Megagame Makers

Your very temporary boss is The Prince of Darkness, heir apparent to the throne of the Dark Empire. He has been given some money to conquer the independent city state of Urr before the onset of winter. You are an experienced very well connected mercenary recruiter and a mighty sorcerer in your own right.

The Prince has been provided with:

• a large amount of gold to raise a massive mercenary army
• an experienced mercenary recruiter to serve as his Bretwalda of Recruiting (That's YOU)
• the Imperial Court's Grand Necromancer to raise additional undead forces
• a baggage train to support your army
• some Imperial guard regiments to guard the gold and serve as occupation forces after Urr has been conquered.

You want to squirrel away as much of this gold as possible into your own pockets without anyone noticing, instead of wasting it on a bullshit mission you don't give a fuck about. And neither does the prince, as the first thing he did with all that gold was waste 1/5^th of it on a Fancy Mobile Brothel.

You, the Bretwalda of Recruiting are a wizard. That's why you have certain powers. Other wizards of the invasion force have a different set of powers, you cannot use their magics only your own. It would be wise to keep some of your magics secret.

Personal magic can be used at will. Success is automatic.

• Walk in Shadows You can discretely travel to an area of the game that is usually off limits to you. Interaction of any kind by you suspends the effect. So you can not sneak up on a team of players to spy on them. This spell is mostly used to facilitate secret negotiations by sneaking into a place and then revealing yourself to the folks you want to talk to. Victims of the Charm of Forlorn Encystment can't escape or be reached by this spell.

• Loathsome Weapon The sorcerer picks up a large scorpion, or a venomous snake seemingly out of thin air and wields it as a weapon. It is mostly a parlor trick, but it is a good way to keep members of the city watch, or local militia at bay. Still, getting stung by a scorpion the size of a house cat is mighty painful.

These are massive magical rituals requiring over a 100 participants, multiple hours and probably a blood sacrifice. A wizard player must go and request a ritual from the magic umpire during the magic phase. The invasion force can only cast 1 spell each turn. A player who adds nice touches, or theatrics in the description gets a bonus. Effects can be made to appear anywhere on the map. The order in which spells are resolved by the magic umpire is on a first come first serve basis. Rumours that the ritual spells of The Prince of Darknes and his minions are dangerous because they delve to deeply into the forbidden arts are of course treasonous. Spells use either red mana or black mana. Certain spells also use other ingredients often with limited availability those can only be cast when they are in the possession of the caster. Players need to provide evidence to the magic umpire that they have (and are expending) those ingredients.

• Alchemy (red mana) This spell turns dirt into gold tokens. 4 gold token for each red mana. {Slight problem: This is Fool's Gold and will be revealed as fakery in a subsequent turn the moment a joker has a special effect on any magic ritual. Thankfully such spells are only a theoretical possibility.}
• Dance of the Skull (black mana) A dancing girl and a floating skull perform a writhing, spinning dance, while the male acolytes play the ritual bongos and the female acolytes the magic flutes. The entire next turn an anti-intrusion field covers the treasury & bagage train of the Prince of Darkness repelling any raid automatically. Cost: 1 black mana, a human skull and a sexy dancing girl. Those last 2 items are not in short supply and in any event can be reused anyway.
• Fractured Unity (red mana) This sows discord and emotional turmoil throughout a kingdom. This prevents anyone from seeing other groups in the same kingdom as allies. It can only be cast once on a specific kingdom. Casting this on Ur raises the terror track level by 1. Casting it on the Free Folk means that they abort everything they are doing now and the next turn is a tactical turn covering an Orcish civil war. Dwarves and Elves are completely immune to this spell. Each casting requires 1 red mana and the caster having betrayed his own team in a big way the others are not yet aware of. Each betrayal fuels only 1 casting. {Yes, defrauding the Dark Prince is such a betrayal}
• Voice of the Great Wyrm (red mana) At least one 3-headed fire breathing dragon shows up, demanding to know why they have been called. A successful casting requires 2 red mana, or a joker. This spell only summons dragons; it does not control them. You have to make a deal… Better bring a very skilled negotiator with a very good offer, say lots of treasure. The ideal choice if you don't mind causing lots of collateral damage and want to go 'Dresden' on a location, airlift a warband, or need heavy fire support for an all out assault… Special: An extra dragon WILL show up for each additional 2 red mana/1 joker. This is a horrendously dangerous spell!

• Crimson Portents (red mana) Sacrifice a sentient being, read his/her entrails and predict a glorious victory. All of the armies under the banner of the Prince of Darkness get a +1 on their battle rolls during the next turn. Cost: 1 red mana, if a joker comes up the planned human sacrifice turns out to be a sexy dancing girl and the Fabulous Fabi and his Posse stage a daring rescue attempt giving the armies a -1 on the battle roll instead. The servants of the Prince do not realize this is how it works, so they are always surprised by this turn of events.
• Ship of Tears (black mana) A magic ship appears made of the tears of whores (m/f) lamenting the deaths of a Real Man!™. This ship can sail the river into Urr and dock whilst ignoring the fortifications that are there to repel a waterborn attack. The ship disappears after it has been docked, potentially stranding the units in a very hostile environment. For each unit to be carried you need both a black mana and a sample of camp follower tears shed during the memorial service of a different deceased Real Man!™. To count as a real man according to the standards of this spell, you must be the first male player character of the game of a member of the entourage of The Dark Prince (including The Dark Prince). Rumours that by any objective standard the biggest stud in the game is captain regent Fabian of Urr are of course base slander.
• Xenophobic Rage (red mana) This spell amplifies distrust of the ethnic other. This only works on stacks of units that contain different 'races'. Redbeards, Longbeards, Humans and Elves count as different 'races' to each other. All Free Folk and all units in the service of the Dark Prince count as a different 'race' to any other unit in the game. Units on the same side will make some attacks on each other instead of targeting that attack on their enemies. The relationship between the other races and the Gnomes is so ritualized that this spell does not apply to them. For each red mana, a unit will direct 1 attack on a unit on his side instead of targeting that attack on the other side. This will happen in combat phase 2 and the side on which the spell is cast chooses.