Part 8

Master,
I have delayed writing to you for a few reasons, but I had decided that if I did not check in soon, you'd not be pleased, so it's time for an update on your apprentices. Quite frankly, they're divided, but not as I had foreseen, many are picking up on the subtleties of Keepering, but many more are taking more of an interest in the.. personality aspects of being a keeper. As amusing as it is to watch them squabble, and see the quiet few in the back shuffle for the best tactical position, I question whether or not they are ready.

I recieved the delivery, and my thanks for the kind gift of the dark mistress included within.. she was treated poorly until I disposed of her. Just as she'd have wanted.

Your humble servant.

Several days have passed since the last lesson.

Well now apprentices, I see that several more of you have fallen to the wayside since our.. impromptu class debate. I'm surprised to see Apprentice Jostiband is still alive. I suppose congratulations to him on surviving, and a stern admonishment to keeper Crotch for failing to dispatch of him as his words subtly intoned.

This shall be a relatively short class today students, for you see, our next class will be quite large, excessively so. (I'm not joking, I took some ridiculous number of screenshots Moobrush wood is such a huge map..) so I shall try to keep you.. untaxed.

Tickle

Blissfully unaware of the damage protracted war can wreak on their idyllic cluster of homesteads, the villagers of Tickle are pure of heart, and unblemished of face and neck.



As you can see from the Map shown, Panic Intrinsica is a large map. The situation was thus; Panic Intrinsica, or 'Tickle' as it was known then, was a former fortress for the world of good, however, it had been held by Keeper Bartholomew for a long time, unlike Artmeis and Belial, however, Bartholomew was a Keeper truly worthy of the name, he kept his minions healthy, kept his gold supply well guarded, and worst of all, he knew when to attack. He also had an affinity for capturing and converting heroes to his cause, which at that point, was slowly becoming our specialty.



From the get go, he was training creatures, faster than us, however, with our forethought from SteepScythe, we brought with us, a highly experienced Mistress. One of the least known things about Mistress's, is that they make excellent researchers, there are several reasons for this, but most notably, is the fact that they can haste themselves often, and it constantly overlaps, so most Mistresses spend their times near constantly hasted, which gives them an edge over most other creatures in combat. Older mistresses are oft near impossible to kill, as will be demonstrated later.




As a result of our forethought, we where the first to research many spells in this area, and it gave us the edge. Noting the strange layout of the caves far to the East of the undermap, we tunneled east. As we tunneled, our Mistress researched invisiblity for the first time.



As a result of our eastern expansion, we secured most of the gold in this area, and also another valuable resource..







Hellhounds are as Flies, except vastly more powerful. They have a love for exploration, especially if it involves exploring lava, to which they have a natural immunity. One of their specialties, with which they share with Dragons, is the ability to breathe fire. While not exceptionally strong, it is certainly handy for taking down lesser creatures. Imps, flies, Unwary keepers...

They have a particular.. well, not hatred, but they find Demon Spawn to be absolutely delicious, of course, that means that they're not usually not too well recieved by the Demon Spawn guild.



We also found, yet another, Secret to bring with us to our next realm.







Tunneling north towards Bartholomew, we where assaulted by the remnants of the old heroic army. Fairies are.. perversely similar to the Dark Mistress, and they both hold a great loathing of the other race. The reason for this, is that at one time, both fairies, and Mistresses where spellcasters, a part of the Wizards guild, an alliance at the time, known as the Sisters of Battle. What we know now as mistresses, where actually Paladins, serving for their many gods.

Back then, mistresses wheren't as.. open to the shadow as they are now, and it was at the same time as the Warlocks began experimenting with their Necromantic side, as the Mistresses began to revel in what evil could potentially offer them. During the fallout from the split, the Warlocks could have been destroyed, albeit, with many casualties on either side, however with the former Paladins turned Mistress', the backstabbing that took place was incredible to behold. Many Fairies, Witches, and Paladins who stayed true where killed, giving the Warlocks time to focus solely on their Wizard brethren.

Physically, Fairies are incredibly weak, but they make up for this with a vast assortment of spells to hinder opponents, and to heal themself from damage.

With the death of the Fairies from our realm, the Dark gods had finally decreed that no more would we do indirect worship with them. The time had come to finally worship as our minions saw fit.





With the favour and blessing of the Dark gods secured, we decided to, at last take full use of the posession spell, posessing our Hellhound we sprinted north to check the layout of his dungeon, and to see precisely the layout of his forces.











Satisfied with what we could see of his dungeon, we began to plan our assault, when movement to the north caught our eye. It appeared that Bartholomew had been training his imps to make use of the haste spell, something we ourselves had been doing. Something that put him on an even footing with us, and was easily removed..





The drums of war caught our ears at, evidently our Hellhounds, where having some fun. One was apparently hungry for Dragon young, and the other believed he could take on the might of Bartholomew himself. Admirable, but foolish. He would need some help, which we would happily provide, as this would hopefully be the distraction we would need, what with Bartholomew making a sudden aggressive push to the south, towards our unprotected dungeon border.











Note this memory in particular, and specifically the active map in the top left, at this point, Bartholomew had his entire dungeon out, searching for Keap, the Hellhound we where controlling.



Which was all the distraction we where hoping for, this allowed us to reveal his Imps digging turn them into fried imp. (Which, I should mention is a superbly delicious meal, for best results, I always found aiming a lightning bolt for their throat, and then tearing it out produced best results). With little to no gold at his disposal now, Bartholomew was fast running out of options. We where about to set our plan into motion when a slew of Barbarians assaulted us from the North, the final survivors from Bartholomews earlier cleansing, they had held one of the gold deposits, which we had evidently disturbed.







With them removed from the picture, we set forth finally, to set our long yet, oft delayed plan into motion.

Cast your minds back to the start of the lesson, and my statement regarding the night invulnerability of elder Mistresses, and watch the following slaughter as our dear Mistress slides around the room, destroying Bartholomews creatures, who are far too slow to catch her up. Like a cat playing with a mouse.













Shortly after the death of several of the elders assaulters, the rest of our forces arrived.





However, Bartholomew was a smart Keeper, as we mentioned earlier, keeping many of his forces in reserve, for when the bulk of our forces arrived, and thus battle broke out anew.







Whilst our forces battled it our, our Hellhounds slipped away from the battle, for more fitting sport, a game of 'Eat the Imp' broke out between the two. Keap won, an impressive 9 to Koins 6.





With the last of Bartholomews troops dead, we moved on to the Dungeon heart, and on to success.







But we wheren't completely finished yet.. I did mention this was a former hero stronghold, did I not?







Panic Intrisica

Panic Intrisica. A weeping, wizened crone presides over this ruined empty land now. Once she was beautiful. Now she'd make you want to vomit. The improvement is impressive.

An assignment for next class children. Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of Bartholomew, and for our next lesson, let me know what you believe he did poorly, and what you would have done, where you in the same situation.