Turn 35. Late Winter in the year 2. (part 1)First things first, Blood Magic level 6 has been reached. The jump to level 7 is a long one. Not entirely sure if I should go for it now or come back later. I'd really love astral corruption but without the construction skills for a booster none of my mages can cast it. Due to that I'm going to swap our research queue back to construction for a bit - it may also unlock useful upgrades for The Veiled One. The blood level 6 unlocks Call Horror, the big brother of the lesser horrors and MUCH more horrifying. There's also the Infernal Disease ritual here which sounds like it summons a powerful demonic assassin.
Mixed news of the horror's front this month. The hordes we sent to Kolermegor were only mildly effective. Looks like they're just not going to cut it against seasoned troops.
The ones at Takregus, supporting Man's assault, completely wiped out the defenses there. Man moved in unopposed. Belial against moves to assassinate and enemy Sage, this time hitting him in the dark of night.
The battle begins much like the last one, with the sage casting Personal Luck on himself then hitting Belial with Starfire. This one's starfire spell was much stronger and caused significant damage. The sage's luck spell block 4 attacks in a row and Belial turned to flee while it cast starfire repeatedly after him. Unfortunately, Belial never reported back and is presumed dead while his target is unharmed.
Now for the big news. Those 50 Einheres we saw and failed to do more than scratch? Turns out they were part of a 200 strong elven army that attempted to relieve the siege in Halemyre. Here's the battle lineup:
For our part we have the mages in the center of our formation where many will be summoning Fire Elementals, the Lava Warriors making up the front line with Fire Drakes on one flank and Gunder's mercenaries on the other (where they'll hopefully stay somewhat out of the way of all the fire coming down since they don't have our native fire resistance). Another small group of Lava Warriors and infantry are holding in the far rear as a block against enemies with attack rear orders.
Battle is joined!
The elves open up with summoning a Natural Storm (is it really natural if it was summoned?) which makes fire magic much harder to cast and reduces all ranged accuracy. The first of the cowards begin to flee the battle!
During the battle our famed one-eyed commander Steve rallied the rear guard and led them in to support The Vieled One as the enemy beserkers and cavalry met her. When several of those cavalry broke off to rush our mages he chased them down.
He fought 4 of the Van's at once with his initial attacks being repelled by the elven lance which then pierced his chest. As the lance withdrew and one of the hellhorses kicked him hard Steve just laughed at his foe and somehow held his ground. Steve held them off for round after round, unable to get any of his strikes through their glamours and defenses until he finally struck true and one of his opponents fell with an Axe lodged in his body. Just after this some fire elementals arrived and finished off the weakened Vanheim cavalry. With the threat to the mages eliminated Steve once more charged towards his goddess, who now stood alone against the enemy vanguard.
Steve engaged with several of the berserk Einhere, cracking one hard in the head before another stepped up behind and removed Steve's arm. Steve yelled in defiance and his return blow struck out his assailant's eye, finally getting revenge on the world for that two year old injury that gave him his nickname before succumbing to his wounds and falling in battle. During this another group of berserkers had swung around and hit the mages, making Steve the last living Abysian on the battlefield this day, defending his goddess until the very end. RIP Steve, we will never forget. (now someone needs to write him a funeral dirge
)
From there The Veiled One held against the Einheres until the rest of the elven forces fled. We won the battle but at the near total loss of our army. The Veiled One came out at full health and unharmed.
For more mundane activities this round, we found some gold and nature gems from various events and completed the castle in Ba'an Dagor.
I'll make a short followup in a little while with this turn's activities on it. Real life calls!