Megagame Makers

Your temporary boss is The Prince of Darkness, heir apparent to the throne of the Dark Empire. He has been tasked to conquer the independent city state of Urr before the onset of winter. This is a golden opportunity to finally fulfill your fetish of being transformed into a giant zombie colossus.

The Dark 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
• the Imperial Court's Grand Necromancer to raise additional undead forces (That's you!)
• a baggage train to support his army
• some Imperial guard regiments to guard the gold and serve as occupation forces after Urr has been conquered.

The Grand Necromancer is a wizard. As such 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.

These personal magics can be used at will. Success is automatic.

• 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.
• The Charm of Necroptic Inveiglement You can now have a conversation with a dead person if his/her corpse is available. The dead person will be more or less cooperative, if not automatically honest. The usefulness of this spell depends mostly on the target chosen and the questions asked and possibly on the goodwill of the umpire playing the corpse in question.

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 is based on a first come first serve basis. Rumours that the ritual spells of The Prince of Darkness 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.

• The Colossus Ylourgne (black mana) Dissect & Boil down the contents of a graveyard or a completely destroyed unit and add 1 black mana to turn it into a giant zombie/ siege engine piloted by the mind of The Grand Necromancer. After this spell the Grand Necromancer is always in the same spot on the map as the Colossus token. Rumours of the personalities of some of the 'ingredients' of the spell manifesting and rebelling against the controlling mind are false. If in a subsequent tactical turn a joker has a special effect on any Ritual Magic spell, those rumours will turn out to be true after all. The Colossus stands around looking confused that turn and all zombies go immediately berserk and spend the rest of that turn attacking the nearest living unit.
• Legion of the Dead (black mana) This spell animates the contents of a graveyard, or a destroyed unit as a unit of undead shock troops. Costing 1 black mana and a large stack of corpses. For each additional black mana + graveyard/destroyed unit another unit will be animated. Zombie troops always use the attack table and never the defense table. Zombie units can be vaulted across the wall with a trebuchet. This damages them leaving them with only 3 steps, but in this way they can still cause quite a bit of panic. Zombie units can only be stacked with Halflings, Kobolds, Ogres and other zombie units. If the Grand Necromancer dies, all zombies go immediately berserk and spend the rest of the game attacking the nearest sentient lifeforms around.
• 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.
• 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.
• Exploding Bones (red mana) A zombie unit explodes into flaming bits of gruesome shrapnel. The unit is destroyed and all units stacked with it, or in a stack next to it lose a step. Each red mana allows the necromancer to blow up 1 unit, but this is not mandatory. Each joker lets the other side pick a zombie unit (not the colossus) that also blows up.
• Ship of Tears (black mana) A magic ship appears made from 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.