AAR: The Dreamlands in MP Blood Sacrifices

[Vishniac]

Originally Posted by Anaconda

BTW, howcome you remember that so well, the battle was fought some 8 months ago?

Only 3 months ago.
(post 126, Blood Sacrifices thread)

[Ragnarok-X]

Kudos to Anaconda for this pearl of a thread.

[Anaconda]

Thanks, Ragnarök!

However, three months ago... I need to check my image gallery when they were created. In May I remember being already done, if not yet turned to AI... OK thats right. It only seems so distant.

[Anaconda]

Sleepless in C'tis: Turn 19

Everytime Void summoning is successfull one has high hopes of something great. This time, like all times save one before, the summoner defaulted:



But this aint exception. The turn 19 was full of default over all.

For example, our well planned ambush and assassination attempt of C'tis prophet, they both failed.

Shub-Niggurath, the first Vastness, indeed secured the province where it teleported, and Dagon marched his army to meet up with it... but the army of C'tis stayed put!

Ok, then there was the spell Vengeance of the Dead.



The spell needs the target to fall asleep (well suited for Dreamlands, I have to admit. Love thematical approaches), so could it be the prophet suffers from sleep deprivation or insomnia? Or, then, he just got too high magic resistance (If you look one turn back, you see in the picture that his MR is 18 at the time).

This situation leaves us again with multiple options, none apparently much better than the others. We still have not incited enough trouble to be directly in war with these hideous lizard-like creatures – which is a good thing, because it allows us some freedom of (Vastness) movement. So, we could march South and seize the indie province. It looks like a good choise, and Vastness supported traitor king Dagon should have no problem what so ever doing it. However, it would separate Gath and C'tis from each other. That is something we should not do. We need to keep these frontiers open in order to let them fight each other.



Neither are we willing to extend our supply lines and march away from the safe water province by attacking primates with yellow flags in East. Man, on the other hand, is out of question also. Overall we are not really willing to risk an open war yet. Therefore we do something completely different.

Shub-Niggurath flies North, where Robert Olmstead reported an indie province next to Abysia's seat of power. What an opportunity to spread our influence a bit without risking a direct war while doing it. It looks like a good target. We can secure several provinces around it. If Shub-Niggurath makes haste it means we can actually hope establishing a permanent presence next to Abysia's capital.



The vigilantes in the city of Glimmerin Fields managed finally root out my cultist cells. The census reported 17550 people alive the last time we heard of them. Our temples are many, however. Now we have 9 of them. Also, our troops gather near R'lyeh to march finally West.

[Anaconda]

The Colour Out of Space: Turn 20

Shub-Niggurath's incursion into a province next to Abysia's seat of power was great success! The deity even made the Hall of Fame.




(I have no idea why I armed him with so many pearls, he doenst use single one at this point of research. Good side, the pearls are safe.)

It sparked an diplomatic reaction from Abysia, who thus far had been ignorant of my precence. Abysia sent a raven carrying the following proposal:

Cheers Mate,

Happy to see your vastness stop by for a visit.
I offered some tea and biscuits, then some beer and bratwurst but he (she, it?) declined all.

In any event 233 and 231 are sensitive to our nation (I know we haven't taken them yet).
So I will offer this up. 500 GP to leave 233 and 231 for us?

Cheers and all the best and some matches for the barbie from Abysia!

Seriously, they try and bribe an otherworldly deities? We respond with an another adaption, this one from the beginning of The Colour Out of Space:

East of Abysia the hills dont rise that wild, and one would not find there steep valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut. Instead, those gentle slopes and olive-tree groves are crowded with fields and farms, homesteads ancient and rocky, with squat, moss-coated cottages brooding eternally over old Riverlands secrets in the lee of peaceful, lengthy seaside; but these are all vacant now, the wide chimneys crumbling and the shingled sides bulging perilously beneath low gambrel roofs.

The old folk have gone away, and Abysians nor foreigners do not like to live there. Caelumians have tried it, Northmen have tried it, and the Monkeys from the east have come and departed. It is not because of anything that can be seen or heard or handled, but because of something that is imagined. The place is not good for imagination, and does not bring restful dreams at night. It must be this which keeps people away. Old Ammi Pierce, whose head has been a little queer for weeks, is the only one who still remains, or who ever talks of the strange days; and he dares to do this because his house is so near the open fields and the travelled roads of Riverlands.

When I went into the groves and fields to search a place for a new colony they told me the province was evil. They told me this already in Abysia before I left, but because Abysia is a very old kingdom full of warlocks I thought the evil must be something which rustic grandmas had whispered to children through centuries in countryside circling around the mighty Abysia. The name "blasted cold" seemed to me very odd and theatrical, and I wondered how it had come into the folklore of heat lovin' fiends. Then I saw that dark westward tangle of those once cultivated fields and dapper groves for myself, and ceased to wonder at anything beside its own elder mystery. It was morning when I saw it, but shadow lurked always there. The trees grew too thickly, and their trunks were too big for any healthy Riverlands wood. It was too silent amongst them, and the fields were now covered with the dank moss and mattings of decay. Upon everything was a haze of restlessness and oppression; a touch of the unreal and the grotesque, as if some vital element of perspective or chiaroscuro were awry. I did not wonder that the noone would stay, for this was no region to sleep in.

But even all this was not so bad as the blasted cold. I knew it the moment I came upon it at the spacious field; for no other name could fit such a thing, or any other thing fit such a name. It was as if the prophet had coined the phrase from having seen this particular region. It must, I thought as I viewed it, be the outcome of freeze; but why had nothing new ever grown over these five acres of grey desolation that sprawled open to the sky like a great spot eaten by ice in the woods and fields? It lay largely to the east of Abysia. I felt an odd reluctance about approaching, and did so at last only because my duties took me through and past it. There was no vegetation of any kind on that broad expanse, but only glacial, grey dust or ash which no wind seemed ever to blow about. The trees near it were sickly and stunted, and many dead trunks stood or lay frozen at the rim. As I walked hurriedly by I saw the tumbled bricks and stones of an old chimney and cellar on my right, and the yawning black maw of an abandoned well whose stagnant vapours played strange tricks with the hues of the sunlight. Even the long, dark walk on a forest province beyond this province seemed welcome in contrast, and I marvelled no more at the frightened whispers of Abysian people.

In the evening I asked old people in Abysia about the blasted cold, and what was meant by that phrase "strange days" which so many evasively muttered. I could not, however, get any good answers except that all the mystery was much more recent than I had dreamed. It was not a matter of old legendry at all, but something within the past weeks. It had happened in the last month, and the regional guard corps of farmers had disappeared or was killed. Speakers would not be exact; and because they all told me to pay no attention to old Ammi Pierce's crazy tales, I sought him out the next morning, having heard that he lived alone in the ancient tottering cottage where the trees first begin to get very thick. It was a fearsomely ancient place, and had begun to exude the faint miasmal odour which clings about houses that have stood too long. Only with persistent knocking could I rouse the aged man, and when he shuffled timidly to the door could tell he was not glad to see me. He was not (yet) so feeble as I had expected; but his eyes drooped in a curious way, and his unkempt clothing and white beard made him seem very worn and dismal.

Not knowing just how he could best be launched on his tales, I asked vague questions about this province and of those beyond this one. He was far brighter and more educated than I had been led to think, and before I knew it had grasped quite as much of the subject as any man I had talked with in Abysia. He was not like other indies I had known in the parts where usefull land for new colonies were to be found. From him there were no protests at the miles of old wood and farmland to be blotted out, though perhaps there would have been had not his home lain outside the bounds of the possible future presence of Abysian settlers. Relief was all that he showed; relief at the doom of the dark ancient slopes and fields through which he had roamed all his life. They would be better under protection of Abysia—better under protection since the strange days. And with this opening his husky voice sank low, while his body leaned forward and his right forefinger began to point shakily and impressively.

It was then that I heard the story, and as the rambling voice scraped and whispered on I shivered again and again spite the summer day. Often I had to recall the speaker from ramblings, piece out scientific points which he knew only by a fading parrot memory of professors' talk, or bridge over gaps, where his sense of logic and continuity broke down. When he was done I did not wonder that his mind had snapped a trifle, or that the folk in Abysia would not speak much of the blasted cold. I hurried back before sunset to the capital of Abysia, unwilling to have the stars come out above me in the open; and the next day returned to the royal court to give up my position. I could not go into that dim, freezing chaos of old fields and groves again, or face another time that grey blasted cold where the black well yawned deep beside the tumbled bricks and stones.

The new Abysian colony will not be build there, it turned out. All those secrets the earth holds will be safe forever. Neither do I believe I would like to visit that province by night—at least not when the sinister stars are out; and nothing could bribe me to drink water of that province.

It really strikes me that I have to eradicate all these nice, little slave races such as this Abysia...

Oh well, We hire province defence worth of 41. We try to use the province to spread our dominion and make these areas less usable for our enemies. While this arrangement might not be permanent, we can weaken the position of Abysia significantly – and any other nation invading his lands later on.

Elsewhere, Abdul Alhazred finds an interesting site providing 4 gems and enabling the recruitment of Cursed Captain. This lad seems a splendid fellow. He has Fear (2), awesome Stealth (20), he is Undead, can Pillage (10) and has badly needed magic skills. The leadership is rather limited (10) but with little equipping this fallen being can command hordes of cultists and Void beings. Only thing missing is the ability to Sail, which would turn the Captain a real sea monsters.



For 150 gold coins we get our moneys worth, and we start preparations in order to build a lab here. With proper gear the captains might be able to take down small garrisons behind the enemy lines alone, but most importantly they seem to be able to sneak deep into the enemy territory without being noticed.



The Dreamlands also face increasing upkeep. Especially complicated are the mad men and cultists on ground provinces. We need to start drowning them fast. Of course, a land war could be another option... but worse still, it appears.



Come the next month, the Dreamlands should have spread into three new provinces: Starspawn priests finally march up the river in North-West, invasion force in South moves forth as well, and Shub-Niggurath starts spreading it's blight around the province it destroyed this month. The invasion force in Sea of Woe receives reinforcements next month. It still remains to be seen whether the army continues up the river to meet with Shub-Niggurath, or should it stay South in case primates calling themselves Men go grazy?

As the last thing we inform Northmen of the location of Abysia's capital - and vice versa - using the same The Terrible Old Man -adaption.

[Anaconda]

Move Along, Nothing to see Here, pt.2: Turn 21

All three provinces fell to our hands and the armies keep on marching against two new ones. Otherwise rather uninteresting turn.



We keep building more temples, site search, gather forces and preach. We decide we need stronger magic items, so we stray from the initial goal of discovering how to summon Void Spectres first. Shub-Niggurath made it to the top of the Hall of Fame this month. From the first additional lab finished, we hire a sage to conduct magic research. For him we forge a ring of water breathing, so he can find the comfort of the deep. We also start building another additional lab, into the province with the Cursed Captain -site.

[Anaconda]

The Gathering: Turn 22

Magic sites, fortunate events, and won battles!



However, there were three battles, when the armies of Dreamlands marched against only two indie provinces. Quick lookup reveals that treacherous Abysians charged in the fields of Walden (the province next to Abysia's capital Shub-Niggurath claimed two months ago).

Last month our diplomatic dance stopped in the point where Abysia informed he understood what my Lovecraftian passage meant, but he warned me of an old, diseased man and promised he is going to take the provinces he considers belonging to him away from me.

This came faster than I expected...



The Starspawn Council thought PD worth of 50 would be enough to keep them at bay for awhile but the fight proved to be quite difficult for my local guard, who are mainly chaff. The Abysian leader was an old wretched Warlock. Powerful when in his prime, no doubts, but now those days seem long gone.



The warlock threw Abysian axe throwers, Abysian light infantries, Abysian heavy infantries and Warbreds on our local guard. Our commanders Mind Blasted Abysian units, and the Warlock started bombarding our guard with Arcane Bolts.



The mad creatures outnumbered Abysians four to one, but they are fiersome warriors wrapped in metal plates. While our beasts surrounded the enemy, they managed to cut their way deep inside our center. Chill crawled up and down our squids' spins.



Luckily there is some strenght in numbers. While Warbreds break Slave Guardians of our centre, fresh Slave Troopers, Lobo Guards and Shambler Thralls move in!



Abysian infantry breaks eventually, but Warbreds do not run. They have gone berserk and, thus, die where they stand. The Warlock is hit by a Mind Burn spell only seconds before getting overrun by Shambler Thralls.

Hopefully their defeat forces Abysia to summon and hire new levies, giving us a short break. It is needed because Man seems to be massing archers to our border. He might be only passing by, we find out soon enough.



We make necessary preparations by buying PD up to 41, and moving all possible commanders with all possible troops to meet them if they cross. Thats not too much, but also now battle hardened Shub-Niggurath flies there too (the Vastness is still the Hall of Fame leader in kills). This is unfortunate, because other wise we could have counquered some unpredicting Abysian province with the deity.

But the Vastness aint the only Death in our deck of mad Tarot cards. We plan to burn an Abysian city North from Abysia's seat of power with a Starspawn Priest. The intel of their defences aint that accurate we know, but when studying Abysian situation in general we doubt they can do much to reinforce their defences in North right now.



The development of the Dreamlands appears to be strong and uninterrrupted while maybe a little bit slow.

Now we are in a situation where we can hire three magicians every turn (first Cursed Captain incoming!) and we are also in charge of 19 provinces, average being 17,6 (Riverlands with 247 provinces / 14 players). Next turn, hopefully, we rule 21 provinces of which we can hope to keep to our selves at least 20 in long run.

(Crossed Swords indicate expected battles, bright green circles indicate known enemy capitals, and the big banner marks still untamed area where I can hope to establish more stronger presence on land, if only Man would not interrupt at this point.)

Incoming month is undoubtedly an interesting one!

[Anaconda]

Points of Departure: Turn 23

Only two battles, and the Dreamlands lost both. Man did not march against us, but both of our invasion forces (against indies and Abysia) got thrown back.



Starspawn priest Uzumna – introduced in the beginning - is getting pretty good in summoning Void beings. He also took an unexpected vacation. All pray Cthulhu he will be back with his mind in one piece.



Abysia is expected to launch the second attack against my province next to their capital. Because of this, the Starspawn council needs to weight options available very carefully.

Either the Dreamlands challenge the Abysia's might very next turn, or we try to outmanouver them by attacking random provinces around their small kingdom – provinces they cannot hope to defend while trying to conquer back provinces sacked before. This could, in longer run, exhaust the development of their nation (it is slowing down already) leading into their fall to the hands of their stronger neighbours. For example Midgård in the North-West and Patala in the East.



We chose to launch an invasion against an Abysia's province North of our foothold. Just incase they come on us with slightly weak forces, one Starspawn mage teleports in to the province under our control scripted to cast Sailor's Deaths and then Retreat. If we are lucky, he retreats North to meet the expeditionary forces.

The first Cursed Captain starts forging his own gear. I was wondering if the list could look like this (it's still an early sketch):



Naming these high seas' jewels properly is also important. We intent using them as wolf packs behind the enemy lines, and every single one should have a name worth his salt. The list looks like this:



Anything else come to mind? I still have to think about Aeron the Damphair... he doesnt seem to belong into this group. Maybe, if he was the prophet...

Maybe we should also summon few Black Servants to join the scourges of the high seas, for example to carry extra gems, bottles of living water and Fear items. Black Servants got nice Stealth, I remind you.

Rumor has it Marignon is sieging Gath's capital (the Gath player left the nation behind few turns ago), which made me study the map a little bit more. I found out that Patala seems to have grown into unspeakable dimensions.



On other things, the Dreamlands keep searching for magic sites, preaches and tries to figure out how to drown hordes of useless cultists.

[Anaconda]

The Fall: Turn 24

This turn - as the first of us - Utgård fell. Yomi went AI without a warning a little while ago, and Gath is dropping off soon enough. Caelum has some prospects but administration of the game has failed to change the email address so sub has not been able to step forward.



Abysia is still gathering it's strenght – he did not attack us this turn. We also got a free province North from our bridgehead. There wasnt a single vile demon defending the province. Now that they need to consider attacking two different provinces the likelyhood that they will come first against our staging area has diminished enough so we can plan ahead for a bit further. Also, losing two provinces around forts should mean drastic decline in their resource income – Abysia is a resource hungry nation, right?

The strategy of attrition kicking in, hopefully... Abysia is no doubt struggling but my intention is to keep him alive. As long as they live, others shouldnt pay too much attention on my rising influence.



PD went up to 70, and the teleported Starspawn Mage searches for Astral sites. One mad thrall preaches. We need white candles up fast, Cthulhu damn. Wish we had Wolven Winter up and ready but no. Instead, we over tax the province we just took, buy there PD worth of 6 and leave it for Abysia to take. Shub-Niggurath moves against another indie province, in pursuit of establishing permanent precense in the area.



This golem-inhabited province, at the Easter end of the Isthmus of Abysia, has been intriguing my imagination for awhile now. No-one seems interested in taming the land. If we manage to secure all the provinces around it, the task falls naturally to me. Hope we find something really fancy when we arrive, because I dont know even if Shub-Niggurath dares to execute the attack alone.



This picture should tell everybody the reason why the upkeep costs are rising, and why that is a huge problem for the Dreamlands' ecnomy. The Dreamlands is working hard to gather those who can fight underwater, and to drown those who cant. Otherwise nothing important happened this turn that I know of.

[Anaconda]

Revelations: Turn 25

The new month revealed interesting things. Seemingly so calm Riverlands appears to be torn by wars. I have to admit I have been wondering why Abysians are so timid driving Starspawns away from their lands. A scout reported they are at war with fast falling Ulm. Another war popped up in West. Tien Chi is fighting Atlantis.



This explains many things – and more. If we add that - based on forum posts - Ulm was also targeted by Patala a little while ago, and that Marignon has been making short work of Gath, the power houses of the game are starting to be revealed. The Dreamlands intervened only Abysia's plans. Patala and Marignon seem to be uninterrupted as I write.

Depending on how well my campaign at the Isthmus of Abysia goes, I am making plans for surprise attack against Marignon's seat of power. Now when his armored tide is busy with Gath it is the time if ever. When Marignon heavy cavalry comes back from his campaign it is too late. I need at least four turns for the preparations and then three consecutive turns to secure Marignon's heart lands. If I could pray from Cthulhu an additional Vastness it would be great because we definitely need a Vastness in the inital surprise attack against his capital. If the Dreamlands cant get another one, we need to bring Shub-Niggurath home and thus abandon our campaign against Abysia.

More on this later.



Robert Olmstead died fighting side by side with Shub-Niggurath. It was the indie province they attacked (please see the last turn). To be honest, I have no idea why he actually joined the Vastness, there was no need for him. Well, now Abdul Alhazred has to think about appointing a new prophet. A Cursed Captain is another big name, alongside with Shub-Niggurath him self. Now that Uzumna is lost in time and space there aint many of the original heroes left. Dagon is the main man – and he is slowly losing his mind.