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.

Pomegranite dodged an inky black skeletal hand that Luana shot forth from the haft of the axe, then noticed something odd about the crown.  He determined from the structure of the diamond chains that it was bolstering her intelligence, but there was some other illusory effect going on that he was able to spot because the reflections weren't quite able to keep up with Luana's rapid movements and the rain.  Luana was tired, and so he took another moment to examine the scrollcase; a ruby cut into a heart shape suggested it was making her more hale.

 

After one last knife thrust at the crown that went wide, Pomegranite retreated from the duel, hoping he'd bought enough time for his troops to carry the battle.  Unfortunately, perhaps due to the benefit of the crown, Luana was clearly a superior commander, and what few earthlings survived fell back to the rear of their lines.  As they did, Pomegranite saw the dead, both human and earthling, rise to join Luana's ranks.

 

Thicket: God Of War?

Meanwhile, on the northern edge of the battlefield, Thicket executed a feigned retreat that drew Aginor and his men forward into a brutal ambush.  Thicket himself leapt out from behind a tree and his foe drew his rapier, though it was of little use, as he was stabbed in the side by a spike of stone that had been conjured behind him that knocked him down.  Aginor leapt to his feet, and waved his blade in the air, creating a plane of shimmering white and black energy at Thicket's chest level and then hurling it forward.

 

The earthling barely jumped out of the way before retaliating with another conjured spike of hardened earth that grievously wounded his foe, then slammed his foot into the ground, causing a minor earthquake.  Aginor fell, hit his head, and lost consciousness.  The rest of the ambush went even better for the earthlings, and Aginor's surviving troops were slaughtered to a man, with only some scant few of his personal guard escaping from the field with their commander's body.

 

Though Duccio's troops began marching towards Thicket's, Mielikki figured that the north was under control and charged south to aid the rest of his compatriots against the real threat: Luana.  He scattered some loose groups of Segretans on the way, then had his magisters bombarded Dina's reinforcements from the east, forcing them to retreat.

 

In the north, Thicket lured Duccio's advancing troops into another ambush.  The portly man had once been a High Magister of Prophecy, but with that Path now destroyed he wasn't much use in a duel.  Forgoing any sort of actual weapon, he tried repeatedly to bash Thicket over the head with his old focus, a mandolin.  As one might expect, it had no effect.  After suffering multiple blows from Thicket, Duccio dove for cover behind a nearby stone fence, trying his best to hide until his men could rescue him.

 

Thicket found him easily, and so Duccio rose to his feet and swung his mandolin again, this time aiming for the head, but it bounced harmlessly off of the earthling's wooden skin.  Duccio was caught from behind by a stone spike that had shot out of the earth, and he fell.  Despite this, the Segretans held their own in the wider battle, and it was the earthlings who were forced to retreat as fresh human reinforcements arrived from the west.

 

Granmarg's Gambit 

In the south, Granmarg's stragglers had regrouped, and charged back into Luana's forces again, with the two commanders meeting in single combat once more.  She swung her executioner's axe, casting forth the black skeletal hand as she had done before, but it missed Granmarg and instead hit a nearby barn, instantly rotting a wide section of the wall into a black sludge.  Granmarg stepped forward, lashing out at her crown with his enchanted fists, figuring it to be the source of the death magic, while Luana took a defensive posture.  Neither managed to land a blow on the other, but that was all according to plan.

 

While they were locked in their duel, Granmarg's lieutenants enacted a great stratagem.  The earthlings deliberately ceded ground to the Segretans, and once they had progressed far enough, they sprung their trap.  Taking inspiration from when Luana's buried undead had revealed themselves at the start of the battle, dozens of buried earthlings burst from the muddy ground and attacked the Segretan rear.

Luana broke off the duel and ordered a retreat, intervening personally wherever her troops were weakest, but without her to hold him at bay, Granmarg ran wild and slew hundreds of Segretans while the earthlings suffered minimal casualties.  Though it was a victory, they would be unable to savour it as Segretan archers fired volley after volley into the earthlings and Granmarg was forced into retreat.

 

 

Notes:

Granmarg's player missed a note a few months back.  He should have had much higher combat and strategy skill this whole time, which would likely have made quite a difference against Luana.

 

The special ability for Tricky generals now lets them move diagonally on the battle map.  Shouldn't be overpowered, and I like the idea that they're the only ones who can move in a totally different way. 

 

Thicket is, despite having the lowest combat skill, by far the most successful in duels as of this session.

 

Ambush hadn't been used prior to this session IIRC, but it seems very strong.  Not having movement is a big deal, though.