The next release will really set Armok apart from the rest as a really bad-ass game. There’ll be realistic horizons, detailed trees and plant life. You’ll feel like your lost in the wilderness and have to keep that big mountain on your left to keep going in the same direction. Then you’ll get jumped by a wild randomly-generated predator that tracked your trail through the brush which is realized and abstracted as the monster follows your smell/footprints.
While this next release is probably the best in the game, what it really does is set us up for the Magic Release. Little things like wind speed and ambient temperature will allow for all sorts of nasty spells. I will now detail the nastiest:
Inspired by Ralph Bakshi cartoons like “Wizards” and “Fire and Ice” I think their should be a spell of ultimate destruction that not only obliterates the target but also curses its' memory with evil that far outweighs anything they possibly could have done to you:
“Vengeance of the Gods” (nuclear bomb)
Ingredients:
A) First you need two lumps of a material that, when combined, form a critical mass of pure evil. We’ll call it “Armok Rock”
B) Next you a device to store the material. This can be any Artifact of Darkness enchanted with the proper containment spells. Also, you’ll probably want to have your dragon or giant bat hurl this device from a safe altitude.
C) You all need a trigger. Keeping in the spirit of Slaves to Armok, this is also variable and can be any spell or ritual that sets off the blast. The only restriction being that the energy put into the spell must be of sufficient power and hatred to not only trigger the bomb, but also to cast the wizard’s soul into the Outer Darkness.
Instant Effects:
1: Ambient heat at ground zero raised to 300,000,000 C all non-magic material vaporized.
2: Portal to Elemental plane of Fire temporally opened sending 500ft cone of flame into sky
3: Souls of those vaporized are unleashed as angry phantoms and possibly contribute to the creation of retarded "Lay-Lines"
4: 50% chance gateway to hell is opened releasing 1-5 major demons and accompanying Hell-spawn.
5: Shock wave (High Winds?) disrupts structures and uproots trees creating flying debris, which along with fires spawned by heat account for most immediate casualties. Also blast will awaken any sleeping Mega-Beasts or Ancient-Gods in the area.
6: 50% of those within 1600m of the blast contract the Red Death*
7: Those remaining within one mile are Cursed by the Gods**
Effects to last as long as Half-Life of material fissoned by spell:
A) Land 60 miles around is cursed- no crops will grow, only plants and water which, if consumed, will result in contracting The Curse of the Gods**
B) Evil aura of death and disease will attract all wicked beings to the area.
C) Any intelligent being that dies in the blast zone has a 20% chance of rising and a zombie thirsty for vengeance!
*Red Death is a disease that kills all victims in 2 months via septicemia due to failure of bone marrow. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, bleeding, blindness and hair loss. It does not effect creatures already twisted by evil magic.
**The Curse of the Gods increases the chance of it's victims contracting fatal wasting diseases as well as making all subsequent offspring into the closest "twisted" form with an average IQ of 5 less than the parent. In the case of humans this would be any random goblinoid.
As you can deduce, even after the Armok Rock loses its’ power in approximately 100 years, the twisted offspring of the survivors and the evil beings called to the wasteland will continue to terrorize the surrounding region for ages to come.
Whether cast by a demented wizard or the gods themselves, I think this spell will be one of Armok’s favorites.
[ August 01, 2002: Message edited by: ThreeToe ]