Since the last one fell off the map then i guess its time to make a new thread about my favorite niche game.
And to kick it off i give you the tale of my own last game.
The Rise and Fall of Fantasy Japan Jomon
Spoiler: Year 1
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Journal of Vizir BigHat, Chief Advisor of the Shogun.
Month 1-3
The Time of Changes is upon us! The Highest One, the Pankrator, has stopped responding to its priests.
And the most ancient one, slumbering beneath the dungeons of Castle Jomon has off, breaking several walls, countless expensive works of art, as well as both the Shogun and several of my esteeem collegues who were to slow to get out of the way.
Ahem.. so unfortunate..
A random Samurai has declared himself prophet, and are even now gathering the remnants of the Imperial Cavalery to sally out and claim the land surrounding us for our new lord, the Supreme Being.
Whereever it is now. It seemed to head towards the ocean, perhaps its thristy?
Month 4-6
Our new lord and savior have been confirmed to vanish down Lucky Lake, only to emerge a few months later, having done stars know what down there. All the same, the peasants are impressed, and its almost embarresing how little our regular army have done by comparison.
Though the cavalery have finally reached critical mass, and should make it possible to split off from the archers in a few months.
Month 7-9
Contact has been made with Ragda to the east and Marignon to the north. Ragda were very reasonable in explaning their desire for a border between us, not wanting people who could build a fort in the lake bordering their capital, to actually be able to do so. And so we peacefully split the provinces between us.
Marignon meanwhile responded to the suggestion of letting the river between us act like a natural border, by sailing across the river and taking the southern part of it. Some people would take that as a sign of agression. But im certain its just because they want to get to know us better.
So for that same reason The Supreme Being has crawled up from the western Ocean to impresse all the peasants of a rather major town just 2 months travel from Marignons capital..
Month 10-12
The negotiation with Marignon was tense, and war came on the table a few times. But in the end the argument that none of us can afford a war won though. And so we will concede the town that Supreme Being awed in return for the province north of Jomon.
Besides that things are progressing well. A Monk of the 5 paths have made contact with the sons of the Dragon King, dwelling in the grand western lake. They to have been awed by the majesty of the worlds largest phallos symbol, and so are going to join us. With that we now have 2 military centers. The cluster of dragon palaces hidden in the lake, and the double fort of North Jomon and South Jomon.
For the cavalery unit has proved their worth, lead by General Manti they have now a string of victories with minimal casulties. And so focus will move on to train a major force of them, when it comes to taking the 2 thrones located north and south of Jomon.
Eastward the prophet has subdued a tribe of predatory lizards, as well as a clan of Zhh.. zoors..? zons..? bat people. Their magical traditions will be studied, and potentially their shamans will be allowed to serve the supreme being.
Spoiler: Year 2
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Month 13
A new year dawns. The dawn of the dragon. 23 provinces have been converted to follow the Supreme being, and the first Riujin joins. Though the initial focus now needs to be avoiding attention from the fearful nations surrounding us.
Marignon to the north might be a blasted hellscape, but their fanatics simply refuses to die to anything besides direct decapitation, and spilling their blood invokes blood vengeance.
Midgard to the south west meanwhile has their vanir knights empowered by all paths of magic. Leaving them almost impossible to see or hit.
Ragda to the east though, is the most scary of them all, having ogre sized knights mounted atop dragon sized griffons.
Thankfully none of them seems to considder us a threat, and so seems receptive to the idea of simply leaving us for later.
Month 14
Luck has at last smiled upon the nation of Jomon, the imperial site searcher found found a single spot blessed with every element of the ring. Along with the curiously frozen flames a junior astrolog found in the eastern swarm, then our national gem income has more than doubled in a single day.
Meanwhile mounted samurai are getting into position to sweep clean the throne of death to the south west of Jomon. We really want the throne of Gaia to compliment it, but the titan of Marignon is getting dangerously close to that throne, perhaps diplomacy will be in order. We know they badly want the throne of law that lies in the lake beneath their own capital.
Month 15
Scouts bring trouble of war brewing to the north, semingly between the hellish blessed fanatics of Man and the giant berserkers of Utgard. Its a mess we are going to stay clear off.
And thankfully, it seems the Supreme One is at last returning from its little trip. Hopefully it has had enough to eat for now, because its presence beneath Castle Jomon will likely do a lot to deter invaders.
Thats especially important now as the dual Cavalry commanders Manti and Coran, along with Windsong the dragon, are circling the throne of dead, preparing for a pincer attack that should eleminate that stain on our nation.
Month 16-17
Crushing Victory, the hordes of the unclean dead were utterly decimated, and a mere 4 samurai horsemen died honorably in the process. This is a massive succes by any standard, and not just the moral one we usually have to use until our sages figure out how to make our warriors emply the arcane techology known as a –shield- in combat. Unfortunately the throne ended up only containing the unholy Lower Throne, a source of magic utterly forbidden in Jomon by penalty of death. We are not even certain its worth building a fort around it.
Oh well. On to the next one up north. Hopefully its going to be a little more useful.
Month 16
Glory to the brave warriors of Jomon! Losing a mere 4 men to the greater glory of the nation, they killed 4 times their own number. With only minimal support from a pair of wandering priests.
… just a shame it ended up hardly being worth it. The throne in question, the lower throne, is a horrible thing, mostly suited for the sort of unholy magic Jomon would newer sully its hands with publicly.
At least the throne to the north still have a chance of being something more useful to our cause.
More Ryujin are being lured up from the deep, by the promise of glory, and a chance to impress young jomonese girls.
Month 17-20
Another glorious victory.. or something. The hordes of vinemen guarding the throne were almost effordlessly squashed by a combination of Samurai cavalry and a unit of sharkmen. The only casulty of note being an unfortunate dragon who bravely charged the rear without the support of its lazy brethren.
Just sadly, it turned out to be the almost insignificant throne of storms. Ya! More air gems? What are we going to do with the stuff? Feed the Supreme Being in hope it will stop snacking on valuable furniture or priceless clay art? Hmm….
On a side note, the chief shugenja reports that our magical research is progressing almost after scedule, as we have just figured out home to summon swarmps of nasty bugs. He insists this will be of massive tactical advantage in the fight against just about everyone else who surrounds him. Well.. he is a dangerous madman who put honey in his tea, so i just smile and nod in hope it means he will go away faster.
Month 21-22
Unexpectedly, a gift fit for the emperor we no longer have arrived from the nation of Caelum. A massive amount of gems and gold, apperently send to empty their treasury before barbarian invaders can plunder it. Its quite unexpected, as we had not even heard the nation of Caelum were in trouble..
Alright back after shouting a bit at the scouts. Now its time to make plans for the future. Step one is to secure the lakes previously in Caelums control. A flight of Ryujin can only almost cross the 6 or so provinces they need to pass in order to reach those lakes.
Sight… i guess i need to ask the master Shugenja for help again…
Month 23
It has been explained to me that the solution is to fit each Ryujin with a pair of shoes?
Sight.. sometimes i wonder why i even bother asking. But the shoes looks fancy so the dragons love them.
Go figure. I will turn my attention towards the logistics of the trip, as well as of liberating the Caelum lakes.
Its important to ensure enough magical supplies are packed. And most embaresing, a minor mistake was made in not packing enough nature gems, so the trip is delayed a month.
To make matters worse, the proud nation of Jomon has been ranked as a minor power?!
The insult almost make me crack my favorite cup. Fortunately a solution is at hand, in the shape of the ninja clans we have recently recruited.
Month 25
It took a little bit of preparation to get the dragons launched, in the end new boots was enough to send 6 of them ˝ across the world into a pond formerly owned by Caelum. Turns out there is a reason for why Ryujin are rulers of the Jomon see. 3 dragons was all it took for each section of the lake.
Now that they are there they might as well get into position to grab a bit of land. At the moment the world is partly distracted by the massive war between Mictlan, Atlantis and Agartha. We will use this oppotunity to grow stronger. And perhaps also to do something about Mictlan and their tasteless use of blood magic.
Month 26
The honerless landgrab continues. It does not sit well with the samura, but thankfully we can explain it away as seasonal dragon migration, while packs of Ryujin takes over former Caelum provinces.
Midgar and Marignon is quite occupied with sieging down the citadels, but thats fine. They can have those. Meanwhile the dragons are constructing a spring palace down the lake.
Spoiler: Year 3
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Month 27
Report has reached of Atlantis falling to the combined efford of Ragda and Mictlan? The rapport were a little unreliable. But what is known is that this is a unpreceded opportunity. With another water power down the number of people who can oppose the Ryujin in the sea has shrunked down to Mictlan, kind off?
And so another flight of dragons are send to take over the now vacated lake.
Meanwhile we prepare for the potential war against Mictlan. They are far, far to dangerous. Someone need to stop them before their use of forbidden blood magic escalates. Prefebly someone else. Like Ragda or Mictlan. Two nations with an uncomfortable degree of power.
Hmm.. the idea situation is a war between those power that weaken all, while we gently invite Agartha into the proud Jomonese Nation.
Month 30
Wind of Spring Dawns New
Your last sunset nears
-Cencored- Flying Felines
Not one of my better pieces, but i think it gets the idea across.
It has been send to the nation of Mictlan. They are to big a risk in the long run with their potential for blood magic. Since Ragda moves in now, then its the perfect time to strike as well.
If we end Mictlan Ragda can be given credit for the deed.
The army moves into position as i write this. A large force of cavalry to the east, supported by archers. A large force of sharkmen to the west. Supported by fish men.
Those are the feint. 20 Ryujin gathers in their lake, preparing for a massive strike against around 10 different provinces.
Month 31
When it rain in this cursed land, it rains toads.. typical!
Just as i challenged Mictlan, Marignon challenges me. Its the M&M gang..
I have already yelled for the head Shugenja. We have 3 months to figure out what we can do against Marignons cursed flagellants and their hellish bless.
Month 34
I made a gross miscalculation, and it might end up costing us all the gains made so far. The war against Mictlan progressed well enough, with lightning raids from the sacred water dragons taking large swathes of land. But when challenged by Mictlan, i foolishly though that a quick initial strike would scare them off.
Just sadly failing to take into account the large number of hellblessed zealots they have roaming the land.
And so the number of dragons were insufficient, and lead to large loses that will take at least a couple months to recover from.
Now im forced to make peace with Mictlan to focus on this new threat, since a massive Marignon army moves towards my capital. God has been petitioned to move out and stare at them a bit, and the Head Shugenja has promised to cook up a little surprise for them as well. So far his attempts at making acid elementals have failed though, and the latest batch also looks more like jelly than water.
And in the end, i start to fear all of this isnt enough. We got barrels of unholy blood from the cursed throne we took. Initially to keep it out of the hands of everyone else. But now, ancestors have mercy, i think it has become nececary to put it to use. Somehow. However you actually do so. Dam thing did not come with a manual..
Month 36
War, war newer changes.
The raiding has been fierce, its a problem when 10 unarmored fanatics and a single preacher can sail over and beat down reguar province milita. So far its been hard to find a counter for that, besides increasing province spendings.
The living acid blobs worked moderatly well, but ran into the problem so many other things face, that spilling the blood of Marignon fanatics invokes a blood curse that kills most normal men. The first major army that Marignon send were in part only turned back by the grace of god, whom valiantly ate some fifty fanatics or so before the rest eventually broke.
Though now that the field is littered with the dead, a new plan has taken form. From the Ravens feasting on those, dead gems have been harvested. And a expert on the unclean death magic has been recruited to do something with it that i hope will be a bigger surprise, than flying acid blobs.
On another note, bathing the head Shugenja in unholy blood did not seem to turn him (more) crazy, and actually improved slightly on the smell. He seems to have gotten an affinity for it now. But it will be a long while before he can do anything useful. So it wont make a difference in this war.
Though it is one where we need to act fast. Marignon has broken the ultimate taboo, and invoked the horror! Of the astral plane. The Supreme being has already been marked by them. This can of course now only end with the utter destruction of their nation.
Month 38
Oh Supreme Being.. and all the Ancestors.. directing this war is giving me migraine..
But i cant leave the task to the generals, who dont know anything about magic. Or to the Head Shugenja who is a raving madman, lately he has taken to dying his beard pink. I dont dare to ask why..
Though the plan for the Great Jomon offensive is finally done. The center will be held by the Supreme Being and a assorted bunch of rabble. As well as our new acid elementals. They are painstakingly slow, but that problem has been solved by catapults and a bit of air magic.
East our subjogated tribes of lizard warriors will handle the brunt of the fighting, protected by both their own shamans and a few astrologers.
And west a small elite force of Shark men and Ryujin, again supported by an astrologer to ward against evil magic, has just emerged from the sea to take a province. But this time, instead of falling back, they are going to drive deeper into Marignons domain, and link up with the Sea King we have bribed in the northenwest lakes of Marignom.
Month 40.
Setback upon setback. The western force got ambushed by a massive Marignon army, after a sudden attack of astral horrors had baited their gems out. The loss of our troops were bad enough, but the loss of 8 Riujin were far, far worse.
The Eastern force meanwhile, managed to get baited into attacking the titan of Marignon, Jorgen Muppet, and suffered horrible casualties before withdrawing back to our keep.
Now, while under siege by a fallen angel with a redicoulus name, then the time has come for a final gamble.
An elite Squad of air dragons have been armed with massive greatswords, and launches themselves against the mad titan, while the remnants of the East and central army makes a push forward into Marignon.
Month 45.
5 months of intense raiding back and forth has followed. The attack on Jorgen the Titan failed, in part due to the entire team getting stunned by a storm spool. A new force should have been prepared, but they got tied up fending of raids from Marignons fallen angels.
Now Marignon made their own move, and placed the capital under siege. Thanks to Cliffscale the Ryujins heroic sacrifice i know their rather simple plan. Charge in around 500 flaggelants under the protection of Mistform.
Its also a plan thats immensely hard to counter though, as this combined with their blessing makes them more or less impossible to kill. So this will be the last entry unless a solution is found.