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.