Part 7: Heart Attack

Episode 7: Heart Attack



Rhaskos is all but defeated, for the Empire have made use of a rare artefact that limits his considerable powers… they stand to launch an assault upon his final Dungeon Core.

Defend him with all of your might and paint his realm red with the broken bodies of these impetuous scum.



Here lies Rhaskos' final Dungeon Core.



The Empire forces to the north channel the power of Aum - a holy shard that can be used to inhibit an Underlord's powers, and their ability to create new Dungeon Cores.



Time is short Underlord! Defend Rhaskos by attracting and training as many minions as you can. I suggest you excavate north and cover your side of the bloodriver with defences and traps.

All right! We have a defensive mission this time. We have twenty minutes to prepare before the dwarves send a huge force against us from the north.

As you can see, we start with a huge amount of treasure to spend on rooms and static defences. We also have two gateways and plenty of room to build.



Let's start with a new room: the garrison. What does the garrison do?

The Garrison is a defensive room that will strengthen the surrounding walls and Defences of your dungeon. It will also attract the impressive Augre to your dungeon, who will gladly bash in the heads of any would-be sappers.

Thanks, Mendechaus. In truth, what the garrison does doesn't matter at all, because it attracts augres. Augres are awesome. They're big and they're tough and they hit really hard. Supposedly the garrison boosts the strength of your walls and your defences, but as far as I'm concerned, it could do literally nothing at all, and I would still build it just to get those augres.



In order to train your Beasts you will need to build an Arena, open the Veins of Evil and unlock it now.

I also unlock another useful new room: the arena. The arena is a combat pit that you can drop your monsters into to have them fight each other. Although monsters can train and level up by training in the barracks, they can only get a few levels doing this. In order to get high-level monsters, they need real combat experience, either from fighting heroes or from fighting each other in the arena.



I start excavating to the north to make room for our new arena and garrison.

All of my power, stripped from me. Tumbling memories course through my mind… unable to be grasped.

Muttered memories of another life, one where I was not as I am… what madness awakes within me!?

Halt your blabbering, you old woman! You have work to do!



How curious that the thread of your fate has led you here… Come, Underlord; bear witness to the snipping of your friend's string.

Hello Kira, is it still necessary for you to use those weak vessels to speak to me?

Mendechaus, your plays have grown far too predictable. It's time to eliminate your pieces and wipe the board clean.

Quit your meddling, this is no place for you or your lying tongue.

It cannot be healthy to hear this many voices inside your head. I believe this is the first time we're hearing from Kira, the goddess protecting Kairos from, well, us. Her confidence is severely misplaced!



This is the new garrison. I believe it's designed for you to build small 3x3 rooms with one of those pylon things in the centre. It looks a bit goofy as a 5x5 with four pylons. I want more augres, though! This room will only attract two augres, but that's fine. I can build more garrisons.

In the top left, you can also see a traditional big block of cannons. This is the main entrance to the base, so it pays off to fortify it.



The Augre is a master of metallurgy, and so obsessed with the skill, that they build into their own bodies weapons and armour from the metal they so expertly craft. In battle, the Augre will smash the front lines of your foes with its huge hammer. Outside of battle they will gladly work in the Foundry or the Garrison.

Oh yeah, I didn't mention this earlier, but augres are cyborg bigfoots.



I was starting to worry about running out of gold, which would have created tension and forced me to make tough choices about how to best spend my remaining gold to defend my dungeon from the heroes' assault.

But then the game gave me a gold shrine, so whatever.



Flush with cash, I build a large prison and a torture chamber. We will need this.



And a big arena. In addition to letting you train your units by making them fight each other, it also attracts beastmaster units. Beastmasters aren't all that great, but they can train your beasts, which is useful, as beasts can't train normally in the barracks. Since we start with two gateways and tons of money, I haven't bothered with a beast den this mission, but it'll come in handy later.



I've built most of what I need, but there are still five minutes left until the heroes' assault. To pass the time, I throw our augres into the arena along with our gnarlings. The augres are absolutely wrecking the gnarlings, which used to be our best combat units. I love augres.



One downside to our gold shrine is that it is extremely exposed, being situated far outside our dungeon along one of the paths that the heroes will use for their attack. I build a ton of cannons around it, but it will be difficult to defend.



Here they come, for Rhaskos' sake and your own… I hope you're well prepared.

It's havoc time, lads! Leave no stone unbloodied!



Why don't you leave and go home to your… oh, that's right, all of your family is dead.

The first one to draw blood gets a pint on me!



The first wave of heroes reaches our gold shrine. For some reason, they start their assault with a wave of regular miner dwarves, which are equivalent to our workers. They, uh, don't do very well.



I didn't expect them to have such a large force… and while I don't believe in luck… I wish you the best of it.

Thanks, Mendechaus, but I think we've got this so far.



The heroes are attacking with real units now, and have managed to smash the first row of cannons. We're doing all right for now, but I don't plan to hold them here at the gold shrine. I'd rather fight them by the main entrance to our dungeon, which is more defensible.

I see a glimmer of a truth, hidden behind so many twisted words and venomous lies…

There is no truth in deranged, blithering cowardice! Pull yourself together!

Stay steady Underlord, now is not your time to die.



Although we may lose the gold shrine, all this fighting is doing wonders for our prison economy! I should probably have made an even bigger prison, our workers can only drag a fraction of the heroes attacking us back to our overcrowded jail.



From Solitary to Statuary: one weird trick to control your prison population and your balance sheet at the same time!



Some of the heroes have started going around our gold shrine and attacking our main entrance directly. Since I'm paying their salaries anyway, I drop our army of monsters on them to support the wall of cannons.



But I end up having to pull them back very quickly: some of those devious dwarves have tunnelled through the eastern wall of our dungeon, going around all of our defenses!

Also, please note the garrison in this picture, which was supposed to reinforce the walls of our dungeon against this specific danger. Bloody useless.



Luckily, very few of the heroes were smart enough to go around, so our monsters manage to take them out.



The Empire forces are all but defeated, rally forth and destroy this miserable midget and put an end to the holy magic of the Aum.



The heroes have exhausted all of their reserves, and now all we have to do is break into their fortress and take out the Aum.



There are a few high-level defenders in the fortress, but nothing our army can't handle.



In the end, they only have one defender left: their immensely powerful level 10 champion.



Who, um



Who manages to take out our entire army single-handed.



This calls for dirty tricks! I drop some defeated dwarven warriors into our torture chamber and bring in our succubi. If an army of monsters can't take out their champion, how about an army of dwarves?



We quickly build up a nice force of dwarven elites. We lost all of our augres and most of the gnarlings in the first assault, but a war of attrition is my favourite kind of war! We have reinforcements, and they don't.



We then return to the hero fortress, our fresh army bolstered with dwarven traitors. Their champion puts the hurt on us, but there are just too many of us.

Only a bit longer! Hold that door!



I'm sorry, bothers… hope you've not drunk all the mead without me.

I do so love the smell of a burning family tree.



Our workers drag their defeated champion back to our torture chamber. Their greatest warrior will kneel before us yet.



With their defenders gone, we can now break into the chamber of the Aum. Victory is ours.

This is my time… but fear not Underlord, for the Aether will greet neither of us when all is done.

That snivelling rat… Pay no mind to his mad ranting, Underlord. There's much to do.



What sorcery is this?

A guiding light, and nothing more.

This holy power is too much for you to challenge.



I've a feeling we're about to return to Kairos. With a bang!

Close your eyes, and think to yourself: there's no place like home…





Farewell Rhaskos!

You have disappointed me.



They've claimed a minor victory, but we shall make them pay a hundredfold for their schemes. Let us return to Kairos to teach them an unforgettable lesson…