The Let's Play Archive

Dominions 3

by Lilli et al.

Part 189: Hinnom - Turn 77

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Turn 77

I fired the first shot in the war last turn by putting up Forge.  Now we wait for the response.  Summoning is a Grigori, demon knights, two cyclops, a unit of mechanical men and an Iron Dragon.  Blood hunting bounces back a bit to 132.  



Research in Enchantment 8 is complete.  I'm now at 8/9 in all but Thaumaturgy and what this does is really open up the options for me going forward.  


There are a surprising number of spells at the higher levels of Enchantment compared to the other schools.  


Enchantment also has the remaining army buffs that aren't in Alteration.  Here's the fire resist version in case you're fighting Abysia.  


The Anti-Caelum version.   Each of these provide +50% resistance to their respective element to your entire army.  Not enough to save you entirely but enough to really blunt the effect of 30 thunder strikers.  


And the anti-Niefel version.  The real problem with these spells is that they don't stack with each other or the army of Lead/Gold spells.  So that sucks.  


This spell is incredibly powerful situationally (and terrible otherwise).   It halves everyone's precision and makes caster's air level of phantasms attack from the edges of the battlefield each turn. 


DRY LAND IS A MYTH!  Much like the usefulness of this global.  


For only 40 water gems you can have a huge monster that... Uh.... Well it's really big... And it doesn't need an amulet of the fish () or six months to grow... So... Yeah I don't like Grendelkin.  They're huge sacks of hit points that don't have any magic.  Compare them to ember lords who can cast iron will (+MR), earth power (+4 reinvig) and Phoenix Pyre and can fly to boot and their lack of wow becomes more apparent. But they do have a lot of HP.  So they've got that going for them.  


This is pretty badass.  It forces an easy MR check on all casters or they become feebleminded. It also destroys magic beings like my poor mechanical men.  So fuck this spell.  Fortunately, it's quite difficult to cast.


This is one of the classic vanilla dom3 spells.  You used to have to cast it to get to tarts.  Now all it does is give you an immortal death caster who's not as good as a wraith lord.  


This spell does not belong here.  CBM makes it cheaper and revamps the cost of Wyverns and drakes so it's actually worth casting.  


Another great spell.  But dom3's devs are hateful sons of bitches who discriminate against my robot love so this doesn't work on my mechanical men.  


Cool fluff, near worthless effect.  I've never seen this cast, but it's a neat idea.  There's a similar LA Pan spell called Carrion Woods that's much better and even that is a bit of a trap.


Now we're talking!  If I didn't have such a shortage of nature gems I would certainly summon some treants.  Unfortunately, irony.or.death continues to hoard all the nature gems for the expansion of his absurd emerald city.   Pan is the 1%!


immolationsex rolled through the new red desert of the Void, his mere presence giving shape to the raw magic. Perhaps over time some clever creature would find this corner of the void and return the choking red dust to the empty blackness that surrounded it. Until then, the small corner of the plane would kill all who found it.  The bones of the dead spawn of the void would rise up, like everything in immolationsex's desert, twisted and blackened, to serve an uncaring master.

immolationsex rolled out into the void and the dust of the desert crept after him.  In time he might turn this place into another home.  For now he had business elsewhere. The boy's last uncle waited.   

Gnipahålan yawned, a great chasm opening in the side of the mountain. immolationsex rolled slowly up the jagged path and all around him snow sublimated, sending great jets of steam into the frigid air.  The noble pines withered and each fresh hoof seared its imprint in the stone.  As he approached the cave, a host of Vanir appeared as if from
nowhere.  From the sky, Valkyrie screamed their savage war cries as they swooped down upon him and in the mouth of Hel itself, a line of pale Hangadrott on their dead horses closed ranks.  They whispered a strange, dead, sing-song chant together and wave after wave of undead poured forth from Hel to do battle with immolationsex.  An unending horde of skeletons, shades, zombies and ghosts stretched toward him.  The whispers of the Hangadrott reached immolationsex and they spoke of dark secrets and death and the chill of the grave.  

But immolationsex only walked forward, hooves now sprinkling the red dust of the desert on the rock.   The undead began to close and the Valkyrie's screams grew louder as they swooped down and still immolationsex walked on.   The line of Hangadrotts continued their whispered chanting and all around the mountaintop vast thunderheads began to form.  And then, with the spears of the Valkyrie launched with deadly intent and a nigh-endless horde of undead prepared to drown immolationsex with their number, the Goat Sun flickered for a moment and exploded.  Huge gouts of flame expanded outward from immolationsex, burning the Valkyrie to nothing in the air while a roiling wall of fire blew over the undead horde and into the massed Hangadrott at the mouth of Gnipahålan.  

immolationsex rolled through the corpses of the Hangadrott and into Gnipahålan.  In the darkness, a towering jackal-headed titan stood, waiting in front of the gate to Hel itself.  It spoke "I am He Who is Upon the Mountain and the fallen one is mine." immolationsex walked on and the titan leapt, striking with flail and ankh while behind immolationsex the husks of the Hangadrott rose, pulled by the ropes trailing from their necks.   It was long since immolationsex had felt pain and the bite of the Ankh was a surprise.  With a roar, the titan tore at immolationsex with his teeth, opening a great wound in its side.  And for the first time in millennia, immolationsex bled.  Flames spilled from the wound and spattered on the cavern floor.  Again the titan spoke, burnt skin crackling where it had bit immolationsex "I am lord of this place and of death and you shall go no further. Time to die!"

immolationsex paused and the air began to shimmer with heat.  The Hangadrott behind advanced and a low guttural growl started in the throat of the jackal-headed titan.  In moments, the cave had grown unbearably hot.  The walls steamed and the hooves of the Hangadrott's horses caught fire. The jackal-headed titan looked wildly around, unable to comprehend the change to its home. The titan gathered itself to leap again at immolationsex, clutching its ankh tightly.  From the ceiling a fine red dust began to fall, drifting down evenly over the floor of the cave and the now-burning Hangadrott.  The Titan tried to leap but its foot slipped on the dust that now came pouring down around it. 

Several minutes later, immolationsex's hooves sent up small puffs of red dust with each step through the arid mountain-top desert as he walked toward the winged figure trapped in the stones of the gate of Hel. 


Here's Ornias's dad. No doubt quite proud of how far his son has come and able to forge Robes of the Magi as well as being a badass SC in his own right. 


PRESIDENT WILLIAM TAFT shifted from one foot to the other, trying to stealthily loose some of the pressure building in his bowels.   Then, when it was too much to take PRESIDENT WILLIAM TAFT let out a tremendous *PBTTTTHHHHHHHHHH* and sagged with relief.  Behind him, 81 people instantly dropped dead.  With a guilty glance around to make sure no one else had been watching, PRESIDENT WILLIAM TAFT crept from the room.


I know irony.or.death has the Gift of Kugri and now I know what he's doing with it.  In terms of first shots this is really more of a warning.  All my blood hunting Melqarts are scripted to cast returning so all I've lost is the province for a turn.  In exchange, I now know where I stand with Pan.  This unwarranted attack on the peaceful people's of Hinnom means war!  King Hippomnomnomnom will strike back with furious vengeance for this rapacious, wanton destruction of innocent avvites and their property!


Fortunately for King Hippomnomnomnom, the rest of the world still recognize the benefit of his responsibly pro-business strategies.


Donkringel gently explains to the vine men that Evangeline Lilly is just playing a character on television and there's no chance that KATE will date them, even if they did have their own province. 


The last of Mictlan's great fortresses falls. Now, there is only a small band of slave warriors remaining of the once mighty empire.


still fuck the ocean is sent out, like a giant iron dragon-shaped St Bernard, with supplies to provide succor to the sad band. Meanwhile sullat is... SULLAT!!! Are you embezzling pearls?


With Pedosien released from his ties of bondage to Mictlan, zauper reaches out to see how his friend is doing. 


Of note this turn in Histyra, artifact forging continues, PRESIDENT WILLIAM TAFT's diet of hamburgers, taco bell and hostess brand cake-type products wreaks further havoc on his digestive tract, Griffen casts wish and *sad trombone* accelerates plans Fuck Pan and We Need A Hero!





The sword of many colors is a nice two handed elemental booster that takes only earth and astral to forge.


27 protection!  And what it doesn't mention is +3 MR.  Oh, and you can never take if off either.  Maybe it should be renamed to Aseftik's Chastity Belt?


This is one of only a very few ways to get a bonus to a priest's holy level.   


Two-handed water booster. It sounds like it should be great in combat but it's almost universally true that two-handed weapons are less good than a brand and a shield. 


This book is great.  But because it's an artifact that boosts astral level you know there's some sort of hidden insanity/horror/lost in the void nonsense attached and here it's a low chance to be horror marked every turn.  I bet you were glad you saw that in the text the first time it horror marked your precious S6 Mage, weren't you?  Oh, it's not in the text? Oh, dom3.


And now, the moment we've all been waiting for.  The end of all that speculation. What did I wish for?


Here's where *sad trombone* is headed.  Aegis will help him absolutely murder these troops. 


This is what blood hunting should look like when you're a blood power.  Unfortunately, as Hinnom this just isn't sustainable because of the unrest Melqarts, Ba'als and Kohen generate. 


Here is where irony.or.death sent that lesser horror. He's just trying to snipe a Melqart blood hunter and I fully expect a more significant offensive soon.