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"Roklin has sent a messenger to convey his undying gratitude for your assistance against the warlocks. In return for your aid, Roklin has promised you the unconditional support of the dwarfs for as long as you should serve me. Already he has sent troops to the Carator mountains in anticipation of your move against Archibald. His forces await your command."
And command them I shall.
Darth TNT diary entry 4 posted:
The succession skirmish, day 99
Dear Diary,
Other than my headache I feel much better now. The fresh mountain air and dwarfish magical concoctions have reinvigorated me. But I don’t think the dwarves will be of as much help as I would’ve hoped.
Following their plea for help I arrived at my destination to save them from the worrisome warlocks. As per my instruction they had reconfigured the castle to match our construction. As a result, there were plenty of peasants to welcome me. I took it upon myself to hire several brave heroes who were quick to scout the area. It didn’t take long to make first contact, nor did it take long to make last contact. It is here where my doubts about these dwarves were born.
What was described as a warlock invasion force would be better described as the Varnal hills traveling carnival. A few heroes, a few troops and a single castle and suddenly it was over and the dwarves were showering me with golden liquids and large stone mugs. Neither were very welcome things to be showered with.
At any rate, their allegiance was won and now I have an army of angry dwarfs and what I suspect to be a few very hairy gnomes at my command. At least they can block my archers.
My next mission came through yesterday. I’m heading over to the Carator mountains, which I hear are lovely this time of year. It’s a region filled with rich deposits and thus an important strategic object. Hopefully the dwarves will be useful.
Best regards
Update 8: Level 4: Carator mines
Day 1
That looks like a very nice region to occupy.
As per the votes, we’ll be donning our wizarding hats with proper spelling.
That’s some sound advice.
So what’s up. There’s a lot of loot lying around, screaming at me to claim it. This should be a good start for the resource hungry wizards. There’s an observatory almost being drowned by the screams, but I surely won’t be skipping a visit to that place. There’s also a signpost asking polity to be read or stolen, or both.
Joining us today and in the foreseeable future is Kalindra. Unlike those dastardly warlocks, wizards believe that both men and women can use magic.
Could this castle be any more basic?!
I’ll make it slightly less basic by making a pen.
As an interesting aside, originally boars weren’t planned to be part of the Wizard army. The second level creature was meant to be the Enrothian Toad. Concept art of which was been saved from the artist Tracy Iwata website.
I have no idea why it wasn’t used, my best guess is the weird hopping movement or potential trouble with their attacking moves.
I also hire Wilfrey. He’ll be passing his Halflings to Kalindra for safe keeping.
I see a lot of mines nearby. This should be good. A gem mine is being guarded by some centaurs to the south. I’d like to have it at some point to fuel my titanic titans. Let’s see what those Halflings are up to.
As preparation I split up my sizeable stack of pork futures into groups of four. Next turn they will block all Halflings. Meanwhile I give my own Halflings some extra defense.
Good thing I beefed their defenses up. Otherwise I would’ve lost all of them. Meanwhile I’m disappointed to discover that the Halfling retaliation does 5 damage to my pigs. They only have 15 hp and I’d rather not lose any.
That stings. 
We’ll recoup some of the losses by recruiting from the building they were protecting, but I wasn’t counting on losing this many. Let's not tell Wilfrey what happened to his halflings. 
There’s enough stuff around to hire another warm body. So Kastore gets to join my team.
He has a great start getting some gold, some wood and a sawmill. We’re also going to sacrifice him to the witch to find out what she’s teaching.
Day 2
That’s a lot more than I was expecting. Sweet! We’ll just tell Wilfrey that halflings are like rabbits.
She visits the gazebo and learns the always worthwhile leadership.
This was written on the signpost. The people, they love me! 
Or they love Roland, but that’s just loving me via proxy.
So here’s a fun little thing. You may have noticed the dwarven alliance award on the mission screen? It has a brilliant effect.
All dwarves now join for free. 
The fun thing is, these stacks still grow every week, so you could even let one be for a bit to grow it further and then have them join.
A statue is erected to celebrate my arrival to this region.
Day 3
The shrine contained magic arrow. Exactly what I wanted. I think I’ll pay that village a visit. Spread the gospel of King Roland.
Some dwarves were guarding this. I need to either consolidate them or get rid of them. This is killing my scouting speed.
Speaking of scouting. The witches hut teaches scouting.
He’s going to give his dwarves to Kalindra. Meanwhile a cliff nest is built.
Day 4
Looks good enough.
What’s the worst they could have?
I was not expecting minotaurs, that’s for sure.
We thin out the herd of centaurs with magic arrow and everyone runs forward.
I miscalculated the minotaur speed and lost 2 boars to them. As revenge the Halflings kill one.
We beef up the boars defenses. I’m actually going to have them ignore the minotaurs. Instead they’ll attack the centaurs. The current minotaur has only 15 hp left, however none of my boars can muster that damage output. I’m better off having them shield the Halflings and tank the hits. I remember mentioning disliking the boars, well here’s why. I don’t like their damage output and they still die to easily for me.
They surround the centaurs, but the top stack is attacked and I lose another boar.
The Halflings finish what they started and slay the mighty beast.
I somehow managed to lose another boar after the centaurs did 1 damage on an attack against them. 
Apparently it could be more basic than Chandler. At least it’s some extra cash.
Another ore mine. That’s nice.
And a crystal mine ripe for the taking. I build a foundry back home.
Day 5
I can recruit medusas there, however the ruins are guarded according to the cursor. I don't know by what. I wish I could say more about this day, but nothing else happened. I did buy a mage guild.
Day 6
Kastore picked up some battle dwarves and handed them to Kalindra for use. She’s going to visit the castle shortly to get a proper army and go on the offensive.
Speaking of offensive. Wilfrey will be visiting the shrine and the treehouse. After that I’ll have him pick up some nearby dwarves as well. I’ll let him scout further inland after that.
I know they’re good, but everything is so expensive. Next turn I’ll build a well for the new week.
Day 7
We really need sulfur, so before heading home Kalindra will visit those zombies and ask nicely if she can have the mine.
Thanks? At least the treehouse gave me something to work with. 22 sprites joined the army.
I haven’t seen too many obelisks yet during the campaign. That’s interesting. The well is built.
Day 8
Week of the lizard! That sounds like wizard, it must be a sign!
“Please?”
A witch hut that teaches mysticism. That’s great for wizards to have.
This however is less great. Kastore may not survive this, but at least I know where to send Kalindra.
So here’s what I’ll do. Magic arrow the Halflings and run away!
Not so fun when someone does it to you now is it AI? 
Day 9
Welcome back Kastore.
I had contemplated having Kastore bring units, but Kalindra needs extra spells to support her units. Ignore the graphical glitches, that’s just your mind playing tricks on you.
In fact. I set things up to be able to buy a second level mage guild this turn.
And it’s worth it.
Day 10
Despite that “meh” face she’s making I feel that she’s ready for action.
Kastore picks up some free Halflings to throw her way when she passes him.
More free dwarves please. Knowing that I’ll be trying my luck sieging again I build a thieves guild at home.
Day 11
It's the same hero that attacked Kastore, I wonder if she’ll attack those royal mummies.
Up, up and away!
Oh dear. Terrifying.
This killed my boar. But having it stand still wasn’t going to accomplish anything either. Those sprites are goners either way.
But they’ll rain down more sparkly destruction before they do. 
The dwarves slowly thin out the enemy ranks.
And that was the end of my sprites.
Pretty costly though, unless you count that all these units were free.
And our reward, a luck boosting coin. Uncle Scrooge will be so jealous.
More dwarves for the Wilfreywarmachine!
Day 12
Kalindra is still on her way up. The enemy didn’t attack the royal mummies and retreated back into the darkness.
More dwarves for Wilfrey. In two turns I’ll be able to build a library. After that I can upgrade my mages and I have plenty of money to do so.
Day 13
She’s going to pick up mysticism first. That extra mana regeneration is very welcome for any wizard attack force.
Wilfrey picks up one of the best spells for his army of angry dwarves. The only better spell would'v been something haste based.
I think I’ve found yellow. Let’s go to that observatory to find out. I hate not buying anything in my town when they're so much to buy so I upgrade my foundry. Kastore is just collecting some last stuff that was lying around.
Day 14
The shrine contained bloodlust.
Argh! I went the wrong way. Put up some sign posts you yellow bastard!
The center of the map looks like it’s rich. We’ll have to claim it in the name of Roland later.
Why is everything so expensive.
Well at least one of the new spells is worthwhile.
Day 15
Week of the lizard, that sounds like….wait a minute. I already did that one. Did the lizards get the ultimate artifact or something? Will every week be week of the lizard? We can easily take on swarms of imps, but lizards are another matter entirely.
Sweet, a hillfort. I can upgrade my dwarves for free. And I’d rather not go into the snow at the moment, I don’t think the enemy is there. The snow border seems very narrow and the castle at the bottom isn’t in the swamp. A lot of maps have a certain symmetricalnes to them.
Sweet upgrade!
So close.
Day 16
I hate snow.
A hero bolted into the castle during the enemy turn. This is unfortunate, I had hoped to take it from them without a hero helping their defense.
Maybe I should’ve waited for him to leave. Too bad blind doesn’t work on these guys. At least they don’t have ranged units other than the tower.
I use the battle dwarves as bait.
Which is completely ignored as everyone attacks the normal dwarves.
The enemy has lightning bolt and it actually worked on my battle dwarves.
Dwarven morale in action.
Dwarfs are such marvelous tanks. I do so love seeing them fight on and on.
We slug it out with the undead melee units, but it’s pretty clear who’s winning. The enemy has no more mana left either.
That curse will only prolong your suffering.
The skellies attack hurt, but the retaliation kills half of them ending their threat.
We needed some luck. Those stupid mummies are cursing every time they attack. Other than my high morale and my luck I haven´t had much luck. All enemy spells hit and all mummy attacks triggered their curse effect.
The battle dwarves died and we were cursed again.
That was a fun slugfest. Like I said, I just enjoy watching dwarves fight it out.
A very nice castle. Too bad Wilfrey is out of movement points. I hope that there are no other enemies are nearby.
Will Wilfrey enter the castle unopposed? Will Kalindra find an enemy? Will Kastore play some kind of role in the grand design? Join us next time, same Heroesplace, but not same Heroestime.