seasong's Light Against The Dark II (May 13)

[seasong]

Ack! First, off, typo: that was 300 ft, not 600 ft. Still darned impressive, though - how many people can hurl a spear an entire football field and hit a 12' target at the other end?

(I've editted it above, but... urgh!)

Regarding Kyriotes: Actually, nothing magical was involved, just knowledge and strategy. They were curious why they're most feared enemy would make himself available to their giants, so they held off a bit to see what was up. When no powerful creature came into existence, they knew something was up, so they continued to wait.

Well, except for one shaman who took a pot shot, but he's been reprimanded.

When the earth serpent started to appear, they decided to go for broke - no way they were letting Kyriotes cast freely more than once.

And betting against twinks: Yeah. That pretty much sums it up.

 

[seasong]

Vignette: The Little Soldier

Behind the barracks was a small copse of trees, and through the trees, one of the many reasonably sheer slopes that can be found throughout the mountains. It blocked the sun in summer, kept some of the barracks heat in winter, and was blocked off from the open yard. The original designers had chosen the barracks placement to create the spot, so youths in Service would have a place to hang out, out of sight.

Soldiers, of course, tended to use it for grudge fights, where their Captains couldn't see (that it might have been used for trysts as well is, of course, wholly and irredeemably false). Aggie had a grudge, so here she was.

Her opponent was Helanna, a big woman, half-orc and all jerk, whose first decision upon arriving was to find the smallest person in the group and pick on them whenever the Captain wasn't around. That someone was Aggie. Aggie would have said something to the Captain, but she was a Theralis citizen, so she toughed it out.

This morning, however, was too much. Helanna had been in a bad mood, and had quite methodically broken Aggie's spear, saying "What? It's not like you can use it. Would you rather I broke your head?"

Aggie had said yes. And here she was.

Helanna stood six feet, tall among Theralese but short among her orc kindred, with muscles everywhere that she took pride in flexing for Aggie. Aggie was half a head shorter, and while muscled from soldier's work, still barely topped half Helanna's mass.

Helanna sighed, "Let's get this over with" and sucker-punched Aggie, who went down, stunned and hurting. Blood trickled from her upper lip, and she rolled over onto her stomach to get up...

Helanna landed on her, one meaty hand on the back of her head, a knee on the small of her back, "Little prey, you stupid little prey! What made you think you could take me!? Huh!?"

"TO HETHAS WITH YOU!" Aggie grabbed the wrist on her head and rolled, and Helanna, not prepared to defend her balance, toppled off. Aggie didn't bother escaping, she jumped onto Helanna and began punching at the woman's head with her fists. The blows were pitiful, and Helanna recovered enough to kick Aggie off.

Aggie sprawled back, got up, and jumped on Helanna as she was getting up. Her right foot twisted, but she managed to get her left knee into Helanna's stomach, somewhere just below the sternum. Helanna gasped, doubling up, and Aggie, standing up again, kicked her in the face. The kick was not as pitiful as the punches, and Helanna stopped moving.

Some of the other soldiers (some watching for the Captain, some watching for an unfair fight), checked Helanna, then got everyone back into the cabin. Plenty of people fell when climbing some rock or another - unfortunate, but kids will be kids.

Helanna left Aggie alone. And Aggie learned an important lesson about estimating the enemy, and using fear.

 

[seasong]

Breaking Cat

As the giant fell, the Theralese called to battle, and the shield wall advanced on the orcs. Orders were simple - the orcs were not to have time to think, to regroup, to decide on new tactics involving only one giant.

For the orcs, it was very nearly too much. One giant had fallen to spears, the other was running deeper into the forest. And as they were absorbing the fact that one of their strongest had just fallen, had, indeed, been cut down like an armorcat kit that refused to acknowledge its master, the sound of thunder rolled down the slope as the human army, pounding spears on iron shields, came down to meet them.

Still, the Breaking Cat tribe was not weak. They rallied as best as they could, and soon the war drums were beating and the warriors were fighting... but they were losing the day's battle. They were driven straight to the tree line, before the Theralese withdrew a hundred feet and set up additional shield walls.

The message was clear: We will do this again tomorrow. And you will lose again tomorrow.

The orcs napped fitfully. Their shaman, drawing ragged breaths where an arrow had pierced his throat, suggested a plan to his war chief. The decision was made. In the morning, a sacrifice would be made.

Among the Theralese, Athan was on the shoulders of the Keraunesti. Given an honorary position at the forefront of their wedge (as reward for his spear hurling feat), he had proven himself admirably. He'd turned down a permanent role with them, but had agreed to fight with them anytime he could, and they were providing him a party before the morrow's fight.

For Theralis, it was a good evening.

 

[incognito]

questions. questions, questions

1. Can one 'ride' an armor cat?
2. Greppa's new spells: are they the 'light' equivalent of his 'old' spells?
3. Orc gods: Where are they?
4. I take it the Theralese soliders are MUCH more experienced (even the average footman) then they were 2 years ago.
5. The vignette: Great! Will we be seeing more of Aggie?
6. Heh...you guys know the deal.

 

[seasong]

1. Can one 'ride' an armor cat?

Not built for it. Like Cringer/Battlecat in He-Man, this is one that's a cool image, but not very practical unless you are small enough to sit on the cat's neck.[/QUOTE]2. Greppa's new spells: are they the 'light' equivalent of his 'old' spells?[/QUOTE]One of them is - sun bolts is magic missile in disguise, but he just lost shadow strands and shadow servant. He also discovered recently that I wasn't going to let him acquire the infernal flame spell.

3. Orc gods: Where are they?

Orcs recognize that the gods exist, and occasionally make offerings to them when they're about to do something they think the god might not approve of, but they tend to view the gods in much the same way they view dragons - big, powerful entities that don't really care about orcs. Orcs worship their ancestors, who are more generally helpful to orcs, and they venerate (and work with) wilderness spirits.

4. I take it the Theralese soliders are MUCH more experienced (even the average footman) then they were 2 years ago.

Straight up, yo. There's also a lot more of them - the past two years, a much higher percentage of soldiers didn't leave Service at the end of their year. For contrast, we will also be seeing a bit in Aglaonis sometime in the near future, where they are much more militarily relaxed.

5. The vignette: Great! Will we be seeing more of Aggie?

You will.

 

[Delgar]

Hey Seasong!

Another great set of updates. I'm looking forward to see what the future holds (i.e. what else gets forced into Theralis!). Just out of curiosity how long have you guys been playing this campaign now?

Anyway, keep up the good work!

Delgar

 

[seasong]

My first post (in Part I) happened the week before we started. I've kept up by session since then (although I've occasionally fallen behind). What I've been writing this week is what we played last Saturday .

So not very long at all (3 months, I think?).

Edit: Since mid-November, so almost 4 months now, and 6th level. At a wild guess, we should hit 20th sometime around Christmas.

 

[seasong]

Breaking Cat, Day 17

Morning.

At the edge of the forest, an old shaman, his breath whistling through the hole in his neck, led eight orc youths into a central ring of warriors. Upslope, Theralese arcanists panicked - it was reasonably obvious what he was doing, and while they weren't sure what shamanic sacrifices could call down, they knew that they didn't want whatever it was.

Fireballs and other long range attacks rained down the slope, only to be consumed by whatever spirits where protecting the shaman, disappearing in puffs of rent magical energy. Greppa exhausted himself casting, and sat down abruptly. He needed to rest, so he could be more helpful later. And then the youths, as one, raised blade to their own throats, and cut. As their life blood seeped into the ground, there were a few moments of quiet as the forest animals silenced...

An armorcat, ten feet at the shoulder padded out of the forest. It lowered its ponderous head to the shaman's, and Theralis could hear his gleeful laughter as he pointed upslope. The armorcat leapt, covering nearly a fifty feet in a bound, and sprinted into the Theralese shield wall before anyone thought to run.

Kyriotes, as coldly professional as always, began incanting, and the Keraunesti converged on him, protecting him with their meat bodies from however the orcs might try to stop him. The armorcat ignored them, a fatal mistake. Kyriotes summoned a serpent larger than even the gargantuan armorcat, with flesh of granite and eyes of emerald. It sucked in breath, a rasping noise like chalk on shale, and began whipping downslope to the armorcat.

Kyriotes disappeared, invisible again, and the Keraunesti moved in to help fight the armorcat, while the front shield line was assaulted by orc fighting wedges. When the serpent seemed to have things well in tail, Athan led a split-off group of Keraunesti further downslope to help hold a breaking wall.

As soon as Athan was near the front line, the female giant began to move. She'd marked the one who threw that spear at her mate, and had marked his movements since. He wasn't hard to spot - he was taller than most, broad of shoulder, and wearing a white cloak.

Hefting her club, rarely used in battle, she charged through the shield wall to bring it down on his head. Athan managed to shift enough to take only a glancing blow, but even that shook his muscular frame like gelatin. Looking up at her from slightly below the hips, Athan grinned fiercely, and stepped in, punching the butt of his spear into her ankle and shoving into her knee with his shoulder.

She went down, collapsing onto the ground, and soldiers swarmed in to stab her as best they could, though their spears mostly clattered off her shaman-protected flesh. Angrily, she caught Athan on the side of the head, knocking him flat, and together they struggled up, she to run away, him to pursue.

She got almost forty feet before he caught up to her again, this time stabbing the back her knee with his spear, and knocking her flat again.

Above, Greppa watched the fight and realized that Athan was in trouble - an unbelievable athlete, he'd outrun the other soldiers to catch the giant, and orcs were now converging. Using the last dregs of his strength, he began raining fireballs and sun streaks on the orcs that got close...

Athan lept upon the giantess' back, and as she rolled over, dropped onto her throat with his great spear. Her eyes were filled with fear, and an unspoken question died in her throat... how could a human do this?

Then the orcs moved in, and stabbed Athan. Their eyes were tearful, for they admired him greatly. Only the greatest heroes of their history were said to wrestle with giants. But they could not let him live while he was an enemy, and so they stabbed and stabbed and stabbed.

Merideth was practically on top of them before they realized it. The air around her shredded as her kinetic knives found their way through orc flesh, and then she fell upon Athan, sobbing and healing.

For Greppa, the world swam and went black. His strength gone, he hoped he'd done enough, and idly, wondered what Merideth's new spell was.

Athan's body was healed, but his soul had fled. A hero of Theralis was dead.

 

[Greybar]

Wow. Great sequence, and we certainly see what the dramatic change in the campaign is. As a player you couldn't ask for a better warrior's death!

I hope we get a proper funeral scene...

John

 

[Delgar]

Woah! Wasn't expecting that one, not one iota!

I'll just shed a quiet tear.

Great read Seasong, keep up the great work!

Delgar