Part 49: Dream Duel Recap
Previously on Myth III
Myrdred defeated The Watcher after a dream duel. Myrdred celebrates with a little dance, as seen above.
The first half of this mission is just generic Thrall/Forgotten killing, but the battle against Bahl'al really shines. Boss battles in Myth are usually "miss" but I like this one a lot. The unarmored Thrall combined with the volcano dreams make Bahl'al a threat before you're even in melee range. I didn't show it off but if you back away enough from him, he'll resummon all of his Thrall. I also like how there's an in-game necessity to have Myrdred be the main attacker as the mission would suggest - without his stun-draining attack, Bahl'al will kill a ton of your melee units. My only complaint with the level is Myrdred never told Bahl'al who was aiding him - namely Mazzarin, as Mazzarin requested at the end of The Crypt of Mazzarin. Mazzarin was killed by The Watcher, and this was his one request of our group.
"You...how do you have such power?!" are Bahl'al last words before he escapes. He has a point if you think about it. Myrdred has mastered the Dispersal Dream, the Dream of Release, that thing he did to the Trow in the beginning of Heartstone of Nyx, and now he's defeated the most powerful necromancer to ever exist. Pretty impressive.
Screenshots:
Game film:
So, um...some of you died. FrickenMoron, Saltiest Hobo, Zebrin, McTimmy, Vander Jr, bobsedgws, MechaBread, x_countryguy, Gibbleykins, RulebookHeavily, Iron Saber, Norsu, DJ Ramshackle, and KnoxZone with only the last one being my fault. The Warriors shouldn't feel TOO bad - this is the last mission with standard Warriors in them anyway.
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There a lot of dwarf-related failures here, but since most of them happen early on I considered those to be restarts.
It's actually double bonus time! A very special Heartstone of Nyx awaits you all in the next video.
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Bahl'al, The WatcherI said everything about the unit in the video, but Bahl'al history and backstory go further than anyone else in Myth, except the Leveler.
The most powerful necromancer to ever walk the face of Myth, Bahl'al has been living since before the Age of Reason. It is said that he gained his mastery of the undead from exploring the sunken Trow temples in the Deep - not taking a breath for days.
"Bahl'al descended to the flooded, rusting halls of Si'anwon and under the sea there took no breath for nine days, searching the ruined palaces and temples of the Trow for the dream of unlife." - Thrall flavor text, Myth: The Fallen Lords.
Bahl'al is known for appearing and wreaking havoc with his powers, only to disappear for centuries afterwards. Only a few centuries ago, Bahl'al killed his ancient foe Mazzarin under a literal sea of his undead Thrall. Bahl'al is consumed with the dream of turning the whole of the world into a place where only the dead roam. Although mad, he is still fiercely intelligent and proficient in necromantic and Dream powers. Indeed, it is thought that if Mazzarin could not stop him, he may not have an equal.
From GURPS Myth (relevant to Myth: The Fallen Lords):
A calculating and ancient archmage with a tendency to nurse musty grievances, the Watcher served Balor as well as did any Fallen Lord. His army kept moving forward despite the Deceiver's treachery. He then pursued Alric's ragtag forces with zeal even though he might have been tempted to seek out the Deceiver's corpse, for among his hundreds of hatreds he cherished none more than that he held for his old foe.
His poisoned mind led his contemporaries to consider him unhinged, even by the standards of a Fallen Lord. It also led to his greatest triumph, when he laid a trap that caught the great Mazzarin in the Wind Age. This earned a reputation as the second- or third-most powerful sorceror of his heyday.
As a necromancer first and foremost, he pursued the Unlife Dream with great vigor, but reportedly never found it.
Miscalculated acts of vengeance often led him to seek sanctuary in the Dire Marshes or other remote stretches, to let things cool down and allow time to obsess over his next move. Eventually he found himself pinned in one of his remote hideaways beneath Cloudspine by the Confinement Dream till Balor freed him at the cost of an arm.
The Watcher was also called Bahl'al, mad goat of the fens. An arrow enchanted by Alric from the Fallen Lord's own bones proved his downfall.
"Imprisoned by Connacht during the Wind Age, The Watcher only escaped by tearing off his left arm at the elbow, like a wolf chewing through his leg to escape a snare." Mad Goat of the Fens flavor text, Myth: The Fallen Lords.
The imprisonment mentioned above doesn't take place in-game in Myth 3, only in a text narration, so I thought I'd post it now to get a complete history of Bahl'al. I'll go more into The Watcher's relationship with the other Fallen Lords at the end of the game.
"Still wet from the frigid waters of Si'anwon, Bahl'al moved rapidly to find a fresh corpse for his experiment. Slain by his blade, Bahl'al intoned the chants of his newly discovered dream over the cooling body. Slowly, the arms began twitching, and the corpse's white eyes opened to stare into sky. Bahl'al let a shriek of ecstasy into the heavens..."
"...A world where the corpulent dead roam - where their torn and bloodied shapes shuffle in their mindlessness. A world where he and he alone would command - ruling over a world of fetid decay. Thus was the dream of the Bahl'al the Watcher..."
Next time on Myth III
With Emperor Leitrim accompanying the troops in the battle, Moagim makes a move - A sneak attack aimed at both killing the Emperor, and taking his magical crown for himself. Leitrim's personal guard will take up swords to prevent the Fall of the Crown into enemy hands.