GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 53: Path of Creation

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 

 

Preparations

The Triumvirate returned to the Highland Forests, but while the army continued home, they stopped in Socerne and Frilothurn to see the ongoing terramorphing and wait for the elves.  It was several weeks before the exhausted elven refugees arrived, and though there were only several hundred, they were accompanied by scores of animals of all kinds.  Mielikki did his best to conceal his distaste for the beasts while observing the elves, and realized that none bore any reflective items.  Likely in response to Consus and his ability to appear in mirrors.

 

After some quick discussion, it was decided that they would settle in the rural northeast.  As they did not need to eat, they would only minimally disrupt the earthlings in the region.  As Triumvirate Emperor, Uthemar could also have just ordered them to accept this, but deliberately eschewed use of his authority.  While they were getting settled, Pomegranite approached him and broached the subject of using the portal to the Path of Earth under Bedrock for the purpose of combating the Void Beast.

 

Considering their High Priest was currently indisposed and that the remaining priesthood tended to be more conservative, Uthemar noted that it might be difficult to get broader approval for such action, and decided that he should be the only non-earthling to enter initially.  When these intentions were made public, Thicket insisted that this was overstepping his authority, and required that Uthemar get the other two Triumvirate Emperors' approval.  Mielikki chimed in to request assistance from elves in exchange; those who knew about animals were to help bring back the hawk population that had collapsed in Socerne.

 

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 52: The Liberation of Segreta

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

Pomegranite came up with an excuse to separate Barbena from the rest; he wanted a dwarf to take a closer look at the stone of the step pyramid.  He extended his cloak of Secrets to cover her as well, and the two returned to the base of the structure, where instead he asked her what she really knew about this place.  She was still evasive, but admitted that, though she had never been here, the stonework appeared to be dwarven.

 

They returned, and Mielikki suggested they go back into the labyrinth and search for a way to drop the obelisk hanging from the ceiling.  It should land directly on the sarcophagus, killing the necromancer and avoiding a difficult and lengthy battle.  The others disagreed, and so they walked toward the step pyramid.  When they reached the top of the first tier, they were blinded by a green flash, followed by a peal of thunder.  They exchanged glances, Pomegranite remarked "Business as usual", and they continued up.

 

At the summit of the pyramid, they found that the sarcophagus was gone, and in its place was a smouldering hole.  Garmnrag was chosen to step up to the edge and take a look, and he reported that it was pure black inside the pyramid.  They tossed in a torch and it dropped, then bounced off of something invisible and halted.  It took a moment to realize that this must be the same stone as the light-absorbing obelisk above the pyramid.  After finding some rope, Garmnrag was lowered in, and purely by touch confirmed that this was just a rough hole.  There was no hidden chamber he could find.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 51: The Labyrinth

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 

 

Charge!

The necromancer's puppet, this time some sort of craftswoman, was in much less ornate garb than usual, though still covered in caked-on makeup to hide the decay.  Mielikki and his champions charged forward, nimbly dodging all of her spells, though Smugbrush's wrist was grabbed by her rotting hand and he could feel his life force drain away.  With a mighty swing of the flat of his Sea Sword, Mielikki bent the undead's arm back at an unnatural angle, freeing his companion, who then followed up with a thrust from his spear.

 

The puppet grasped Mielikki's neck, but was beheaded by Felix before it could begin to strangle him.  With their commander disposed for the moment, the undead hordes were driven back again, all the way back into the great stairwell that led down into the darkness of the Labyrinth.  Granmarg's forces rushed up to reinforce them, while across the river, Pomegranite made his play.  The temporary bridge bridge they had secretly prepared was deployed, and they crossed the river unopposed.  Thicket fell back from the north to follow Pomegranite.

 

The three commanders descended into the Labyrinth, while Thicket took over the combined army to hold the entrance with Curzo, Morkral, and Barrend so more undead couldn't follow.  At the same time, the necromancer's most recent puppet stopped moving, leaving the elven ghost as the only enemy commander on the surface.  For the next while, wave after wave of undead crashed into them, while the ghost took its time to fly in, wear them down with repeated blasts of ocean water and green lightning, and then retreat before they could retaliate.  Undead died by the hundreds, but under the ghost's assaults, Thicket fell and had to be carried from the field, leaving the dwarves and Curzo to assume command.

 

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 50: Bridgecrossings

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 

 

Segreta

Curzo, Pomegranite, and Ulrich worked in concert to cast a large illusion that could be triggered at any point to "summon" a pride of lions, which would disrupt the undead when they appeared.  The other earthlings continued with their earlier preparations until they were done as more and more undead poured out of the Labyrinth.  They were already going to be in a losing battle if it came to attrition, so better to take to the field as soon as possible.

 

After their allies' retreat in the face of the unnatural lightning storm days earlier, they first had to cross the River Fiume.  Fortunately, there were a multitude of crossings, so they could pick their battles quite effectively.  Mielikki and Granmarg took the southern flank with intent to charge forward while Thicket held firm on the bank of the north bridge.  Pomegranite had a trick up his sleeve and would move up the center, where there was as yet no crossing.

 

The ghost soared across the northern bridge and tore into Thicket's west-most formation, ripping open a breach for the undead horde to flow into.  To the south, the undead advanced more evenly, and Mielikki charged to confront them while Granmarg held his flank.  Another clearly self-aware undead in nobles' clothes met Mielikki and his escort on the field and mockingly wondered aloud why they had declined to pursue negotiations.  Up close, it was clear that makeup and perfumes had been caked on to obscured the fact that this body was dead and rotting.  He pointed a finger at Mielikki accusatorily and a disembodied purple hand shot forth.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 49: Negotiations

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 

 

Torelli

There were no traces of whoever (or whatever) had broken into their tents to steal the artifacts.  From that point on, Pomegranite would ward all their tents to alarm if someone entered.  They made it to Torelli without further issue, and found it in ruin.  The great spires had tumbled and broken under the tidal wave, and a layer of silt still lingered over the countryside.  More undead worked within, but again, none came out to confront them.  While they planned their assault, a messenger arrived from the east bearing word from Emperor Uthemar.

 

The eastern force had taken the city of Liguria without encountering the necromancer controlling the undead, and had taken light casualties, but those who were wounded did not recover as they should have.  As the western force had seen, the undead only attacked when one got very close and were not guided by any kind of intelligence.  They had been concentrated in the Labyrinth and judging by their clothes, some were raised from the dead recently.  If they had been working toward some greater task was unclear.  As the necromancer was not in the east, they warned that they may be in the west.  As a final note, Luana had arrived in the Elven Forest, and then continued on to Baronde.  None of the other leadership of the League had been found.

 

The scouts returned and reported that, unlike last time, the undead were not digging a hole.  Many of the undead seemed "fresh", their flesh intact and clothes only just beginning to rot.  Of note, there were sounds of conflicts with some sort of animals around one noble estate on the outskirts.  The Triumvirate went to investigate, luring zombies away from whatever these animals were, and found a pride of lions in a menagerie.  Their cages looked to have been pried open by the undead, which the lions had then dismembered, allowing them to roam.

 

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.