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Curiously, Tharivol was absent, having been replaced by a red-headed Knight of the Blazing Sun, but the rest of the Imperial commanders, including Dietrich, who had been captured, were present.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.