Found the notebook! ---
Nutherners
The Nutherners are a strange breed. Largely nomadic pastoral herders, they nonetheless maintain settlements and an industrial base thanks to their relationship with the coal-wyrms. These great mud-spawn infest the underworld of Blighty, chewing through rock in the dark, feasting on coal seams. When a coal-wyrm has reached maturity it will start to force its way back to the surface. These vibrations signal other nearby mature wyrms the mating time has come and soon the landscape erupts with the huge creatures. Great chimney’s unfurl and clouds of reactive spores fizzle and fuse in the sky. Once the great Spring is over, the Nuthener's excavate the mass of long bodies, claiming fuel, metals and even housing from the carcasses. Otherwise, these taciturn clans keep to the hills, traveling with the wool-beast flocks, trading and occasionally fighting with each other.
Props. Almost a society within a society, Props see their role as one of support and stability. When disaster strikes or need is great, the Props will be there to lend a hand. They each carry a heavy bore grapeshot to battle, but such is their hatred of invaders and despoilers they often prefer to close with the enemy as a hammer-tip formation. As they charge the lead is pushing back against his squad until the last moment. Apart from the great strength requirement, a Prop needs to know the full poetry cycle of the Nuthener's history, pass the trial of blood and claim the mentorship of two kin to claim the title.
Wool-beast Although far to valuable to routinely risk on the front line, the sheer shock power and enduracne of these great animals has tipped the balance in otherwise desperate situations. Reacting to enemy forces as they would to dangerous animals (often correctly), the rams of the flock lead the charge. Thier dense metallic wool coats abosrbsing most small arms fire and their brute horn and sinew gouging and flipping enemy armour.
Spore Guns Rarely a Nutherner band chance upon a Coal Wyrm mating and rarer still they manage to catch a zygote before it burrows into the earth. Carefully nurtured on a cocktail of fuels, wastes and training chemicals, the zygote is pushed into accelerated maturity, developing into an immobile spore chimney. The 'adjusted' spores are deeply unstable and, strapped to a Shepard walker make for a formidable artillery unit.
Rangers Rangers are the eyes and ears of the Nutherner settlements. Mounted on heavy quad-bikes, they range the dangerous hills as scouts, reporting spawns, landslides or new coal wyrm emergence sites. They often carry messages between settlements or Shepard flocks and generally act out all the roles in Nutherner society where speed and a keen mind are required. They excel as outriders and scouts but also serve as clan diplomats and couriers between the different powers.
Shepard Bandit raids on the Nutherner's flocks are rare since an agitated flock is capable of overturning a tank and their matted wool is proof against most conventional weapons. Still, flocks can be overwhelmed by Mud-spawn emerging from the hills or scattered by a storm. A Nutherner Shepard tracks and cares for his flock on four great piston driven legs, armed with a crook for 'man-handling' errant sheep and a heavy cannon for scaring off predators. The same protective instincts honed on the hills means the Shepards will always come to the aid of their countrymen when the call goes out.
Shearers A variant on the Shepard Chassis, the Shearer wields twin crooks, each with an integrated power strimmer. Nothing less can easily part a wool beast from it's hide. Unlike Shepards, Shearers move from town to town with the seasons working from contract to contract. Without the range of their brother mechs, they are rarely on the front lines, finding their devastating claws better employed in close support actions.
Fellwalkers It is unclear what the Fellwalkers are and how they tie the Nutherner's to the blasted hills. They are clearly revered by the tight-lipped clans and seem able to walk through the thickest defensive line without danger. Tall and wide and wrapped in patchwork cloth, it is said their eyes glow faintly but the rest of their face is hidden behind a thick beard. Some claim they have three legs, while others that antlers jut out the side of their tall black hats. Creatures of mist and shadow, there is no record of a Fellwalker harming a living soul but such is the dread they inspire they are often targeted above and beyond regular Nutherner forces.
Last edited by madd0ct0r on Thu Oct 23, 2014 7:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
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