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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mikelaff" data-source="post: 4317515" data-attributes="member: 39664">Q: What about this invasion from Faerie you've alluded to?A: Here's an excerpt about thatDecember 1917 - In a last-ditch attempt to stave off defeat, the Kaiser’s army embarked on a desperate gambit. Through a complicated negotiation process at the Bavarian portal, they arranged a deal for direct military assistance with the rulers of the Faerie Empire of Lyrask - the Council of Crimson Wyrms. (The Kaiser is strongly opposed to this pact initially – but he is persuaded and manipulated by his military into accepting it.) Working through a fey negotiator, they agree to pay the Council a huge sum of gold bullion in exchange for them making a aerial assaults on several French and British cities. The German’s philosophy is that this strike will be so demoralizing to the Allied forces they will have no choice but to ask for peace.January 1918 - On January 17, 1918, the negotiations with the Council of Crimson Wyrms were apparently successfully concluded. Five red dragons exited the Bavarian Portal and launched their attacks against Paris, London, Cologne and Strasbourg. Upon return, the dragons and the Kaiser’s generals had an argument about the exact terms of their payment. The red dragons believed that their payment was to be about twice what the German military believed they had agreed to. Enraged, the dragons stormed into the Bavarian portal, cursing the Kaiser and his general as they meant. The next day, they returned in force with several legions of orcs, goblins and hill giants behind them. They seized control of the Bavarian Forest portal – establishing a headquarters and beachhead for their invasion force. They burned the nearest city - Munich -to the ground and launched a full-scale invasion of Europe. February 1918 - Bavaria soon fell to the Dragons’ Army and the Central Powers were obliged to ask for a truce. The Allies were skeptical about the wisdom of agreeing to this request. Two events changed their mind – another dragon attack on London and an invasion of the Alsace-Lorraine region by an orcish horde from Bavaria. The seriousness of the threat was clear and both sides accepted the ceasefire.April 1918 - The Catholic Church successfully used its influence to keep Italy out of the Great War, citing concerns about the possible “demonic” nature of the spellcasting being used. However, in response to the Dragon Invasion, Pope Benedict XV founded the Order of St Michael – an army devoted to driving the Dragons Army (and fey in general) from Europe. The Order’s numbers quickly swelled into the thousands and chapters were started in England, Germany and France. The Order and the Italian Army provided a much needed boost to beleaguered European armies struggling to deal with the challenges of fighting the Dragons’ Army.May to July 1918 – The Battle of Monte Bondone (also called the Siege of Trento) is fought by the Order of St Michael and the Italian Army (with some assistance from French and Austrian forces) to repulse the incursion of Dragons Army  into Northern Italy. It was  a series of battles around the mountain hamlet of Monte Bondone in the Tyrolean Alps. Early in the battle, several Italian units were ambushed and deciminated by orc infanty – with even prisoners of war being massacred (and – if some rumors are to be believed – butchered and eaten). The European forces pulled back to the nearby city of Trento where they were besieged by the orc infantry until late June when the Order of St. Michael began a counter-offensive that succeeded in pushing the invaders back into southern Germany within 3 weeks.The united European forces used the wholesale slaughter of Italian soldiers at Monte Bondone as a successful propaganda and recruitment tool for the remainder of the Dragons War. Military historians note that this was the battle that proved to the world (and to the Dragons Army) that the Order of St. Michael was a fighting force to be taken seriously. June 1918 - As if in response to the founding of the Order of St. Michael, pagan clerics in Norway and Sweden (newly respectable since the resurgence of magic) found a similar holy army dubbed Thors Raseri (Thor’s Rage). Thor’s Rage sends units of clerics and holy warriors into England and Northern Europe to help in the fight against the Dragons’ Army. Thor’s Rage is as effective as the Catholic army in using their combination of modern warfare and divine magic to combat the dragons’ forces. Between the two of them they were credited for the destruction of three of the red dragons leading the invasion. Unfortunately, a fierce animosity developed between the Order of St Michael and Thor’s Rage. On more than one occasion, secular forces had to intervene to stop the clerics from opening fire on each other. This is because the Catholic Church viewed the pagan clerics as fey-tainted heretics who are only slightly less of a threat than the enemies from Faerie. (Strangely, the Order of St. Michael has no problems fighting alongside soldiers in secular armies practicing arcane magic.)</blockquote>

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