfolk society and bear certain similarities to the Olympic Games

[theLuckyDragon]

Numbers are not final. We haven't made any precise calculations. Also, we haven't really checked the game for the exact name of the stats Oh, and where it says "similar" it means it has the same effect, but either weaker or stronger. Question marks mean that's the general domain of the specialty, but it could be changed.

HEROES:

Dianne -- Witch of the Night -- tier 6 units also reduce initiative; tier 6 and 6+ units get +1DEF for every 4 levels of the hero
Tiernan -- Lord of the Leprechauns -- tier 3 and 3+ units get +1ATT&DEF for every 2 levels of the hero; improved Leprechaun gold generation
Irene -- Muse of the Prism -- tier 5 and 5+ units get +1ATT for every 3 levels of the hero; similar to Mentor, in any case
Alan -- Rhymecaster -- similar to Jhora's Windspeaker
Sean -- Feather Walker -- terrain movement penalty reduced by 50%?
Corinne -- Lady of the Tarot -- Bless and Curse spells mana cost reduced?
Marianne -- Tinker -- Haggle ability improved and the hero also gets various small bonuses from certain artifacts
Adrian -- Illusionist -- casts Phantom Forces with increased effect (created stack has x% more creatures and y initiative?)
Aidan -- Chosen of the Whale -- during the Migration, a spirit of the sea has bestowed the blessing of Mutation on Aidan; his ranged attack shoots twice and is mildly poisonous; he can also bestow this Mutation on a friendly creature once per combat, for a limited period of time

Gee, I hope I didn't give out too much on the tier 3 creature... Or one of the racial skills...

[theLuckyDragon]

Again, the numbers aren't 100% final. Also, thanks to Lord Haart, who indirectly inspired the name of the racial special.

RACIAL SKILL:

This is basically the WoG version of the Scouting skill, with the irritating addition of a weaker version of the Incorporeal trait.

VIP (Vile Irritating Pest)
* Basic VIP:
- spies' options: learns info on enemy town, reveals infiltrated castle surroundings
- combat bonus: gives a 10% chance for enemy to miss their attack
* Advanced VIP:
- spies' options: info, surroundings, steals resources (50% chances of success)
- combat bonus: chance of missing 15%, enemy morale -1
* Expert VIP:
- spies' options: info, surroundings, steals resources (60% chances), reduces creature growth (60% chances)
- combat bonus: chance of missing 20%, enemy morale -2
* Ultimate VIP:
- spies' options: like above and can sabotage buildings, except Grail (75% chances)
- combat bonus: chance of missing 25%, enemy morale -3

RACIAL ABILITIES:

Haggle -- better resource and artifact exchange rates for the hero
Stealth -- the hero creates his own shroud of darkness at the cost of not moving for the duration of the turn; another effect of this procedure is that creatures gain +1 initiative in their next battle
Third Time Charm -- if a creature gets two consecutive unlucky rolls, the third will certainly be with a +1 modifier

ULTIMATE ABILITY:

Temper Tantrum -- affected creatures (3x3 area) lose their next action, but have 2x damage on retaliation; +5% to enemy miss chance

SKILLS:

Arrows only represent possible (and of course partial) requirements for the perks; we haven't sorted out our skill wheel yet.

Light Magic --> Master of Blessings --> Refined Mana --> Twilight

Dark Magic --> Master of Mind --> Dark Renewal --> Accursed Fortune

Destructive Magic --> Master of Storms --> Mana Burst (a)

Summoning Magic --> Master of Conjuration --> Elemental Balance --> Elemental Call

Sorcery --> Magic Insight --> Erratic Mana --> Balanced Power

Attack --> Tactics --> Retribution --> Banish Luck

Defense --> Vitality --> Resistance --> Last Stand

Luck --> Magic Resistance --> Dead Man's Curse --> Blessed Essence

Leadership --> Diplomacy --> Divine Guidance (b)

Logistics --> Navigation (c) --> Silent Stalker --> Call of Migration

Enlightenment --> Arcane Intuition --> Primordial Revelation

War Machines --> First Aid --> Herblore --> Ressurection Potions


Flavour Explanations:
(a) sparks are generated in contact with the magical field created by the enemy while casting a spell, who then catches fire
(b) and since 'divine' in their case means the Dragon of Chance, the Divine Guidance they get is more like a coincidence
(c) this one IS a requirement because ALL Greenfolk came from beyond the sea and it was a life-changing experience for them

Perk Descriptions:
Accursed Fortune = every time and enemy stack gets a lucky attack, it receives a Curse(?; a bad one nonetheless) spell

Elemental Call = when it's the hero's turn, he/she automatically summons a small stack of elementals

Balanced Power = if the enemy hero's Spell Power is greater than the greenie's, the SP are equalized according to a certain algorithm; the SP for each is modified by a value V, which is added to the hero's SP and substracted from the enemy's; V is calculated thus: the difference between the SPs is made, divided by 2 and rounded down

Banish Luck = creatures in hero's army gain a 50% chance to neutralize the enemy's luck upon attacking

Blessed Essence = if a stack gets a lucky attack, it first regenerates a certain number of HP

Call of Migration = ship boarding penalty reduced to 80% and creatures consider all terrains as native

Primordial Revelation = the hero learns about the true story of Existence; enemy units gain -1 initiative because they get a sort of inferiority complex seeing the greenfolk laughing like crazy at their 'dragon gods'

Herblore = as long as there are brownies in the army, the tent will keep working

Ressurection Potions = the tent can ressurect creatures from a stack once per combat; the more creatures that have died from that stack, the fewer that can be ressurected

MAGIC SPHERES:
Light and Dark

[theLuckyDragon]

CREATURES:

First off, let me point out that tier 7 creatures are not dragons. Second, I'm still not sure what the classes of creatures are in H5, so I used "shooter", "melee", "flyer", "caster" to describe them. We also haven't thought about the sizes yet, but tier 7 is probably big, and perhaps tier 4 too. As always, any numbers you may see here aren't 100% sure.

1: Clover Spirit -- shooter
1+a: Shamrock -- shooter; luck aura
1+b: Will'O'Wisp -- flyer; confusion attack

2: Muffin Man -- melee; enchanted baker (heals a small number of HP on all creatures)
2+a: Brownie -- melee; enchanted baker (heals some more HP)
2+b: Duergar -- walker; caster (blur)

3: Green Child -- melee; steals mana
3+a: Leprechaun -- melee; generates gold
3+b: Clurichaun -- melee; +1 morale to all friendly stacks

4: Krikkit Cavalry -- flyer
4+a: Krikkit Dragoon -- flyer; bind
4+b: Krikkit Hussar - flyer; bash

5: Rainbow Apprentice -- shooter
5+a: Rainbow Oracle -- shoter; caster (some Light Magic spells)
5+b: Rainbow Seer -- shooter; no range penalty

6: Black Cat -- melee; misfortune (50% chance to cast misfortune on target when she attacks or retaliates)
6+a: Shadow Cat -- melee; misfortune; lowers initiative of attacker/target
6+b: Spirit Cat -- melee; misfortune; no retaliation

7: Sky Serpent -- flyer; magic mirror 30% reflection chance; sheds fur (resulting in something like a Slow spell); casts spells
7+a: Luck Dragon -- flyer; magic mirror 50%; bell song (once per battle, limited duration: boost to morale, speed and initiative); casts spells
7+b: Leviathan -- magic mirror 20%; coil (stops target in place, with extra dmg per round, can only attack 2 squares away while coiled); abominable strenght (more dmg the higher the target creature's tier)

[theLuckyDragon]

CONCEPT ART:

1: patches of moving clover fields; attack involves rustling of leaves
1+a: as above, with a tiny golden aura and four-leaf clovers
1+b: swirling lights with small clover motif

2: small, light brown skin, red beard/hair, wearing brown beaver furs
2+a: slighlty better dressed version of the muffin man, wearing red stuff
2+b: more muscular looking, wearing more stealthy clothes

3: small, innocent greenfolk with loincloth, wielding a wooden spear
3+a: traditional leprechaun with brown beard and green suit and hat
3+b: slightly drunker and coarser looking leprechaun

4: greenfolk on giant cricket wielding horseshoe mace
4+a: armoured greenfolk on giant cricket wielding horseshoe flail
4+b: light armoured greefolk on giant cricket with a horseshoe poleaxe

5: female, brown robe with rainbow scarf
5+a: female, brown robe, rainbow aura
5+b: female, grey robe, rainbow radiant halo

6: black, yellow eyes
6+a: pitch black, glowing green eyes
6+b: translucent obsidian, glowing silver eyes

7: multicolored, feathered, snake-like
7+a: pearl-colored, fur, long body with short legs
7+b: glowing emerald, scales, snake-like

[theLuckyDragon]

Thanks to HodgePodge for inspiring the name of one of the special buildings

TOWN LINEUP:

Common Buildings:
Hall, Fort, Marketplace, Blacksmith (First Aid Tent), Tavern, Resource Silo (Gems), Shipyard, Mage Guild

Dwellings:
t1 -- Clover Patch -> Clover Fields
t2 -- Drury Lane -> Gingerbread House
t3 -- Emerald Cottage -> Emerald Lodge
t4 -- Krikkit Colony -> Wikkit Gate
t5 -- Tent of Colors -> Rainbow Bridge
t6 -- Feline Alley -> Midnight Square
t7 -- Altar of Fate -> Tower of Fortune

Specials:
Twilight Halls -- HQ of the VIP Association
Prismatic Obelisk (Rainbow Apprentice/Oracle/Seer horde building)
Pot O'Gold (Clurichaun/Leprechaun/Green Lad horde building)
Booby Traps -- siege defense (5 random stun bombs)
Garden of the Wee Folk -- 500 Gold or a few Gems once per week

Grail:
Cairn of the Sidhe
+50% creature growth
+5000 gold per day
+2 to Spellpower and Knowledge for all heroes

[theLuckyDragon]

RESERVED FOR FUTURE USE, MODS PLEASE DON'T MERGE

Finished reserving posts, you can start wondering what all this is about now.

[ThunderTitan]

I wonder what this thread could be about.... i'm certainly intrigued. Aren't you?!

[asandir]

well considering you're supposed to be a party to this I would hope you know what's going on!!

looking interesting thou, love the name of the capital TALE

[DaemianLucifer]

He is a part of it just because he loops.Messa wanna seessa creaturessa

[theLuckyDragon]

Creatures will be near the end

Updated post #2 with heroes.

[DaemianLucifer]

Chosen of the whale? Mutation?

[theLuckyDragon]

Couldn't leave that one out, now could we?

[asandir]

That was the one I was gonna comment on too, ah, has to be mentioned somewhere

[ThunderTitan]

well considering you're supposed to be a party to this I would hope you know what's going on!!

TheNile runs deep. Strong i it is my line.


tLD might not have net access atm, so we're gonna have to wait a while...

[Ethric]

Ooooh, look at all the duplicate posts on page one *delete, delete, delete, delete, merge*

[ThunderTitan]

Man... now i want mod powers!


Oh, if tLD doesn't show up during the week-end could any of you mods help me post the next update with your editing powers?

[theLuckyDragon]

Touch my precious octuple posts?! NEVER!

I'm here people, don't worry.
My connection is not what it used to be, but I'll manage with it until I go back to "Claudiopolis".

[ThunderTitan]

Stop with that infernal eating and post the next update already... at this pace i'll get bored and start playing NWN2 or seeing a movie.