MP Game - Yarnspinners

[Alneyan]

Turn 8 will be running this evening (GMT). Neither Machaka nor R'lyeh have been replaced, and I am considering turning them AI.

The biggest problem with setting them AI is that it may help their neighbours (Atlantis for R'lyeh, and myself for Machaka, which is quite close to Man). Because of this, a replacment player would be best, but it seems like none can be found.

[Sedna]

I'd like to take over R'lyeh. I've already e-mailed Alneyan. If you can wait for me to play this turn it would be much appreciated.

[Sedna]

Turn 7, R'lyeh

Now that's annoying. There I was, settling in for my afternoon lurk in this nice, cozy cave I had found, all full of beautiful little tentacled things, brightly colored fish with lots of eyes, and the cutest little sea horse civilization I've ever seen. They were having some kind of group meeting that seemed to involve choosing who was going to be their leader for that week, and they just got the nicest looks of pain and shock on their face when I ate them all. And, mmmmm, were they tasty... well, anyhow, there was no call for them to also be mildly poisonous. I mean really... what were they thinking, mutating into existence this close to *my* crater, and then going and giving me indigestion?

But the next thing I know, I'm waking up with a splitting headache, and several months have passed, and my minions haven't even succeeded in enslaving one little province for me. Not one. They'll have to go. All of them.

I was about to get to devouring them (got to have standards), when I saw my old friend Cthugul! I haven't seen him in, well, aeons. And here he is, trying to summon up dark and forboding creatures to spread the word about my return. I was so touched that I forgot about slaughtering everyone, and instead sent them off to conquer new lands. I mean, it's a bit of a waste, letting other critters eat them, but you should've seen the look of relief on their faces when I told them I was merely sending them out to the sharks.

Besides, I'm still a bit full.

[puffyn]

---- Arcoscephale, Turn 8 ----

I would feel a lot better about continuing on into the mountains if Thymbre were coming with. She can be so stubborn sometimes.

Fortunately, nothing is wrong - quite the contrary. Though we were outnumbered nearly two to one, and under substantial archer fire, not a man faltered, and we quickly routed them. Thymbre stood right in the center of the phalanx, besides me, shouting words of courage to all, and causing all who could here her to smile and redouble their efforts. The only thing to mar my satisfaction that day was Limmy, of course. For most of the battle, he sensibly stayed at the rear, muttering useless charms and incantations against harm, but then he got it in his head to charge the retreating archers. If he had not been followed by my hoplites and Silver Shields, I am certain he would've been badly hurt, or perhaps killed. (Not that I care; but Thymbre seems to think well of him...)

I told him as much afterwards, but he laughed it off. "You are worried, Pandokos, that I -- I -- could have been hurt, by mere archers?" he scoffed, when were sitting in a tavern in the town of Braegen, as Thymbre tended to his badly infected eye and other wounds left over from the Last time he thought to kick around a few archers. He looked, if anything, even more sickly blue than before. "You worry too much. I could have defeated ten times the number of men we faced today, for I am Limmy, He Who is at the Center..."

It's useless to try to talk to him when he starts spouting off like that. It depresses me how many of my soldiers, even men who travelled all the way from Hellas with me, looked admiringly at him. Nobody seemed to notice (or care) that while he was talking he was also quietly taking food off the plates of everyone around him; his arms just seemed to be everywhere. I nearly lost a piece of buttered bread to his wandering hands.

We stayed in the town, a large village perched between wide open plains and towering mountains, for a fortnight. Unfortunately, the day before we were to head off into the mountains for the next province we had been ordered to liberate, Thymbre found It.

"Oh Pandokos, there's no need for me to come with," she said.

"But think of how the morale of the soldiers will suffer," I protested. "Think of my morale."

She laughed, but was not about to give in. "But Pandokos, really. It's a library." And she got that look in her eyes... I really had no chance of convincing her. She claims she will try to catch up with us.

---

[Sedna]

Turn 8, R'lyeh

Oh, the power! The infinite power! I reach out my hand and take. My tentacle moves and the world dies into chaos.

Go forth my starchildren: slaughter the human heroes and fry the fish fools. Let the world shake. Release the Otherness and bring darkness to the sunlit lands! Drive the slaves before you like chattel, heedless as they scream, fall upon the poisoned spears, and tumble into the abyss. Turn teeth upon shark hide, rip and tear- with my power behind you these ancient lords are mere playthings. This is my divine will and the deep places of the world shall run red!

Wha...? Where was I? Ah, now I remember... studying the ancient text, learning how to slip into the unreal void between the hard places of this world. The scout reports have been all good news; my empire added two new provinces, a much welcome addition of gold, and in one, the locals promised to provide us with shark warriors in return for their pitiful lives. This is excellent news, since shark fin soup is so hard to come by in the void.

Already I see signs of mighty deeds on the shore: heat, and eternal night. My time of peace under the waves may be near an end... the fuzzy pufferfish... the crunchy dolphin. It has been so long since land animals entered my maw. Now I sleep again, and let my assassins work their will upon an unsuspecting world. Cut of their leader's heads, and they will all run away. It is a subtle strategy, and Cthulu does not normally resort to such things, but... my main army continues into an aptly named, and weakly defended province.

Mr Flibble is very cross. They shouldn't have run away from Mr. Flibble, should they? What are we going to do with them?

No, we can't possibly do that. Who would clean up the mess?

[Karacan]

Ermor: Turn 8

If there is one thing I despise about mortality, it is their unpredictability on the field of battle. The mercenaries under Gynter Blukraft - which I sent into the midst of an enemy garrison consisting of barbarians and archers to be slaughtered since they ran out of use for me - showed unprecedented valor, and though taking heavy losses in the process, managed to rout the enemy army.
On the other hand, Grom Bravebreaker's fresh troops fled for their lives when a single knight charged them.

I feel something like relief that those of my subjects who follow my path and guidance to ultimate enlightenment show no such fickleness. They do what they are ordered to, or are destroyed in the attempt. It makes life after death so much simpler.

The summoning of another Elder was a success. Gravechill followed my calling, and he comes brings with him some interesting powers I will certainly make use of.

Simith, first of my Elders, will finally build that laboratory to bait some sages out of that library my troops found earlier.

Another mercenary has decided to follow his greed, a renegade atlantian consort named Y'gologna. This is a welcome addition to my troops, for an army of treacherous R'lyeh was seen at the shores. I am not afraid of it, for my scouts report that it consists mainly of neglible cannon fodder my undead legions should have no true problems defeating.

My scouts also report sightings of Lillith, the infamous vampire queen of Abysia. An undead being not on my side. And likely helpless against my hordes of the dead, and yet, as long as she is in her own dominion, the battle I long for will be meaningless in result, no matter the outcome.

However, a small part of me wishes they would recklessly attack. That would be the simplest way of converting them to my cause.

For I am Noth, and I will tolerate no opposition.

[Cheezeninja]

Abysia turn 7:

Well it seems that perhaps I have been remiss in keeping my journal in its proper state of upkeep, but if any excuse is warranted then let it be that I have been rather busy. I continue to fly forth from my domicile to bring new lands under my sway and to scout out the inhabitants of these lands to see how suitable they are for my ...needs. The Vampire Count Frithigern was torn to pieces upon my claws and I took nourishement from his throat. I did not quite completely kill him, to do that I would have to burn him entirely and spread his ashes far into my domain, instead I chose to have one of my apprentices weave his spine and nervous system into the rug oppositte my doorway. I'm not sure quite how much he is aware of, but it is a source of much amusement on my part regardless, its been ages since i've been this well entertained.

-exerp from the diary of The Queen-