GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 7: Alliance With The Imperial College

Characters:

Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

 

The Earthling Games

In the midst of the chaos of preparing for The Games ahead of schedule, one of the messengers that had been sent abroad had finally returned, with news all the way from the Elven Forests far to the east.  He'd been held up at the woodline and not let further in, and had surmised that the elves were locked in heated debate over the political situation in the Empire, which would take months or years to resolve.  He left after only a few days, intending to make it back to the Highland Forests before winter fell.

The triumvirate had little time to dwell on this, though, as Cliffsedge, the overseer of The Games, was announcing new competitions on an hourly basis, and they had to be ready to compete for their posts at any time.  Thicket and Granmarg were confident in Terra and their abilities, respectively, but both Mielikki and Pomegranite sought to tip the scales in their favour.  Mielikki "coincidentally" ran into Cliffsedge at one point and offered up a suitable plot of land his family owned for the competition to be field marshal, which usually featured mock battles.  Pomegranite simply broke into Cliffsedge's office and read his documents to try to glean the nature of the spymaster's game.  His analysis suggested that it would involve pickpocketing.

The first competition of the Triumvirate was that of the Champion, and so Granmarg competed in a grappling tournament.  The bouts were decided by the first person to be either thrown to the ground or pushed out of the ring, and despite raw strength not being his style, Granmarg won his title handily.  Pomegranite had been practicing his sleight of hand, which ended up all being for naught when the competition was actually to break into a fort and steal a document.  When it was clear that another was going to emerge victorious, he falsely accused his rival of being a traitor.  The claims and false evidence were enough to secure Pomegranite his post again, though at the cost of much of the loyalty of his underlings who now realized they could be removed at a moment's notice.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 6: The Treaty of the Sunstone Bridge

Characters:

Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

The Battle Concludes

Swiftbreeze advanced with his reinforcements and pushed the Lumenians back into the center of the bridge, to which Eremon responded by annihilating an already-debilitated earthling formation in a hail of fireballs and arrows.  Felix moved up to take the now empty position, while Hugo charged back across the bridge, picking up stragglers on the way and slamming into Swiftbreeze's troops.  With Granmarg and Groutite still incapacitated by their wounds, Hugo easily swept Swiftbreeze and Bramble from the field, inflicting fresh injuries as they only narrowly escaped.

The sun was low in the sky, and, with neither side securing a clear victory nor with enough soldiers to continue the battle, the two armies retreated to their camps, and messengers were sent back and forth to arrange for negotiations.  The earthlings did some quick strategizing and came up with the three-point agenda of seizing land as recompense for the unjustified invasion, Lumene supporting the earthling claims of innocence in the murder of the Emperor, and for both sides to swear an oath to uphold peace.  Despite the many protestations of Pomegranite and concurrence of Granmarg, Mielikki and Thicket did not agree to add a pledge for Lumene to aid them in their (eventual) fight against the dwarves.

A pavilion was erected in the middle of the bridge, and each side sent a delegation of their commanders and one bodyguard each.  Thicket brought Papaver, his religious advisor, despite the flower-man's poor ability in a fight, because clearly the favour of Terra was all the protection he needed.  Granmarg greatly slowed the earthlings as they walked out to the meeting due to his injuries and a refusal of assistance.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 5: The Charge of Mielikki

Characters:

Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Mielikki's Assault

The earthlings ran across the battlefield while Hugo's entourage held their ground and waited for them to arrive.  In front was Smugbrush, a pile of leaves with wooden arms, wielding a wooden spear and shield, and beside him Hawthorn, a chunky rock man with a large, wide "sword" covered in flame.  Bringing up the rear was Garmnrag, who wielded his iconic "long nunchaku".

Hugo readied and fired a piercing shot at Smugbrush, but the earthlings, forewarned by the stragglers of Granmarg's party, knew this was coming and had spread out.  Smugbrush dodged out of the way of the bolt, and charged towards the wounded Phillipe, who loosed an arrow at the last second, but missed the mark.  

Hawthorn followed his comrade in and charged Hugo, but his flaming blade went wide and a bolt from Petronilla's giant crossbow caused him to back away... directly into a waiting Marie, who slammed her bladed helmet into his midsection.  While he was still reeling, Hugo stepped forward and point-blank fired a pair of bolts into the gaps between his rocky body, causing Hawthorn to trip and fall down.  

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 4: The Confrontation Between Granmarg The Striking Vanguard and Baron Hugo de Villay

Characters:

Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

The Duel

Granmarg pulled his troops back to the middle of the great bridge, but they were chased down by Hugo's formation, and as the two forces clashed, the commanders and their entourages met in combat on the field.  On Granmarg's side were Swiftbreeze, a twig-like treeman covered in leaves whose left arm was a bow, Groutite, a towering rockman who had carved Terran religious iconography into himself and wielded a greatsword, and Bramble, a rockman covered in brambles who dual-wielded vine flails that wrapped around his forearms.

Hugo was accompanied by Petronilla, his wife, who toted around a giant crossbow, Phillipe, a man in his twenties with thick eyebrows who wielded a shortbow, and Marie, a woman who wore full armour and whose only weapon was the sharpened beak-like visor of her helm.  Granmarg's forces split, with himself followed by Groutite flanking left while Bramble and Swiftbreeze headed right.  Hugo loaded some sort of special magazine into his repeating crossbow while his advisors consolidated around him.

Granmarg moved behind a wooden barricade, one of the few sources of cover on the barren bridge, only for Hugo to fire anyway.  The special armour-piercing bolt rammed straight through the wood and past into Granmarg's side.  As the two sides drew close, they all held just out of reach, daring the other to make the next move, until Swiftbreeze stepped up to Phillipe.  Each fired their bow at the other, but, seeing his opponent was quicker on the draw, Swiftbreeze pushed Phillipe's arm down, causing them both to miss.  Bramble stepped in on the side swinging wildly, but Phillipe nimbly dodged the double flails.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 3: Battle of the Sunstone Bridge

Characters:

Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Preparations

The armies of the earthlings arrived at the old bridge spanning the Sunstone River, and saw the force from Lumene encamped on the hill on the far bank, still within their own lands.  The bridge had been built in either the first or second empire, which made it at least a milennium old, and was a massive construction of brick.  There were some smaller bridges dotted up and down the river, but none wide enough to march an army across.  The earthlings could demolish it given enough time for their terramorphers to work, but it seemed likely that Lumene would attack if they did.

Despite Granmarg urging to attack immediately, a messenger was sent forth under a green flag, signaling that the earthlings wished to negotiate, and he was welcomed into the camp of Lumene.  Several minutes later, he returned and took a knee in front of the Triumvirate to deliver their response: Queen Edelina was requesting the surrender and conversion to worship of Astraeus of the earthlings, or else she would be "forced" to attack.

That meant war.  The earthlings settled in to a camp, and the two forces began drawing up battle plans and spying on the other as best they could.  Thicket used his skills as an administrator to rapidly bring up extra troops to the front line, while Pomegranite was able to infiltrate the enemy camp and bribed some officers in charge of signaling orders.  Mielikki and Granmarg both observed the enemy defenses but gained no insights.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 2: Escape From Kaskorata

Characters:

Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Breakout

Having just returned to the dining hall when Ulrich made his declaration that they would elect him Emperor or die, Mielikki took a look around to see who was still there.  They'd passed the dwarves going the other way in the hallway, obviously, and most of the other delegations had filtered either out onto the veranda overlooking the waterfall, or to the ballroom.  The only ones present were the delegation from the Imperial College, Eremon of Lumene, and the Court Magister of Wrost, Nikolai.

Granmarg rushed across the room and leapt over a table in a burst of lightning, while the rest of the triumvirate readied their improvised weapons and ran toward the stone wall that Thicket was planning to open with his earth magic.  Though they were disarmed, they had little trouble dispatching the Knights of the Blazing Sun, and Eremon and the Magisters joined in; Eremon disintegrated a pair in a pillar of fire, while Eva cut one into pieces in a net of void magic.  The Magister none of them recognized picked up a fork.

The melee with the Knights continued until Thicket made it to the wall and, after asking the stones politely, the bricks moved aside and created an opening to the hallway.  Bramble was the first one through, followed by Vasili, Eva, and then Thicket. The unknown Magister failed a spell and attempted to stab a Knight with the fork, but it barely even scratched the plate armor.  Garmnrag, Pomegranite, and Mielikki finished clearing out their side of the room, and Granmarg punched out the only Knight on his side, leaving only the one by the other Magister still standing.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 1: The Great Court

Characters:

Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Selection

The Games, held every 10 years, determined who among the earthlings, a people composed of earth and plantlife, were most suited to hold various posts and titles.  Of particular prestige were the posts of the Triumvirate, the three great leaders of their people who together held their single elector vote in the Empire.  The Game to become the Striking Vanguard, their greatest martial champion, took place over many weeks, and at long last Granmarg, also known as the Boulderstruck, emerged victorious and took his seat on the Triumvirate.  

Mielikki, meanwhile, won the mock battles that would determine the Field Marshal quite handily, as he had been exposed to wargames in his time as a diplomat in the Dwarven Undersands to the south, and the dwarves were much more advanced in their theories of war than anything the earthlings had.  Thicket took the last position, the Grandmaster Terramorpher, by creating the most detailed map of their province, The Highland Forests, down to counting every last tree in the land.

A fourth title, though not quite as prestigious as it was not part of the Triumvirate, was the Spymaster, won by the diminutive Pomegranite The Treefallen.  His time at the Imperial College, where he had studied the Path of Secrets, had lent itself well to the challenge of learning the secrets of the other competitors while concealing his own from any watchful eyes.