Another Newbie Slugfest - Restarted

[The Panther]

Sir Deviant, Arch Mage, Abysian Minister of War and his wife, Madam Candice, Great Enchantress, Abysian Minister of State were waiting outside the sacred Chamber of Hell.

“My love, how long has She been in there?”
“Too long.”
“Then there must be a problem.”
“Yes, I imagine so.”

The iron door into the sacred chamber opened suddenly and She emerged. Her two ministers bowed before their Queen. Both husband and wife spoke simultaneously, “Your Eminence!”

The Queen of the Underground looked down on her two most loyal subjects and spoke. “Sir Deviant. Madam Candice. Good of you to wait. But he is not coming.”
“No! Please, my Queen, surely you could convince Him.”
”Oh, he wanted to, I will tell you that. But my beloved husband cannot set foot above ground here. There is some kind of Zen-Buddhist influence which will not allow him to appear at his present strength. He has said he will not be forced to give up some of his power and weakened thusly. Panther, King of Ghosts, will therefore stay in the Land of Inland ruling over our conquered enemies.”

“So, my Queen, will you lead us here then?”
“No, my dear loyal friends. My duty is by the side of my husband. One of you must take over here.”
“But, my Queen! Who would follow a mere human? We are so weak.”
“Yes, this is true. But this same Zen influence will make you stronger when you go to the surface in the Land of Cradle. Both of you will find that you will be spending less of your hard-earned pretender influence when creating your capitol. You also will both be able to resist extra attacks with much less encumbrance. Additionally, you, Sir Deviant, as a mounted Arch Mage, will find people more ready to follow you than ever before through increased dominion. And you, Madam Candice, as a mind-controlling Great Enchantress, will be ethereal and thus far more able to resist mere steel weapons. Either of you could choose to lead here.”

“What witchery causes this?”
“Yes, it is witchery, but Truth. Zen hath spoken, it would appear. Although…”
“Although what, my Queen?”
“Although, I could claim this land and add it to my husband’s ghostly empire. I wonder if he would mind if I stayed a while.”
“Do it, my Queen, do it! Spread the fires of Hell and suck the blood from this land. You can show all the other false gods the Truth of our immense power!”
“Maybe. I will have to think on it. And go consult my ghostly husband once again. But if I chose not to stay, one of you will have to rule here.”
"Yes, my Queen. We hear and obey."

[The Panther]

As you can tell if you read the above post, I cannot decide on a pretender design. I am down to three choices, though. I suppose this means that Zen did a decent job on balancing, since the Ghost King is not one of the finalists.

However, the server is down, so I guess there is no rush at the present time.

[PashaDawg]

Flying high above the forest, Sabrina, one of the most skillful of all harpies, was returning from a long reconnaissance mission from the Jotun Mountains. She spotted two of her sister harpies, Jill and Kelly, perched high on a black walnut tree and gracefully perched herself on a nearby branch.

“Hey, Jill and Kelly… ugh… the things I’ve seen in the land of the Giants!” Sabrina fluffed her feathers stylishly.

“Don’t tell me,” remarked Jill, preening herself. “The river is yellow.”

“I can’t believe it! How’d you know?”

Jill yawned and stretched her wings. “I just returned from spying on Marignon, and that’s all they could talk about. ‘The river’s yellow.’ ‘The Giants have a new pretender’ and ‘Stoke the Fires of the Inquisition’. You know… blah, blah, blah.” Jill rolled her eyes. Sabrina snickered as she reached for some lotion for her shapely talons.

“Don’t complain,” Kelly giggled. “It’s not like you were forced to go to Hell and back like me. The Ghost King and his fat propagandizers are celebrating their recent victory, but they’re still unhappy. According to their bloodsucking queen, the Pale One is *****ing about how the Zen Effect is cramping his style.”

“Hey girls!” shouted a centaur at the bottom of the tree. “C’mon quickly to the grand meadow. The Great Lord of the Wild is taking a break from the afternoon’s debauchery. I think he should hear what you have to report.”

“We’ll be right over, Boz,” called down Sabrina. “What happened to Charlie the Oracle?”

“He’s out of the picture for now,” answered Boz. “Had something to do with the strategic disadvantages of immobility.”

[Grim Knight]

I beleive someone clicked Start Game, Prematurely. When I woke this evening the Server was prompting me to Choose a Map but when I did so not all of the Players were listed, only 5, Arco, Marignon, Jotun, R'lyeh, and Machaka had been chosen.

I have reset the Server so once again people may upload their pretenders, but please, no one click start game, I will do that once all pretenders are uploaded.

Anyone who already uploaded a pretender will need to re-upload.

Grim Knight

[deccan]

"Sslithering sserpentss seesss sinister signsss..." The forked tongue of the lizard shaman flicked mesmerisingly as he talked.

"Ssigns?", answered the throng of lizard followers in a chorus, bobbing and weaving the heads atop their long necks in rhythmn.

"Ssuch ssigns sshows seldom," the shaman nodded emphatically. "Summon ssages, ssing ssongss, speak sspells, ssacrifice sslaves sate sleeping sacred sstatue, stop slumber, ssundered spirit suffuses statue..", he pointed to a large, grimy statue partly hidden in a shadowy corner of the temple.

The shaman's slitted eyes twinkled in the candle-light, "Slugfest sstartssss..."