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.
Thicket disagreed, and sided with Curzo: putting all their best warriors into a single speartip was the best way to deal with the gods. Pomegranite had his own ideas, borne entirely from his anti-dwarven bigotry, and attempted to convince his peers that the earthlings should go west while the dwarves went east. Ultimately, that Lumene and the dwarves would march east, while the earthling and College forces went west. The reasoning was that while the dwarves and elves were elite, they did not have the numbers to cover the countryside, and so Lumene, as the most numerous army, should travel with them to enact a blockade. The armies would then attack the major cities along the coast, and hold for reinforcements when they found the enemy commander.
They opted for the direct route, marching through the abandoned villages in the mountainous northern region of the league. Livestock either wandered around or had died in their pens, but there were no people or undead to be found. They decided to investigate the city-state nearest to their route, Amici, to get some inkling of what the necromancer commanding the undead might be up to. The army was unimpeded as they marched, and arrived at a hill overlooking the city. Some few undead were still trickling in, but for the most part it seemed all had already arrived.
A mountain of dirt had buried part of the city, blocking their view. Undead could just barely be seen digging, but nobody could make out anything more. The terramorphers attempted to sense whatever they were trying to excavate, but at so great a distance, and with Thicket's wet cough from the Winter Blight, they could discern nothing. Not wanting to risk engaging multiple gods without support, the army fell back to the northwest to avoid the city before continuing on.
At the border, they rendezvoused with Ulrich and his forces, who were happy to see them. Though they had been forced to range into the League in order to feed the surge of refugees, they had as yet not engaged with any of the undead. Hans Hessen requested that they march on Amici instead of Torelli, as had been planned, as the latter had been devastated by the tidal wave and they would be unable to forage sufficiently. If they spent some time in the relatively undamaged north, they should be able to establish a baggage train to feed themselves and the refugees.
As earthlings contented themselves with eating trees and stones, the Triumvirate had little concern for human supply lines, but granted his request nonetheless. They neared Amici, not bothering to conceal themselves this time, but still no enemy came out to confront them. They halted outside the city to plan, and as they did, a messenger arrived: Wrost had arrived to reinforce Baronde. The latter had returned mostly to the border in their own lands, while the former would hold Halberst's border with the League.
With the north secured, they now had an undead army to deal with. The fact that the undead were not reacting suggested that either the necromancer was elsewhere, and that there pincer strategy had worked, or that this was some sort of a trap. Thicket took a detachment closer to inspect the city, and determined that this was either not a trap, or the most genius trap he had ever seen. Considering Consus was allegedly the greatest general of the gods and might be present, it wasn't impossible to imagine.
They would have to deal with the undead in the city either way, and so they charged into Amici, with Granmarg and Mielikki leading the vanguard. The undead did nothing to respond until the earthlings were almost on top of them, and they didn't wield any weapons beyond shovels and pickaxes, so it was an easy victory. However, while the commanders were unharmed, their soldiers suffered many more casualties than expected. Even minor wounds healed much more slowly than they should have, and there were many more infections than usual. Curzo and some of the other College magisters theorized that the very land of the League had been infected by the energies from the Path of Death.
Excavation
The Triumvirate arrived at the pit the undead had been digging, and found that they had uncovered several layers of the Labyrinth. Beyond the gentle slope of the pit that now extended far past the main square, the stone walls that encased the passages remained suspended in the air, their brown-red stone at odds with the white brick used in the masonry of the city. While that was all curious, the real goal was clearly at the bottom, where the ceiling of the deepest excavated passage had been removed.
After some brief discussion over what might be down there, Curzo suggested it was something that Somnus knew about and wanted. Suddenly, both Ulrich and Pomegranite volunteered to go take a look. As the others were the rulers of their respective provinces, it wouldn't do for them to be killed by some sort of death magic. In the end, Ulrich won out, and after their soldiers finished off the undead inside, descended into the pit, eager to claim some powerful and ancient artifacts.
He was somewhat disappointed to find it was built around a spiraling crystalline sculpture the height of two men, far too unwieldy to be moved, and which had no discernable purpose. Looking around, he noted that while one wall was bare other than a heavy iron door, the other three had murals depicting the constellations. Of note, the image of Gramol the Chimera, and its lion head in particular, had been defaced by the undead. Now certain the chamber was safe (and more importantly, that there were no treasures to claim), he asked the others to join him.
Thicket wondered if there might be something behind the mural they had been trying to get to, and on closer inspection found the lion head was over a seam in the stone. While some terramorphers dealt with opening the suspected secret chamber behind it, he then turned to regard the sculpture. It was a dark green, different from the bright blue crystal they'd found in Terra's realm. Unsure what its properties could be, he took a nibble. The taste of acid burned his throat, and he flew into a coughing fit as he felt the energy crystal he had implanted in his arm empty of its magic.
The sculpture now faintly pulsed with a sickly green glow, and he left in frustration. The other terramorphers failed in their task as well, and when they attempted to open the secret chamber, it filled with earth and stone. Whatever had been within, if there even was anything, was destroyed. Mielikki put the terramorphers to searching the wreckage, but each attempt only caused further cave-ins.
Pomegranite and Curzo attempted to examine the sculpture, but after it had leeched Thicket's magic, they were leery of casting any spells on it. It was obviously magical, but it didn't match with the descriptions of Luana's usage of the Path of Death, the energies of which had been purple and black. Curzo theorized that this sickly green could be the Path of Destruction, but he was hardly certain. Figuring it was better to leave it be than risk freeing those unknown energies, the sculpture was left alone.
As a preventative measure, Mielikki ordered the defeated undead burned to prevent them rising again. This drew complaints from the Segretan refugees in their forces, who wished to rebury them in accordance with their traditions, but Mielikki was able to convince them that burning was a great honour. Despite the fact that that was a tradition from Lumene, the Segretans were pacified, though now they wanted to burn all the loot the army had seized along with the undead. If they couldn't be buried with offerings to Somnus, perhaps burning them would work. The Triumvirate denied this request: the earthling soldiers had the right of pillage, and they were free to take what they pleased.
With their business concluded in Amici, they now began the march south, following the River Fiume to Torelli, the westernmost of the three great coastal cities in the League. The further they went, the more devastation they found, with most villages reduced to nothing more than piles of debris. There were signs of reconstruction in places, though it was too crude to be terramorphing; the terramorphers they'd dispatched to the League must have been elsewhere.
One morning, the Triumvirate awoke to discover that the artifacts they'd claimed from Luana were gone, though Mielikki's sea sword was still there. The only trace was a message on the wall of Pomegranite's tent in the elvish script, which appeared to be written in blood. Though he was no expert, he used the Path of the Moon to attempt to translate it. As best he could tell, the message read: "I have taken what was stolen, and left your lives in exchange". On closer inspection, he also realized it was written not in blood, but in wine.
Notes:
Digging is an earthling thing! The undead are muscling in on their niche!
There is a story of a great general of the second empire who successfully defended a city against a much larger force without fighting. The great general ordered his very few troops to hide, and when the enemy army arrived, went out alone to greet them and offer them food and drink. The other general became convinced that the great general must have had some sort of trick up his sleeve, and so retreated, despite in truth outnumbering him 100 to 1.
Thicket's bite of the crystalline sculpture tasted like battery acid. There was some fear that breaking it would produce airborne battery acid, aka asbestos battery acid, aka asbattery acid.
Thicket suggested they take the sculpture home and turn it into a delicacy.
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