Mid Era Orania (STARTED)

[Baalz]

Arcoscephale’s two-front war rages on. The Vanheim generals have proven every bit as tough and resourceful as the vans themselves. Counter, parry, feint, our dance goes on in a desperate struggle of well matched adversaries. After crushing their original army I knew it would be scant time before a fresh wave of Vanheim aggression crested our shores. Though the Arcoscephale great communion was able to slay the majority of Van power, a huge flock of black hawks continue to hold our home citadel, and our mage’s lacking in physical strength are unable to bring the walls down, we suspect stealthy vans are sneaking in to bolster the defense. As we sieged our own home, and watched the Vanheim reinforcements march closer, Man continued to nibble away at our borders completely unopposed. Despite our desperate press against Vanheim, I just could not allow our kingdom to be eroded in this fashion, so while I held the bulk of our power close at hand, I commissioned secondary and tertiary armies to press back along our more distant borders. Our tertiary armies consisted of small squads which pushed south into the land of the apes, to attempt and assist our Caelum friends in bringing civilization to the savages, while hopefully replacing some of the territories lost in our prolonged war. Our secondary army marched north, to deal some long overdue retribution to the armies of Man.

Seeing that much of Man’s strength was composed of powerful, but weak willed elephants, much of the secondary army was composed of astral mages, defended by hoplite phalanxes. As the armies of Man lined up on the battlefield, their powerful longbowmen began to fire from close proximity to their elephant corps, in an effort to soften us up before the elephants finished us off. As their first volley hung in the air, they realized their peril as many of the elephants turned towards the unprotected archers with freshly murderous intent. It was a red rout, with the majority of Arcoscephale casualties being the tragic result of having too few communion slaves to effectively share the strain of all the mind enslaving. Happily, the second engagement with Man went even better, as more communion slaves were sent forth, and now Man’s elephants march back into their territory under new masters. Our army grows with every encounter, though a deluge of seeking arrows fall upon us, presumably Man’s desperate attempt to slow the vengeance which advances to reclaim Arcoscephale land. Happily, our army consists of enough mages that this is no more than a nuisance, our priestesses heal the afflictions of those that survive, and the few that die are replaced quickly.

Meanwhile, our primary forces continue to match stroke for stroke with Vanheim. Seeing that the siege was not progressing, and operating under the strategy of not remaining where our enemy knew us to be we marched to intercept a largish Vanheim army before they could combine with others to overwhelm us, leaving a token force of mercenaries to maintain the siege. This worked even better than anticipated, as our decoy mercenaries were set upon by great eagles equipped with medallions of vengeance, obviously hoping to decimate our communion. Instead, they decimated our militia mercenaries in an all out kamikaze raid. There were no great eagle survivors. One province over, our main army slew and enslaved the bulk of a Vanheim army seiging another of our castles, sadly at substantial loss of life as the Vanheim general has adjusted his tactics to much more effectively target our mages. Powerful troll and dwarvish earth mages create earthquakes and shower us with clouds of blades, deadly to our lightly armored mages. We will need to push into Vanheim land before these strategies are able to be expanded. Thankfully, our god personally leads this army, thus victory is assured.

[Reverend Zombie]

Baalz said:


Seeing that much of Man’s strength was composed of powerful, but weak willed elephants, much of the secondary army was composed of astral mages, defended by hoplite phalanxes....Happily, the second engagement with Man went even better, as more communion slaves were sent forth, and now Man’s elephants march back into their territory under new masters.

Quite nicely done! I respect the power of Enslave Mind as never before.

[Baalz]

Hehe, it works a WHOLE lot less effectively against very magic resistant vans.... But then again, what doesn't?

Probably be a little easier to resist as the fighting leads outside of my strong magic dominion. In our second fight, did you see that one damn elephant...the one who freshly enslaved decided to immediately rout right back through my wizards? *groan*

[Baalz]

Apparently Vanheim feels that a two on one fight it unfair, so they have brought a second ally in against us. First Vanheim’s summoned trolls descended on us and with a mighty double WHAM two earthquakes slew many of our wizards. Our forces were able to still carry the day, but there was substantial loss of life. Before the survivors can pull back for reinforcements Marignon’s pretender god teleports in. The huge burning head of a baphomet appeared in front of our army, and promptly unleashed a firestorm over the entire battlefield. As our troops closed in huge sheets of flame were vomited out, slaying dozens at a time. Thankfully, the brave soldiers of Arcoscephale are made of sterner stuff than the Marignon cowards realized, for they pressed on despite the terrible flames and several mighty blows were struck against the abomination, including one which festered into a disease immediately. Seeing his doom personified as Baal strode up, the cowardly Marignon pretender turned tail and fled. Considering the distance to Marignon territory, I can’t imagine that turned out well for him. The siege of the great Arcoscephale citadel continues…

Meanwhile, the lands of Man continue to fall as we reclaim the lands which were stolen while we focused on the Vanheim threat. Man marshals a huge host of archers and knights, but my generals tell me that they’ve adjusted their strategy and should have no trouble slaying ten thousand more until all our lands are liberated. In the heartland Vanheim raids continue to be a thorn, but our astrologers hunt their minds on the astral currents and slay them whenever they are found. It should not be long before there will be no amount of money that can be paid to convince a raider try and sneak through Arcoscepale lands. Still, this three front war is starting to wear on the people, I wonder how much longer we can carry on.

[Baalz]

Got a message that Bandar Log was defeated, but looks like the server is waiting for him to take a turn...

[DrPraetorious]

Yes, that is odd.... anyway I took his non-turn for him.

Once Caelum sends his turn in I'm taking the server down for routine maintanence and HD backup. It'll be down for 12 hrs or so at most.

[FAJ]

It is indeed unfortunate that the Baphomet was diseased by the one little weapon that struck him. I have placed a massive dunce cap on him and he sits in the corner and awaits feeble-mindedness.

I am upset that he disobeyed my given orders, so to punish him I am sending him against an army of illithids the next chance I get .