: Balrog like things... hmmmm.
I actually had an interesting idea for such a unit a while back... GURPS suggests that people don't simply creamate their dead (to keep them from becoming undead) because even worse types of undead used to come from creamated bodies. So I thought up a creature I was calling an "Ashrak", that was basically this big semi-humanoid cloud of black ash and embers that looks a lot like the Balrog as rendered in the new LotR movies, but with just a smokey, soulless-like bottom instead of legs.
Being just a cloud of ash and ember, swords and arrows passed right through it; only explosions and magic could hurt it. It was deadly fast, could pass over any terrain, and had a slightly-damaging 'singe' melee attack... but wherever it went, the terrain caught on fire. So its primary use would be to encircle enemy units and trap them in a ring of burning terrain. Or, if you had a bunch of them, charge them into melee and watch the enemy just burn down as they tried to attack you.
: Is there anything that would make the Cath Bruig Emperor
: (presumably Alric is going to die sooner or latter)
Why do you think that?
: want to enter the Untamed Lands?
: Or should I have monsters coming out of it...
: Whichever I do, I need a name for the Emperor. And of
: course, some heroes.
: Anyone got ideas?
I actually had a big story for a post-M2 scenario that I never got around to making. Well, it was actually just a map to begin with, but I had further ideas for sequels to it...
If you haven't already, read my Principia Mythica article here:
http://myth.bungie.org/legends/delusions/principia.html
The sequel idea basically involves the Fetch trying to get home by forging a deal with the Dwarves ("you DO want to get rid of us, right?), using their own magical knowledge combined with the Dwarves' to build a sort of 'vertical world knot' around the Devoid, allowing people to be safely transported down it back into the other realm.
But the Fetch also forged a deal with the Ghols, to arrange a massive attack on the Dwarves and allow the Fetch to take sole control over the transporter... so that they could use it to bring forces from THEIR world back here and conquer/destroy us all!
But the Ghols are a slave-race of the Trow, or at least subservient to them, as evidenced by the TFL Trow flavor text ("...or we will fell your people like a pine forest...") and all the Ghols that seem to be hanging around the Trow lands in M2. So the Trow get word of these goings-on, and put 7 and 7 together: the Fetch are from the Devoid... the Callieach went down the Devoid... the Fetch must be related to the Callieach!
OMG I TRO KIK U MB!
So you wind up with a big four-way battle, Dwarves and Fetch allied at first, then the Ghols show up under Trow command and attack them all (though the Ghols disobey their Trow commanders' orders and completely ignore the Fetch).
The Humans somehow get word of this all, and these are the forces that you play. You have to go down to the Devoid where all this is happening, make your way through to the Dwarf that's in charge, and tell him the truth about the Fetch; the Dwarves then turn on the Fetch, but can't really do much about it because they still have to defend themselves against the Ghols.
So you have to make your way to the Trow generals and convince THEM to turn against their own Ghols, so that you can all turn to KIKing the Fetch.
While the Ghol army is keeping all of your forces occupied (yep, I mean a freaking ton of Ghols), the Fetch are standing around the transporter device, as it is charging up and starting to activate. A ring of black Ghols surrounds them, chanting. Eventually, if you take too long to dispatch with the Ghols and go attack the Fetch, the Devoid will start to ripple like it did right before it exploded in TFL, and that big blue beam will shoot out of it (again just like TFL), and then hordes upon hordes of giant spider queens will pour out and devour everything... the Spider-gods are unleashed upon the world, and you lose.
Of course, if you can defeat the Ghol army, fight your way in past the Fetch, and blow up the transporter pylons, the whole thing will come to a stop and you win.
I had an idea to further continue this story, about the Old Gods somehow managing to send the Callieach back into our world because of this whole event, which prompts the remaining Trow to don their iron armor again... a huge war begins, along with a desperate quest to find the 49 Dreams of Wyrd. In the end, the Trow are extinct and all the Old Races with them, the group of archmages searching the world and sharing their knowledge finally do reunite all 49 Dreams and become, collectively, the Avatara of Wyrd... the world is transformed, everything become balanced, and the sage of Myth comes to an end at last.
