GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 26: Breaking the Demons

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

 

Atop the Brenther Foothills

The Legs Demon rolled over Mielikki, repeatedly trampling him with its many legs.  It was all he could do to hold the greater demon at bay as batted his tree trunk club aside like a toy.  Still, he managed to buy enough time for his troops to drive off the rest of the demons at a high price in earthling lives.  Since he wasn't winning the duel, Mielikki attempted to win the Legs Demon over with rhetoric.  Asserting entirely not in bad faith that they could live in peace, but it rolled away, ignoring him.  While the main swarm retreated, several demons attacked from range.  Tumours full of toxic gases, razor-sharp bone spikes, and tiny demons that crawled inside the mouth and nose were flung into Mielikki's ranks, killing dozens more of his soldiers.

 
Meanwhile, in the north, Pomegranite led his troops through an abandoned mine tunnel he had learned about at the College, arriving on the hilltop that was now controlled by the earthlings corrupted by the Eyes Demon's influence.  With no sense of remorse, he mercilessly slaughtered these "traitors", then had his magisters bombard the rest of the demon swarms downhill.  Thicket meanwhile lured the Eyes Demon's swarm into an ambush, where hundreds of demons were cut down while the commanders met in a Wizard Duel.

 

Thicket launched earth spikes from all around the Eyes Demon, while it attempted to use a variety of deadly eye beams to fry his brain and turn him to stone.  The duel broke off due to a retreat by the demons, and Thicket emerged unscathed while the Demon had suffered only some minor wounds.  The horde surged forward across the whole of the battlefield, but were mostly successfully driven back.  Mielikki and Pomegranite slew hundreds of demons each, but on the southern flank, nearly a thousand demons slipped around to target the earthling rear lines.

 

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 25: Battle of the Brenther Hills

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 Begins

On the morning of the decisive battle, reports came to the Triumvirate of more earthlings with their brains scooped out being found at the edges of their army's camps.  Pomegranite and many of the magisters emerged from a planning session that had lasted all night with an idea for how to stop the lesser demons that spread Bile to allow the advance of the main army.  As the troops ate their breakfast, Thicket gave an inspiring speech, reminding the soldiers that they were fighting not just for the Highland Forests, but for the Empire and all life.

 

The Young Heron approached Granmarg and asked him to take up his sword if he fell in battle.  The earthling agreed to do so, though he was barely trained in the sword, preferring his fists.  His tone changed when the Young Heron stated that it could kill demons with a look that Granmarg understood instantly: Terra.  His warnings that it was cursed, and that Granmarg must be careful not to let its bloodlust consume him, went unheeded.  You use a sword to kill demons, and bloodlust for that was fine!

 

The earthling armies took up their formations on the hills as the demon army began their advance from the west, with one column charging out ahead in the center and seizing an elevated position the earthlings had left deliberately vacant.  Pomegranite had his magisters and archers rain invisible arrows on their position, slaying many, while Mielikki cautiously advanced up the south flank along with his reserves.  One demon, a pulsating ball of legs of all sizes and materials (which would be known as the "Legs Demon"), rolled up a sheer cliff and brought its horde up surprisingly close to Mielikki's.

 

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 24: The Demonwar Begins

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

 

Demons and Gods

For now, the elves and earthlings failed to decide who would become their triumvirate Emperor, partly due to Pomegranite's and Thicket's anti-dwarf sentiment, and partly because even if it was going to be a dwarf, they'd need to go inform them.  Since the Demonwar was starting in the Dwarven Undersands, they could just go meet with them and discuss it with the dwarven King Barrend.  The other two emperors were decided rather quickly by comparison: Edelina would be the Empress of Lumene, Tauschun, and the Segretan League, while Curzo would be Emperor of Halberst, Baronde, and Wrost.

 

The rulers of the various provinces all left to raise their armies, with Halberst and Baronde still planning to devote half of each of theirs to deal with the uprising in Baronde as had been agreed.  On the morning of their departure, Pomegranite and Uthemar of the elves had a private meeting a ways southeast of the college, away from prying eyes and under the wards of Pomegranite's Path of Secrets.  Theren, the Young Heron and Blademaster, would accompany the earthlings so that the elves' greatest warrior could join the battle sooner.  More importantly, Pomegranite asked what they knew about Terra and the threat she represented.

 

Uthemar stated that, though they couldn't be sure, it was his belief that Terra was a demon.  Every being that came from another reality were collectively referred to as demons, and, in his experience, were hostile.  As for how she'd gotten into their reality without a Demongate, as far as he knew, the demons had built the gates themselves, but must have had a way into this reality prior to that.  Perhaps they could punch smaller holes like the portal under Bedrock.  There was, unfortunately, no quick way to test whether Terra was a demon, and as demons could appear in a bewildering variety of forms, including some shapeshifters, they could not go by her appearance, though golem-like demons had been witnessed in the past. 

 

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 23: The Imperial Council

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 Wrost Question

Curzo, now Grand Magister after his appointment by election had been finalized that morning, was the last to enter the council chamber, just as Crown Prince Tye of Baronde was leaving to put down the rebellion that had broken out in the north of his kingdom.  Those present took their seats around the 8-sided stone table had been raised from the floor, and the imperial council was called to order.  Mielikki laid out the earthling position of distributing the power of the Emperor to three lesser co-Emperors, a type of governance that had been proven to work in the Highland Forests over the centuries.  Grand Magister Curzo chimed in to point out that this would also offer the provinces much more autonomy, a concession which would hopefully allow everyone to unit against the crises of the Void Beast and looming Demonwar that the Empire now faced.

 

Dimitri of Wrost began to voice their approval, but was cut off by King Neville Tallfellow of Baronde who claimed that they first had to determine if the new Republic of Wrost would actually be recognized as the rightful rulers of the province, or as usurpers.  Unsurprisingly, the monarchy of Lumene didn't want to recognize them, while the city states of the Segretan League were fine with a republic.  Uthemar of the elves was able to sway Queen Edelina by advising that it would be best to avoid a lengthy civil war now, before the end times.  The King of Baronde was still unswayed, citing the rebellion in his homeland that, according to him, had clearly been incited by the orcs of Wrost, despite their claims of innocence.

 

The earthlings knew for a fact that Wrost had been fomenting dissent in the College and the Highland Forests all the way across the Empire before they'd caught their spy, so it was extremely unlikely that they'd done nothing in the Kingdom of Baronde, which was on their southern border.  Mielikki suggested that Wrost cooperate and raise an army, to be commanded by Baronde, to put down the rebellion.  Despite their reservations at putting down a rebellion that was likely very close to them ideologically, Dimitri took the position that it was more important to show they could cooperate with the monarchies in the Empire.  King Tallfellow was still unpleased, but seeing that Wrost would be recognized regardless of what actions he took, and with Baronde on the back foot with the Path of Prophecy gone, he ultimately agreed to the plan.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 22: A Sense of the Divine

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

 

What Makes A God

The Triumvirate sent a messenger to inform Ulrich of their goddess problem, and then decided to screen their advisors for those who were true believers.  Most of them were in the clear, though several were unsure what difference it made whether she was truly their god or a "only" a being capable of all the same feats.  Mielikki's all claimed to not believe, but he had his suspicions that they were just saying what he wanted to hear.  They finally found a single sympathizer in Groutite, one of Granmarg's men, though even he was hardly a zealot, and when questioned as to where his loyalties lay, suggested that they could work out their problems with Terra if they went and talked to her.

 

Granmarg didn't accept this fencesitting and they escalated into an argument about Terra killing the priests.  Eventually, this was settled by Granmarg stating that in the event of a hypothetical civil war in the Highland Forests, he would surrender to the people rather than kill earthlings, even if that would result in the earthlings he was supporting being put to death, because at least he wouldn't be personally responsible.  After a bit more discussion with the other members of the Triumvirate, due to his insistence that he wouldn't send "anybody else to go die", Granmarg went to meet with Terra.

 

The crystal sphere, or New Temple, as it was coming to be known, had been readily adopted by the priesthood, and many of the faithful packed the outer ring of chambers.  When Granmarg announced himself to an attendant priest, the man bowed and led him in to the heart of the geode where Terra's personal chamber lay.  On the way, Granmarg asked if any more people had been killed by Terra, or if that had been a one-time thing, and the priest replied that only the one group of heretics had been smote.  They arrived at the doors to Terra's chamber, and the priest ushered Granmarg in.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 21: Terra Returns

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

 

Winter

Granmarg schemed with the Minervan faction of the temple to gain political influence in exchange for favours, while Thicket held combat training seminars for the terramorphers who had been working at the Mountain's Maw.  As the first winter snow fell, there was a solar eclipse.  According to the prophecy of the end times from Wrost, the sun would flicker 13 times, and there had been one other eclipse, so they still had 11 to go.  That was plenty of time!  In the coming weeks, Mielikki received grim news from Duke Muller: a sickness had spread to the hawks captured in the great aviary, and all had died.  It seemed that mass training was impossible and it would take years for the population to recover.

Meanwhile, at the College, Pomegranite noticed that Duke Bachofen was working on Eva's team to create a portal great enough to allow entire armies to go into the Paths.  He arranged to meet with him to discuss their progress and Bachofen reported that though it would take several years, they should complete the development before the Void Beast arrived at the Path of the Void.  He congratulated Pomegranite on their success in Tauschun, and then informed him that he'd noticed Eva seemed to have lost some of her drive and was no longer pushing to open the Forbidden Paths.

 

Perhaps she was in a slump after the initial proposal to open the Forbidden Paths had been granted and then walked back.  He was confident, however, that it wasn't a political move, as giving up on her principles wouldn't win many votes among magisters in the ongoing election for the next leader of the College.  Bachofen was dismissed, and Pomegranite passed on the relevant information to the Triumvirate.  Later, he would dispatch messengers to Lumene, Wrost, and Baronde inviting them to a council at the College that Spring to discuss reorganizing the Empire and cooperation against the Void Beast.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 20: The Crown Sundered

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 Final Blow

Pomegranite ordered his troops to fire on a crowd of undead, dispatching them just as Luana charged through the gap he'd created and into his formation.  The two met on the field again, and moved toward each other cautiously.  Luana made the first strike, but Pomegranite nimbly dodged out of the way before lunging forward, swinging his knives at her crown.  The blades pierced the metal, and there was an ear-splitting thunderclap as it was thrown from Luana's head and exploded into fragments.

 

The force of the explosion knocked everyone within several hundred feet into the air and pushed the torrential rain out in a bubble.  It was loud enough that, a mile away, Mielikki and Granmarg staggered, and Ulrich would later confirm that it had been audible even far to the north where the Imperials had been fighting.

 

Luana was holding her head in her hands, still reeling, by the time that Pomegranite had regained his feet and ordered her to surrender.  She seemed disoriented and asked who the hell he was while her left hand moved toward something half-submerged in the mud.  Following her motion with his eyes, Pomegranite saw only some fragments of bone or splintered wood, but shouted for her to stop what she was doing.  Suddenly noticing that her arm had been moving of its own accord, Luana recoiled and leapt to her feet, kicking at whatever she had been reaching for while shouting to get that thing away from her.

 

Again, Pomegranite told her to surrender.  Luana glanced over at her heavy executioner's axe and asked if she had been wielding it in their battle.  When Pomegranite confirmed it, she replied that he had her weapon and so she had no choice.  The Segretans lay down their arms, Luana was taken prisoner, and the other earthling commanders regrouped on Pomegranite's position.  As he approached Granmarg had a fleeting thought to search the mud for something, but ignored it.  

 

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 19: Attrition

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

 

Stalling Luana

With Granmarg chased from the field, Luana wheeled her formation around and charged toward Pomegranite, looking to displace him and then seize the southern flank.  From there, she could charge north into the sides of the earthling formations, easily routing them, before continuing on and into their Imperial allies fighting to the north.  The two commanders spotted each other, and as Luana leapt over a creek formed by the torrential rain, Pomegranite got a good look at her artifacts.

 

The golden crown on her brow and the headsman's axe she carried were both so powerfully magical that even a non-magister would be able to tell, as were a bone horn and a scroll case worn at her hip.  Before she could close, he tried to see if he could notice anything about the horn.  It was of fine make, with a golden band around the bell, but more importantly it bore glowing inscriptions of a chariot and of a man leaping over a fence, which he determined meant that it was granting her increased agility.  Pomegranite used his Shadow magic to split into 5 mirror images, but Luana saw through his trick and rushed at the real one, then yelled for him to kneel.

He fought off some sort of compulsion, then slipped inside Luana's reach while fending off her axe-blow with one of his paired knives.  She barely backed away from a thrust to the heart, visibly exhausted from her earlier duel with Granmarg, then swung at Pomegranite's neck before catching the base of her axe with one foot and spinning it around his guard; it had been a feint, and Pomegranite only narrowly ducked to the side before taking a step back to try to analyze her other artifacts.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 18: The Battle of the Flooded Fields

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

 

Initial Maneuvers

As the earthling armies finished crossing to the floodplains outside Kaskorata, sheets of rain began to pour down.  Empty fields and abandoned villages separated them from and the Segretans' undead forces, as well as a single abandoned fort in the middle of the battlefield.  Those walls would offer protection against arrows and offensive magic, and so the earthlings resolved to take it.  Swiftbreeze, one of Granmarg's attendants, was dispatched to the frontlines to lead the charge.  His formation charged the fort and eradicated the freshly-exhumed undead holding it successfully.

 

Luana charged up to the frontlines and from quite some distance reanimated many of the undead that had been slain; fortunately, Swiftbreeze was not caught off guard and his troops held the line.  The rest of the Segretan commanders advanced more cautiously, keeping their troops in dense formations.  In a thunderous charge, Granmarg's formation slammed into the Segretan center and slaughtered them, men and undead alike.  Thicket and Mielikki marched north to meet Duccio and Aginor, while Pomegranite held the southern flank opposite Dina.

 

The stone bridges bridges they'd so hastily constructed with magic were disrupting the flow of the river, and with the added pressure of the rainfall, water surged up over the bank and the farmland behind the earthlings rapidly flooded.  Pomegranite's formation launched a hail of boulders at Luana's troops that killed hundreds, and she and her guard retreated, while Aginor's orders fell on deaf ears as Ulrich's assassins disrupted the chain of command.  In a stroke of luck, Luana's troops were too shocked to act as well, and rallying them apparently distracted her enough from her dark arts that no more dead arose.  Meanwhile, Duccio's magisters froze the rain above Mielikki's troops, causing spear-sized icicles to rain down on and skewer them by the dozens as they struggled through knee-deep water.

 

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 17: Three Armies Against the Emperor's Daughter

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

 

Marching

As they marched east toward the occupied capitol of Kaskorata, things took a turn for the worse when earthlings bearing the Mark of Clio began to desert.  Those that were questioned echoed what the human Changed they'd interrogated had: it was the end times, great change was coming, and they wanted to have Clio's favour.  They were mostly caught and captured due to the "buddy"" system the Triumvirate had put in place earlier, but now there was the question of what to do with them.  It would take a lot of manpower to guard them, while letting them free would swell the ranks of the Changed.

 

Mielikki and Pomegranite were frustrated that the simplest answer, killing them, would be bad for morale.  After some consultation with the terramorphers in their ranks, none of whom had deserted (Mielikki: "Their faith protects them!"), Thicket used his terramorphing to dig an extremely deep pit and lined the walls with sheer stone.  If all went according to plan, they'd be able to pick them up when they came back through the area, and if somebody else wanted to let them out, they'd have to find a rope over a hundred meters long.

 

As the days passed, and Thicket and Mielikki pored over their maps of the region and read the reports of their scouts, they realized that many bands of the Changed looked to be travelling to the same destination, about 3 days northwest of Kaskorata.  It was unclear why they were gathering, but this could prove to be a problem if they decided to march south toward Kaskorata and caught the earthlings in the rear.  However, they could also be useful if they were lured into the Segretans, who by all accounts were still holding position within the city walls.  Thicket's misdirection weeks earlier had worked quite well.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 16: Unlikely Allies

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

 

A Meeting With the Elven Diplomat

Pomegranite arranged a private meeting with Uthemar, the chief diplomat of the elven delegation, to discuss the state of the world.  Uthemar bemoaned the College's (and more specifically, Eva's) desire to unseal the Paths, and Pomegranite expressed that the earthlings agreed with him, and could hopefully postpone any such moves by putting forth a unified army that would be prepared to battle the Void Beast directly.  He then brought up the matter of Tharivol and his band of the Changed that were rampaging throughout the South. 

 

Uthemar believed that the College's assessment of surging magical energies coming from the unbalanced Paths was reasonable, and suggested that Tharivol may simply have been afflicted by the magical madness that was affecting the rest of the Changed, though he was more dangerous than most.  Pomegranite asked if he knew anything of the "Mark of Clio", but the elf claimed little knowledge of human religion.  As far as he could tell, it was the symbol of the goddess Clio, and perhaps for more secular groups such as the College, a symbol representing the Path of Change.

 

As far as people being themselves marked, a subject which Pomegranite brought up without mentioning that this had happened to Granmarg and Thicket, Uthemar assessed that it meant merely that they had been affected more by the magics leaking from the Path of Change.  Uthemar then questioned whether those who had been marked during their war in the south had exhibited any sort of madness in the year since their return home, and Pomegranite confirmed that he'd not heard of any.  He suspected Uthemar wasn't telling him everything, but had no way to press him and let it pass.  

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 15: Signs of the Apocalypse

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

 

Apocrypha

Pomegranite's research into the end times as portrayed by the Imperial faith required him to further delve into the libraries of the Imperial College, where he found records of the Sixth Council of the Faithful which had taken place during the Second Empire.  This Council had consolidated the faith under the banner of Astraean supremacy due to military and political pressure from the Archbishop of Lumene.  As a result of this change in doctrine, many regional texts were no longer recognized as official teachings of the faith, and had been subsequently destroyed.  Now that he had a lead, Pomegranite tracked down one of these texts, an early version of the Book from Wrost, which contained a section on the end times being heralded by the sun flickering thirteen times before being extinguished.

 

Continuing his investigation, Pomegranite found that while the line about seers going mad had become canon, the original text from Segreta had a second line that had not, which stated that the dead would rise from their graves.  After weeks of searching, he was able to piece together a similar bit of text from Tauschun, which stated that those bearing the "Mark of Clio" would be "Changed" and have their "wills bent to the works of the Muse".  The mention of the Mark of Clio was concerning, as both Granmarg and Thicket had discovered that Mark, a fractal spiral, on their bodies during the campaign in Tauschun.  What was meant by the "works of the Muse" was unknown, save that the Muse in question was Clio.

 

At this point, news swept the campus of the College of a breakthrough in the investigation into the missing Path of Prophecy, and Pomegranite took a break to attend the lecture given by High Magister Eva.  In front of a large audience of other Magisters, she announced that she had opened a gate to the edge of the Path of the Void, which bordered Prophecy, and saw there in the void between the Paths a great insectile beast made of bulbous segments, with six legs, six mouths, and six faceless heads.  From where she had seen it, it appeared to be "swimming" through the void directly toward her, and therefore the Path of the Void.

 

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 14: A Time of Peace?

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

 

Wurm Slayers

The wurm whirled around and spat another gobbet of magma at Pomegranite and Granmarg.  Pomegranite dove to the ground, but rolled, and quickly scrambled to his feet.  He lunged at the wurm, but it reared back out of the way.  This left it wide open for Granmarg, who had nimbly dodged under the molten rock and landed a haymaker that shattered several of the beast's sword-like teeth.  Roaring, it then charged past them, trampling Thicket as it went, and began to dig into the cliff wall to flee.

 

Thicket and Mielikki regained their feet, but were still staggered, while Pomegranite and Granmarg gave chase.  The wurm was faster than them in the open, but slowed by the dirt, they managed to catch it as Thicket impaled its left leg with a spike of earth that shot out of the ground.  Granmarg finished off its other leg, and cornered, the wurm turned and lunged at him.  He brushed its blow aside with the back of his arm, and then landed a one-two punch that shattered the stone around its eyes, leaving it blind.  Now defenceless and writhing in agony, the wurm was finished off by a thrust of Pomegranite's paired knives (Granmarg: "Kill steal").

 

Curious as to where the wurm had come from, Mielikki suggested they detour north on the way back to Bedrock to find Igneus, a noble he knew of who had a fascination with strange beasts.  The others agreed, and dispatched a messenger to inform him of their desire for him to come to its body and learn what he could.  The Triumvirate kept a slower pace due to their injuries that would see them arrive on Igneus' estate in a week's time.  The manor house in ill-repair, and an elderly servant came to lead them in to the study where his master was waiting.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 13: Holding 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

 

The Terran Faithful

The Triumvirate resumed its meeting on the rebel/reform movements, but struggled to come to any decision, and conversation drifted to the subjects of leverage over the Segretan League, and yet another attempt by Pomegranite to sway the others into going to war with the dwarves.  Before long, they were interrupted by Friedrich Quarry, their "new" High Priest, who was there to inform them of progress on the reconstruction of the Mountain's Maw temple complex.  Quarry had adopted a human first name in honour of the old emperor and was a thorn in their side, looking to radically restructure the church to merge it with the Imperial Faith.  He even wore human-style clothes!

 

Simply put, it would not be possible for the foreseeable future.  The earth below the mountain and temple was continually shifting, and anything they built would collapse in a matter of days.  Mielikki asked if there were signs of volcanic activity, as that was part of the end times foretold in earthling religion, but Friedrich assured him that their terramorphers had dug deep and found no signs of magma or rising temperatures, so for now, at least, this was not a larger threat.

 

On the subject of the end times, though, the version of events as told by The Book, the holy text of the Imperial Faith, seemed much more relevant.  The sun was red and hanging in the sky, it was unseasonably warm, and stars were going out.  This was driving people to the Imperial Faith as a result, something the Triumvirate knew the high priest was actively facilitating as he tried to merge the two faiths.  Mielikki "joked" about "finding another book of Terran myth", which shocked both Thicket and even Friedrich, radical that he was, badly enough that he was forced to drop it.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 12: Dealing with Dukes

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 Imperial College

The earthling army marched back out of the province of Tauschun and to the College far to the northeast. The further north they travelled, the longer the red sun hung in the sky.  By the time they were approaching Halberst, there were only a few hours of normal daylight, the rest an orange twilight, with night perhaps half as long as it should be.  As they passed through the rocky and mountainous terrain that had been transferred to the College in the recent treaty with Ulrich, some of the College magisters took their leave from the army to begin the work of assessing the value of the region.

 

Weeks of travel through the rocky highlands of Halberst later, they arrived at the Imperial College itself, which was defended by a one hundred foot tall circular wall of solid, magically created stone which was, they noted positively, similar to earthling construction methods.  Leaving the bulk of the army to camp outside the city, the commanders arrived at one of the great circular gates and walked down the broad thoroughfares of the "new city" until they arrived at the edge of the College campus, which had been built over the ruins of the old city following its destruction after the rebellion of the old King of Halberst.  A few sections of the old fortifications still stood, typically where they abutted buildings.

 

As they arrived at the campus, a small delegation led by High Magister Curzo came out to meet with them.  There was no fanfare, and those from the College wore only their typical robes.  Curzo extended a curt greeting, and congratulated the commanders on a successful campaign in Tauschun.  Mielikki explained that, though they had acquired some of Tauchun's land, they had been unable to secure the province's support for Cliffside, the nephew of Thicket that they were supporting as the next Emperor.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 11: The Treaty of Gebirg's Pass

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

Last Gasp

The axeman chopped away at Mielikki and was joined by Dietrich who glided forward on a wave of sand, while the rest of the earthlings were on the ground, either unconscious or reeling from their injuries.  On the verge of collapse, Mielikki signalled and horns began to blow as the remainder of the army charged forward as he and the rest of his advisors retreated.  Dietrich gave chase, attempting to end things by eliminating the commander, but ended up being captured by the common soldiers as the rest of his troops were forced into a rout and he surrendered, alone.

 

On the far side of the battlefield, Drirtollor made a heroic effort to stop Hans Hessen, the Imperial Marshal, launching a surprise attack.  With the aid of earthling terramorphers, they surged across a bridge that suddenly jutted out and across an otherwise impassable ravine.  Unfortunately, the Marhsal was too skilled a commander, and the earthlings were, despite their valour, sent fleeing.  At the end of the day's battle, both sides found their camps razed, and would come to meet at a neutral pavilion to discuss terms.

Negotiations

Curiously, Tharivol was absent, having been replaced by a red-headed Knight of the Blazing Sun, but the rest of the Imperial commanders, including Dietrich, who had been captured, were present.  Similarly, Granmarg and Pomegranite, who had likewise been captured earlier in the day, rejoined their comrades, now sporting some new scars from their battles earlier in the day.  For now, at least, high-ranking prisoners were still being treated with honour.  

 

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 10: Solidoak and Ulrich, Mielikki and Dietrich

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 Rages On

Solidoak bashed Ulrich with one of his massive greatshields, but the old man proved surprisingly agile and rolled with the impact, then thrust the other shield into the neck of one of Ulrich's men who'd fallen down.  In response, Ulrich unfurled a scroll of beguiling patterns; Solidoak closed his eyes, but Papaver felt excruciating pain behind his eyes as they tried to follow the impossible spirals.  Thicket stepped in and a stone spike shot up from the ground, impaling the woman with the bow-harp, and she ran back to the rear lines to tend to her injury.

 

He did it again, this time aiming the spike at Ulrich, catching him in the side, and the blood loss swiftly left him unconscious.  Solidoak and the halberdier continued to duel, both making a series of wild swings with no regard for defence and bloodying the other.  The woman with the bow ran in to fend off Papaver, then grabbed Ulrich and ran off as the Imperials launched a retreat.  Though Ulrich was badly wounded in personal combat, Thicket had also been injured, and the earthling troops went on to lose the confrontation, giving ground and retreating.

 

As the remnants of Granmarg's and Pomegranite's troops regrouped, they discovered that their commanders had been captured, along with Sigillaria, one of Pomegranite's lieutenants.  Swiftbreeze was again given command of Granmarg's formation, while Drirtollor returned replacing Pomegranite, and immediately destroyed the remnants of Tharivol's formation with spellfire from the College's remaining mages.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 9: Personal Combat

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 Mysterious Elf Unveiled

In the western pass, the College Magisters under Thicket's command unleashed a storm of fire and lightning that tore through one of the Imperial formations, rending it asunder.  As the smoke cleared, Ulrich's troops moved into the gap, and the Magisters let loose another wave of spells, killing hundreds.  In the eastern pass, Dietrich ordered a retreat to protect their camp, while the mysterious blindfolded elf advanced a small force to take his place, then charged full-out uphill and into Pomegranite's far more numerous troops.

 

Just shy of engaging, the elf's troops halted, then he stepped forward and shouted out a greeting.  He said he was named Tharivol, and asked who he faced in battle.  Pomegranite gave his name, and asked why he'd not heard his name.  Tharivol replied that his kin were ashamed of him, and that he would earn renown in the wider world here, with Pomegranite's blood.  With that, he drew his blade, and strode forward, followed by his retinue.  Pomegranite, meanwhile, hung back while sending in his own advisors, and attempted to entrap one of Tharivol's men in an illusion of an endless maze, which sent him stumbling.

 

At first they clashed, until Tharivol sheathed his sword and then redrew it, the motion too fast to see.  Though it took them a moment to realize what had happened, the elf had somehow managed to strike Drirtollor, Sigillaria, and Berry.  Pomegranite attempted to use his magic to befuddle one of Tharivol's henchmen, a human carrying a giant shuriken, but he was hardly a Battle Magister, and the other man's will proved too strong.  Though they took up a defensive posture and attempted to stall, Drirtollor and Sigillaria were cut down by Tharivol, who then advanced on Pomegranite himself.

 

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 8: War With The Usurper

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 of Gebirg's Pass

In the hills north of Kaskorata, the joint army of the earthlings and Imperial College looked down from their camps on the far larger "Imperial Army" below.  The Magisters of the College were directed to prepare bombardment magics, which would be of great effect in the narrow passes they'd soon be fighting in.  The earthling efforts to spy on the Usurper's Army proved largely fruitless, which was to be expected; Ulrich had been the old spymaster after all.

At dawn, the forces marched toward into the passes, and battle was met.  The geography resulted in the Commanders being split off from each other, with Granmarg and Thicket taking one pass, and Mielikki and Pomegranite the other.  Other than fully routing the foe in the field, the deciding factor of the battle would be if an army could break through to the enemy camp.  From there, they would be able to march around and pincer the foe from behind, which would surely result in a massacre.

 

The night before, Thicket had ordered a contingent of earthlings to prepare a path underground by which they could perform a flanking maneuver, but for now he held his ground.  Granmarg ordered a charge, but the steep slopes and rough terrain led to his own troops falling and almost being trampled, keeping them stuck in place.  In the other pass, the Magisters in Mielikki's formation launched boulders over a cliff, crushing the soldiers commanded by the mysterious elf and forcing them into a rout. Seeing this, Dietrich's mercenaries balked at an order to charge into the earthling lines where more Magisters stood ready.

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.