Narratively speaking, Croh Vosh is probably the most important character in the game. At the end of Gem Wizards Tactics, the Omni-Gem was destroyed. This was a great thing for those battling the oppressive occupation of the Business Demons on the western continent, which had largely been enabled by the Omni-Gem’s magic. Eve Williams and Derby Pocket (both Dragon Bridge characters, also in Spellstorm) decided that the best thing to do would be to destroy the Omni-Gem, and so they did, with the help of Andromeda Robin. The gem was shattered into much smaller, mostly harmless shards that flew hundreds of miles in every direction.
These gem shards were, as I said, mostly harmless, but they still did contain trace amounts of Omni Magic, the most powerful magic ever discovered in Omia. One of these shards made its way somehow, across the ocean, to a bay near Dragon Bridge – the exact site where, almost 1000 years ago, a high ranking official of the Water Kingdom was betrayed by his dearest friend.
THE LEGEND OF CROH VOSH
Commander Croh Vosh was a successful military commander in the Water Kingdom, a monarchy that ruled much of the Western Continent and which would later become the Azure Order.
In the year 1168, while on a voyage to a far away land, it is said that Croh experienced something that changed him forever. Some said he found an unusual never-before-seen gem. Some said that he had been turned to a vampire. There were many rumors, but one thing everyone could agree on was that Croh had changed, and not for the better.
The current King of the Water Kingdom had no heir, and it had been thought for years that Croh would be the one chosen to be the next King. But the new Croh had an insatiable, need for domination and a propensity for chaotic violence. This quickly made him too many enemies in important places.
Just before the King was to appoint his next heir, there was a very high profile Dragon Bridge match. Vosh was competing, as he would each year. One of the contestants was his old friend and battle compatriot, Salutaire Ruupart, who was also a potential contender for the throne. Ruupart had realized that, should something happen to Vosh at this point, he’d likely be able to get away with it, and take the throne himself.
A few days before this match, Vosh and Ruupart met for practice, as they often would. In a moment of downtime between matches, Vosh looked out at the horizon, and started to talk vaguely about his plans for world domination. With Vosh’s back turned, Ruupart kicked Vosh’s twisted sword, which is laying on the ground, into the water, and draws his own blade.
For centuries, the legend says that Ruupart then murdered Croh Vosh. His body sunk into the water near Dragon Bridge, and few questions were asked, as most people were happy to see Vosh go.
~
Cut to the present day, the year 2024. The magic of the Omni-Gem has allowed Croh to return to life as a twisted undead lich. He quickly learned of the Spellstorm astral event, and recognized that it was his path to the ultimate power that he sought in life.
Will anyone be able to stop him?
CROH VOSH IN SPELLSTORM
Gameplay-wise, Croh is Fire and Water element-heavy, which means he’s good early game and late game, but might have a vulnerability mid-game against a heavy Earth player that he fails to rush down.
The first thing to notice about Croh is that he has, by far, the most health in the game, at 20 health. This may at first intimidate most other Fire heavy characters from attempting to rush him down. However, it is notable that Croh is also the only character in the game who can’t heal (although Heal cards are still useful to him, in that they give the opponents useless, damaging curses!). So while most characters’ health will go down a bunch and then start curving back upwards, Croh’s will only ever go down. So it is possible to kill him, but it just may take a little longer than usual.
Croh’s overall mechanic is Death Tokens, because the better his Death Tokens are, the stronger his Ultimate is. He wants to get them, and he wants to get them as soon as possible. Like Croh the character, the Croh player has “quests” of sorts to fulfill, quests that have to do with superiority. Each of his two character cards enable him to gain his Death Tokens.
Here’s Sinking Strike, which, while a fire card, can have utility also as a water card, in that it can give you hand superiority. It can also backfire on you pretty hard against a hard Earth player, though – Croh’s biggest weakness, until much later in the game. In the first few turns of the game, this will often just have the opponent discard Gold Coins, letting them get a tech advantage on you. The dream for this card is to give a player a Curse somehow, and then have this force it to be discarded, giving you mana and a Death Token.
And here we have Undertow, his other ability. This is his other “quest” of sorts – to have the most cards of any other player, by a good margin. If he can, he gets a Death Token. This one, at least, is a decent card to play early on since getting mana and a draw at least are always OK to do.
Something to notice is that while Croh can be lethal much later in the game, both of his Wizard Cards are pretty bad in the early stages of the game. But once you get 2 or 3 death tokens, and some curses in the opponent’s hand, that’s where they start to shine. Because of this and his extremely high health, Croh can feel like a “creeping death” that is slowly but surely going to emerge victorious.
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more character profiles!
You must be logged in to post a comment.