Mist Covered Highlands

The Mist Covered Highlands is a magic site that is always visible after taking a province and provides one air gem per turn. More importantly, it's an extensive event chain that unfolds on the site, causing several attacks from independent phantasmal creatures before giving you recruitable Wind Masters.

Although several Mist Covered Highlands can exist in a game, the event chain can only happen once.

Four events can happen before and during the event chain. These are:

• People have been disappearing in the area around the highlands.
  +5 Unrest, 1% population dies.

• Travelers have disappeared in the mist covered highlands. The thick mists there seem almost unnatural.
  +1 Magic.

• Some extra gems have been found in the Mist Covered Highlands this month.
  +1d3 air gems.

• A man has appeared. He seeks to unveil the secret of the Mist Covered Highlands.
  Free Cloud Mage with a low-level item. Can happen only once, with 5% chance per turn.

Starting with turn 20, there's 3% chance per turn for the event chain to start with the following event:

• People have been disappearing in the area around the highlands.
  +5 Unrest, 1% population dies. Event chain starts.

The text and effects are identical to the "common bad" event which can happen any turn, but only this one initiates the event chain. After the event chain has started, there is a 25% chance per turn for the first phantasmal attack:

• Phantasmal warriors have appeared from within the Mist Covered Highlands. They seem directed by an unknown force of will.
  Attacked by 4d6+1 Phantasmal Warriors. The event chain continues.

After the first attack, there is a 25% chance per turn for the second phantasmal attack:

• Phantasmal warriors and beasts are emerging in great numbers from the Mist Covered Highlands.
  Attacked by 2d6+1 Phantasmal Warriors, 2d6 Phantasmal Wolf and 2d6 Phantasmal Beasts. The event chain continues.

After the second attack, there is a 25% chance per turn to find:

• One of your agents has investigated the magic of the Highlands and, when lost in its dense mists, found a cache of magic gems and an item of power. It seemed someone had hidden them on purpose.
  Item of level 0-4 and 1d6 air gems. The event chain continues.

While you're waiting for the Illusionist to reveal himself, any or none of these events can happen:

• Suddenly, the air has come to life and attacked one of your commanders!
  Assassination by a size-6 Air Elemental.
  15% chance per turn, can happen 0-2 times.

• A storm has struck! From the roiling clouds, air elementals have formed.
  Attacked by two Wind Masters and 3d6 size-6 Air Elementals. One Wind Master is carrying a Bag of Winds.
  15% chance per turn, can happen 0-1 times.

• A host of fog-shrouded warriors have emerged from The Mist Covered Highlands. They are led by a man of power.
  Attacked by two Wind Masters, 6d6 Phantasmal Warriors and 3d6 Phantasmal Wolf.
  25% chance per turn, can happen any number of times.

The final battle has 25% chance of happening every turn, and is identical to the last phantasmal attack except for being lead by an Illusionist:

• A host of fog-shrouded warriors have emerged from The Mist Covered Highlands. They are led by a man of power.
  Attacked by an Illusionist, 6d6 Phantasmal Warriors and 3d6 Phantasmal Wolf.

The turn after having defeated the Illusionist, the event chain ends by revealing the Translucent Tower, which allows you to recruit Wind Masters of your own.

• After the recent battle, the corpse of the mage was plundered. In his pockets were found a strange object. It seems to be some kind of compass. Following its lead, your men have traveled into the mists and found a place of power. Hidden at the heart of the highlands lies a lake from which mist constantly rises. Through the veils a translucent tower can be seen. New site: Translucent Tower.

The phantasmal creatures are ethereal, but have only a single hit point. Their phantasmal weapons are negated by magic resistance.