Characters:
Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster
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.
The stars going out was news to them, and implied that either the College didn't know or hadn't told them, both of which were concerning. Despite all this, Thicket urged for no action to be taken, as this was a test from Terra, and the great volcano that would scourge the earth clean would probably form in another province of unbelievers anyway. While the Triumvirate continued to debate, the High Priest took his leave, and a second, traditionalist priest of a lower office came into the council chamber.
The priest, Wildberrybrush, had been selected by Mielikki and Thicket to report on goings on within the Terran faith, as, in their opinion, Friedrich Quarry could not be trusted given his radical nature. It turned out that the High Priest had indeed held back knowledge of a growing schism in the faith on the subject of whether the earthquake and destruction of their greatest temple was a sign of losing Terra's faith, and if so, what to do about it.
There were three broad factions. The Pathists were moderates, with several magisters among their number, who had independently arrived at the conclusions of the College that this was likely due to the energies from the Path of Prophecy being destroyed. The Terrans, the largest faction, were traditionalists who believed this was due to the increasing tolerance of humans and their religion which had angered Terra. Lastly were the Minervans, the smallest faction who were buoyed almost entirely by the High Priest's own influence, who believed they had lost the gods' favour due to favouring Terra when in fact Astraeus was the true prime deity, and that they should merge with the Imperial Faith.
Granmarg considered this a serious threat, but obviously just getting rid of Friedrich wasn't possible; Mielikki joked that maybe could hold the games again. Pomegranite suggested that they create a new holiday and back Wildberrybrush's conservative faction. Mielikki longingly mused that it would be so much easier if they they could just assassinate Friedrich instead, while Thicket cautioned against rash action and proposed letting things play out. Granmarg suggested having a frank conversation where they could threaten and/or bribe him into silence.
They continued coming up with various ideas until Thicket put forth the idea of asking the dwarves for help in assessing the shifting earth under the ruins of the Mountain's Maw, which almost caused a fistfight to break out between himself and Pomegranite. Once everyone had calmed down, Mielikki went back to Pomegranite's initial concept of backing Wildberrybrush and the Terrans. Thicket was on board, of course, and that was enough to carry it.
Next, they all agreed to rebuild a new "temporary" temple complex by seizing some of the commons on the other side of Bedrock, far away from the Mountain's Maw and any further possible earthquakes... assuming the Pathists and College were correct and it wasn't the wrath of the god(s). For good measure, they arranged to give the construction contracts to guilds whose masters were affiliated with the Terrans in what was definitely not corruption.
The Nobles
The next supplicant was Shrub, a diminutive tree-woman who was self-designated representative of the noble land-owners, and one who they knew was associated with the monarchist faction. She had several requests, the first of which was gravely important: what sort of ball would they like to be held in honour of their successful conquests in the south? Granmarg rolled his eyes, already begrudging the socializing his role as Champion was going to require of him.
Pomegranite and Thicket took charge, the former suggesting that they have a miniature version of the Games to entertain children and serve as education on the worth of the meritocracy, while the latter wanted a rockshrub eating contest to show off the kind of abundance they'd have in the future once agriculture in Socerne and Frilothurn bore fruit. Mielikki said that he would arrange to have the Dukes in the new lands attend, while Granmarg would have to correspond with the College to see if any of the High Magisters wished to attend.
Smiling and nodding, Shrub moved onto the second item on her list: rockflower harvests were down this year, especially in the north, and the owners of the rockvineyards were requesting that the Triumvirate dispatch terramorphers to investigate. This presented a problem, as between those that had been sent to aid the College and those working on the Mountain's Maw, there were no more terramorphers under their command.
They could send those consigned to the military, but then they'd have none if they went on campaign in the coming spring. Pomegranite insisted that this could be the work of the dwarves, and so they had to send someone. Shrub was no help, agreeing with him and exacerbating his paranoid concerns. After a bit of back and forth over the necessity of the work at the Mountain's Maw, the Triumvirate agreed to call in personal favours to have some qualified terramorphers who currently did not hold office to travel to the north.
The third and final item on the agenda was the matter of the Games. In the last round, many of those who gained office were the lessers of society, while those who should rightfully have been elevated to positions of power were denied through bribery. The blame, obviously, fell mostly to Cliffsedge, though his replacement Bankside was little better. Shrub, and the rest of the nobility, sought assurance and reforms from the Triumvirate that would prevent this from happening in the future. Without waiting for a response, she gave a bow and left. Figuring that rigging the Games so hard that only nobles could win would probably give valid evidence to the people accusing them of rigging the Games, the Triumvirate unanimously decided to do nothing.
The Guilds
The last meeting of the day was with Flint, a jagged-edged rockman who was the mayor of Bedrock. The mayoral seat was always given to whoever ran the most profitable business, and was publicly known to be unimaginably corrupt; the fact that Flint had won it twice in a row was perhaps a moral condemnation. He was here to complain about the reformers, who were causing him headaches, and were likely to rig things in favour of one of their own when the time came.
It would be better for everyone if he kept his seat, and so he asked to be cut in to the spy network operating in Bedrock so that he could learn who to keep and eye on and undermine their dealings. Ideally, they'd also give him some political wins so he could win favour with his peers; reduced taxation and tithes for certain guilds would do nicely. The Triumvirate realized that these measures would, naturally, also make Flint quite wealthy. They were all onboard, though rather than reduced tax, they'd give the construction contracts to guilds that were supporting Flint, which he accepted graciously.
The Sucker
The day was almost over when one last supplicant slammed open the doors to the council chamber; it was Cliffside, Thickets nephew and the candidate they were supposedly backing for the imperial throne. Apparently he was going to be the Emperor? Why had nobody told him? What was going on? Granmarg rather bluntly told him that they "aren't doing that anymore" while waving him away, with the rest more or less echoing his sentiment (Mielikki: "That was 4 sessions ago man, keep up").
Schemes
Until the Ball of Triumph, the Triumvirate were free to do as they chose. In the face of a possible famine (or at least a rockflower shortage), Pomegranite worked with Petra to organize the rapid terramorphing of the new lands in Frilothurn bordering the Dwarven Undersands to begin agriculture immediately. Conveniently, this would also to establish a population that could guard against any dwarven incursions. Thicket, meanwhile, tripled down on his support for the Terran faction in the temples, "kissing babies, swinging censors, that kind of thing".
Granmarg attempted to take advantage of the chaos to shore up his own position in earthling society, but his strengths were in battle, not the backrooms of Bedrock, and none of his efforts bore fruit. Lastly, Mielikki bribed town criers to spread word of the land that had been given to the soldiers who had fought in the wars to the south, so that they might have more volunteers the next time they invaded another province.
At last, the day of the Ball arrived, and all of those who held offices in the meritocracy came, as well as the local earthling nobility and the Dukes Muller and Bachofen. Of the humans, Muller stayed long into the night, rubbing elbows with other important people, while Bachofen was quiet and left soon after arriving. Thicket competed in the eating contest he'd arranged, and though he didn't win, he was at least able to keep the rockshrub down and didn't embarrass himself when he went dancing later in the evening.
Mielikki went around to the noble reformers and made promises of undoing the corruption that had emerged after the last Games, while Pomegranite listened in on their chatter, and overheard some strange rumours. Apparently the monarchists were talking of supporting Cliffside. Unaware of their biases as believers in the meritocracy, it seemed that this idea came from the notion that he must have been greatly capable if he had been declared a candidate for Emperor.
The Wurm
Shortly after, before the spring thaw, messengers arrived from the west bringing dire news of a dread wurm having descended from the mountains. The wurm was a rare beast, its tubular body around 40 foot long and 20 foot wide, it used its enormous maw of razor-sharp teeth to tear through earth and stone while also capable of using its powerful arms and legs to travel on the surface. With a hide of stone and the ability vomit magma, it was a truly terrifying foe that typically took many dozens of earthlings to fell.
They set out at once with their personal retinues and arrived after ten days, discovering once there that the nobles to the north had sallied out with their own forces and been slaughtered to the man. Lacking a proper army, Thicket was dispatched to find an appropriate place to battle the wurm and found a 30 foot cliff into a narrow gap close to the rockflower vineyard it was currently rampaging through. Granmarg offered to act as bait, and the rest of the earthlings headed down to await the beast's fall and prepare spikes for it to land on.
Granmarg hollered and waved around a bundle of rockflower, attracting the wurm's attention, and then ran over to the edge of the cliff. At the last moment, he dodged aside, and the wurm went tumbling over the edge before slamming into the ground and impaling itself on spikes. It let out a roar of agony and righted itself just in time for Granmarg to land on it, having jumped from above, severing its tail with a plunging attack before rolling off of its body and onto his feet.
The wurm reached out and grappled Granmarg with one of its arms, then ran up to trample Pomegranite, who was the closest, but he just barely managed to leap out of the way. Thicket and Mielikki sprang from where they'd been hiding and struck the beast, but its rocky hide protected it, deflecting the spikes of stone and Mielikki's tree-trunk hammer. In response, it then vomited up a ball of magma at the pair of them, and they both leapt aside, avoiding the lava but landing prone in the process.
Granmarg spun around in the creature's grasp and pounded its hand with both of his fists, the lightning causing its limbs to spasm, freeing him. Pomegranite plunged his knives into its hide, and the wurm ran full-out over Mielikki and Thicket, its massive limbs forcing them into the hard earth as the stone and wood of their flesh shattered. Wincing, Mielikki struggled to his feet.
Notes:
New tiebreaker procedure: Pomegranite's vote doesn't count. This makes the most sense in-universe, as he's an advisor rather than a member of the Triumvirate, but I'm open to changing this in the future if it makes things boring for his player.
Something of note is that earthlings have not been to war in living memory, so the roles of the Champion and Field Marshal had become increasingly ceremonial until the new wars of the present day.
Granmarg tied his opposition in his attempt to gain power, forcing a reroll which resulted in me rolling a 4 for his opposition. RIP.
The wurm is best described as "what if a sandworm from Dune was smaller, but was made of stone and had arms and legs".
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