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. 

 

Their one clue was that demons weakened over time spent in this reality.  In past Demonwars, one of the first actions the invading demons always took was the mass spreading of Bile, a sticky yellow goo that siphoned energies from their home reality into this one to sustain them.  Terra's intelligence was fairly unusual, as most demons had only an animal level of intelligence, but more human-level demons had been observed in the past, and were an even more serious threat.  The same was true of her earth magic.

 

Lastly, Terra probably wasn't a god.  Elves lived a very, very long time, and none had ever seen any compelling evidence for their existence.  Pomegranite was curious: why, then, did every other culture (excepting the perfidious dwarves, perhaps) have their own gods?  Uthemar replied that it was simply the mortal species trying to bring order to the chaos and mysteries of the world around them.  It was comforting to think that one could, in a way, abate a storm by making a sacrifice to Eros, God of Strife, for instance.

 

The same was true, he continued, of the College and their categorization of the Paths.  Though some alternate realities could certainly be said to exist and they effected the world in certain ways, there were many glaring contradictions between the theories behind how the Paths should work and how magic had been observed to function in reality.  For instance, the Path of Forging being only accessible to dwarves, or some people being able to access the sealed Forbidden Paths.  It was, at best, a flawed model, though if they stuck at it long enough, perhaps the College could discover the truth.

 

As for weaknesses, there was nothing consistent.  Demons were mortal and could be slain with sword or magic, with some individuals having weaknesses to one thing or another; between the earthlings and Theren, they ought to have a good chance against Terra or any other demon.  Lastly, Pomegranite heaved a sigh and asked how they could trust the dwarves.  Uthemar assured him that the dwarves were allies, not foes.  It was due to their strength at arms and courage that there was only a single Demongate remaining of the original six.  The desert in which they now lived formerly had lush vegetation, but the demons had ruined the land in the past Demonwars.

Raising an Army

Pomegranite rejoined the rest of the triumvirate on the road north, and they returned to the Highland Forests without incident.  They calmed the low-level panic that had set in after the horns had sounded, with many thinking the end times were upon them.  On the way back to Bedrock, they raised the troops that were immediately available into an army in case Terra was going to oppose them, while ordering for the remaining levies to head south for the border with the Dwarven Undersands.  Of note, there were many more insects than usual in their forests, and at one point they even spotted (gasp!) a squirrel.

 

Arriving in the capitol, they learned that their caution was for naught: Terra had left the capitol, alone, to (allegedly) go south and stop whatever had rent a tear in reality.  Her knowledge was perhaps disconcerting, but it also meant that the orders to raise their armies had been given before their arrival by none other than the newly appointed Supreme Commander Cliffside.  Mielikki immediately went to the portal to Terra's realm and questioned the guards.  Had any demons come through?  Had they seen any thick yellow goo flowing from it?

 

They reported nothing of note.  Only Terra had gone through the portal in their absence.  She had gone through a total of six times, and she had been observed leaving the portal afterwards each time.  The tunnel and complex had been busy, though, with many people coming to the holy site to pray.   With that confirmed, the triumvirate then went to meet with Cliffside, and found him and his council of supporters in a temporary war room that had been constructed in the mansion of Shrub, where he was staying.  He was giving orders, observing maps, and receiving logistics reports with a surprising amount of competence.  

 

Mielikki cleared his throat, and Cliffside turned, welcoming his uncle, Thicket, and the rest of the Triumvirate.  He quickly brought them up to speed: they had dispatched orders to raise levies to the various nobles around the Highland Forests, then head south to the border with the dwarves.  There had been no real problems, and everything was going smoothly.  The Triumvirate left him to it, attempting to gauge his capabilities.  They'd feared he would be grossly incompetent and had been plotting how to remove him, but if he could actually serve as Supreme Commander without being a hindrance, all the better!

 

Unfortunately, their assessment over the next few days was that Cliffside, though he was performing better than they thought, was still nowhere near good enough to replace them.  Importantly, he seemed to be taking this seriously, and willing to listen to reason.  Granmarg challenged him to a duel to see how he would fare on the front lines, and was surprised when the fledgling noble knocked him on his back with a flurry of swings with a greataxe.  It seemed that with a few campaigns under his belt, Cliffside might one day become a great general indeed!

 

First Contact

With the rest of their armies raised, the earthlings marched south toward the Dwarven Undersands.  Through messengers, they were made aware that the magisters of the College had already arrived in the desert, made contact with the dwarves, and informed them of the aid that was coming.  Due to proximity, the earthlings would be the second army to arrive, with Lumene and Tauschun not far behind.  On the march, Pomegranite had his agents observe the army to judge how serious the issue of Terra was becoming, and was dismayed to find that the consensus among their soldiers was that she was indeed their god.

 

As they wove their way out of the southern hills and into the desert, their advance scouts reported a wide trail of a sticky, yellow substance to their south: Bile.  It trailed off far to the desert in the west, and at its eastern end was a gargantuan horde of disgusting creatures that must be demons.  This force had managed to slip past whatever defenses the dwarves and the College had prepared, and had almost reached the borders of Halberst, which was now undefended.  Cliffside's first instinct was to regroup with the dwarves and College, but with some convincing from Mielikki and Thicket, it was decided to chase these demons down instead, and to stop them before they could pillage Halberst.

 

They began a rapid march, with the goal of passing the demons in the north and then cutting them off in the foothills at the border of Halberst, before they entered populated regions.  As they went, their scouts reported more strange sights.  "Rooted" in the Bile were towering, narrow "meat trees" that appeared to be made out of flesh, with leaves at the summit that resembled enormous human hands.  In the horde itself were numerous flying demons, which would easily hunt down Pomegranite's Bird if he tried to use it to inform Ulrich of what was happening; they'd have to hope he made the move to join with them independently.

 

Under Thicket's direction, the earthling terramorphers were collected into units to perform raids on the demon horde.  They moved quickly by riding the sand beneath their feet, flung boulders at the foe when they came in range, and then fled when the counterattacks came.  Any pursuers were then lured into prepared ambush sites with pit traps where mundane troops cut them down according to Mielikki's orders, while Granmarg fought at the front.

 

After successfully performing this ambush maneuver several times, however, the demons caught the earthlings with a trick of their own.  This time, when the terramorphers made to retreat, they found that their escape path was cut off by a wide track of Bile, which slowed them down and left them to be caught by their pursuers, which were led by a large quadruped demon that resembled a horse with a massive fist instead of a head.  Granmarg charged out to rescue the terramorphers, and duelled with the Fisthorse, which unfurled its fist-head to reveal a maw with a long, razor-sharp slashing tongue.

 

Their duel lasted only a few heartbeats before a lightning-fuelled punch sent the Fisthorse careening off into the demon swarm, blunting their charge.  The rest of the battle was over swiftly, with the terramorphers creating a slope too steep for (most) demons to climb as the earthlings mounted their retreat, and saw several hundred demons slain at the cost of only a handful of earthlings.  From this skirmish, they had learned several important things.  First, demons could be broken if their leaders were defeated.  Second, there was some sort of intelligence directing the demons, though whatever it was, the scouts never saw it.

 

Run To The Hills 

Messengers from Grand Magister Curzo finally caught up with the earthlings, and informed them that the army they were following was only one of many, the rest of which were still being contained underground by the combined efforts of the College and the dwarves.  They should be able to hold on their own for now, so it would be best if the earthlings could swiftly defeat these demons before heading back west to reinforce.

 

The next day, messengers from Lumene and Tauschun arrived, with both announcing that the armies of Edelina and Ulrich were approaching from the north and south.  Edelina, as Empress, had declared that regardless of what the earthlings did, she and Ulrich would be engaging the demons here, to block their advance.  At the rate the earthlings were moving, they would beat the demons into the foothills on the western border of Halberst, and between the three armies, they could put up a good fight in defensible terrain.  Even better, the numbers would be only slightly in the demons' favour.

 

At Cliffside's command, the earthling forces broke into a mad sprint, and the messengers were sent back to their respective leaders bearing word that the Highland Forests would join them in holding the demons here.  They won the race to the Brenther Foothills and began to hastily fortify the region against the coming demon swarm.  That night, all of the officers were assembled in Cliffside's command tent to discuss the coming battle, but one was absent.  He was finally found the next morning, his skull smashed open and the brain missing.  Thicket attributed this to "brain bugs".

 

Mielikki reached out to Ulrich and asked for any intelligence he had gathered on the demons.  While the spymaster said he knew nothing of the demons, he did have a list of promising junior officers in the earthling army they could use to pick out lower-level commanders.  Meanwhile, their scouts began to report that more demons were emerging from the Bile, and hatching from the vile "fruits" of the meat trees.  The numbers were turning against them, and soon the demons would have half-again their number.

 

Seeking to get the most out of their terramorphers and magisters, many of whom had never seen battle before, Granmarg went around and deliberately attached them to troop formations ahead of time so they could consult with more experienced officers, and instructed them on the signalling for barrages.  He then went on to lead a series of raids on the meat trees to slaughter as many of the unborn demons as he could.

 

Pomegranite meanwhile embedded himself with the scouts, and tried to find the true commander of the demons.  He was completely unsurprised when after several days of skulking about concealed by his Path of Secrets, he finally spotted a dwarf giving out orders on a distant hilltop.  Accompanying it were what looked to be the other demon leaders: the Fisthorse, a giant pair of eyes that used its optic nerves to walk around, and a ball of legs.

 

Notes:

Mielikki's player made a good point: Uthemar could just be racist.  He's thousands of years old, and it reasons that he would be quite conservative by modern standards.  Perhaps not all "demons" are Demons.

 

Granmarg: "He's Cliffside, just push him off a cliffside to his death, it's right there".

 

Cliffside has skill 10 at Defensive Strategy and Strategist, and a 12* in Fast Combat.  Mielikki has a 15 Aggressive Strategy, Thicket a 17 Strategist, and Granmarg an 18 Fast Combat.

 

*This number was told to the players after Granmarg crit-failed his roll to duel and gauge Cliffside's skill

 

Granmarg, when duelling with the Fisthorse: "You know what happens to a giant quadrupedal fist razor-tongue demon from god knows where when you strike it with lightning?  The same thing that happens to everyone else!" 

 

Whey did Ulrich have a bunch of intelligence on earthling junior commanders when they were allegedly allies?  Don't worry about it.