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Rainbow Mountain
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Of all the artifacts I've ever used, this is both the easiest to use and the hardest to master. I just shuffle the objects on the surface with my hands and poke whatever I need to use. And then whatever tool comes up becomes this super-complicated mess of bureaucratic notes, complex runework, and crude jokes that should not exist on something so sacredly There's a convenient override order that forces anything that doesn't work to stop immediately.
And the Overlord kept most of his notes in one rune.
Apparently, there was some kind of cataclysm within the Mad Gods' continent. Not the Mad Gods going on another rampage, the New Continent itself... it somehow ate of a major city, containing all their 'refineries'. About two million of the Mad Gods' servants, and all their castles, swallowed by the ground in a single moment. I don't need to know what a 'refinery' is; they sent all their resources, entire mines' worth of metal and hills of stone, into this huge, would-be capital, and then the continent itself screamed 'Psyche!' and ate about fifty years of the continent's hard work in about five minutes.
So all these various nobles and merchants began screaming and panicking because they no longer had enough stone, metal, and fancy artifacts to maintain their ongoing empire. They all begged the Mad Gods to fix it, and the first one to visit said "why not go to war?"
And that's how all this started. The Horde Collective is busy eating itself, and their duty is to take what they need from the Coalition. It only looks calm on the surface, but deep down, everyone on this nightmare of a continent is as tense and messed up as we thought they were. Most of the Legions, while loyal to the army, are suspcicious of each other and constantly fight over food supplies; if they deployed all at once, they'd still win, but not before infighting themselves to near-death just to make it all the way the Old Continent. This whole time, they've been sacrificing their most incompent and useless Legions, the ones they didn't want in the first place, while directing the bulk of their efforts towards raiding the supplies needed to restore their trade lines and blacksmiths. Once they regain exactly what they need to restore the heart of their Empire, they'll retreat.
They're not planning to defeat us now, they're preparing to utterly conquer us without a scratch decades later! That's why we've been winning so many battles; we were meant to.
...All our efforts, all the kills we racked up, have been helping the Horde Collective this entire time.
Well, at least I can finally return the favor.
They sent their weakest? I'll force them to send their strongest. I'll wage successful campaigns to steal everything the Horde Collective wants... and then secretly return them to their rightful owners, not those incompetent Chosen and sons-of-heroes who keep ensuring our endless defeat.
I'll give the Coalition the kick in the rear it needs to hunt this wounded empire down.
So... one question remains.
Which target should I attack first?
There's lots of notes from the Overlord complaining about how most of the generals bicker and sneer over each other instead of doing their jobs. I need to present confidence at whatever general meeting of generals I need to attend. I should decide now.
>Murisa Valley
Murisa's a decent place to live, if you like jogging for your life. Most of the population lives in the comfort of its walls, but goes out into the fields to work the grain. I constantly saw peasants with calf muscles shaped like a horse's, and every soldier was wearing heavy armor at all times. The wall's fairly thick, mildly enchanted, and well-staffed. I think most of the peasants will be able to flee safely, even if I hit this place in the middle of the night, but the problem is that there isn't anything in there but Speed and Grain. Sure, I can get a few forces killed off infliltrating a general unknown only to find a few stockpiles of grain, but I expect more Coalition soldiers will be killed in the crossfire than Horde Collective soldiers, and the Coalition will lose one of their major supply lines.
...Maybe I can get a few agents killed...
>Glastonturvy
I don't know much about this place, only that it's filled with the best kind of earthen gifts and the worst kind of earthen 'presents'. However, I do know that based on the time and circumstances of this death, they'll probably finish covering this murder up and requesting a new archmage in about a month. That may give me enough time to hit another place. Once they've confirmed their archmage is restored, no flyer will willingly charge at this place.
>Durnkirk
The big one. Like Tibberloch said, I send an army here, the army will die, but they will win the Orb of Sundale, the object that belongs to me and mine. It's the ideal target. Too ideal.
I want that damn orb, but if I go for it immediately, the others will catch on that I'm throwing bodies at a near impenetrable fortress to obtain a single artifact that I can quickly claim for myself. If I go for this first, I need to find some way to convince the generals that whatever plan I'm going for is meant to be a calculated gamble, and not just brute force.
Hm...
>____
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