The host moves from Toadhaven, gathering by nightfall just north of the swamps around Aria's Well. Preparations are underway to move to St Thosos in the morning so that the battle may begin by midday. You're close enough to Aria's Well to visit early in the night, so you do so.
Things have indeed changed at Aria's Well, even though it is empty of its recent residents. The once-ruined walls on the edge of the Little Gunge swamp-meadows have been rebuilt nicely. Many streams and ponds remain, now better manicured. The manor walls now rise firmly out of the swamp, which has been drained around the manor. The manor has become a Seshnelan barracks, with fortified doors. Farmland has been expanded. The guard house and cell and stable (now moved) are strengthened and expanded. More Dronari lived here, as the numerous huts testify. But everyone is gone; having fled before the colonists' army. These might be good things, but others are not.
[there's a new settlement map in the Dropbox. Colin had made a gorgeous map earlier, it's there too; but it is now somewhat out-of-date-sorry!]
You inspect further. Maugis's hut was destroyed; you later hear it was burned. Also your other huts; and the Seshnelans destroyed the aeropod mooring, and levelled the termite mound. They covered the “Filthy hole” and “rubbish pit” and cursed them with Rokari light-magics. Wilbi's tree was cut down; and you learn later that it was used for the stockade around the tower.
There is a stockade of strong wooden walls around the Tower of Goode Menne's base, with large runes of Death and Law burned into them as warnings. A soft white glow, very obvious at night and evident up-close in daytime, surrounds the tower itself, strongest at the top. This must be Rokari magic; Shrett's Sense Sorcery supported that conclusion. The Night-Channel is gone; it should be here at night but it is not.
And then there is the well itself. Shrett inspects it and reaches out with his sorb, but finds nothing there, he thinks. Fraud comes and tries the same, pushing deeper and deeper, but finding no essence there at all. Fury and sadness build up in him. He must get vengeance.
You inspect the manor after Shrett unlocks it. It is improved inside, except that the main interior has been converted into spartan barracks. The Paragon's bedroom, though, is nicely accoutred with heraldry and fine weapons. You take out undesirables that can be burned and otherwise destroyed, and do so.
Boamund, too, is full of anger. Bog isn't sure what the fuss is about. You go back to the army camp and try to get rest. Fraud sleeps fitfully, impatient to bring revenge on the Paragon and other Seshnelans. Boamund barely falls asleep before the raging beast within breaks forth, and he disappears into the night. You don't realise he's gone until the next morning, when you find his gear and clothes lying by his bedroll.
The morning has come. It is Earth Season 1624, Death week, Freezeday; the start of the third week of the season. Baron Ronalio gathers everyone within sight of St Thosos, out in the farmlands. The numbers are respectable, in the hundreds. The harbour, town and chapel are sparkling golden under intense sunlight focused on them, and not a cloud is in the sky. The Baron's twin brother Reginaldo stands beside him, arms proudly crossed. They both wear their gorgeous iron armour emblazoned with the house heraldry of a golden shoveltusker upon a field of black, and runes of St Pamlay, featuring a Mastery rune.
Never before has Baron Ron looked so regal and confident. More than ever, he stands tall, muscular, handsome, and well-groomed, with waxed moustache and pointed beard, short-cropped hair, very clean-cut with no scarification or tattoos. He has piercing steel grey eyes that sparkle with machinations and schemes-immediately one is struck that he is a cunning and wordly man who does not try to hide that, being secure in his power. And as you have experienced at times, he is robust ruler not to be trifled with, but a strong ally and ruthless politician, which is what he projects now.
Ronalio shouts loudly: “It has come: the day of liberation from this blight of Seshnelan domination for over a year. We have suffered, but now we will make our enemies suffer for it. They have nowhere to go. Their navy is pitiful. Their troops have been whittled down to those who are fanatically loyal and those that were trapped. The Baron Raduard has no escape; he has pulled every little favour he could, but it was not enough to fend off our onslaught. We WILL win. We WILL win.”
“We will take two flanks. My brother and I will lead the main force to the walls, and thence through the gates, into town. We will lead the main assault on the keep. Our heroic Talars, Baronet Boamund… oh, right then, Lord Fraud Shaven, will join me with our greatest fighters. Jett will take his men into town and secure it behind us. Then we have allies from outside of my main force: here we have Shrett of the Sottogh, Bog of the Uz, Aym Alamyn; man of great mystery but enmity to the Rokari; and Salima, loyal friend. They will lead forces to the Church of St Thosos. I will send soldiers led by Captain Gulos to aid them against the Inquisitorial Order and the other defenders of the Church. They may reinforce us once they finish.”
“Worry not that we lack some allies. The Giranois have sent some support for which we are thankful, but they must have their own concerns, and they have supported us well at New Arvonesse and Humbertsville, and before and since. My own Zzaburi advisor, Evakranem, sadly has fallen under some curse or spirit of disease that we cannot see; he is bedridden and cannot help. But my brother and I are no novices at great magics. We will need every blessing we can invoke, however. Do not hold back. The defence will be desperate.”
“Yet we are no barbarians. I remind you to adhere to the Codes of War: 1) Combat must be confined to the Horali and Talari. Dronari may support them from afar, but should not engage them in melee. 2) Obedient Dronari must not be attacked for any reason, nor should disarmed and seriously wounded Horali, unless slain as an act of mercy. 3) A Horali must never strike a Talari. Castes should battle each other. 4) Fighting must not continue after sunset unless the foe is krjalki, barbarians, or heretics. 5) All foes must be defeated. 6) Raids must only be undertaken to compensate for past losses or to humiliate the enemy - never simply for personal enrichment. 7) A woman must not be looked at in battle unless she challenges you. Unless a woman is in your enemy's army, you must not attack her. If she is a Talari, she can only be attacked or asked to surrender after the whole army is defeated. 8) The objective of war is victory. 9) A traitor must never escape death.”
“Most of our enemies will choose death. We do wish prisoners when the Code allows, so take whom you can. They have information we can use, such as to find loved ones that are missing or to weed out traitors, and I can restock my depleted coffers with their ransoms. Speaking of profits, you win what you earn, and I will have more for those who prove themselves and their loyalty. Do not loot the innocent, nor loot what is rightly mine. We must remember the need to rebuild after our victory. There are other foes around that we will turn our swords and sorceries toward after this.”
“Enough rhetoric from me. Raise your swords, your spears, your voices. I, Baron Ronalio, bless this battle as holy in the eyes of the Invisible God, by my authority as rightful high Talar of Giraine! May we bring a frown to the visage of King Guilmarn! We shall sally forth to deal vengeance! Call out your pledges to me and to the end of this miserable occupation!”
There are hurrahs! Shouts of pledges all around! Shrett almost leaps in with a pledge, but halts, and Bog follows that lead, hefting his maul eager to fight. Fraud keeps his words brief; his emotions are channelled into the fight to come. But his words are strong- he speaks of his long fealty to Baron Ron, and his fights against the Seshnelans, and now the new iniquity that his family's home has been desecrated. His words prompt further inspiration in soldiers around him. And the charge is on!
You split up, casting spells and invoking your passions of loyalty and love. Fraud, Sir Bonetrial and Orsattus rush along with the main army. They cross through a hail of crossbow bolts from Dronari conscripts on the walls. These find their mark on Fraud and Bonetrial, with the St Humkt knight taking a brutal impaling wound to his ?arm. He pauses to take it out, and charges onwards. You are mounted, and hew and stab fiercely at the Seshnelan Horali that come to meet you. It is an easy battle for you, and you reach the gates as battering rams and magics break them open. Into town you go, and already the Seshnelans are falling and faltering. The colonists' army floods inside.
The battle fiercens as you approach the keep. Baron Ron's household lead the way, smashing into heavy infantry and light cavalry as they go. They already are splattered with blood; almost all of it not theirs. Their horses have fallen or are too wounded to proceed, so everyone proceeds on foot. As you approach the top, Ron calls out, “Horali, secure the outside! Talars and my closest Horali, come with me - we go inside! My men will take the Baron's with me. He is mine to deal with. Boamund and Fraud, lead the fight against his Zzaburi and whatever else they have. Strike fast, people!” And he charges.
You hear a voice thunder from within the keep, in thick Seshnelan. “Traitors to the Crown, Heretics, Heathens, Pagans, Krjalki, Arkati! Come to your deaths! You have not caught me unawares!” Reginaldo spits in contempt and waves his arms about, saying “Arkat you say? You have no idea what you mean, but we shall show you the powers that we bring from the bowels of the Dark Duke's catacombs!” And whispering wreathes of the deepest shadow writhe around him, then reach out to Baron Ron and his men, eerily flitting about their bodies and then weapons. Some amongst the colonists look upon them in shock, as Ron's household takes on somewhat of the look of black demons. It's Arkati magics, which Orsattus had not seen manifest this way before, but he calms himself with the security that these are his Talars and he must aid them.
Amist the great fray on the road to, and the flat grounds atop, the cliffs where the keep lies, you see four Seshnelan cataphracti charging your way on heavily armoured warhorses. One is finely armour in horse-helmed iron lamellar; the others wear bronze, with one in nicer armour whose heraldry marks him as a Leader of Ten. All wear decorations showing that they are members of the Horse War Beast Society; the “Galanini” cavalry of Seshnela. They have plenty of war-sorceries on them.
They spur their horses and level their lances, with the Leader and a bodyguard coming at Bonetrial, and the Talar charging Fraud, while another bodyguard comes close behind with his fiery kontos spear aimed at Orsattus. Bonetrial cracks the lance of the Leader and then cuts him off his horse when he returns. Fraud blocks the lance and then trades blows with the Talar, finally putting him down. Orsattus's blessing that makes your weapons bite through armour like a snake's fangs is very helpful. But Orsattus is pierced deeply by a lance and almost falls, yet manages to run back to aid Bonetrial, with a parting wound. Meanwhile, Boamund has snuck up in his Penjang form and ripped into the haunches of a guard's horse, soon bringing it down screaming in pain. Horse meat is one of his kind's favourites, being ancient prey and enemy. The guards quickly drop under your blades and claws. Fraud grabs a very nice iron kite shield from the Talar, and Orsattus nabs an iron broadsword. You join the forces headed toward the keep, Boamund well ahead of you.
You hurtle yourselves into the front of the keep, shattering the doors open with dark, icy magics that Reginaldo throws, and thronging inside to the narrow entry hallway where many guards crowd the way. But the guards are easy prey for the raging colonist forces; like others before, they go down screaming. In moments another blast of darkness rips the two sets of doors to the grand hall open, and you begin pouring in through that short passage, hewing through the bottleneck and leaving a slick of blood behind. Magic dances everywhere in the hall beyond; it is hard to tell where one source stops and another begins.
Baron Raduard stands defiantly ahead by the throne and oversized statue of King Guilmarn, with fearsome ironclad bodyguards about him. He is a huge man in shining iron plate decorated with his house's wyvern rampant heraldry; his helm is elaborately shaped like a wyvern's. His iron broadsword and kite shield shimmer with magic, and his motions are blurred as if too fast for the eye to track. There is a hulking, shining thing to the right of the hall's entry: almost twice the Baron's size, pale of hide, beastly of visage and clawed on all four limbs, with sweeping wings spread behind it.
Then at the back of the hall there are three robed Zzaburi. One is an imperious old man with a very tall iron-plated hat and a silvery beard down to his belly, in very heavily furred, shining robes whose hue is unclear; and a scintillating gnarled staff. This must be Godefrey Descoteaux. Another you recognise from Humbertsville: a tall, thin, pale, black-bearded Seshnelan with a Law rune on tall conical bronze helm, in thick, bright red robes emblazoned with Magic and Metal runes. He is Master Akerbus, Watcher of the Order of Iron Blood. The third is unfamiliar, and more simply accoutred and less remarkable. He crouches behind the great table that the other two stand behind, so he is barely visible, but clutches a well-worn grimoire to his chest like a shield. All have magics readied in their hands.
The fighting continues at the entry while Baron Raduard's voice booms forth; it is, of course, the voice you heard from outside. “Yes, come to me Baron Ron. Your mark of Heresy burns, does it not? I will cut it from your brow with the top of your skull!” And the battle for the Grand Hall is on!
The Zzaburi throw powerful sorceries at everyone while the Demon-of-Light fights with Ronalio. Akerbus blasts everyone with iron gear, melting armour on Bonetrial, but harmlessly sliding off Fraud's unique armour. Godefrey's bonecrushing wrack spell deals wicked wounds to some of Ron's forces. The more inexperienced Zzaburi, Knower Maugier Gagneux, tries a blinding-light spell on Boamund to no avail. And you rush them, engaging elite guards first. These don't hold up long at all- Fraud and Boamund take down one on the north side of the hall, then another, and Bonetrial deals his death-blows to two on the other side. Orsattus hangs back, preparing a spell of Venom and unleashing it, but it arcs back from all of his targets except the Knower, who loses use of his right arm and ruins his next spell; and it comes to Orsattus, who would have been sorely wounded by it, but he'd conjured a snake-spirit guardian that intercepts it and saves him!
Godefrey's next bonecrushing spell goes awry and hits some of his own guards and cracks the statue of Guilmarn. Master Akerbus dies horribly under Boamund's ripping claws and tearing bite, and soon Knower Gagneux dies as Fraud valiantly leaps atop the table and slashes him, with Boamund dealing the killing blow, shredding his face off. Orsattus joins the main battle of Ron and his men, fighting well. Reginaldo is holding his ground with the demon. You have cornered Godefrey, High Watcher Zzaburi of the Baron, and give him a nasty arm-wound. But then he makes a quick gesture to his left side and there a bright ellipse opens out of nowhere with a chiming noise. He says calmly, “You shall weep for your doomed city,” and steps into that ellipse and vanishes, as it clangs shut. He has betrayed his Baron, abandoning him, but who other than you will ever know? Bonetrial arrives late to the fight by the table, and secures the door to the tower where the Talar chambers are.
Baron Ron fights bravely in single combat against Raduard, taking some bloody wounds and falling to one knee at one point, but giving back as well as he takes. Meanwhile, Reginaldo slices deeply into the demon's skin as he deftly fends off its blows and his shadow-magics strike away its fiery gaze. He wears it down with repeated blows, as Ron's men finish off the guards. Finally, Raduard falls, his sword-arm mangled and helmet askew. He scowls at Ron, blood curdling from his mouth into his thick red beard, and words choke forth, “Do you have the honour to…” But Ron gives no time for the words to finish. He pulls back his broadsword and deals a vicious swing that sends Raduard's head flying high, bouncing off Guilmarn's statue and leaving a bloody splotch there, then bouncing and rolling under the long table at the hall's end, with a trail of gore behind it. It stops just under Fraud's feet. Raduard's corpse slouches back against the throne. Ron cries out in a flood of elation, anguish, and relief. The battle inside the hall ceases, with a moment of silence punctuated only by the dripping of blood from many surfaces. Ron drops his shield and falls to both knees, propped up by his sword, his chest heaving, his breathless voice still audible throughout the hall as he says, “There is much cleansing to be done.” Other survivors hurry out of the keep to take the town.
Fraud hesitates, then decides he must seek out Cyroosta's fate, and figures she might be in the tower, so Bonetrial permits him to pass inwards. Boamund gallops off, ahead of everyone else, into the town to create more carnage. Orsattus stays in the hall, still wounded, but Reginaldo sees this and gently offers his hand with shadow-magics building up, and Orsattus accepts it with some shivering anticipation. His gut-wound heals, with a grim coldness that lingers for many days.
Fraud finds Cyroosta hiding up in Baron's quarters. She has aged visibly, branded with the Heretic rune and wearing some nasty scars, but she still holds her pose with nobility; and straightens up when she sees Boamund and Fraud. She weakly says, “I had… almost lost faith that you would come. It has held my mind together and walled a part off from their pryings. They were strong, though, and drew many words forth from me, and I had to play their games or they would have broken me completely. I… lost my ways to speak to the land. Forever. A hole is ripped in my heart. But the part that I guarded most is bursting forth with joy now to behold you!” And she rushes forth, sobbing, for a big hug. Fraud stiffens awkwardly, saying a few token words, receiving the hug. They speak a little. She was playing ally to the Baron Raduard, as much as she could pretend, but was still hanging on to her true nature, although devastated by Rokari Inquisition tortures that had broken her earlier. Fraud tells her of events, and she admits there is much you need to catch up on. But Fraud feels that duty calls, so he leaves her locked in the tower while he and the others hurry to the town.
The fight at the harbour is ridiculously one-sided. The few remaining Seshnelan naval ships are quickly overwhelmed, bottled up, and destroyed. The siege machine takes out some colonist ships but is then ravaged by Ahappi and Pellinoresbane. Ahappi sets his monster to feast on survivors, quickly checks if there are any Vadeli of note but sees none, and summons a huge sea-undine, surfing it into town and drowning what enemies he can find. He has not forgotten his oath to burn the Chapel of St-Thosos-In-The-Mire down. Speaking of that…
We'll see what happens at the Chapel on 2 June!
This was another epic session, with (mostly) really bad dice-rolls by me and some great criticals by you (plus Boamund fumbling his Willpower so he is spending the battle in werelion-form). -John
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