Angcuru
First Post
Before I can rightly explain what I mean, I need to give you a bit of backstory on our campaign. The campaign setting is a homebrew created by our very own Blackshirt5, and is yet to be named. Races are fairly standard, with one or two minor tweaks here and there. But ANYway.
The PCs -
Angcuru Cukhelek: an elven ranger/figher who is the last descendant of the founder of the Warder's Guild, an organization created for the protection of the elven lands. The guild is based in the elven city of Arboreon, capital (I think) of the elven land of Velsephia. Angcuru currently wields the Sentient Sword known as Stormbrand, a blade whos existance was brought into being when Angcuru's ancestor thrust both this and another blade into the skull of an extremely powerful demon, slaying the creature. The energy released by the killing of the beast in a sense "awoke" the two blades, bringing them into sentiency. The other blade was Balefire, and both he and Stormbrand are capable of ripping away the soul of anyone they strike.
Greymore: a dwarven cleric/fighter who is the son of the usurped dwarven king and rightful heir to the throne. He and his father were stripped of their family name when Greymore's father fell in love with and married an elven woman(Greymore's mother having died sometime earlier). Dwarven law strictly forbid this type of practice, an hence their names and titles were stripped from them, the usurper Theodren taking the throne. Greymore later confronted Theodren about regaining his name shortly following the death of his father. He was told that in order to do so, he had to recover a relic in the form of a shield lost long ago by a dwarven war party to an unknown dragon.
Tak der Griss: a young human wizard who comes from a long line of nobility. Tak has recently become head of his house, since most all of his family was killed when the PCs took down a cadre/cult surrounding an unnamed beast, and lo and behold, his family were among the cult members. Now with them dead, Tak inherits all of his family's wealth and is sole proprietor of his estate. YAY!
We have to other party members(Midnight the Human Psychic Thief, and Agon the Fighter), but they have just joined and are therefore irrelevelt to this discussion. ANYway, after a bout of discussion and a failed attempt to summon a lesser demon for interrogation, we decide to go to Arboreonand the surrounding woods to hone our dragon-slaying tactics for when we finally find the bastard. Now when we arrived at the city, an unpleasant sight greeted our eyes.
The city had been virtually destroyed. While we had been off at Tak's estate, Arboreon had been sacked by an army of Demon Elves(this setting's equivalent of Drow). Utter devestation. Half the city had been badly damaged, and many of the trees had been torn down and cast aside. At least a thousand innocents were killed in the attack, and about half of the soldiers and Warders had been killed, and many more wounded. Shortly after entering the city, Angcuru broke from the group and rode off towards the Warder's Guild. When he arrived, he saw bodies everywhere, High Elves and Demon Elves littering the ground in almost equal numbers. He ran down several flights of stairs to the vaults of the guild, where half of the Warder's Council lay dead, the other half badly wounded. Among them was Shiras, Angcuru's foster father, and while Angcuru was caring for his wounds, Shiras told them that Balefire, Stormbrand's twin, had been seized in the midst of the assault, perhaps the motivating factor of the assault itself.
After about an hour of healing the wounded and helping with the recovery effort, Angcuru, Greymore, and the rest decide to up and launch a counter-attack against the Demon Elves (this is where the thread title comes into play). Helping out with the recovery effort was a goodly amount of Black Templar, really bad-ass evil-hunting knights from a neighboring human kingdom. Angcuru proposed to the leader of the Black Templar in the city that they aid him and his friends in a counter-offensive against the Demon Elves. It was agreed that they would meet Angcuru at a nearby abandoned Elven Temple which was also the location of the entrance to the Underdark. Upon arrival at the temple, Angcuru requested that Greymore and Tak ride to the Dwarven Stronghold nearby (the very same one which Greymore hailed from) to seek their aid in an attack against a common foe.
So Greymore arrives at the Stronghold, taking a back entrance near the forges so as to avoid any of Theodren's lackeys. There Greymore greeted his good friend Bruenor, and told him of the attack, of all the death and devestation. Bruenor reminded Greymore that his family had always been loved and respected, and that most of the dwarves resented Theodren. And so Greymore gets up on a stone platform facing all the dwarves in the forge, and delivers his rousing "LETS GO TO WAR!" speech accompanied by Manowar's "Brothers of Metal"...to great effect. All of the dwarves in the forge let out a cry and pledged alliegance to Greymore and his just cause, leaving the Stronghold to wage war on the Demon Elves. Even a few of Theodren's loyalists sided with Greymore, although one of them spoke out, and was abruptly silenced when Bruenor's Hammer met his skull.
When all the forces had gathered, quite an impressive army had assembled. There were over 600 highly skilled dwarven warriors decked out in plate armor and wielding , hammers, axes, high-powered crossbows, even dwarven runecannons! We're talking seige weapons, chainguns, the works! Also in the force were 50 of the most elite of the Black Templar, wearing heavy plate and wielding claymore and runecannon alike. The king's champion (sadly I cannot remember his name) was there as well, wielding The Black Sword...I think that speaks for itself. Also sent by this human kingdom were 15 battlemages, all very dangerous and powerful spellswords. Midnight made a significant contribution as well, in the form of a few of his old friends: a pyromaniac psion and two twin sisters whom he had....known in the past, both skilled psychic warriors. And even after being severely battered in the battle, the Velsephian Warders were able to send a score of archers to aid in the attack.
That makes over 700 very dangerous combatants, a good deal of them being quite powerful, indeed. Now, the Demon Elves are expecting some kind of counter-attack, a few dozen spare elven mages and warriors seeking vengeance, but nothing on this scale. The Demon Elves are no doubt exhausted, battered, and wounded following their attack on Arboreon, and are ill-prepared for a counter-attack of this scale.
Just imagine it. That many dwarves can keep up a frightening and steady barrage of runecannon rounds and crossbow/bolt driver bolts using Fire, Drop and Reload tactics, and when they close for melee action, they OWN with their rockcrusher hammers and axes. The Dark Templar are all expert marksmen with their rifles, and can easily account for a huge amount of Demon Elves before closing in to inflict mass slaughter with their claymores. The Warder Archers will serve as an anti-mage force, concentrating all their fire on the mages, individual by individual to render then innefective, at best, and afterwards can deal a good amount of death to the Demon Elves, and can hold up quite well with their swordplay as well. That pyro psion and the twin sister psychic warriors can counter any psionics thrown at us and can reap massive damage in their own right. The battlemages are just SICK, they can walk up to a group of Demon elves, stab one, drop a fireball, and walk away unscathed as the baddies roast in the flames.
Now when you take into account Angcuru with his awesome archery skills and his awesomeness when handling Stormbrand; Greymore with his Lawful Holy Warhammer is almost guaranteed a kill with every hit, in addition to his extending waraxe and divine magic...oww!; Tak is simply put, a BASTARD whenit comes to combat...not only does he have his spells, but he's one tough S.O.B. and can hold his own in melee combat easily; Midnight's gonna be running around stabbing backs and blasting minds while Agon deals out massive casualties with his dual sword gauntlets. Then you have the king's champion, this guy is going to OWN in battle. And the runecannons.....*drool*....
It's not going to be easy, but we're going to whomp some Demon Elf ass, eh?
The PCs -
Angcuru Cukhelek: an elven ranger/figher who is the last descendant of the founder of the Warder's Guild, an organization created for the protection of the elven lands. The guild is based in the elven city of Arboreon, capital (I think) of the elven land of Velsephia. Angcuru currently wields the Sentient Sword known as Stormbrand, a blade whos existance was brought into being when Angcuru's ancestor thrust both this and another blade into the skull of an extremely powerful demon, slaying the creature. The energy released by the killing of the beast in a sense "awoke" the two blades, bringing them into sentiency. The other blade was Balefire, and both he and Stormbrand are capable of ripping away the soul of anyone they strike.
Greymore: a dwarven cleric/fighter who is the son of the usurped dwarven king and rightful heir to the throne. He and his father were stripped of their family name when Greymore's father fell in love with and married an elven woman(Greymore's mother having died sometime earlier). Dwarven law strictly forbid this type of practice, an hence their names and titles were stripped from them, the usurper Theodren taking the throne. Greymore later confronted Theodren about regaining his name shortly following the death of his father. He was told that in order to do so, he had to recover a relic in the form of a shield lost long ago by a dwarven war party to an unknown dragon.
Tak der Griss: a young human wizard who comes from a long line of nobility. Tak has recently become head of his house, since most all of his family was killed when the PCs took down a cadre/cult surrounding an unnamed beast, and lo and behold, his family were among the cult members. Now with them dead, Tak inherits all of his family's wealth and is sole proprietor of his estate. YAY!
We have to other party members(Midnight the Human Psychic Thief, and Agon the Fighter), but they have just joined and are therefore irrelevelt to this discussion. ANYway, after a bout of discussion and a failed attempt to summon a lesser demon for interrogation, we decide to go to Arboreonand the surrounding woods to hone our dragon-slaying tactics for when we finally find the bastard. Now when we arrived at the city, an unpleasant sight greeted our eyes.
The city had been virtually destroyed. While we had been off at Tak's estate, Arboreon had been sacked by an army of Demon Elves(this setting's equivalent of Drow). Utter devestation. Half the city had been badly damaged, and many of the trees had been torn down and cast aside. At least a thousand innocents were killed in the attack, and about half of the soldiers and Warders had been killed, and many more wounded. Shortly after entering the city, Angcuru broke from the group and rode off towards the Warder's Guild. When he arrived, he saw bodies everywhere, High Elves and Demon Elves littering the ground in almost equal numbers. He ran down several flights of stairs to the vaults of the guild, where half of the Warder's Council lay dead, the other half badly wounded. Among them was Shiras, Angcuru's foster father, and while Angcuru was caring for his wounds, Shiras told them that Balefire, Stormbrand's twin, had been seized in the midst of the assault, perhaps the motivating factor of the assault itself.
After about an hour of healing the wounded and helping with the recovery effort, Angcuru, Greymore, and the rest decide to up and launch a counter-attack against the Demon Elves (this is where the thread title comes into play). Helping out with the recovery effort was a goodly amount of Black Templar, really bad-ass evil-hunting knights from a neighboring human kingdom. Angcuru proposed to the leader of the Black Templar in the city that they aid him and his friends in a counter-offensive against the Demon Elves. It was agreed that they would meet Angcuru at a nearby abandoned Elven Temple which was also the location of the entrance to the Underdark. Upon arrival at the temple, Angcuru requested that Greymore and Tak ride to the Dwarven Stronghold nearby (the very same one which Greymore hailed from) to seek their aid in an attack against a common foe.
So Greymore arrives at the Stronghold, taking a back entrance near the forges so as to avoid any of Theodren's lackeys. There Greymore greeted his good friend Bruenor, and told him of the attack, of all the death and devestation. Bruenor reminded Greymore that his family had always been loved and respected, and that most of the dwarves resented Theodren. And so Greymore gets up on a stone platform facing all the dwarves in the forge, and delivers his rousing "LETS GO TO WAR!" speech accompanied by Manowar's "Brothers of Metal"...to great effect. All of the dwarves in the forge let out a cry and pledged alliegance to Greymore and his just cause, leaving the Stronghold to wage war on the Demon Elves. Even a few of Theodren's loyalists sided with Greymore, although one of them spoke out, and was abruptly silenced when Bruenor's Hammer met his skull.
When all the forces had gathered, quite an impressive army had assembled. There were over 600 highly skilled dwarven warriors decked out in plate armor and wielding , hammers, axes, high-powered crossbows, even dwarven runecannons! We're talking seige weapons, chainguns, the works! Also in the force were 50 of the most elite of the Black Templar, wearing heavy plate and wielding claymore and runecannon alike. The king's champion (sadly I cannot remember his name) was there as well, wielding The Black Sword...I think that speaks for itself. Also sent by this human kingdom were 15 battlemages, all very dangerous and powerful spellswords. Midnight made a significant contribution as well, in the form of a few of his old friends: a pyromaniac psion and two twin sisters whom he had....known in the past, both skilled psychic warriors. And even after being severely battered in the battle, the Velsephian Warders were able to send a score of archers to aid in the attack.
That makes over 700 very dangerous combatants, a good deal of them being quite powerful, indeed. Now, the Demon Elves are expecting some kind of counter-attack, a few dozen spare elven mages and warriors seeking vengeance, but nothing on this scale. The Demon Elves are no doubt exhausted, battered, and wounded following their attack on Arboreon, and are ill-prepared for a counter-attack of this scale.
Just imagine it. That many dwarves can keep up a frightening and steady barrage of runecannon rounds and crossbow/bolt driver bolts using Fire, Drop and Reload tactics, and when they close for melee action, they OWN with their rockcrusher hammers and axes. The Dark Templar are all expert marksmen with their rifles, and can easily account for a huge amount of Demon Elves before closing in to inflict mass slaughter with their claymores. The Warder Archers will serve as an anti-mage force, concentrating all their fire on the mages, individual by individual to render then innefective, at best, and afterwards can deal a good amount of death to the Demon Elves, and can hold up quite well with their swordplay as well. That pyro psion and the twin sister psychic warriors can counter any psionics thrown at us and can reap massive damage in their own right. The battlemages are just SICK, they can walk up to a group of Demon elves, stab one, drop a fireball, and walk away unscathed as the baddies roast in the flames.
Now when you take into account Angcuru with his awesome archery skills and his awesomeness when handling Stormbrand; Greymore with his Lawful Holy Warhammer is almost guaranteed a kill with every hit, in addition to his extending waraxe and divine magic...oww!; Tak is simply put, a BASTARD whenit comes to combat...not only does he have his spells, but he's one tough S.O.B. and can hold his own in melee combat easily; Midnight's gonna be running around stabbing backs and blasting minds while Agon deals out massive casualties with his dual sword gauntlets. Then you have the king's champion, this guy is going to OWN in battle. And the runecannons.....*drool*....
It's not going to be easy, but we're going to whomp some Demon Elf ass, eh?
Last edited:
