The Let's Play Archive

Sacrifice

by Hammer Floyd

Part 10: MISSION 9! PART 1! DEATH CAN GO FUCK HIMSELF LIKE THE FLAMING FUCKING ASSHOLE HE IS

I've given up trying to guess how many parts it'll take. So here's the plan: Each part will contain roughly 30 images and then I'll do the next bit. The first few missions only required 30 screenshots so I'm not being stingy.

Also: I encourage discussion in between updates so that they get spread out over a few pages instead of there being 90+ images per page.

Anyways: Let's get into it!

Sorry buddy, but Stratos has Silverbacks.

Let's dance.

Presenting Silverbacks. Huge flying ape\lion things. Not only do they take a helluva beating and dish out shitloads of pain: Like Yetis, they can freeze upon hit.

Now I have a decent unit selection. I have got some awesome Melee, some good Ranged and one of the best flying units at my selection. Thanks goons! (I'm still fucked for spells though)

I built this first Manalith right outside my altar. Since I have a pathetic 8 souls to begin this mission with: I did not assign any guardians.

I ran down the West path (left) and found this vacant Manavault on which I quickly built a Manalith. Once again: No guardians because I have no souls to spare.

I returned to the first Manalith and summoned a Flummox and a Yeti along with the Silverback. This means I'm protected against any attack pretty much.

I waited here for a bit, hoping that either of the wizards would show up so I could pinch some souls, but nothing happened. Every minute longer I waited, they got stronger, so I had to attack.

This Manalith was directly in front of me and there was nobody except that one Deadeye guarding it. My Yeti made short work of it.

Expecting an attack, I guardianed my Flummox, Yeti and Silverback to the newly created Manalith and waited.

If you build it, they will come. That's a helluva lotta units however, they're mostly level 1 little things so my guardians shouldn't have too much trouble.

I cast a tornado though just in case because there were a lot of them. Unfortunately, all but ONE managed to escape it. Lucky mongrels.

It also went in the complete opposite direction I wanted it to. Luckily I had Cloudkill ready to kill those pesky critters.

As this picture clearly demonstrates: I was far too eager for my own good. Both the tornado and the Cloudkill came roaring back towards me and my troops, carving out a path of glorious destruction.

Fortunately nothing was killed except the mass of Sythes\Fallen. Seerix didn't waste any time however and charged up to reclaim her souls. I targeted her with all of my Guardians.

See that pink triangle out there? That's pointing to Seerix' Manawhore returning to base after its master was pummeled by a Yeti.

I was about to cast Insect Swarm on it, just to be a smartass when I noticed this massive amount of enemies approaching, controlled by the second enemy wizard. We were in some trouble now.

Once again, they were a group of low-level Sythes with the odd Abomination here or there to try to kill my Silverback. Another cloudkill made very short work of them all. They were causing some serious pain to my Flummox however

An Eruption fixed that problem. At least half of those in mid-air died on landing or from a lightning bolt.

Seerix decided to try to come back and reclaim her lost souls: A fence quickly fixed that problem though and she retreated.

Now it was harvesting time. The entire field was bathed in an ominous red glow from all the enemy souls (From both Wizards)

Seerix attacked when the fence dropped, again with the Sythes. Sure they weren't much of a threat, but I wasn't getting many souls from them either. Also in the numbers she was using: They were a bit of a concern.

She quickly fell under the assault of my Yeti and Silverback. They then proceeded to massacre her attacking force.

I managed to get a big swag of souls from this lot while my Silverback stood guard. Yes: All that red stuff on the ground is blood. Killing Sythes is more satisfying than I gave credit for.

All was going well until THIS bastard showed up. Presenting Charnel's ultimate spell: Death. Casting it summons that huge fucker who then runs around and insta-kills 7 random units. Be it a pissy Manawhore or a gargantuan Rhinok: He just needs to touch them. The advantage is that Death will also kill Charnel's own troops if they get close enough.

Behold as he takes out my guardianed Silverback with ONE hit.

The bastard took out ALL 3 of my guardians and all 4 of my Manawhores before fucking off. He left me without much mana, no way to get it and nothing to protect my Manalith.

I managed to summon this Silverback, hoping to guardian it to the dying Manalith when it blew up.

That bastard. Fuck you Death. Fuck you right up your black asshole.

RETREAT. I took my Silverback and ran back to my Manalith outside my Altar. Seerix can have that fucking Manalith.

I got back to my Manalith and summoned the same defence force when I heard a deep chuckle. I turned around and look who decided to show up.

And he dissapeared a minute later. He didn't do anything except stand there and scare the shit outta me. I've no idea what happened with that, but I'm not going to argue. If he glitches out like that more often: It's better for me!

The wizards made another attack, but it was easily repelled

To the victor go the spoils. I managed to pinch a few more souls.

I'm in a shit position though.

That's all for this update. I'm gonna bunker down and grab as many souls as I can, hopefully getting around 25 before trying to attack again. The enemy has been significantly weakened, but not quite enough for me to make an attack.

I've got a hard road ahead.


MISSION 9! PART 2! THE IRONY OF THIS SITUATION IS BRILLIANT!

The difficulty of this mission compared to the previous one astounds me. The retreat I was forced to do was one minor setback, after that it was a complete and utter decimation. This is gonna be a big update, but there's not much point splitting it into two smaller updates, and besides: The second update probably wouldn't entirely be worth it.

However: I've removed some pictures just to make it a little bit smaller, it might make it a bit harder to skim: But hey: It's more practical.

Anyways: Let's get into it shall we?

Acheron ran up to try to cause some pain: My Tornado stopped his minions from approaching however.

It almost counted as "Minion". He tried attacking me with 2 Sythes.

Oh...and this group of 4 or 5 Abominations down the bottom. That chunk of meat near my head is their projectiles. Lovely. Cloudkill takes care of them without much hassle however.

This hurt him. A LOT. Those Abominations are 3-soul units so I got a good 15 souls from that lot.

As soon as I finished casting conversion on the last soul, Zyzyx told me that my creatures were dying. I ran up and saw Seerix summon Death. My guards finished Seerix off, but I still had to deal with Death here killing off my Manawhores.

Coincedentally: Manawhores are the best way to deal with Death. Since Death will kill ANYTHING: The easiest way to reduce the damage is to summon Manawhores right in front of him to act as cannon fodder. He'll kill them instead of your Silverbacks.

I had enough souls now. Time to kick some ass. I went in with 4 Yetis, 4 Silverbacks and 2 Flummoxes.

There were two Deadeyes guarding it: But the Yetis here made very short work of them: And the Manalith.

I summoned the same defence as last time, but not really expecting an attack.

Anyways: On with the next attack. From my second Manalith: I noticed this one buried in a town, so I went straight for it.

Once I cleared the Canyon: I noticed these two other Manaliths. Totally unguarded.

Let's see now thats...

One...

Two...

Thr...FUCK. Seerix summoned Death to defend herself.

Fortunately, Death only proved to be a slight delay. Seerix had nothing. Not even Manawhores! The only trick up her sleeve is to cast Death and hope it takes out my attack force.

It might not take out my attack force, but I'll be damned if it still doesn't hurt like fuck.

Onto the next one. I'm just really showing off how my Silverbacks shit on everything. Not even a Rhinok would be able to stand that.

This might be able to stand it though. All those red beams are either guardianed Styx' (Styx's?) or Abominations

I broke them up a bit with a Tornado and did some fairly decent damage on them.

It's out-of screen, but I Cloud-Killed them as well, this is them as they're coming down after being thrown around and shocked in mid-air.

While they were getting up: I sent in my Yetis and Silverbacks. I unfortunately lost 2 Silverbacks in this attack due to the Abominations.

Acheron lost a helluva lot more. I destroyed this Manalith and built my own. Then I started harvesting the souls. Styx's are Mutant Yetis so they were 4 souls a peice.

However, my Sac Doctors were running right past Acheron's second-last Manalith. How very convenient.

Acheron was being annoying and killing my Sac-Doctors while they were on their way back to my Altar. I couldn't have that now could I? With this Manalith gone: Acheron is now truely fucked.

Especially considering I have all of his souls. Mwuahahahaha.

As you can see: My Sac Doctors now had a clear path back to my Altar. As it turns out: They never actually stopped converting people until this mission was over.

Time to die Acheron. I began the desecration on his altar.

He hid at his last Manalith a fair ways to the West. He had a few guardian locusts, but nothing a little cloudkill couldn't handle.

Meanwhile: My Silverbacks made very short work of Acheron. I almost felt sorry for him.

I destroyed and built my own Manalith where his was.

And captured his souls. There is now no longer any trace of Acheron.

After exploring a bit: I found Seerix' last Manalith. This one was reasonably well defended with several dead-eyes (visible to the left) to take out my Silverbacks.

So I pulled them back and bought the Deadeyes close enough to be in-range of my Yetis who summarily slaughtered them all.

Remember kids! You cant spell Slaughter without Laughter!

And so I desecrate Seerix' Altar

And kill her slimy hide. Seerix was dead.

Charnel the god of Death has been killed. Oh the delicious Irony.

Oh right. I forgot about him in this whole god-Killing business.

Ah right. Hence the "Too late again" remark from Zyzyx in the intro.

Yeah you better be greatful...'Cos if you're not...

Well that was suprisingly easy!

Tomorrow morning: I'll do the reaction. No decision for you goons to make as of yet, but as somebody said: There might be one more decision for you guys to make. The reaction is a cutscene between Me and Mithras, and then we go right into the Final Showdown with Marduk after discovering his weakness.

We're nearly there goons. We've nearly saved the world.


Update! Introduction to Mission 10!

This is the cutscene which leads into Mission 10. (The opening dialogue is paraphrased, for some reason it wasn't included in the speech-history, but you get the idea)

Hammer Floyd:]During my pursuit of Marduk, we encountered a fleeing Zombie who said he saw a strange object

Mithras: And you're hoping this has something to do with Marduk?


Mithras: Not the same as the ones in Jhera?
Hammer Floyd: No


Hammer Floyd: I do not know how, but I know I must destroy him.
Mithras: Because you hunger for his power.
Hammer Floyd: Because he will destroy the world!

Mithras: No! Deny it NO longer! If you cannot admit to the truth, I will force you to face it!

(In case it is not obvious: Mithras just turned into\is Marduk)

(Yes well thank you very much for telling me you stupid imp. We could've killed him instead of telling him this long-ass story.)

Marduk: Now open your eyes and see I am no mere Marduk. My names are countless...My age beyond reckoning

(Well fuck.)

Zyzyx: Well you wanted to fight him: There he goes. All I can tell you is that he probably doesn't play by all the same rules as you. Dont even bother looking for an altar to desecrate.
Hammer Floyd: It ends NOW Marduk! Quickly! We must destroy that device!

==================

What do you mean we? Oh fine.

This is it goons. This is the last battle that will decide the fate of the world. Like last time: I wont do an update until it reaches the next page, but here's a sneak peek to keep you interested.

- Marduk does not have to convert my souls. He can collect them straight away without having to summon Sac Doctors.

- Marduk has a stupidly high regeneration rate

- Remember how I killed Persephone and cheered that there were no more Ents? Remember how I killed James and cheered that there were no more Rhinoks? Remember how I killed Charnel and cheered that I wouldn't have to deal with Death again? I was wrong.

This battle isn't even fair. However: I'll damn well do my best to kick his ass.