Characters:
Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster
Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Cleaning Up
The earthlings drove off the last of the demons, and though Pomegranite fought with the Eyes Demon, he was turned to stone by its eye beams and it managed to flee with the rest of the stragglers before he recovered. Good news came from their flanks as well, with the armies from Tauschun and Lumene also emerging victorious. Empress Edelina ordered Ulrich's forces to deal with the Bile and to watch for further incursions while her army and the earthlings were freed to march back to their initial destination in the Dwarven Undersands.
Pomegranite asked if anyone else had seen the demon dwarf commander, which was obvious evidence of dwarven perfidy, but only Granmarg had, and he reasoned that it was just one of the shapeshifters they'd heard about. Furious that nobody would recognize that the dwarves were behind this, Pomegranite stormed off.
Granmarg went to ask The Young Heron where his sword came from, and was shocked when he replied that it was the first sword ever forged. It was cursed, and would corrupt almost any who tried to wield it into mindless murder, as had happened to Tharivol. Granmarg asked if he could find an equally potent weapon, but was brushed off and told that the weapon did not matter, only the wielder. This was confusing to Granmarg, as just prior to this battle, the Young Heron had said that if he fell, Granmarg was to take his sword and use it to slay Terra.
Yes, the Young Heron replied, but not because it would be of particular use against Terra. The First Sword was a potent artifact, but more importantly, Granmarg was the best candidate to wield it without being driven mad. Annoyed that he had been misled and did not have easy access to a godslaying weapon, Granmarg acknowledged the severity of the First Sword's curse and left the Young Heron in his tent.
Meanwhile, Mielikki and Cliffside coordinated a search for the demon dwarf's body to have some evidence, and Granmarg soon joined the effort. Eventually they found the body, though it had been severely damaged after being trampled underfoot by multiple entire formations of troops earlier in the day. It was oozing yellow-green "blood" from the many wounds, but as earthlings had sap for blood, they were rather open-minded about this.
More noteworthy was that all the (remaining) limbs were stretchy and loose, about 6 feet long when fully extended. The torso and neck were similar, though they didn't stretch as far. Safely away from Pomegranite's biases, Mielikki and Granmarg reasoned that this was indeed some odd kind of demon that only looked like a dwarf. If every dwarf had stretchy limbs, why would they all hide that fact? At most, this was some uniquely weird magically modified dwarf. For now, though, they would hold onto the body.
The Desert
After a week of marching west into the desert, the combined earthling and Lumenian armies were greeted by a delegation of dwarven soldiers escorting a diplomat: Vondal of the Tongs Clan, Mielikki's old friend. He invited them down into the Karaz Tonkor, stronghold of the Tongs Clan, where the delegation from the College and Barrend, King of the Dwarves, had already set up their war council. The dwarves led them a short distance before one of them, clearly a magister, raised his arms and the dunes parted, revealing a straight stone staircase that went down through a valley to a great hundred-foot high gate that was easily wide enough to march an army through.
They proceeded further down to the fortress-city proper, which had an enormous vaulted ceiling high overhead and was lit almost as bright as day by hundreds of strangely bright lamps. Much of the city was empty of life, and barracks had already been prepared for the armies. It was all as Mielikki remembered it from his time there; every fortress-city had the capacity to house the entirety of the dwarven population and could serve as a final citadel, which left them largely empty.
Karaz Tonkor
Mielikki and Vondal caught up as they marched until they arrived at the war council, where only the Triumvirate, Edelina, her advisors, and the Young Heron were granted entry. Within was Grand Magister Curzo and his attendants, as well as King Barrend of the dwarves and his brother Prince Morkral. The King greeted them rather brusquely in a way that implied that if everyone had just gone along with what the dwarves wanted at the Great Council all those years ago that this might have been avoided entirely, then informed them on the course of the Demon War.
The first line of fortress cities still held firm with no gains from the demons, and now that reinforcements had arrived it was time to go on the offensive. There was the matter of the hordes that broke through to the surface to deal with, and how they had done so was still a mystery. It was generally believed that they had somehow tunnelled up, and as the earthlings had the greatest terramorphers, Barrend suggested they go back to the surface, find the tunnel, and close it. Thicket claimed that they would be able to accomplish this, but opined that surely the dwarves had the expertise to do so themselves.
Barrend claimed that the dwarves were already spread thin, and that while they likely could find the tunnel with their magisters, the earthling terramorphers were as good or better. Granmarg was suspicious of this flattery, wondering if this was a suicide mission they were agreeing to, but the King seemed sincere. Throughout the conversation that followed, Granmarg repeatedly mentioned that the dwarves had refused to speak to anyone else, which might have ended the succession war much sooner, but they always deflected. Yes, it had been a foolish wish, but they respected the Emperor and had gone along with it anyway.
Mielikki decided to put his recent doctrinal innovations on cooperation between provincial armies into practice and requested reinforcements from the College for their mission. While this was rather at odds with dwarven strategies of putting the right specialization exactly where they were needed, they eventually conceded and a court of war magisters would accompany the earthlings to the surface. Lastly, Granmarg mentioned the demonic "dwarf" they had fought, though he pretended that the body had been destroyed. The dwarves replied that it was likely a shapeshifting demon of some sort, and that in the future, they could try to use magic from Paths like Change, Healing, or Blood to learn more.
Next, Granmarg brought up the possible presence of Terra. She had apparently headed south to, allegedly, fight the demons, but she was unpredictable and possibly a threat. After a glance at the king, Morkral replied that there had been no sightings of her. For now, they would proceed as though she would not be involved, though obviously word would be spread to keep an eye out. Mielikki opined that she might actually be the one who had dug the hole to the surface. Edelina was fully convinced that having a goddess on their side would be a boon, and perhaps the reason the defenses had held so firmly was because Terra was off fighting the demons elsewhere.
After the council had ended, the earthlings split up to do their own things. Pomegranite searched his quarters for scrying magic. He found none, which of course just meant that the dwarves had done a better job of hiding it. Mielikki asked the Young Heron if he would join them on the surface, but he declined, preferring to stay with the war council as the representative of the elves. Next, he went to talk with Vondal in private, where he asked why the letter he received had been written by someone else. Vondal tried to brush it off, but eventually gave in and admitted that anything to do with demons had to go through Magister Dartil in the Clan council.
On the March
The earthling army joined by the battle magisters of the College marched back to the surface and headed into the southwest, encountering ever-larger swarms of demons as they went. Following the directions of the terramorphers, they arrived at a region where the tens of thousands of demons all-burt covered the ground. The terramorphers announced that the hole was somewhere in the middle of that vast swarm, which was likely building up to launch another offensive.
They split the terramorphers into five groups, one for each commander and another for Cliffside, then enacted Mielikki's plans and integrated the College magisters into their archers to give them magical artillery. Thicket noticed that reports from one group of scouts had gone missing in an area where others had seen the meat trees moving, and further investigation found a greater demon. It was a thirty-foot venus flytrap that seemed to be made of bone, and further scouting by Pomegranite's spies later saw it regurgitating the missing earthlings deep in demon territory.
Over the night, they learned of other greater demons: an "eel" (or at least, that was what it shouted in a high-pitched human voice) that flew on "wings" of human hands, a swarm of large bees with weeping human faces, and lastly a "centaur" that was half man half centipede and had four bulky human arms, two of which seemed to be used just to hold the torso upright. While the earthlings planned, the Eel Demon could be heard shouting "EELS" off in the distance all night. Mielikki and Granmarg had the terramorphers coat all earthling soldiers with a layer of stone, so they would be both more resilient and to add weight to their strikes, while Thicket came up with some more great stratagems in his tent, and Pomegranite did his best to observe the greater demons and learn their weaknesses.
Notes:
The battle at the start of the session was really just an excuse for Pomegranite to get combat skill XP, as it was already a sure victory (unless the PCs lost something like three quick contests where they had a 95% chance of winning with Luck in reserve).
Messing around with TTS' Fog of War settings accidentally made several demon armies disappear from the game and then surprise ambush the players. Luckily it didn't matter, as they were already so on the backfoot that there would be no difference. In a display of strategic genius, Thicket's player somehow predicted where one of those invisible armies would move without even knowing it existed!
Barrend is missing his nose, and Morkral an arm. As they are immortal, dwarves tend to accumulate wounds over time.
The dwarves, much like the elves, don't really think that the Paths are an accurate model and do not participate in the College, yet they encouraged the earthlings to use the Paths of Change, Healing, or Blood? Curious. Perhaps it was because Grand Magister Curzo was present.
When it comes to Vondal's forged letter and whatever conspiracy is involved, more than anything else Mielikki is jealous of the Tongs Clan's ability to clamp down and prevent the spread of information.
Demons are very bad at intrigue skills, and so the party has the most advantages they've ever had in the upcoming battle. They'll need them, too, as there are over 200 demon troop tokens compared to their ~40.
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