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.

 

Planning 

As they came into sight of the capitol, they started preparing battle plans in earnest.  First, they would have to ford the river north of the city, which sat on a lake to the south.  In his retreat, Ulrich had destroyed all of the larger bridges to stop his foes from pursuing him, but it now meant there was no easy way for them to cross back over.  Thicket and the other terramorphers had confidence they could conjure a wide bridge from the earth using their magics.  Next, Ulrich and the rest of his cohort were rather insistent that they seek a decisive battle on the fields outside Kaskorata; if they razed the imperial capitol, the people would flee and they would be handing the province to the Changed.

 

They would have to lure Luana out somehow, but this could prove tricky.  She was College-educated, and had received tutelage on strategy from her father, the old Emperor, which had made her a surprisingly savvy opponent.  Ulrich's suggestion was to skirt around the army of the Changed, which had done as they feared and was marching toward the city.  They would cross the river in the northern hills, where they would not be under threat of Luana attacking, while creating an illusion of an army crossing closer to the city to draw her troops out onto the floodplain.  

 

There was an obvious risk, however: as Luana was a magister of the Path of the Moon, which was devoted to the purpose of revealing truth, there was a good chance that she would see through the illusion.  Thicket suggested they could get around this by using a real diversionary army instead, and Reinhardt, the captain of the Knights of the Blazing Sun, volunteered.  As elite heavy cavalry, he was confident they could outrun most of the Segretans, and hold their own against any who caught them.  

 

Mielikki had a different idea, suggesting they bait the Changed across the river in the north with troops disguised as Segretans.  When the Changed crossed, this would lure Luana out of the city to attack them while they were mid-crossing and with their backs to a river.  Once the Segretans were on the floodplains, the earthlings could cross further south and charge them on the flank.  He also suggested they send scouts into Kaskorata itself, but Ulrich counselled against this.  There were many secret passages in and out of the city that he knew from his time as spymaster, but Luana had grown up in the city and knew them just as well.  If their scouts were captured, they could be confident she would learn of their plans.

 

Crossing 

Strategy was debated for a time until consensus was achieved and they went with a combined plan of baiting the Changed across the river with the Knights of the Blazing Sun a slight distance to the north.  When Luana moved to engage, the earthlings and Ulrich would cross and hit them in the flank.  The first several steps went off without a hitch, though they lost sight of the Knights as the Segretans engaged the Changed.  Thicket raised the second earth bridge across the river and their armies surged forward, when an army of corpses suddenly rose up out of the fields in front of them.

Luana had evidently seen through their plan, and she was no longer outnumbered.  Still, the knowledge they had gained from Ulrich's spy network buoyed their confidence.  The triumvirate knew all they could about Luana and her commanders, and had agents and assassins who would disrupt Segretan orders on their command.  Ulrich had also provided Thicket with accurate maps of the region, which he had used to drill their army's officers on tactics.  Lastly, their terramorphers had strengthened their weapons with hardened stone and stood ready to bombard enemy positions.

 

Notes:

Granmarg jokingly suggested they try luring the Void Beast to eat the Path of Change, and hopefully getting rid of Clio in the process.  They'd also have to direct it to the Forbidden Path of Creation, though, and that would require it to go through, at minimum, the Path of Animals and the Path of the Sun as well.  The plan is shelved for now.

 

The players (mostly Mielikki's) were kinda surprised they kept winning the diplomacy phase to negotiate at the end of battles.  Well, this session they learned that the highest diplomacy skill Tauschun had were Dietrich and Tharivol, who both only had 12.

 

New theory: the dwarves are evil, and the demons are actually good and trying to stop them!

 

At one point, Granmarg took Thicket aside to discuss secret things, and I went with them to know what secret plots negotiations they were doing.  Sure, they're the two PCs with the Mark of Clio, but I'm sure it's coincidence.