DominionNES2

Oh gods, I just got the reference. Seven at one blow!

I updated the public stats which were way off with heroes and their locations.

KF: explain for those of us who don't get it?

I believe its a reference to the Valiant Little Tailor, one of Grimm's fairy tales. http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/grimm/ht10.htm

Oh I'll have my revenge, vampires, oh yes, I shall have my revenge!

Kyzarc Fotjage said:

I believe its a reference to the Valiant Little Tailor, one of Grimm's fairy tales. http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/grimm/ht10.htm

Click to expand...

Yes indeed. I should have set 'at one blow' but since I only read the tale in French, my translation was a bit off. Glad you still got it.

Immaculate said:

To the Officers and Soldiers Loyal to Gunlops,
From Āvāza, Voice of the Faithful,

Seize Gunlops and deliver him to us. Declare your loyalty to the Pavitra Baccē and spare your lives. Your families live amongst us- in Machaka and Ilfundune- they want to be reunited with you- healthy and whole. For their sake, grant us our one demand and lay down your weapons. Return to your homes.

To the People of Ulundi,
From Āvāza, Voice of the Faithful,

You know Gunlops to be a tyrant and an oppressor, a curse upon his people. Let him not be a curse upon you also. Gunlops officers have no funds to pay his soldiers anymore. They will seize what they can from you to give it to them to maintain loyalty. Do not let them. Ultimately his soldiers are loyal to their pay and for now, you are the paymasters. Consider this. Hoard your goods- hide them well. Bribe those officers you feel might be most receptive, seize control of Gunlops soldiers from him. Resist Gunlop's tyranny; know that we are coming to your aid and will dispose of his horrible regime. We must... for we are well acquainted with his evil.

Click to expand...

Any responses?

Can this be settled without any more bloodshed?

We send diplomats via backroom channels to try and make contacts and negotiate a peaceful surrender that will mean no more bloodshed or death for anyone.

You don't get any answer from Gulnops.

What little feedback you get from the people of Ulundi is that Gulnops doesn't look more tyrannical than any other leader they had, and at least he's human, despite his single eye.

To Sakarlaisk

The time is coming soon for your decision. My Lord is still worried about the suffering of the people of Pythia, and of the state of the regions Chaomancy overall, if war would occur.

My Lord offers, instead of moving Pythians out of Pythia, to invite you into the city of Pythia and establish an independent citadel for you. Pythians can worship whoever they want, he doesn't really care, he just want to either return to somewhere familiar to secure this region of Chaos.

To achieve that, he offers this pact between us until we are able to establish cities for our own loyal worshipers with Pythia as neutral ground.

Emeresan and the Bog Serpent agree to work together until either they return Pythia to the region containing The World, or establish control over the nearby chaos.
Emeresan and the Bog Serpent agree to imbue this pact with a spell which shall smite the prophet of he who acts against the other via direct orders, planning, in such a way to attack or undermine the other. All orders are either to support oneself or the entire assemblage combined when concerning home; attacking and undermining is reserved for any wild peoples we may find outside the city.
Pythia shall be a nuetral city between us. Be aware that though I won the contest, I am willing to ease conflict until more permanent arrangements are achieved.

Click to expand...

I myself suggest that the gold generationed by the city this turn go into maintaining as much as our armies as possible. We are willing to disband certain units if you care to share the size of your forces and sign this pact. I would also suggest that instead of sending Pythians into the wild, to send soldiers imbued with scrying spells while we conjure food with Chaos magic, whether summoning flocks of animals for the slaughter or simply making bread grow on trees.

Orders received so far:

spaceman98/Darkswamp
Immaculate/Bhumi
Seon/Emor
Darksaber1/Taernvswyn

Deadline is within a few hours, please send orders soon.

SPACEMAN SENT HIS ORDERS ALREADY???
The TRAITOR!

Orders sent, apologies for their roughness and lateness.

Orders for Pythian Harbor-Try not to get conquered. Or if you do, try not to let the conquerors have the satisfaction of your women.

Terrance888 said:

Orders for Pythian Harbor-Try not to get conquered. Or if you do, try not to let the conquerors have the satisfaction of your women.

Click to expand...

Is that the extant of your orders? Nothing for Vanas, your god and prophet?

You didn't get my e-mail?

And I can send orders for VANAS?

No, I didn't get your email.
I ment Pythia, sorry.

I also miss orders for Ulm, Boeuf and Myrde.

Well, I will resend, and maybe pretty it up a bit.

UPDATE SIX
The fate of Patalnila unfolds​

A copper lode has been found right under the city governed by the frost giants near Myrde. The jarl ordered it exploited, which brought lots of copper and money to his coffers.
In Myrde itself, an old man called Oleg constructed a strange device out of the remains of the machine once built in the Cave of Plenty smiles. His apparatus is... well, an assembly of pipes, levers, glass bottles and clay jars with weird liquid inside. The machine is shaped roughly like an eight-meter diameter circle of junk, three meters wide and high, with a bunch of grass in the middle. There, a lot of bunnies live a short and unhappy life. They have little to eat, and try to get out of the machine through one of the many holes there. Each time a rabbit disappears, two things happen: A new rabbit pops up in the middle of the apparatus, and a bunch of tiny rabbit statues made in various materials are dropped out of the machine. Among these, there is invariably some gold and other precious stuff. Oleg said that the ever-created bunnies would provide an inextinguishible source of food for Myrde, and proceeded to enter his machine to eat the beasts. He hadn't thought of an entry, however, so he tried to scale it, but slipped, fell on a hard metal part where he broke his back and died a lonely death. The machine still produces rabbits, and gold. The gold and other precious by-products of the rabbit machine are accumulating, and people sometimes shovel them away. Those not absolutely crazy pick up the gold to trade it. In sane hands, this machine would generate 10 gold per year. Plus rabbits.
Oh, and toads rain down upon Tlanetzutl, which doesn't make the fishmen happy, but the humans are perfectly fine with this marvellous food falling from the skies.

The north of the country has been invaded by C'tis warriors. Led by King Sssussaapi, the mercenaries, backed by lizardman javelineers and chariotteers, crossed the border and killed any who would resist them. They took possession of the abandoned city in the north, which they renamed Lagash. The strong walls of the city they repaired, and a large population of lizardmen was brought in to settle the lands. The madmen of Myrde who lived nearby started catching diseases and either died or fled. The few who tried to oppose the lizardmen were killed. The lizardmen settlers are happy with the ferile new lands, but some of them have started behaving in strange ways, such as adults playing silly games as if they were young hatchlings.

Lizardmen settle the abandoned walled city north of Myrde.

In Erynini, the harvest around Pyre has been exceptionally good, resulting in extra revenue from the peasantry. A singer has celebrated this bountiful year in a popular song praising the Holy Pyre, thereby augmenting the faith in the southern part of the realm.

In Darkswamp, a group of flying men arrives from the north. They say they are Raptors, refugees from the land of Caelum, who had to flee their country when chaos became wild and mad. They ask for a place to live in, some lands to plant crops in. They have little to offer, but they are desperate and number more than a thousand. Although they are no warriors, some of them carry bows or spears.

In Bhumi, the priesthood continue to develop the arcane mysteries of Nagapur and its Librarum Arcanum. To this end they raid the Machaka palace, seizing all scrolls, amulets and arcane items formerly possessed by the sorcerer king. Take anything they feel might be of value to their understanding of the chaos. These are brought to the librarium and studied by Bhumi best arcanists. The librarium also collects knowledge of the chaos from far and wide, collecting treaties from across the world.
In Logapur, the old sage named Maharal keeps working on the construction of a golem. He constructed a statue in the shape of a large man, and has inscribed runes on its forehead, but so far he hasn't managed to bring life to it, despite trying a lot of magical recipes. He needs some magical support in order to make more progress.
The Pavitra Bacce follows his works closely, but spends most of his energy trying to control some of the huge spiders used in Machaka, and he binds some of these with chaos magic. The spiders are altered, and even bigger than the regular Machaka giant spiders. They are fearsome monsters that are now ready to march alongside Bhumi armies.
The gardens of Fornalis are more and more verdant, and it's not without some regret that king Lofar leaves them to lead Bhumi armies to the south, in order to bring the true faith to Umfoluongo. As the inhabitants of Umfoluongo refuse to yield to the superstitions of the naga slaves, Lofar reluctantly concludes that they have obviously been infiltrated by Machakan apostates and therefore, that the faith must be brought to them by force.

King Lofar calls down lightning upon the enemy, and his prayers guide his troops arrows so that they don't miss their mark.

Umfoluongo defenders don't stand against the Bhumi army despite a brave sortie where they almost rout the enemy heavy infantry. However, the Bhumi archers rain down so many arrows upon them that they ultimately break and the city surrenders.
Madhavali the prophet leads another Bhumi army, made of nagas and archers, against Ulundi and Gulnops. The city defends itself but this time the nagas win the day although they suffer some losses:

Nagas take out Ulundi

All that was once Machakan is now under Bhumi control, and with Gulnops dead, nothing remains of the oncce-proud Machakan kingdom.

In the Heldenthal capital of Hohenschwertenau, a group of noblemen has decided to hang themselves in order to gain magic power. Only one of them survives, but he lost part of his sanity in the process. He is able to perform illusion magic and to raise corpses. The local population is very afraid of him.
Heldenthal merchants increase trade with the city of Shopenwerg. A large ceremony is held in Shopenwerg for the wedding of prince Aethelred of Heldenthal and princess Mirona. Lady Walaruna is present at the ceremony, and she causes flowers to rain upon the newly weds, and generally charms all those present. Although many fall under the charm of the crone, several knights warn the king that this marriage is an obvious manoeuver by their large neighbour to try to swallow the city.

Erynini temples are improved across the country. The Burned Man leaves Drakalor to meet back up with the army. With these men, he marches on Marignon, and rallies partisans on the way, spending lavishly to rally the faithful.
Calling forth the power of fire to burn down the remnants of the city gates, the Burned Man and the whole Erynini army take Marignon by force.

Erynini armies conquer Marignon, despite sustaining a heavy crossbow fire.

Once the city is taken care of, Erynini starts pumping money in the rebuilding of Marignon.

Mallitain bards repurpose the Chapel of the Last Vow in Vanas into a Bardic College. The faith in Emeseran starts to falter while Cassiopeia's teachings gain strength. Cassiopeia plants a seed of the Tree of Life in front of the new Bardic College and starts growing it.
In Massad, the Blacksmithing Guild continues to be sponsored. The best smiths' tricks get passed to the rest of the guildsmen, and the quality of alloys and manufactured items increases, resulting in sales far and wide.
Jack and his merrymen march north while troops from Jassar come and control Vanas. Cavalrymen escort those merchants who bring in apples of the tree of life coming from the south. These shipments help prevent diseases to spread, making life easier for the new rulers of Vanas.
When Jack reaches Pythian Harbour, the defenders surrender quickly. Their makeshift walls are never going to hold against an army that took their capital when they don't even have soldiers to defend them.

The troops of Patalnila holding the city of Pythia repair the walls and pay the most influential inhabitants. Emeseran creates some food and forges plows that work by themselves. He uses the money he's got to help build farms around the city, which Launar scouts, giving endless bags of wine to his scouts so they can travel far without needing to forage. Some of the regular soldiers are turned into peasants and start working their own fields. However, it doesn't take long for food, magically created or stored, to run short. The lurking Darkswamp soldiers are very short on supplies too and, although most of them are hunters, they don't take much time to forage. They are already short on food when Pythians still have some grain so one morning, the Bog Serpent, Sakarlaisk and the hundred men of theirs soon appear in front of the city gates in arms. The Bog Serpent writhes and hisses, and the soil under the walls starts turning to mud. Seeing this clear sign of aggression, Patalnilans take their arms, only to find out they have rusted overnight. The arrowheads are rusty, the javelin heads broken, the shields shaky, and swords are brittle. Patalnilans shoot their arrows nonetheless, whose rusty points are still deadly enough. Most Pythians favor the Bog Serpent, and some of them rebel against Emeseran. However, a lot of the population realises Emeseran has at least tried to give them some food and don't take arms. Yet more, who have been healed of diseases contracted after the contest, say this is thanks to the Bog Serpent. These disrupt the defenses somewhat, tying several defenders off the walls in the streets to try and protect the gates so they don't get opened to the enemy. Patalnilan soldiers have rusty weapons. Many of them are busy fighting rebels in the city itself.
When a section of the already damaged walls collapses under its own weight, brought down by the swampy ground, the Bog Serpent summons monstrous serpents to attack the defenders. Breathing fumes of poison, the Serpent orders his archers to shoot at Patalnilans, and sprays his own poison upon them.

Serpents shrouded in poisonous fumes attack Patalnilan soldiers by the breach in the sunken wall.

Despite Emeseran and Launar's magic, the Bog Serpent, his prophet and their troops manage to break through. Inside the city, the rebels help fight Patalnila and Emeseran and Launar, along with their whole army, are killed by the attacking soldiers and the revolting pythians. The victory is costly for Darkswamp, however, as Sakarlaisk has been shot by a javelin which went through his head, splitting his skull. The prophet of the Bog Serpent is now definitely dead.
The Bog Serpent however hasn't taken any actions to handle the food situation in the city. With Sakarlaisk dead, there is noone left to heal the diseased. The Bog Serpent himself had spent all of his power to summon vipers, mutate them so they would breathe venom, and then expand swamp to weaken the walls. Therefore, he wasn't able to perform magic to help with harvests. Pythians were therefore starving. The nearby farms were mostly held by people formerly loyal to Patalnila, including former soldiers. These were reluctant to give their few crops to the city, and hid what they could. This resulted in many deaths. A lot of Pythians have started working fields near the city, but the situation is still dire and noone eats as much as they need. Many children die as their mothers can't give them milk, and many graves have to be dug.

Taernsvwyn scouts explore the regions all around their lands. To the east lie lush plains and prairies. A few forests grow in the northeast, beyond which a vast mountain range spreads east-west. A few metal veins are located in the hills, mostly lead and copper. In the west, the seashore is followed to the north into chaos lands. Scouts reach the borders of the Orderly World and enter Chaos both west and north.

In Arcoscephale, several veterans of the Ermor campaign spread word of how they were blessed by the god of war. One of them shows a scar that runs from his forehead to his cheek and explains how his eye was lost but his prayers to the god of war were heard and he got his sight back. The cult of the god of war is spreading in the Arcoscephalian army, and a new general, faithful to this cult, emerges. His name is Skiodes, a dark and handsome man who served in the army of Argos for years. He's proposing that a guard tower dedicated to the god of waar should be built in every city of the Arcoscephale alliance in order to help see and ward off invasion. So far, his proposal hasn't received much support.

In Ermor, Samael disappears. Her location is unknown. Rumors say that she's flown to conquer the lands of Marverni, but these don't seem backed by any reality. Some say that she's left to defend the Empire from a threat known only to her. These rumours contradict each other, but one thing is certain: Noone knows where she is or what she is doing. During her absence, the death rate in Eldregate rises somewhat. People tend to die without any apparent reason. Healthy people catch a cold and die in a few weeks.
Seshmek the necromancer leads the legions of Eldregate northwards, moving first to Truscanior, and then north in order to intercept the army of Marverni that their scouts spotted. Gerek the druid has in fact been leading his army from Helven to Redonum, hoping to liberate that city. As they progress north, the Ermor legions are accompanied by the healer whom many soldiers go ask for help. He gives them some instructions and goes see Seshmek, asking the lizardman to check those soldiers. The necromancer reluctantly does as he is asked, and comes to the same conclusion as the healer: Those soldiers are walking dead. When they are discovered, they attack Seshmek, who uses his necromantic powers to take control of them and dispatch them. The news that soldiers die and keep walking among the troops, unknown and hidden, seriously hampers the morale of Ermor soldiers. Yet, their army is large and advances steadily, but Seshmek can't find the culprit. Some soldiers are found dead.
Ultimately, the legionary armies meet the druid's troops in the open between the cities, and a battle ensues in the plains.

Ermor legionaires outnumber Marverni soldiers.

Gerek, seeing that his army is in bad shape, cuts off his own arm with a short sword, and uses this sacrifice to send steel blades at the enemy army. He kills several legionaires with this spell, but it is far from enough. Soon, the Marverni army routs, and Gerek uses a last spell to entangle his opponents, buying enough time for his army to run away. As Ermor's healer works on the wounded, the legionaries tell him they will bring him the wounded, but he can't go to the battlefield by himself. He protests. Obviously, there are wounded on the field that need treatment. The soldiers agree, and say they are bringing them in. However, only Ermor wounded are brought, and the healer denounces Samael's treachery. She is playing with words, trying to stay true to the word of her promise of letting him heal every wounded, but not to the spirit. Enraged, the healer defects and leaves the army.
Seshmek orders his men to follow and track the survivors. The next day, Seshmek's legionaires find the Marverni camp, but it is without a sign of life. The camp is littered with corpses. All the soldiers are dead, apparently poisoned. Seshmek doesn't understand what happened, but finds the corpse of Gerek the druid among the victims. Whatever happened, the Marverni army is destroyed, and Seshmek decides to march onward. The legionaires march upon Helven, intent on bringing it back in Ermor's lap.
However, on the first night after the grisly discovery of the Marverni camp, the undead legionnaires that Seshmek brought with him suddenly turn against the camp. The skeletons start slaughtering the unwary living legionnaires. They have somehow escaped the power of Seshmek and Samael and turn against their former mates. The surprise is absolute, and the undead kill more than twice their numbers before they can be brought down.
After this disaster, after the unexplained deaths of the soldiers on the way to Redonum, the morale of the army is at its lowest. They don't understand why the undead turned on them and no longer trust Seshmek, whose necromantic powers they now have doubts about. The army refuses to march upon Helven, and the legionaires head back to Eldregate, intent to get answers from Samael.

A few weeks after these events, several tribesmen of Marverni report that a ghost has been heard at night, whispering a desperate song. Those bold enough to go out and check the song saw an unearthly figure, wielding a short blade, haunting the trees. They would see it cut off its own arm and cry. The boldest ones, or rather the ones so scared that their legs shivered too much for them to run away, would then see the ghost mix some herbs in a cauldron, chanting unholy words, before they would pass out in fear.

The ghost of Gerek haunts Marverni woods.

The king of Alifat raises his army and moves to the south in his holy war against chaos. He conquers fields sparsely inhabited, and peasants steadily accept his rule, but this doesn't always go well. Some groves are infested with kobolds that have to be killed. Succubi try to charm his officers and have to be hunted. Green pig-like men attack the rightful Alifat armies with pitchforks and have to be killed, their filthy village burned down. At the end of the year, scouts report spotting walls of a fortified city. Nothing is known of it so far, but the King of Alifat prays his god of love to give him the strength to uproot what can only be a fortress of evil and chaos.

Peasants near the city of Myrbeth report miracles performed by a fox coming from Falaxan. Faith in Ezio increases in the city, but many peasants are more wary of foxes than ever, and the feelings towards Falaxan faith are mixed.

Ulm sends soldiers scout the area to the northwest. They discover hot, arid plains shrouded in chaos.

Firland expands past the river to its west, conquering the city of Bombastium.

In the kingdom of Boeuf, minotaurs are sent across the whole country to proselityze. Deerholm also gets some love, with repairs made to old houses and new ones being built.
The five-foot tall, sturdy woman coming from Myrde settles in Myrvo, where she starts crafting jewels.

Please note the deadline for next update is Friday 18th. I'll be busy for work from the 14 to the 18th. I may have internet access, or not, and even if I have, I may or may not have much free time depending on what the job will dictate.

I'm sending stats asap.

Once again, I've probably messed up some stats, so thank you for checking.

Terrance, well, sorry. Basically you didn't spend magic on defense while darkswamp spent on offense. Of course, this led to collateral damage in the population of Pythia. If you're interested in taking over another country/god or even a new one from the chaos, you're welcome.

Please note Ulm is now officially NPC.

I also haven't received orders from lord_joakim or nutranurse, so I'd like to hear from both of them if anyone has any news.

Yes sorry.

I have kinda lost touch with this NES during my break, and it's hard for me to get back into it.

I think you should NPC me to have things run smoother, at least...