Summary: Two months of planning is finally revealed (well, most of it, anyway).A little over an hour after the conference had been interrupted.
All across Gralus and Shireroth, every Magroth Bot in every household suddenly tilted it’s head, as if listening to something, and then tilted it back. Then as one, they each went to the doors and locked them.
“Hey, what are you doing?” George Larsen, a father of three in Millaro asked.
“This is for your own protection. Please remain inside during the transisition,” the Magroth Bot said, as it moved away from the now locked door, taking the key with it.
“Hey, put those down – I need those to get to work,” Fred said.
“For your own safety, please remain inside during the transition,” the Magroth Bot said, as it went and turned the television on.
“What transition?” Fred demanded. “Why aren’t you obeying my orders?”
“The Dark Lord has arisen,” the Magroth Bot said. “The transition will be short, but dangerous. For your own safety, remain inside.”
Fred was about to protest, when he saw what was on the television.
“Cool!” said his eight year old son.
“I hope that’s a movie,” his fifteen year old daughter said.
“Quiet,” the Magroth Bot said, turning up the volume. “Listen to the Dark Lord.”
Al’Magroth was outside the conference facility at Tempestad. He had hoped to be outside Magroth Industries at Biotopia the next morning, but the potential escape of Casa meant he needed to reveal himself now, while he still had relative control of the situation. It had been the work of a moment to arrange for the journalists waiting for news of the conference to interview him instead. They were so focussed on the recording, they didn’t notice the large number of security guards beginning to surround them.
“I have with me Al’Magroth, of Magroth Industries, the man who brought you Magroth Bots, and has organised the security for this conference,” the interviewer said. “So, Mr Magroth, tell me a bit about yourself.”
“Well, it’s quite simple really. I’m taking control.”
“What?” the reporter asked.
“Of it all,” Al’Magroth said, flicking his hand so that the camera hovered out of the camera man’s arms, and focussed on his face. He addressed the camera as a politician to his people.
“Those of you watching at home will have noticed by now that your Magroth Bots have locked you inside. Please remain inside for the duration of today, for your own safety. Safety from what, you ask? From my armies, of course.”
The film crew gasped as a storm suddenly appeared behind Al’Magroth, wind swirling around his cloak as the camera panned out to take in the scene; and Al’Magroth’s voice changed, taking on that strange tone that sounds like ten people speaking at once they love to do with aliens in the movies. “I am the Dark Lord Al’Magroth, and here and now I lay claim to the lands of Shireroth, Gralus and Laranel, by right of conquest. Your mortal realms have not seen my like for thousands of years. I do not seek a bloody victory. Your current regional governance arrangements may remain. But they must swear loyalty to me; and all military resources must be diverted to my service. When these lands are under my banner, then the rest of this world shall fall. There is an opportunity for you here. Those who serve me loyally shall be rewarded. Those who resist me shall perish.”
“You ... you monster!” It was the reporter Al’Magroth had pushed out. He had somehow found a knife ... and a backbone. He rushed at Al’Magroth, intending to stab him. Al’Magroth merely laughed – a cold, chilling laugh. The dagger leapt out of the man’s hands and hovered in front of him, so that he ran into it, impaling himself. He fell down, gasped, and died. And then, his lifeless corpse (now with a slightly greenish hue) rose up, and spoke, “What is your will, master?”
“See the futility of resistance?” Al’Magroth said. “If you will not serve me in life, you will serve me in death. My armies will start as elementals. But if you resist, they will end up as zombies. I have no wish to kill you. But I shall not hesitate to do so. So I repeat. Remain indoors. Do not resist. Tomorrow, once the transition is complete, you may return to your normal lives, and begin your service of me. If you do not; you shall perish, and join my undead hordes. The choice is yours. I am the Dark Lord Al’Magroth, and I have spoken.”
Then the broadcast stopped.
Across Gralus and Shireroth, the following events occur:
The Magroth Bots given out to each household ensure that their households remain indoors, and watched that broadcast. The ‘reasonable orders’ I said to the Kaiser was not the full definition. Serving Magroth Industries and Al’Magroth overrides all other obligations, including the one to not harm people.
Those regions which refused Magroth Bots (Lakheis and Ynraile, I believe) have lost the chance for an easy and bloodless transition. My elemental legions (see below) march into your areas (via the Mighty Gates in Kildare) and secure control. Those who remain indoors will be safe. Those who resist will be killed, and inserted with Zombie Tokens to rise again as zombies.
I’ve also laid claim to every piece of SCOWL land except for Nelaga. As per SCOWL rules, those with troops already in will retain that area (because they have more points than me); and if you can take control in the next 24 hours you will retain control. Otherwise, I get those dynamic armies.
I’ve also laid claim to every piece of SCOWL land except for Nelaga. As per SCOWL rules, those with troops already in will retain that area (because they have more points than me); and if you can take control in the next 24 hours you will retain control. Otherwise, I get those dynamic armies.
Also, all the defences of Kildare are activated. The entire region is teleport locked for three months (though the way the devices have been made, Al’Magroth and his rank 15 friends can still teleport through). The teleport block includes Atterock, but excludes Dura. The Mighty Gates on the coastal cities do not have a teleport block around them, so I can still use them to teleport my armies out. My technicians are deployed around them to work out the destination stuff, in a manner other people do not know how to do. The Ocean Palace is my major base, and Al'Magroth and his rank 15 associates will return there after the conference. Kildare’s defensive navy patrol Lake Christoph. The airforce are based at Magroth Industries in the Raynor Isles, as are the defensive artillery units.
Summary: The ISI is offered the chance to fully utilise all their nasty weapons in the service of a master with no moral objections to their use. Even though Leo is gone, anyone else who wants to cost and play them is welcome to.In the ISI, a human messenger appeared bearing a white flag and a message, addressed to Lucard Wrend. He opened it and read the following:
“Dear Lucard,
You have powerful space based super weapons. I’m a Dark Lord who has plenty of targets for said weapons, and no awkward moral objections to slaughtering thousands. Ditch the Kaiser and MoMA and come and work for me. Together, we can take this world; and the ISI will have unrestricted control of space forever more.
Sincerely,
TDL Al’Magroth.
Then some notes:
Magroth Bots have been produced magically using a legal CCM method approved by the judge. Bayen and I agreed that it was broken, but that we’d let me try and fix it after the war. In Bayen’s words “Right now, SCOWL is moving at a mile a minute. Rather than disrupting the momentum, let's keep CCM as-is for now. You can even try your massive elemental army assault--see what everyone else comes up with to defend against it. If you can break the system one way, remember, other people can usually break it a different way to fight back.” But because I recognised it was broken, I’m only going to use the millions of Magroth Bots for backstory purposes, and against civilians (orbatted or non). I might occasionally use one or two against soldiers, but they won’t be my army.
My army is made up of the other units I’ve created. I’ve given them more appropriate numbers. The only other thing I’ve produced a ton of was Teleport Blocks, to use on Kildare.
I have produced as many items as I referenced in a post in Kildare as being for their 'defence force'.
30 000 Forceshield Tokens,
20 000 Null Field Tokens,
5 000 Anti-Mage Guns,
5 000 Anti-Spell Bombs,
5 000 Null Rays,
and 20 000 Anti-Tech Guns.
I will say that, at the time of unleashing myself, I have:
100 000 elementals of each type (earth, air, fire, water)
500 000 zombie tokens (distributed between my armies and some cast on bullets in guns)
and the ability to produce 10 000 elementals (of each type) and 20 000 zombie tokens each day. That's the stuff pre-enchanted in my factory that just goes when I tell it to.
I can produce 1000 each of Force and Null Shield, and 500 of all the other things.
Also, I have 20 Plane Checkers, and 1000 bottles of Potent Acid. And 1000 bottles of Truth Potion.
Finally: This is an OOC experiment to see how far one person can get in SCOWL using all the guile and craft he can; and only IC connections. I’ve managed to work myself into key defence positions to my advantage; and, of course, you were foolish enough to leave me with 5000 points of orbatted factory and six Rank 15 mages for several weeks. I’m doing this to see what happens, but I don’t intend it to be a long term arrangement. If, by some miraculous chance I conquer Gralus and Shireroth, then I will turn on Nelaga, and then, if I win *that*, I will work out some appropriate IC way to kill Al’Magroth off. So if you really think the whole magical army/zombie apocalypse thing is stupid, you can ignore it and in a month it’ll all be over. For those of you who think you can fight back – bring it on. This should be fun. And those who wish to serve me – by all means, join the fun of playing as an evil character with no moral objections to slaughtering thousands. Just don’t expect to get a high powered government position long term because of it.
So yes, this is what giant ISI space weapons were made for.