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Dwarven Gatecrashing Metacorporation: Let’s Play Warlock 2: The Exiled Table o' Contents - Now With Less Broken Links! Races and Mages Chapter 1: The New Old King Chapter 2: Razor-1 Chapter 3: Forty Skeletons on a Dead Man's Plane, o ho ho ho, And a Pack Spiders Chapter 4: Citadel of the Wandering Chapter 5: Stiff Resistance Chapter 6: Taking the Dead World Chapter 7: Like Mages Are Wont To Do Chapter 8: Dead Tension Chapter 9: The Second War of Howling Sorrow Chapter 10: The Tools of War and Peace Chapter 11: The Strange Times of Peace Chapter 12: Dragons of Color Chapter 13: Old Friends Redux Chapter 14: Claiming The Shores Chapter 15: Ancient Secrets, Not So Ancient Foes Chapter 16: The Newly Dead Chapter 17: Rolling Thunder Chapter 18: In Which We Make Progress of the Gate Kind Chapter 19: Intermission Chapter 20: The Changing Tides of War Chapter 21: Ainadra Burns Chapter 22: Gatecrashing Ardania Chapter 23: To Kill a God-Head Epilogue: Last Thoughts and Regrets Who the Hell are you and what is happening? Hello, my name is JcDent and I like short walks on the beach, RTS games and writing video game reviews. Coming hot on the heels of my Warlock: Master of the Arcane review (finished yesterday!), I’m here to do a screenshot LP of its sequel, Warlock 2: The Exiled.  Warlock 2 also offers 200% increase in bloom. What is Warlock 2: The Exiled? W2E (I’m sure nobody refers to it like that) is an 4X turn based strategy game. To put it somewhat bluntly, it’s Civilization, but with magic. I still think that mechanically, it’s a lot easier than Civ, that’s my first LP was called “Baby’s First 4X”. Due to all the DLCs it got over time, I LP’ed a very different game from the one that was published initially. Heroes were introduced, shifting the unit power away from actual units, there was a new race, a new Oblivion crisis-type game mode and so on. All these changes (except for the invasion) were rolled into one package, some sprinkles were added, and we have Warlock 2: The Exiled. Of course, there’s more to the game than that (otherwise I would have said “W2E is a sequel as much as Dark Crusade could be considered one”: *No more unlimited unit upgrades: you actually have to seek additional nodes of resources to kit your army in killing gear. *No more Infinite City Crawl (kind of and can be turned off): every “real” city (there are several types that won’t expand in land, build buildings or train units, claim resources, but will generate income) counts against a limit and crossing that for a longer time might get you a rebellion. Kind of puts a damper on rapid conquests and makes you really work for those upgrade resource nodes. *Actual loving research tree: no more stumbling in the dark hoping you’ll randomly find Elemental Resurrection. *Two new races: Svarts and Plane *New campaign and sandbox modes: did you like going to demiplanes in the original game? Well, now there’s a game mode where you do nothing else but travel a chain of connected demiplanes (shards). It’s Eador with less grinding, Perimeter without Russian sci-fi bullshit! *Probably something else (I think archers can lend some support to melee units now. Whoo, combined arms!) that isn’t as impactful or meaningful. But Mr. JcDent, I play games for the story and campaign! So do I, little trooper. If you want all of the background, one noble man rose to the task and did a very good summary in the last thread: LightWarden posted:It's Civ 5 plus Masters of Magic. Not as much in the way of a tech tree as Civilization, but the spell system is neat, especially if you have the DLC so you can go create artifacts for your raging murdersticks to fight off Armageddon. Thanks, LightWarden! Anyways, the last game mode introduced in Master of the Arcane and closest thing it ever had to a plot or campaign was the Dremer invasion. Fleshy gates start appearing (and exploding) all over Ardania, along with Dremers, mindless, yet very powerful invaders from an outer plane. You try to stem the tide (Dremer gates corrupt landscape around them, which then heals Dremer units, and, if not destroyed in time, the gates explode, destroying surrounding terrain) and eventually counter-invade the Dremer world. There, you exploit unit routines heroically kill Dremargor, the Prime Dremer and win the game. Canonically, Miralbus the Hat was the one to slay the beast. Jc-Canon states that Lich King V did that while Miralbus was engaged in a petty border conflict with Sol de Torvega and had corruption covering about 70% of his realm. However, W2E explains that while you were working to stop the end of the world, some rear end in a top hat Greta Mage was working on the spell of Unity that would basically make him on with the magic of Ardania (it’s one of the Victory conditions that get turned off in Dremers). Usurping basically all the power, he subjugated, killed or drove off the Great Mages of Ardania. The exiles found themselves traveling the shards, the demiplane-lite remains of worlds that Dremers actually managed to conquer. Of course, with Great Mage status comes great ambition, so many of them aim to return to Ardania, punish traitors and kill the everloving crap out of the United One. But first you have to find Ardania. Let the dimension hopping, gate crashing adventures begin! What gatecrashing adventures?  I’ll be playing the most regular Exiled campaign. I won’t change difficulty nor monster spawns, because it’s already ridiculous in this game. Witness the numbers:  This is most likely the developer’s way to work around the fact that AI in this game is rock stupid. I mean really really dense. It’s not uncommon for one to gently caress up own economy so much that they can’t really expand past their own shard. They’re also really bad at dealing with the more powerful monster spawns (and this game has plenty of those), it’s almost sad.  Anyways, huge world (big is best and I never play Battlefield matches that are smaller than 64), will able to show many pretty shards and all that, maybe even get all temple units). If audience wants it, I can play against 5 mages, it's not like they're any threat. I believe I’m in a position to update once every two days and my aim is to “git er done” ‘till October, rather than taking a year, a month and ten days like the last time. How about some voting? This just in: the race is not up for vote. The vanilla races have NOTHING new to then, so it would be extremely boring for me. Planestriders are kind of lame (my W2E campaign was done with them), so we’ll be taking Svarts, the best race. You, however, have about a day to vote for which Great Mage I’ll play. The information about them will be given below. It’s really a question of fluff and I’ll try to roleplay a the chosen mage to my best capability. The race will still be Svarts, tho! Spoilers! I’m under the impression that people would like to be surprised by what units Svarts actually have, so please, only discuss them after I build them. I’m also asking you to refrain from spoiling the plot of the campaign! Discussion on the events of previous games and especially lore is welcome, because I only ever managed to play Majesty 2 till that one level with dragon. Mods? W2E supports mods and from the looks of it isn't that hard to mod (then again, I'm not modeler nor programmer, so that's my asspulltise talking). If you have any that you fancy, I can testdrive them in separate, non canon posts – or maybe see how they go after the main LP. This would probably be best considering fan made races (which I expect are unbalanced as all hell). If you would to port Imperial Guard from Dawn of War to the game, I’d be eternally thankful. JcDent fucked around with this message at 04:39 on Sep 28, 2014 |
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What about the Races and Great Mages? Well, the choice of the Great Mage is mostly cosmetic one (you can totally make one with any stats, perks or starting benefits you want) and your gameplay is mostly determined by your race. Here are all the race and the mages traditionally associated with them. Humans  Human rogues are all females, alert Ms. Sarkesian Your bog standard fantasy homo sapiens. Like all of the races introduced in the first game, they’re unchanged and have no new units. Humans excel in gold production, and there might be some sense in that. The Majesty series of games was a Randian fantasty kingdom simulator in that you used taxes to hire heroes and incentivize them to maybe go kill something; you didn’t control units directly! In Warlock, human units are still said to belong to the various hero-for-hire guilds (and share the aesthetics of the ones seen in Majesty) so that makes sense. Human units aren’t actually that special, save for the fact that you can have temples (and temple for units) for every god except for Grum Gog. Human Mages Anna the Benign  Anna the Benign took the betrayal of the United One harder than anyone, for she was rumoured to be his close friend. This is why the war with the new god was not her immediate concern. But the United One was not just a Great Mage, he was was creature bereft of morality and feelings. Anna knew this bitter truth from experience. Only with the divine protection of Agrela did Anna manage to survive and save many of her lieges. Now she wanders across the worlds with her people, and dreams of returning to Ardania. Not for revenge, not for fame nor in hope of returning what is lost, but for the sake of those poor souls who still remain there. (from 'Chronicles of New Worlds' written by Master Vardies Teleran) Krel the Kingpin  The emergence of the United One violated the old agreements between the Mages of Ardania and called for new alliances. While some Mages swore allegiance to the new god, and King Lich and Malinalxochi tried to destroy him, Krel was looking for allies to fight against the United One. He has to perform quite a feat -- to convince the god Krolm himself that allies are essential for such a venture. The rest seemed simple. Krel quickly found common ground with Sol de Torvega an Amberon the Dark, who were also forming a coalition against the United One... But the united forces of the three Great Mages, three patron gods and their three armies were not enough. De Torvega was killed, Amberon was captured... In an effort to retain at least part of the allied troops, Helia and Krolm transferred Krel the Kingpin and his men away from Ardania and with one last effect managed to seal the United One inside. However, the leader of the Barbarians is not accustomed to retreating, and he knows that no seal will last forever... With or without allies, Krel intends to return one day and win! (from 'Chronicles of New Worlds' written by Master Vardies Teleran) Nefertari  Some of those who managed to escape from Ardania under the rule of the United One were thrown into the world of the Great Desert, and had to wander around for a long time, hoping to find shelter, food, or water. Many only briefly outlived their hope. In the darkest hour of despair, when all the energy dried up, Nefertari, Pearl of the Desert, the heiress of Ancient Truths, appeared before the survivors. She summoned magic and created shelter, food and water for them, asking for only one thing in exchange: to swear an oath of allegiance and become her Warriors. A small price to pay for life and freedom from suffering! So far, we haven't regretted the price, but... There are days when I'm afraid to look into the shining eyes of Nefertari, because in them I see the light of a mind that surpasses my understanding. {from 'Chronicles of New Worlds' written by Master Vardies Teleran) (Her entry is probably the most srs one) Monsters  Goblins are ugly in all colors This is the unlikely mishmash of goblins (and their horrible voice acting), gnomes, werewolf shock troops and siege trolls. I played them in the last LP, which went along the lines “goblins are stupid and expendable, werewolves are awesome”. Besides that, monsters have the highest food production (for goblin spam, I guess), those sweet sweet regenerating/soul damage dealing Werewolves, and are the only ones that can have Grum-Gog temples (but he’s the worst, so it doesn’t matter). Monstrous Mages Xara  If anyone benefitted from the United One besides the United One himself, it was the Head Shaman Ash-Haar the Wisest . In exchange for some services in the past, the United One not only didn't fight against Ash-Haar, but for his 'help and understanding' gave him a great part of his treasures in addition to a cosy, beautiful and inaccessible world on the outskirts of the universe. Ash-Haar accepted the gift, promising never to fight against the United One, and left Ardania, taking his monsters with him. But not all the goblins accepted such an exchange. Ash-Haar's best student, who was always been brutally honest (frankly, more on the brutal side) and short-tempered, became the new Head Priestess of Grum-Gog, and declared that she had no itnention of giving the anscestral lands of monsters to the United One. And believe me, when Xara decides something, even the United One can't dissuade her. (from 'Chronicles of New Worlds' written by Master Vardies Teleran) (In Jc-Canon, Ash-Haar got defeated by Dremers like a chump) Tlalocian  The name of Tlalocian in Koatl language means 'He Who Is Chosen by Tlaloc', but that doesn't answer the question as to who this Tlaloc is. We only know that Tlalocian honors the god Fervus and is a half brother of Malinalxochi , the Snake Queen - the very Malinalxochi who not only refused to submit to the United One, but fiercely attacked him on her own, without the support of the other Mages, and was destroyed by the unprecedented magic force of the new god. Tlalocian, thought he never liked his sister, took her defeat as a personal insult, and wants the United One to pay for it... with his blood and soul. (from 'Chronicles of New Worlds' written by Master Vardies Teleran) (Koatls are Aztec lizards found in Koatl villages and not exactly a part of Monster "race") King Rrat LIV  King Rrat LIV is the eleventh son of the famous Rrat XLII who attempted a desperate escape from Ardania at the first signs of despotism of the United One. After his father's death the throne was rightfully passed to his eldest son Rrat KLIII, and it seemed that the rest of the princes could only receive titled of Dukes or Counts. But Rrat LIV soon managed to outlive all his brothers and so became the King. And attentive reader needs to know only this much about the new king. But even more characteristic is the fact that King Rrat LIV intends to outlive the United One and return his power over Ardanian royal sewers. (from 'Chronicles of New Worlds' written by Master Vardies Teleran) (Snoop-Jim’s is dead, baby, if only so I wouldn’t have to fake jive anymore. In Jc-Canon, King Rrat XLII didn’t really manage to do much and was basically saved by King Lich V and a suicidal werewolf charge. His successor has a much better portrait) Undead  Neruz posted:Ovbiously the way undead reproduce is by having all the skeletons get together in a big crypt and bone These guys are dead minions of necromancers and thus mostly unaffected by whatever ails the living (they’re still vulnerable to stabbings and bashings, and extra vulnerable to life magic). Skellingtons make for nice troops (no unit quotes) and vampires can probably give werewolves a hard time. But the most important thing is that they actual flying ghost ships as siege units. They are awesome, even if I used them to hunt monsters. Undead are best at producing mana (and they need it, since their units consume mana instead of food) and have some interesting temple units (except for Housecarls of Krolm). Undead Mages King Lich VI  King Lich did not like the United One very much even when he was a mere Great Mage, not to mention after his transformation... Witnesses could have written songs about King Lich's fight against the United One, if the latter had left at least one witnes alive. He wanted to destroy the very name of the King Lich so much that he used all his strength to erase the armies of the undead. Thus he actually rendered an invaluable service to the King Lich, for the recently resurrected King Lich VI knows the limits of the United One's power, and now he can give this enemy hell. (from 'Chronicles of New Worlds' written by Master Vardies Teleran) (Aw yeah, the best king with the best art, defeated the Dremer in Jc-Canon, did the same suicide attack, too. Playing him would make sense since I also know/faintly remember the limits of United One’s power) Mallacir  Mallacir, Countess of Karnstein, is a charming girl and a lovely conversation partner whose castle is an absolute must-see. Many of those who come to her dinner parties for the first time wonder why such a young lady has extensive domains in the Death world, why she runs the armies of the undead and is patronized by Krypta. Mallacir answers all questions with a smile, saying that the title and the lands are her inheritance from her great-grandmother, and that she likes everything, although in recent years she's getting bored of the landscape outside the window, and she is thinking about travelling, to see other worlds and be seen, and adding that it's time to move on to dessert... (from 'Chronicles of New Worlds' written by Master Vardies Teleran) Arethi Elves  "Wait a minute, are those... women? I haven't seen one in years!" Arethi Elves in Master of the Arcane were kind of phisophical religious zealots (their “Truth” is undefined, but they don’t believe gods to be actual god beings) and more than likely crusaders. It’s a massive sausage fest since elven women (all of them) left to do their own thing (open casinos or be mercenary archers). As how they breed, well,  Their units are powerful, but more in a glass-cannon-y type of thing, and they are expensive in upkeep. They also have awesome flying ships that almost look like spaceships. Elves specialize in research generation. Elven Mages Dragon Queen  After the United One captured Amberon the Dark, the remaining Arethi Elves were completely overwhelmed by what had happened. They faced a terrible defeat alone, without the Light of Truth and without their Teacher. Who knows what would have happened to them if it hadn't been for the Dragon Queen? Seeing the confusion of the male Elves, she came to them not as a long-standing rival, but as their deliveress. She took the place of Amberon, and using the power of Dragons, withdrew the surviving Elves from Ardania. However, the Dragon Queen wouldn't be called the Dragon Queen has she only thought of saving the Elves and herself. There is an ancient prophecy which says: 'The one who can take away the force of the United God will be able to revive the ancient Dragons of Creation.' Until recently, this prophecy didn't make much sense, but now... All the Dragon Queen needs is to raise an army that can defeat the United One. (from 'Chronicles of New Worlds' written by Master Vardies Teleran) Amberon the Light  What happened to Amberon? Many would like to know the answer to this question. It is known that Amberon the Dark along with Krel the Kingpin and Sol de Torvega tried to attack the United One and suffered defeat. Amberon was captured, and the Dragon Queen withdrew the leaderless Arethi Elves from Ardania. This might have been the end of it, if Amberon hadn't showed up at the Queen's court later. Many of the Arethi Elves immediately returned to his command. But... Amberon has changed. He has changed so much that his courtiers sometimes don't recognize their Lord. The usual severity and intolerance has given way to kindness and understanding, and most importantly, Amberon declared that a new Supreme Truth came to him while he was captive. He saw the light, and from now on he would lead the Arethi Elves to a different and brighter future. (from 'Chronicles of New Worlds' written by Master Vardies Teleran) (Amberon was the first neighbor we had in Master of the Arcana and was the only Mage King Lich had to defeat. That’s what you get for being a lovely neighbor) Planestriders  I can see a very white Raz'Al'Ghoul from here Planestriders are made from leftovers of other races. Well, they’re supposed to be this cool and mysterious (vaguely Eastern and Asian styling) band of remnants of Great King’s army and Incorporeals, and they really want to return to Ardania . I played the W2E campaign with them and was severely disappointed, even if their basic troops are secretly sentient skellingtons (they intone “Servants of his majesty” when selected) and some unit types can walk on water. So much for that  Good loading screen art, tho Strider Mages Miralbus the Hat  Miralbus Card, officially also known as 'The Hat', has more right to hate the United One than anyone. That is because the United One not only diminished Miralbus' victory over Dremagor - the terrible leader of the Dremers - but he also usurped Miralbus' title as the Head of the Council of Great Mages and of Ardania itself. For someone else it could have been a tremendous disaster ending with deep depression, but for the Great Mage who was often named 'The Hat' behind his back, it became just a slight delay on his path to glory and power. Miralbus didn't waste a second mourning lost opportunities, but went travelling through the worlds searching for new allies who could help him in his war against the United One. Soon he encountered the Planestriders - a most curious alliance of races made by the remnants of the army of the Great King and the Incorporeal - whose warriors were just what Miralbus needed. He quickly persuaded the Planestriders that he was best suited to be their leader, and took on the role for mutual benefit - Miralbus got the army he was looking for, and the Planestriders got his word that someday they would return to Ardania, their long lost home. (from 'Chronicles of New Worlds' written by Master Vardies Teleran) (In Jc-Canon Miralbus would offer Alliance, then start a war against Sol de Torvega, thus forcing us to break Alliance. The cycle continued on and on). Rjakh  Rjakh ... Now, after meeting the Incorporeal, I should know much more about him than I did before. I know that he is one of the best Sorcerers of this race, that he is patronised by Lunord himself, and that the experience gained during the dispute over the title of Lord of Ardania allowed Rjakh to take the place of the First Mage of the Planestriders when he returned to his native world. Which, by the way, is where he went just as he learned that one of the Great Ones was about to finish the Unity spell. But the main question remains: why does Rjakh intend to return to Ardania now, when he avoided the battle with the United One before? Did Lunord advise him? Or maybe he understands that the gods will not be able to lock the United One within the boundaries of one world for a long time, and wants to strike first? Or ... I don't know. I can't predict his actions. Sometimes I think that Rjakh is a much more ancient crature than the Gods themselves, but sometimes I feel that there is something strangely familiar in him ... (from 'Chronicles of New Worlds' written by Master Vardies Teleran) (a rethorical question: is naming a race “Incorporeal” worse than coming up with a silly fantasy name for them?) Svarts  Svarts give so little poo poo about anything, their town spawns next to Sea Serpent lair Svarts are dorfs who survived Dremer eating their world. They’re that cool and (supposedly) OP. They’re also the most technological of races with some wild units I only ever heard of, but they’re not slouches in magic either. What, I can have my technology AND magic? Preposterous! Svarts are really, really tough by the looks of it and are good in research. Svart(hy) Mages Es Kaliborn (a.k.a. God-Emperor of Dorfkind)  The rule of the Svarts was never a Great Mage, but he is a great (perhaps the greatest) tactician and strategist. He and his people were able to survive the Dremer invasion known as "the Armageddon" thanks to their unmatched stamina, force, knowledge of metallurgy, and simple incredible stubbornness. Es Kaliborn is the embodiment of these qualities. Once he became mortally ill, but decided not to die for nothing, and chiselled a new body out of living rock. Over time, the mobility of this new shell dimished, so for the last hundred years the 'King-in-Stone' has not left his Platinum throne and is ruling the Svart kingdom through his trusted advisors. (from 'Chronicles of New Worlds' written by Master Vardies Teleran) First Rune Witch  When those not familiar with the customs of the Svarts get an audience with the King-in-Stone, they may decide that there are only a couple of elite guards and a mere Rune Warrior protecting him, and that her sole mission is to serve drinks to visitors. But that's a grave mistake. The full title of this Warrior is the First Rune Witch, Sincere Advisor to His Majesty, Headmistress of the Eternal Guard, Keeper of the Stone Throne, and so on and so forth, and she really knows her rune magic. If the First Rune Witch has to fight with any of the Great Mages, the latter are in big trouble. And her modest attire, the anonymous mask and simple armor of a Rune Warrior, is just a tribute to the tradition. (from 'Chronicles of New Worlds' written by Master Vardies Teleran) (for a very long time I was sure that she had a beard) JcDent fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Jul 31, 2014 |
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Jul 31, 2014 04:19
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Litch again.  Why ruin a good thing?
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Jul 31, 2014 05:46
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Es Kaliborn, how cool is playing a living statue?
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Jul 31, 2014 07:11
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I say we continue the story of King Lich
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Jul 31, 2014 07:50
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King Lich.
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Jul 31, 2014 10:11
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I vote for King Lich. Leading a detachment of actually competent beings (Svarts) should be a nice change Also, the limited availability of unit upgrades makes sense I suppose. I remember instances during the first game where I solved unexpected problems just by recruiting some generic melee unit and blowing a huge wad of cash on all the upgrades (Silver/Elemental weapons, Tried by Labyrinth, Drilled, Fine/Masterwork/Nevril/Adamantium armor etc) and making that unit be next to unkillable. Never a more fearsome unit of spearmen. And all this was funded by a pocket dimension full of gold-generating cities. With limits on the number of towns and upgrades, maybe having strong monsters spawn in your back lines will be an actual problem again since you can't just recruit a 2-turn unit and make it capable of soloing ogres out of the box. Hell, the Ratman Robber > > > Paladin of Life upgrade path was expensive, but fully geared out could basically do anything except shoot down fliers. Psykmoe fucked around with this message at 10:46 on Jul 31, 2014 |
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Jul 31, 2014 10:39
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King Lich VI. (Also I'm told that disabling the city limit thing should be mandatory but I don't know how seriously I should take that.)
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Jul 31, 2014 10:52
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Must be Lich! Jc-Canon must prevail! Even with dorfs...
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Jul 31, 2014 11:24
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King Lich VI. For revenge!
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Jul 31, 2014 12:25
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King Lich rides once more!
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Jul 31, 2014 12:25
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I have no opinion on leaders. Impire is set some time during, I guess, the second game king's reign. and is well. Odd. I thought I'd really hate it, but it grew on me, gameplay issues aside (and it does have those) Also, how can you hate on the best archers in the world?
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Jul 31, 2014 13:45
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King Lich Death comes for us all, there is no exception. Edit: Really enjoyed reading your LP, I don't even care about the game. EzEight fucked around with this message at 15:24 on Jul 31, 2014 |
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Jul 31, 2014 14:08
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King Lich VI. Because what's the best thing to do what to go and usurp kingdom from that incompetent soul who sealed itself in immobile statue? How stupid you could be to do so?
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Jul 31, 2014 15:17
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You should really consider kicking the difficulty above normal. It doesn't affect the random monsters or the main plot events, and only gives the anemic AI factions some boosts to help them survive against the tides of neutrals. Oh, and the leg bone's connected to the Vengeance Bone.
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Jul 31, 2014 15:36
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King Lich of course! I'm quite glad you chose the Svarts, they may be slow but they have hte potential to be massive powerhouses if they find a snow shard for all that juicy juicy gold bonus. Also prospectors are amazing at the beginning, those crows! P.S. Are you going to abuse early God summons? 
A Tartan Tory fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Jul 31, 2014 |
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Jul 31, 2014 19:00
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I'm glad to see continuing the Jc-canon is the popular opinion. King Lich shall rise again!
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Aug 1, 2014 00:37
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Having read the entirety of your previous LP last night, there's no way I could vote for anyone other than King Lich VI.
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Aug 1, 2014 02:18
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I see a lot of Lich fans here. Brings a tear to my eye, it does. Tomorrow, Lich King will rise...again! All hail Lich King VI! Mzbundifund posted:You should really consider kicking the difficulty above normal. It doesn't affect the random monsters or the main plot events, and only gives the anemic AI factions some boosts to help them survive against the tides of neutrals. Cranking it up to 'Challenging'. Or should I go all the way?
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Aug 1, 2014 02:35
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JcDent posted:I see a lot of Lich fans here. Brings a tear to my eye, it does.
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Aug 1, 2014 03:35
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JcDent posted:I see a lot of Lich fans here. Brings a tear to my eye, it does. Go all the way.
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Aug 1, 2014 06:34
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Nah, Just leave it at challenging
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Aug 1, 2014 07:35
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JcDent posted:I see a lot of Lich fans here. Brings a tear to my eye, it does. Not sure if you were asking them in particular, or opening it up to voting, but assuming it's the latter, max out that difficulty and the number of rival mages.
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Aug 1, 2014 10:11
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Play it at as high a difficulty level as you'll enjoy.
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Aug 1, 2014 11:17
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All of them It's not like they matter.
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Aug 1, 2014 13:33
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Chapter 1: The New Old King Not a long time ago, in desert far, far away, there was a mountain. And on one of its slopes was a small cave opening, barely noticeable like that. If some adventurous souls were to came there – either because a wizard in an inn told them so or they thought that every cave was filled with treasure – they could probably notice some faded death glyphs. Whittled away by time and sand, they were barely noticeable, much like the cave. And inside… well, there was nothing noticeable, either. Sand and its pervasive cousin, dust. Some rocks. A pile of tiny rat skeletons where a rat suicide cult sealed their pact. And a stone slab. A stone slab that lifted and fell away with a thud. There was a fain glimmer of steel, for in the alcove behind the slab stood a skeleton in fine armor. His arms were crossed and his eyeholes were empty. If some adventurer had been there and then, and not preoccupied with trying to rob the corpse, he would have noticed that a fain hum could have been heard before the stone slab fell and it was the hum that was growing louder. Louder and louder, until there was a loud whiplash and… nothing happened. Nothing but for two ghostlights that appeared in the skeleton’s eye sockets.  “…HAHAhaha”King Lich V had died fighting the United One back in Ardania and now rose as King Lich VI. He wasn’t the lord master of undeath for nothing and he had many secrets hidden from everyone else. Otherwise he could not keep returning even after enemies demolished his physical form. But since his immortality was assured via a variety of creative and mysterious ways, he could always come back. Even if it took time, and it would indeed take time, since this way of resurrection always rattled his mind. In truth, through all his incarnations, King Lich VI might have forgotten more magic than most of Mage Council ever knew back in Ardania. So he took an inventory of his own mind  “Well, at least I still have my magic”His relief was true. Even after all the resurrections, he still remembered waking up as King Lich III and remembering only home economics and the genealogy of the rebel leader that he had been fighting before one of his deaths. Not the most useful of knowledge. Now, it seemed, his still possessed a little bit of that casting quickening power granted by certain spells he researched while fighting the Dremer threat. He was also quite adept at squeezing that extra bit of mana from the environment – if only he had a functioning mana collector! Shadow bolt was an old stand by spell, almost a cantrip by the ease of casting. And healing… well, the last “round” showed King Lich the value of living subjects. After all, the skeletons filling undead armies were no more than intelligent than furniture that suddenly started moving and attacking villages. Flying bats always left glowing piles of guano everywhere they went and vampires were always brooding about the tragedy of their fate, eternal torment and forsaken love for village girls. The living were more upbeat and made for better company. Except for goblins. “I swear I've had more stimulating and less smelly conversations with zombies”He exited the cave to look around. Desert plains stretched for a bit, but there was a town nearby. And the flat of the axe to the side of the head.  “Alexiri spy! Bring him to Rurik!” Rurik was more akin to a pile of metal with two eyes than a person. King Lich had never seen anyone that heavily armored, and he had had a company of Paladins of Dauros under his command. Still, it was a comparatively short pile of metal with eyes. “A dwarf?” “What’s a dwarf? What are you talking about, skeleton?” “I’m no mere skeleton. Skeletons don’t talk, and I have that on good authority” “Alexiri skeletons talks. Barely and rarely, but they talk when nobody is watching”. “Can they also do this?”The king’s hands were tied, so he launched shadow bolt from his mouth – a neat trick he learned in case he would be reduced to a floating head. Rurik stared at the broken chair for a minute while other dwarf warriors scrambled around, axes drawn. “No, I have never seen one of them cast magic”. “Now do you see? I’m not some skeleton and not a Alexiri spy. Now where am I and who do you serve?”The dwarf laughed bitterly. “Serve? We don’t serve anyone. Not anymore. You are, however, welcome to the company of Svarts on the Burnout shard”And so did Rurik tell the story of Svarts, who faced a Dremer invasion in their own plane, fought hard, but lost eventually. Of course, being an extremely hardy bunch, they managed to survive the shattering of their plane and started to rebuild life among the shards. But it was a very hard life. Every new gate brought new dangers and new powerful monsters to kill. Every new day had to be carved in the rock of distant shards and flesh of alien beasts. And no matter what they did, there was never a new world, only shards left after the passing of the Dremers. Eventually, this started to wear on some of Svarts and they found that they couldn’t really go on. Es Kaliborn, the immobile stone king of the Svarts, made a hard decision: those who didn’t have the will to go on could choose to go into exile, where they wouldn’t weight heavy on the spirits and the supply of other svarts. And so they did. After many perils and trials, particular group ended up on a desert shard. Not having anything really valuable in way of resources, covered in deserts and plagued with flying pests, it was of no interests to any higher power that ruled the shards, and so they settled. “And so we stopped here. Just… stopped. Didn’t even come up with a name for the city. Name is needed for someone who has hope and a need to travel somewhere, to describe where he came from. We… don’t really have purpose anymore, nor plans. We didn’t even need a name” “Interesting”The lich was nursing a small cup of yamshine (the desert wasn’t exactly the best place to brew alcohol, so the Svarts had to make do with one made from local yams) – only out of politeness, for lack of digestive tracts would have meant yamshine stains on his armor – and thinking about what the dwa- svart said. A leaderless people with a strong need of purpose, possessing advanced metallurgy and science, and actually competent in a fight? “I also had a history with the Dremer…”And so did he tell the story about Litchopolis and Lichopolis, about human scribes and werewolves, about stupid elf neighbors, about Dremer appearing, about other Great Mages who were more incompetent than magical, the final victory against Dremargor… “You killed the Dremers?” “More like the one important Dremer. There are some still out there, but they’re not invading anyone. Also, while it was my leadership and magic that got us there, the werewolves were the ones that killed him”And then the story took a darker turn. The tale about the betrayal of the United One, the conquest of Ardania, the subjugation of mages, and is death. “ So here I am. In need of a people and an army to go back home, kill the usurper and… rule some piece of Ardania till some hero messes up again or the Great King returns. Something always happens” “Hmmm. If, say, I convinced others to join you, what are the guarantees that you won’t just use us like goblins”King Lich VI almost smiled – hard to do that without soft tissues or magically animated metal face. “Answer me this: do your people poo poo themselves and eat the product? Have you ever lost a village because the people forgot how to breathe? Does your religion revolve around eating anything and worshiping a god of swamp and diseases?” “No!” “Then you know your answer. Question is, can you convince your people?”Rurik could. Being a veteran and the leader of local militia (svarts might have been hopeless burn outs, but not really actively suicidal), he held some sway over the locals. The fact that there weren’t really opposing leaders also helped. “My axe is yours, King Lich VI. My people will follow you to overthrow the United One or perish along the way” “The Slayer of the Dremers! For King Lich!” “My new subjects! I’m overjoyed to see such dedicated and skillful people under my command. I will not betray your trust! We will take back Ardania or perish, and I’ll perish with you” “But before that…” “…this place need a suitable name!”
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Aug 2, 2014 06:01
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Here we go again.  And the beginning changes from one temperature extreme to the other, too.
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Aug 2, 2014 12:25
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Let's hope lichgrad doesn't come under siege from terrible monsters. That last settlement in the last lp
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Aug 2, 2014 15:28
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quote:They also have awesome flying ships that almost look like spaceships. Almost, nothing. The unique traits for the Flying ships(at least circa Warlock 1) are 'Shadow-class' and 'Eclipse-class'. These are classes of Star Destroyer from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. The game is silly and nerdy and in many cases revels in it. Name? Necheim? Necro+heim, "Death-home"? Bloodly fucked around with this message at 18:16 on Aug 2, 2014 |
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Aug 2, 2014 17:27
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Two pumpkins and lots of desert for a tonne of early mana, if you somehow managed to say, get a bear summoning spell you would be set! Or even better, skeleton spam plus prospectors! A Tartan Tory fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Aug 2, 2014 |
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Aug 2, 2014 17:50
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Bloodly posted:Almost, nothing. The unique traits for the Flying ships(at least circa Warlock 1) are 'Shadow-class' and 'Eclipse-class'. These are classes of Star Destroyer from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Yeah the flying elf ships are pretty obvious, but to me the undead's flying ships are just more charming. "Galleus of the sky" in that weird ghost voice. With bonus creaking planks. Svarts apparently get a 'Flycraft of Order' as their Dauros temple unit, haven't checked that out yet. Psykmoe fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Aug 2, 2014 |
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Aug 2, 2014 19:12
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Hard to say no to a Dracolich, either. Really, the Undead are absolute monsters circa Warlock 1, as I see it. Growth that isn't that far below anyone else, are immune to the standard starvation mechanic since they don't eat, units that are surprisingly study, ready access to early(Green Bats, later Blackshadows) and late flyers(Flying ships, Dracoliches), drainers(Vampires of course, but also Blackshadows). Ghosts are expensive, but also utter bastards. Really, the only thing that hurts them is their over-reliance on Death damage and their own weakness to Life. ...I'm sure anyone could sing the praises of any race, though. Hell, even I could. Bloodly fucked around with this message at 19:40 on Aug 2, 2014 |
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Aug 2, 2014 19:32
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Bloodly posted:Name? Necheim? Necro+heim, "Death-home"? The Norse world of the dead is Hel, of course. 'Helheim' sounds ok. 'Dvergdauði" or "Dwarfdeath" is a grim name to start with. But my suggestion would rather be Grafgrill or 'Grave Grill' because it's a desert city full of people in full armour run by a skeleton.
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Aug 2, 2014 22:06
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Is apathy or stupidity the greater barrier to a race's success? King Lich is about to find out.
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Aug 3, 2014 16:51
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Name? How about LICHtenstein?
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Aug 4, 2014 13:31
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While that wasn't an invitation for a vote (sorry), I'm willing to use the names in the future. As you'll find out in the update (it's lame, I'm sorry, blame dentists), it might be thematically fitting. Another thing: next update will likely be Friday or Saturday, depends how spent I feel after a bit of tourism. Chapter 2: Razor-1  “I named my last capital Lichopolis. Lichgrad is entirely within the accepted realm of Svart city naming, as far as I’m concerned” “Now then, let us make inventory of what you have. I already spotted a small farm from my tower and some sort of stone barracks” “It’s ferrocrete, sir, and it’s called the hall of prospectors. How did you erect the tower, anyway?” “That’s just a great mage procedure. Easy to do if you don’t have a tower, but mages rarely get to repeat it, as few survive the destruction of their original one. Moving the tower is a pain, I can tell you that” “But enough about that. What forces are at our discretion” “Well, we do have a company of Honorable Warriors” "From early childhood every Honourable Svart is prepared to serve in the army, learning tactics and the strategy of war and how to wield one-handed, two-handed, and throwing hatchets, axes, halberds and hammers. Upon coming of age, Honourable Svarts are for the first time dressed in their ancestral armour and sent to the barracks of the Guard. Guardsmen are particularly proud of the fact that even though their equipment with heavy armour, shield and axe is somewhat outdated, this has not affected their military performance. In modern battles Honourable Warriors are dangerous and valuable, just as they were hundreds of years ago." (from "Chronicles of New Worlds" written by Master Vardies Teleran) “Honorable warriors? Are they any good, for all their honor? How are they armed?” “You misunderstand. ‘Honorable warriors’ is their title. In Svart, the name is a filled with meaning and purpose, lord wizard. It’s a very traditional formation formation of troops. Svarts in plate armor with axes and shields. Not a very modern approach but they do” “The ones we have are part of my original band of exiles. I am their captain. We defended the people on our way here, and dangers were many indeed. We took on a few recruits for the few… spare sets armor we had after our trek, but burnouts aren’t really that enthusiastic about anything. Lord”. “You keep calling these troops old fashioned, even though Ardania sees swords and plate armor as all the rage. Well, maybe we’re not using shields as much nowadays, but at goblins still fight with spears that are little better than pointy sticks” "If goblins had been the only forces I had, I might not have won against the Dremer. Luckily, werewolves were there and horrible, reality bending elven sky ships" "So, what would Svarts consider to be a more 'modern' units?" "Being a Prospector is an honourable and interesting occupation. In search of valuable resources and convenient locations for mining, Prospectors often walk thousands of miles without returning home for years. No wonder their motto is 'Prospect and Seek, Find and Mine!'" (from "Chronicles of New Worlds" written by Master Vardies Teleran) “Well, the Prospectors are the most modern forces that came with us. Before the Dremer they used to travel far and wide in search for resources. When Dremer invaded, they were used to scout out gates. The crows helped a lot, but we still needed to arm them for self defense… and harassing Dremer, of course” “So they got these Mark IV crossbows! It’s a good design, very easy to make, sturdy, too. Now the other part…” “The other part is Marksman Sprocket Arm. I don’t really understand how it works – I was a warrior and a leader, not an engineer, lord – but it reloads the crossbow for the Prospector. I really cuts down on training and affords them good mobility” “That is… impressive. I wonder if goblins… No, no, would find a way to get entangled in the crossbow, then the sprocket arm would rip their head off...”. “Sorry, got lost in memories. Send them out to prospect! I need to know exactly what resources do we have at hand” “Well, sir, there’s not much nearby, except for these flying snakes” “Flying… snakes…?” “KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL! DESTROY EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM! LET NONE SURVIVE!”  “Are you sure that’s a wise idea?” “It's the best one I had all day. Besides, your ‘burnouts’ need to build some morale, yes? Seeing some serpents fall dead will surely lift their spirits. And teach those ship-sinking bastards how to mess with me. "Now leave me, I wish to attend to my study”And oh did he wish to attend his study! Unlike the one he had in Lichopolis, where books and scrolls laid in piles and one could find a random goblin in the stacks, the one in his new home had a well indexed “sprocket library”. It still a long way till Lich managed to use it flawlessly, but even now he was getting better at its use, getting cookbooks instead of spell tomes only three times out of five.  But spells weren’t the only thing that mattered. Ardania still had to be reconquered and plans need to be drafted. But the King Decided to take one step at a time, and set his first goals to be the exploration of Burnout shard and traveling through the gate here. He wasn’t exactly sure who made the gates or how they worked, but Svarts mentioned them a few times and they seemed to be a part of natural order in Shards. Maybe they were similar to magical portals that led to demiplanes in Ardania? Only time and exploration would tell.  And speak of the demon lord…  “Your highness, we bring report through from the gate! We have rediscovered the location of the gates and the bridge to the next shard” “Rediscovered? How could you have forgotten them in the first place?” “Once we had crossed it, there was a crack of thunder and some magical lightning. A stone pillar with stone inscriptions rose in front of it, and ominous sounds could be heard when approaching the brigde. We didn’t dare cross it...nor did have any reason or wish to do so.” “I reasoned that this shard was somehow set as a trap, to catch whoever went inside. A strange and devious thing to do, what with this being a desert, but someone still did it”And so did King Lich leave the tower to examine the pillar. Long and hard did he star at it, silently examining the runes and arcane writing. Rurik and other Honorable Warriors stood in attendance, motionless in their armor despite the heat. Their only moves were to take a swing from the water sack. Eventually King Lich straightened his back. Rurik cleared his throat. “M’lord?” “This gate is indeed cursed and there’s a chance that trying to pass it would curse inhabitants of this place. On the other hand, there’s a good chance it won’t. I think this warrants investigation”. "Is this wise?” “Not entirely. But I’m undead and your people here are almost as good as dead. And I don’t have nearly enough mana to just blast the curse away, nor do I want to give in to that sort of magical extortion.” “If this was Ardania, I’d just throw a goblin. But now, here I go”And so did the tall and gaut figure of King Lich step towards the gate. Soon, he started to feel the push of the magical shield all around him. An eldritch wind picked up and horrible sound rang in his skull. But he persevered, step after step, until the pressure became almost unbearable…and the magical bubble burst in a shower of light and thunder.  “That worked out well, didn’t it? Onward with exploration of the Shard, we’re not crossing it yet” “In all my years of prospecting, I have never seen a bug like that” “Well, orders are to kill it, and maybe ‘prospect’ their nest afterwards. Release arrows!”  After the scarabs had received a good peppering of arrows (bolts, to be more precise). “Well, friends, I think it’s high time we let our crows out!” “Yes, it has been some time since they have seen any action… they’ll love to stretch their wings again” “Ah, the feeling of doing some actual prospecting again… makes you feel younger” "The Crows of the Svart Prospectors are the smartest of all birds. Not only do they know how to find shiny things, such as new deposits of gold or enemy armies, but also report their exact location!" (from "Chronicles of New Worlds" written by Master Vardies Teleran)  “Razor-1, this is Razor-5. Reading bandits at 1 o’clock” “Razor-2 has bandits on 10” “Razor-3 reporting contacts on 8” “Copy that, Razors” A prospector put a bolt through a baby serpent’s head and the creature stopped moving. Anoter one was collecting gold pieces that the snakes had carried to their nests “This action is getting my blood flowing again” “We have the reached the eastern most part of the shard… and there are scarabs here” “The theory that this place is supposed to be a prison has never looked more convincing” "Not even in the desert?” “The desert doesn’t try to bite you” “Per your orders, we have finished the Parabolic mana extractor. We have the extractor dish itself, the mana pipes, the purification station – have to separate some of the prayer and wishful thinking leakage sometimes found in mana – and the Automaton Barrel Station.” “Interesting. What is the rate of deaths and birth defects in workers?” “Er, what? The whole station is manned by four Svarts in well ventilated shielded booths, where they use levers and buttons to control the work.” “Oh, yes, I forgot, a workforce that isn’t expendable and can use tools more complex than spades. I think I will grow to like that” At that moment, a few Svarts approached King Lich VI and presented a small scroll. “Li… I mean, m’lord. We have heard news that prospectors have found something of interest” “We’re speaking, of course, about the pumpkin patch” “So you want to build a shrine to some eldritch god that lives between planes?”The Svarts looked at each other for a second, puzzled:  “What? No…no, m’lord. We just that think building a pumpkin farm would be beneficial to our people” “Especially if we could make pumpkinshine. Yamshine is horrible. I mean, it works if you just want to drink your days away, but pumpkinshine would be something a more motivated Svart would drink” “Please, sir. Don’t give us hope only to leave us with a hopeless drink!” Discussions over the farm and how much of it should be devoted to making in dragged on a little. At the same time, prospectors, fresh out of scarabs to kill, were recording their findings to make a manual on the use of crossbows. One of the most defended of new tenets was the proposal to aim longer and pick targets instead of just loosing a bunch of bolts at the general direction of the enemy.  Other prospectors we’re more concerned with the possibility of getting hit and how to best avoid it. Prospectors naturally wore very light armor, so they were in a good position to advocate speed and cover as the best means of avoiding enemy retaliation. Some even suggested that King Lich would eventually be powerful enough to provide hills for the prospectors to hide in, but such talk was written off as the effects of a bad batch of yamshine.  "No one prepares for resettlement as thoroughly as Svarts. They take with them everything they may need in a new place, including a supply of water and beer, building materials, hammers, picks, marching horns, folding anvils, a couple of bags of charcoal, grindstones and spare handles for axes, repair kits for armour, rune making kits, groundwater detecting devices, polishing paste, towels, and a pocket settler's guide to the worlds." (from "Chronicles of New Worlds" written by Master Vardies Teleran) King Lich couldn’t help but admire the way Svart settlers prepared for their journey. Automaton mules were repaired and loaded with food, water, building materials and tools, navigation equipment and all sorts of other necessary things. A caravan militia was established and armed. Prospectors were hired to scout the road. It seems that having a goal to work towards made even the most apathetic of Svarts work. It was a far cry from monster caravans, where some fat gnome patriarch would suddenly decide that their family is leaving, hitch their wagons with whatever gonkeys (and goblins of similar size and stupidity) were available, tie whatever stuff they had together and set out, followed by a trail goblins who didn’t want to part with their relatives (gonkeys more often than not).  Another difference was that so far, crows were the only semi-disposable troops on hand, and would make the first entry through the un-cursed. “Lichtower, Lichtower, this is Razor-1. Wing is up and ready for gate” “Lichtower, this Talon 1. Wing up, ready to gate” “Rodger that. Razor wing, Talon wing, permission granted, gating is go. Good flying” “Lichtower, this is Razor-1. Translation complete. Razor Wing is OK. One turn till bingo feed. Continuing sweep” “A flap of wings for a crow, a great step towards revenge for a lich”.
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Aug 5, 2014 08:34
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Well, that's going from one awful place to another, then, isn't it?
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Aug 5, 2014 08:56
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Is the previous LP available anywhere? I don;t have archives, and the actual lparchive doesn't have anything under "warlock"
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Aug 5, 2014 09:05
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NewMars posted:Well, that's going from one awful place to another, then, isn't it? It's not ideal, but it could be worse. Most of the dead lands have neutral modifiers, and it has a few potential special resources that could come in handy down the line. That neutral town looks like trouble, though.
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Aug 5, 2014 09:15
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A desert start + a Death Plane = so much goddamn mana to start with...pity you have a race devoted to gold and food to a lesser extent! Two choices now, focus on pleasing krypta and summoning a poo poo tonne of skeletons or beelining the terraforming spells!
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Aug 5, 2014 10:24
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