GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 48: The Influence of Death

Characters:

Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

NPC: Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate 

 

On The March

While Emperors Curzo and Edelina met to discuss overarching strategy, Thicket and Mielikki got to work sorting out refugees from the League who knew the terrain and press-ganged them into their army's scouts.  The Emperors then held a briefing to present their plans.  They would split their forces, with Baronde continuing to blockade the League's northern border, while the dwarves and earthlings would march east to reinforce the elves, and the armies of Lumene and the College would go west to aid Ulrich in Tauschun.  Wrost would be delayed due to their continued suppression of the uprisings in Baronde, and when they caught up they could reinforce the blockade along the northern border.

 

This would allow Emperor Uthemar to take command of his portion of the Empire in the east.  Further, it would concentrate their greatest armies in one point such that they could then sweep along the coast, starting with the city of Liguria before proceeding on to Segreta and then Torelli.  Pomegranite and Mielikki suggested they instead travel west with the dwarves.  The elves could hold their own and that way they could enact a pincer maneuver.  Secretly, they also wanted to keep the dwarves from speaking with the elves, as the latter would no doubt insist on killing the gods, while the earthlings (or at least Mielikki) were coming to think they might need to ally with Mindartis to stop the Void Beast.  Given Somnus and Mindartis shared the same surname, it was reasonable to assume he would get involved.

 

Curzo was willing to listen to them, as they were the only ones present who had fought the undead during their last appearance under Luana when she had been possessed.  As such, he asked their opinion on whether it was even possible to divide their attention in such a way.  Mielikki informed the assembled leaders that the undead needed to be controlled to be effective, and last time they had all ceased to animate upon the destruction of Luana's crown.  This suggested that they could split their attention, as the necromancer could only be in one place at any given time.

 

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 47: The Traitors' Due

Characters:

Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

NPC: Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate 

 

Escape

Shudderblight stood in Thicket's way while Friedrich and Drirtollor ran away into the night.  Thicket used his signature earth spike spell to impale his former advisor, who in turn blew a poison cloud at the soldier accompanying Thicket, who collapsed, foaming at the mouth.  Shudderblight did his best to defend himself, but was no match for Thicket, and soon collapsed from his wounds.  Still, he had done his job.  The High Priest had escaped.

 

Back in the war room, Mielikki and Granmarg discussed what to do with the surviving rebels.  Seeing as the offer of exile in exchange for surrender was declined, they now had to follow through with something more severe.  They quickly settled on execution.  Pomegranite finally finished with fighting off the barracks of soldiers he'd wandered into and returned around the same time as Thicket, who was carrying Shudderblight.  They, too, agreed with execution of the traitors, and so Mielikki hefted his headsman's axe.  The beheadings that followed would see them each lose one of their closest advisors, as well as the Marshal, the ranking priest of Sappington, and Chancellor Primrose's nephew. 

 
When it came to pursuing Friedrich Quarry, Thicket had a few ideas of where he could go next.  Either to Edelina in Lumene, claiming sanctuary in a remote monastery, or the other major earthling city, Granitehearth.  Of those, Lumene was the most likely in his mind, but they would be traveling in winter, and neither Friedrich nor Drirtollor were used to such rough travel.  With any luck, they might just die somewhere on the journey.  For now, though, the Triumvirate would have to return to Bedrock with the army, as it was only through his own mastery of logistics and Mielikki's capacity for command that they had been able to launch this winter campaign at all.  Pomegranite sent Bird ahead to inform his spy network of Friedrich's likely path.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 46: The War Room Massacre

Characters:

Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

NPC: Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate 

 

Tea Party

Pomegranite followed Sigillaria into the personal chambers of Chancellor Primrose.  They walked around a moonlit courtyard that was underneath a thin layer of snow to a sitting room lit by flickering candlelight.  The Chancellor was waiting, and had a cup of root tea in her hands.  With some surprise, she greeted the Treefallen by his proper title, and remarked that she was apparently so uninformed that she'd not even learned that the city had fallen.

 

He corrected her: the city hadn't fallen, and he was here in the hopes that such indiscriminate violence could be avoided.  Further, he hoped they could work together to rid Sappington of the ne'er-do-wells that had taken up residence recently.  Primrose responded by asking how long exactly Pomegranite had been a priest.  He was initially confused, as he expected someone who knew his face to also know his secular College background, then realized what she was getting at.  Sentencing High Priest Friedrich Quarry to death for his actions was going beyond their remit, and clearly in her eyes, the responsibility of determining the natures of gods and demons belonged with the temples.

 

In turn, Pomegranite pointed out that the city was surrounded, and she was, for the moment, implicated with the High Priest's rebels.  Primrose took a sip of her tea.  The two then had a polite conversation over tea.  While doubling down on the claim that the gods were demons, Pomegranite learned that Primrose was clearly sympathetic to Friedrich, and had given him sanctuary because she herself believed in syncretizing the earthling and Imperial faiths.  She also clearly resented the Triumvirate for leaving herself (and presumably, other provincial leaders) out of the rather important decisions they were making.

 

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 45: Schism

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

 

Sunset

Astraeus breathed out another cone of flame, knocking Garmnrag over, and then followed up with a savage series of kicks that battered his prone form until he was unconscious.  Thicket was also set alight, then hit by a concentrated sunbeam shortly, and fell, unmoving.  A kick that feinted low before rising to his jawline felled Smugbrush.  For all that, more earthlings, now including Mielikki and Pomegranite, rushed in as reinforcements, and they still had more in reserve.

 

With Morkral leading by example, the rest of the earthlings continued to wear down Astraeus, their blows gouging dents into the god's golden body.  Astraeus spun and attempted a knee-strike at the dwarf, but Morkral deflected it with his shields and pushed him off-balance.  Groutite rushed up and slashed twice with his zweihander, severing the gods' neck and finally killing him.  They then smashed the body until nothing remained but some traces of gold dust.

 

Now, though, they had a political problem. Terra's assassination had occurred in secret, and Baelynna had not been accepted as a god by anyone outside of Halberst, but Astraeus had the backing of the Imperial Faith and the assembled armies of the Highland Forests and the dwarves had seen him slain.  While many earthlings no doubt believed that Astraeus was a lesser deity and that Terra was supreme among the pantheon, it wasn't an overwhelming majority.  Worse still, High Priest Friedrich Quarry had all-but adopted the Imperial Faith, along with its doctrine of Astraean Supremacy.  Word of this would reach the populace and worse, Edelina in Lumene.

 

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 44: Astraeus, God of the Sun and Animals

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

 

Twin Flames

Pomegranite used his Path of Secrets to lure Astraeus into a trap with illusions, but his reactions were strange.  Visual illusions didn't seem to work on the god at all, while tactile illusions stopped working after initial success.  It took the two in combination to finally trick him into a cave, away from the flammable forest.  Granmarg, Thicket, Morkral, and some of their advisors followed him in.  Astraeus came to a halt and spun around, asking who they were.  Granmarg started to say that he was here to put him under, and was then interrupted as the god breathed a plume of dragon's fire.

 

Everyone dove out of the way, just as a second jet of white flame shot out, also centered on Granmarg.  In response, Granmarg charged in, and launched a flurry of punches.  Astraeus expertly parried several of the blows with his bare hands, but the last made it through.  A clang resounded through the cave as Granmarg's stone fist deflected off the god's golden body.  Thicket realized that Astraeus' golden body was a similar (and superior) magic to the reinforced stone the earthlings used to enhance their armour and weapons.

 

Thicket followed Granmarg, trying to keep the Astraeus penned in, but the god retaliated by spinning on the spot and bludgeoning him with a dozen rapid blows that overwhelmed his defenses, and then continued by shooting a beam of pale fire behind himself at Granmarg.  The others did their best to crowd in around Astraeus, but he proved nimble and evaded them, bouncing from foe to foe, firing beams of alternating gold and pale flame at all those around him.  He would before always eventually return to pummeling Granmarg with a strange martial art involving rapid strikes with his fists, elbows, forearms, and knees.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 43: Forest Fire

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

 

Anticlimax

Mielikki tried to stop the fighting, while Mindartis turned and zapped Morkral in the back with a bolt of lightning.  In retaliation, King Barrend swung his poleaxe and gouged a chunk out of the prismatic god's thigh.  Felix imbued his sword with magic, and the blade melted away as pure energy took its place.  Realizing that they knew how to get through his defenses, Mindartis flew up and well out of reach.

 

Granmarg had other ideas, and, in a flash of lightning, jumped thirty feet into the air, then grabbed Mindartis in a ring of electricity.  The plan was for this to drag him back down when Granmarg fell, but instead, Mindartis snapped his fingers and the ring, as well as the rest of Granmarg's magic, dissipated.  Felosial the elf shouted something in elvish, and apparently it was insulting enough that Mindartis turned and focused his spells on her, while she acrobatically dodged out of the way.

 

Again, Mielikki insisted that they listen to him.  With Eva dead, they would be unlikely to stop the Void Beast, but Mindartis, as God of Magic and the Void, could help.  They needed to cooperate now, regardless of anything that had happened in the past.  Rather surprisingly, most of those present were swayed.  Hans Hessen sighed and agreed, followed by Rada, who shouldered his hammer.  Felix, only a youth, deferred to his elders, and his sword of light flickered and dissipated.  Barrend and Morkral got into a shouting match in dwarvish.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 42: Blood and The Void

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

 

Goddess of Blood

Baelynna swung her dozen swords at Theren in rapid succession while he observed her technique while nimbly deflecting all of her strikes.  He noticed that her many-jointed arms were made of liquid blood, but the joints themselves partially solidified the moment before she struck.  Curzo and Ulrich attacked while she was distracted, casting a barrage of dozens of magic missiles and flinging a weighted wooden scroll at her, but all of the projectiles harmlessly passed through her body.  In return, Baelynna turned and flung a gobbet of blood at Curzo.  The projectile crystalized midair into a cluster of daggers that gouged into his chest and then melted away.

 

While he was still reeling from the new holes in his torso, Baelynna held out two of her hands and squeezed them together, as though she were wringing out a cloth.  This spell caused Curzo's blood to erupt from his wounds, mouth, and eyes.  Theren forced her attention back to him with his own flurry of strikes which failed to wound but drove her further back and onto the dais of her throne.  As she moved, two of her arms swung out at Pomegranite, and he moved to block with his knives.  He had fallen for her feint, and realized too late that the true attack was from the tangle of shortswords she had instead of hair, which cut through his stone armour and deep into his skull.

 

As Pomegranite retreated clutching his temple, Halimath leapt forward into the gap to keep up the pressure.  Aginor cast a cloud of void magic that caught Baelynna by surprise, and in her haste to avoid it she fell over, then scrambled back to her feet, spinning wildly and striking at all those around her in a storm of blades.  Between all these acrobatics, she was left off-balance, which left her unable to defend against Theren.  He leaned down and struck with his sword, severing one of Baelynna's feet at the ankle, which splattered onto the stone when it landed.  She tumbled to the floor, then propped herself up on her many arms like a bladed spider.