R'lyeh ~~ Turn 6
Half a year has passed, and R'lyeh's grasp is ever expanding. Our battles are victorious, and our knowledge of the mysteries of what the uninitiated call "fate" provides richt bounty.
The pictures in this update are a little messed up, either because I set my formating script to first transform them to indexed colors and then scale them or because some unknown force messed with them. Take your pick.
The two events in Baptizer?
One. Thousand. Pounds of. Gold. That's R'lyeh pounds, notoriously difficult to translate into other systems of measurement. But it's a lot, more than regular our monthly income.
So what's the item then? Some boots of long strides?
Not quite. This is awesome, never mind that none of my mages can use it, and that the aboleths don't even have heads.
It is immediately spirited away to R'yeh, where it now lies on a pedestal of dark stone, its unquenchable flames fitfully flickering in the darkness of the deep guarded by lumbering shambler thralls incapable of even conceiving the concept of treason.
Meanwhile, Helheim has noticed Yöt-Webbogoth's progress and sends the following message below the waves:
To such bluster, a memorable reply is needed.
~~~
A fisher boat returns days late. Of the crew, only a young man is left, but his once red-blonde hair has turned white. He refuses to look upon the sea, and continually mumbles to himself. After some time, it was determined that the phrase he repeated incessantly was this: "That is not dead which can eternal lie. Yet with strange aeons even death may die."
Only when brought before the local herse does the fisherman snap out of his daze. "Under the waves, R'lyeh will go where it will. Over the waves, the death-gulls may fly."
~~~
Same reasoning as with Fomoria, except while Fomoria as a nation with underwater capabilities is right on top of my hit list, Helheim is not. I doubt they'd actually commit to an underwater war this early, and it would be one if they attacked. Conversely, I have little to gain by feuding with a land power before it is clear who the big dangers will be.
Also, Fomoria is a scales build while Helheim tanked his scales. That means Fomoria will get more dangerous over time, while Helheim's bless (presumably) is most powerful in the early game.
Meanwhile, in the Hungry Sea, off the fog-shrouded Fomorian coast, the Grand Army of R'lyeh, having crushed the second of the Amber Clan Kingdoms, now expands into and area dominated by barbarian triton tribes. The champions of these tribes ride huge sharks, and the tribes have suspended their usual internecine warfare to confront the invaders from the north.
There have been strange voices in the astral currents, incorporeal spirits seperated from the Shadow Shore by incomprehensible gulf of space and time. Lately their mad gibberings has grown more urgent, perhaps stirred up by the Pantokrator's disappearance.
One especially, So-Y'wsyrr, has even achieved a semblance of coherence, warning Auluudh of some dire fate should he continue to lead the army from the front. But the strange power that has come with Yöt-Webbogoth is stronger, compels him to risk himself in the clash of battle, even in the face of the terrible shark knights of the Hungry Sea.
Auluudh bends his mind-force on the sharks' streamlined predator souls, even as the gibodai gathered behind him follow his example.
In the midst of their charge, the sharks are stunned and drift aimlessly, one even turning against the triton infantry following in its wake. It is to weak to fight effectively. The tritons stab it to death, but they have been distracted.
From their left flank, a fast-moving force of tritons, some of them freshly enslaved Amber Clan warriors, falls upon them, even as the line of troll warriors meets their van.
It is too much.
In R'lyeh, meanwhile, the first of the mind lords apart from dread Auluudh swears unconditional obedience to the Kraken Cult:
He's kind of sucky. His picks are earth and astral, I'm hoping for double earth, double death, or double astral, as those will give me path diversity. He cost 420 gold, and as a non-holy unit, that's 28 gold per month as upkeep.
Strategically, the next moves are simple. Yöt-Webbogoth continues south along the east coast
while in the west, Auluudh and his army advance into Underhome.
