After the TPK
Let’s take a quick look at some of the other stuff that is going on in the world, especially things involving our (deceased) heroes.
Lester and Orbius, of course, are minding the Temple of Elemental Good. Though they think of their old friends often, they are quite busy enough and quite aware that, once in the upper levels of Bile Mountain, they probably won’t be able to get in touch for a while. So, while concerned, they aren’t too worried.
Plus, they have their own concerns.*
War looms for months. Our heroes die in the fall; it’s too late for things to get started before the winter season, which is difficult and unpleasant to campaign in. So things wait until spring before exploding into conflict. The forces of Law, represented primarily by Forinthia on the material plane, strike out. Pesh is occupied already; what occurs there is a simple tightening of Imperial authority, but though the cities are caught in a strong fist, the countryside remains a refuge for the rebellious and for anti-Forinthian loyalists.
An expedition to Forinthia by Prayzose nearly leads to disaster. Forinthia is being consumed in civil war as the ancient Three Kingdoms of Forinthia threaten to break apart forever. All the treaties and ties of blood and loyalty built up over centuries seem to have been tossed aside almost instantly. How can this be? wonders Prayzose, and when he bends his divinations to the task he gets his answer: an ancestral relic, the Sword of the South King, has been stolen from his tomb, and a strong curse has fallen upon the land: until it is restored, the lands shall not be united.
Emperor Prayzose is most displeased. He tries the diplomatic route, but to his surprise none of the three Kings are willing to surrender their authority. They arrest him, and he feels compelled to surrender to them, hoping to sway them in court. He is dismayed when they show no signs of actually trying him, and in fact attempt to keep him prisoner indefinitely.
They should know better.
Prayzose, Scion of Dexter, High Priest of the Light, Emperor of Forinthia, is not to be trifled with. To their regret, several individuals learn that on that spring day. But in the end Prayzose leaves without Forinthia, and the Three Kings remain. He cannot simply execute them under the circumstances; they are right. The loss of the Sword of the South King invalidates many arrangements.
Prayzose certainly doesn’t have time to go off to look for it, despite its importance; he sends out a greater planar ally and hires several groups of adventurers (through intermediaries, of course), then sighs and goes about the business of war.
On a fateful day in the early summer a terrible battle occurs when a huge wing of the Chaos Fleet attacks a Forinthian fleet southwest of Gorel. The battle is huge and fierce, with the Chaos side employing a terrible wing of flying and swimming demons. This is an affront that the Forinthians cannot stomach, and when they shatter the naval formation the Fleet of the Light pursues as the Chaos ships flee. Unfortunately it turns out to be a trap; the Chaos fleet leads their pursuers into a killing zone surrounded by Delphinate wizards specializing in long range attack spells.
Hundreds of ships sink or burn to their waterline that day, but the effort costs the Delphinate terrifically, for despite early success, it only takes a few lucky arrows to kill one of the wizards, and though the wizards have long range attacks, a few of the ships of the Forinthian line have clerics able to summon powerful elementals to attack the wizards. When it becomes clear that the Delphinate is spending its best, most powerful wizards- an irreplaceable resource- the wizards fall back, usually by teleporting away.
This incredible battle is later considered a victory by the Forinthians, despite the loss of almost 10,000 lives and one hundred and ninety ships, for the Delphinate once again mostly withdrew from the conflict. They would not try such a costly maneuver again, and, reasoned the forces of Law, it would take years to build up such a powerful pool of wizards again. Even when they did, hopefully the foolish wizards had learned their lesson.
Indeed they had. A great debate raged in the Delphinate as a result of the battle, but the Delphin made the decision on how to proceed.
“We cannot risk such a travesty again. Even though we ourselves lost only 45 wizards, sixteen of them were among the Twenty.** Eight of those will return via clone, but almost half of our most powerful forces have been snuffed out.” He paused. The Mask of the Delphin hid his face. “We will not risk such a travesty again,” he repeats. “But at the same time, we dare not back out now, for our allies have suffered much more than we have, and to let them fall is to invite attack. We dare not let them be destroyed.”
His solution, it is generally agreed, is brilliant.
They will be called the Warforged.
Meanwhile another fleet of Law, this one headed by Dekrasode, rolls across the waves to lay siege to Tirchond. The blue dragon once called Tovan Kinslayer, Emperor of Wotan, smiles; he wears that human shape today, though he goes by his real name now. He thirsts for conquest, for the thrill of destroying petty elven and dwarven habitats. He longs to taste elven flesh again; it’s been quite a while.
When the fleet crashes ashore, the battle for the Shining City is fierce and supernatural. Spells rain from the elves of the Silver College, led by Estelias, Zeebo, Cicero and others; and devils, formians and dragonkin rush up the streets of the Shining City like baby crabs scuttling for the sea. It’s another bloodbath, and in only a few hours Estelias sounds the retreat.
“We can win!” snarls Vulker Hammerhead, Thane of the Hammerhead Halls. The head of his hammer is bloody.
“Too many of us our dying, Thane,” Estelias says gravely. “Both our peoples breed slow. And though they can only land a few vessels at a time, they have hundreds of ships to land before they’re through. We cannot win through to take the docks and let them take the College.” She shakes her head. “No, we need to fall back and escape. Either take the Egg with us somehow or destroy it.”
And the Shining City fell, yet again, to Forinthia. The battle was terrible; the local Belmax complex caught fire during the battle and exploded in a humungous conflagration that lit buildings on fire for a block in every direction. In the end the huge fire caused destroyed nearly a quarter of the city, including almost all of the diplomatic quarters in the city (on Ambassador’s Row) and the zoo.
On Dorhaus, the Tiger Empress’ triumphant return lent impetus to the enervated campaign to overtake Malford’s burgeoning empire on the west side of Dorhaus. The Emperor lent her advisers, clerics and troops; she began sewing the seeds of organization and preparing to fight for what she felt was rightfully hers- especially the rich Barony of Goldstone, which Malford had clear, perpetual designs on.
Malford, worried by all the developments he could see, went on a quest into the forests of Ketzia to find his old friend the King of Ketzia. When he returned, months later, there was a streak of amber-green in his otherwise white hair and he bore a shirt of leaves. When his queen gently questioned him the next day about his journey, he seemed preoccupied. “I saw... old friends. One I expected to, and one I did not.” He paused, looked at a loss for words. “He... he sacrificed himself for Dorhaus once, long ago. We thought he was gone forever...” Malford trails off.
The Mantle of Gaea, he thinks in wonder.
“I made a deal with the fae, and with the druids,” he finally says, “and, in a way, with the plants.”
Law clamped down everywhere it could. Everyone would live by the rules.
Next Time: That’s right, there’s a next time yet! We still need to catch up with Ten Buck Tom!
*They’re in a play-by-post here on ENWorld in the Playing the Game forum.
**The Twenty are the twenty most powerful spellcasters of the Delphinate. They are legally obligated to answer if the Delphinate has need of their power.
