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.

 

Pomegranite attempted to gain the Chancellor's support by offering her influence and knowledge in the future, to which Primrose replied that she would love to learn some things right now.  After all, who was a better source of knowledge than the spymaster of the Highland Forests?  Surely someone as renowned as himself wouldn't make so severe a claim that demons were impersonating their gods without evidence, for instance.

 

At an impasse, Pomegranite relented, and informed her of some of what had happened, including the discovery of the demon boils in Lumene and that Astraeus had done nothing when his followers were attacked in front of him.  Further, he recreated the illusion of Baelynna's form, which he called demonic, and pointed out that Astraeus had attacked them unprovoked.  Given their advisors were present for the assassination of Terra, he was also more or less forced to admit to killing her.  Additionally, he pointed out that the dwarves believed she was a demon*, and they were the foremost experts.

 
Primrose was shocked to hear all of this.  Admitting outright that they had killed multiple deities?  Out of a mix of respect and fear, the Chancellor agreed to work with them.  She would pull most of the rebel soldiers away from the mansion, and leave a path manned by her own retinues to provide a path through the city.  The full army moving would be too obvious, so they should only bring a small force.  Sigillaria volunteered to get all of the rebel officers into the makeshift war room in the rear of the mansion so that they would all be in one place.  

 

Pomegranite returned to their camp and informed the Triumvirate about the plan.  After a brief discussion, they agreed to kill Friedrich Quarry as soon as they got their hands on him.  At Thicket's insistence, the rest of the rebels would be given a chance to surrender and face exile instead.  To assist in convincing them they were surrounded, Pomegranite would create an illusion of soldiers surrounding the mansion.

 

Night Raid 

The Triumvirate and their chosen squad walked through the streets of Sappington under the gaze of Primrose's soldiers, and arrived at the rear of the mansion unimpeded.  After briefly listening at the door and confirming people were talking within, Mielikki threw the doors wide and looked at the rebels, including their former advisors and some others he didn't recognize.  He informed them that they were surrounded, and offered exile if they gave up Friedrich Quarry.

 

One of the unknown rebels opened the curtains and confirmed that there was an army outside, but Groutite calmly replied that there was no way they could have maneuvered the entire army that quietly.  Mielikki stated that they'd had help, which was true enough, and Sigillaria threw down her weapon.  Despite this, no others took up the offer of surrender.  Granmarg charged in, and on seeing the champion, Friedrich turned to leap out the second-floor window.  His bodyguard stopped him so that he could go first, but slipped while jumping, landed on his neck, and died.

 

Pomegranite grabbed Berry and ran outside, intent on chasing down Friedrich if he attempted to escape, while Thicket flung a boulder through the wall to make another entrance.  The squad moved in to back Granmarg, who made short work of the rebels opposing him on the right side of the room, while Friedrich, Drirtollor, and Shudderblight all jumped out the window to flee.  Mielikki charged the left flank with some support and between them, they easily cut down several of the rebels.

 

Thicket realized that Pomegranite would be outnumbered if he did catch up with Friedrich, and so grabbed one of their own soldiers and ran off to join him.  Granmarg performed a spinning kick that killed one rebel while forcing another back and pressuring a third.  On the other side of the room, Mielikki forced one of the rebels, Primrose's nephew Quercus, into a corner and felled him with a massive swing of the headsman's axe.

 

Bramble jumped up onto the wide table in the center of the room, scattering maps over the floor, and ran over to attack Hawthorn as he fell back from his duel with Swiftbreeze.  Granmarg, having just felled a ranking Priest, sprinted over to help, but tripped on the loose paper and fell.  Swiftbreeze shouted for Hawthorn to surrender, but he declined, blocked a final strike with his massive stone axe, and leapt out the window.  He landed badly, and broke one of his legs.  One of the loyalist soldiers jumped out to chase him, but tumbled and snapped his neck.

 

The Chase

Pomegranite and Berry, having left the battle in an attempt to capture the fleeing Friedrich Quarry accidentally stumbled into a guard barracks on their way and were halted by a dozen rebel soldiers.  Thicket and one of the loyal soldiers managed to make it outside and followed the footprints in the snow from the window.  They spied the three rebels in the distance, and Shudderblight turned to face them while the other two fled.  If he could buy a little time, then the High Priest might escape, along with the rebellion.

 

In a final effort at diplomacy, Thicket beseeched his former advisor, asking him to join them and be spared destruction.  Shudderblight grinned and said he'd been about to make the same offer, then hefted his sack of poison powders.

 

 

Notes:

Unfortunately, Granmarg's player had to drop out of the campaign.

 

It is at this point a running joke that the PCs raise the number of people Terra killed basically every time it comes up.  I can't believe Terra killed 12 priests hundreds of people half the earthling population every single earthling who has ever died.

 

One of the arguments that was suggested during the conversation with Primrose: "If Astraeus is so great, then why did he die when we killed him?" 

 

*technically, Demon is the term used for any being from another realm of existence, making this a true statement.  However, they have since established the new terminology of Outsider to distinguish the gods and their agents, with Demons only referring to those from the Demonrealm.  Granmarg calls the gods Archmagisters, but he's the only one to do so. 

 

Rolled a reaction roll to see how many of the rebels surrendered and got a 6, which I ruled was nobody. 

 

That window did a lot of damage.

 

Pomegranite crit-failed his roll to catch up to Friedrich, so Thicket is on his own.  If Thicket can't defeat Shudderblight quickly and catch up Friedrich in time, the army still has the city surrounded, and there's a good chance he'll be caught anyway.