Had a couple of weeks off from this game due to medical issues...
I apologize if it is even less coherent than the usual incoherence...
Cards: Drowned River Thunderbird
Chaos
Plague among the Warblers
We surface out of a long-used-up mine shaft into the city
Followed by hordes of frightened dwarven women and children
Vadim flashes some House Surrin markers to some merchants
We head towards the north gate (out and west)
There is a Riot and a political gang-fight...
Reds (fight the EC) vs. Blacks (open the gates and surrender)
Breaks Like Wind scrys the Exarch's discussions...
They realize they'd been conned hard-core...
They begin mobilizing the golems to pursue us...
Khadagan charges out of the caves into a pile of Reds...
Pitches them into a slimy beast-trough with a big timber...
Then whirlwinds as they close in...
Khut finds a granary and decides to loot it...
He swings up to the second floor...
From his vantage he spots some female Pasht assassins on the roof...
Ithunn starts giving him advice on how to hit on cats
"Be confident, chicks love that..."
But, with his deepest love talking to him he goes catatonic
Ellen-Dear runs in and starts leading the dwarf refugees into the granary
Squee organizes them to grab hay-bales...
Loading them onto wagons...
and the kids building forts out of the hay-bales...
Ithunn stealths up and leaps over to chat with Pasht...
Breaks Like Wind (still stoned) comes running in behind...
Is stuffed unceremoniously into a wagon...
THEN Sorqutani sets fire to the granary...
Ado illusions up a horde of EC troops in the city...
the riot stands in stunned silence...
AND we kick open the doors of the granary and roll out of there...
THEN...
WE SPLIT THE PARTY
Ithun, Barruk, Ado, Ellen-Dear, and Khadagan lead the dworcs out of town
Khut, Sorq, Breaks, Vadim, Squee, and Iron-Dear head to the mercantile quarter
Squee chews out the guard lieutenant and demands they open the gates...
Khut makes the House Surrin markers appear in her back pocket...
AND she flashes them...
"What do we care what House Surrin says, the city is about to fall..."
"We're going to run and save everyone we can...you should come along"
They double-march lead us to the warehouses...
We debate what to loot first...
THEN a big palanquin hauled by flesh golems shows up...
The Golems put the palanquin down and charge...
Khut shoots the curtains off the palanquin...
Sorq blasts flame at the golems...and lights them up...
One swings wildly at her, to no avail...
One starts sniffing around for Iron-Dear...but sucks...
the other two maul Vadim...
knock him through a window...into a burning building...
Iron-Dear lights another one up...
Khut rails the necromancer...
the palanquin goes up in a gout of shadow and flame...
Sorq and Iron-Dear light up the others...
Breaks spots the invisible necromancer...
and duels him mano-a-magical-mano...
countering his spells and blasting his ass...
Vadim pulls out his reflective shield and sword...
and stalks up to the necromancer...and misses...
the necromancer blasts him...
AND it bounces back and he kills himself...
Squee drops a cloud of daggers on one...
Khut blows the rune off and kills it very-very-dead...
Sorq burns one down to its component atoms...
Iron-Dear cuts the rune off the third burning golem...
Vadim thorn-whips the last one into a burning building...
Which collapses on him...
The golem stands up...
AND gets shot in the rune by Khut...
We steal the beasts...
Khut and Iron-Dear smash and grab the mages' guild...
each comes out with two big bags of shinies...
Cloak of Elvenkind
Wand of the Warmage
We run for the gates...
with 10 Blood War-beasts, pulling wagons...full of food!
AND Khut is riding a ???
AND makes himself scarce...
We reach the north gate to kind Ithunn playing soccer with a golem's head...
The rest of the golem hangs from the portculis, upside down, headless...
AND everyone else playing pinata with it...
AND Khadagan is now wielding a portculis...
Apparently they told the Northern Gond that they would hold the gate...
and sent the Northern Gond to the square to get reinforcements...
AND the gonds in the square take control of the city...
AND we head out, booking it for the salt flats...
Malik lead the way in the vanguard...
Nohai scouts circle us....
Blood warbeasts and holy mountain beasts in the center...
The Gray Lady and the maggot-folk follow near the center...
The core forming a tight academic community...
Trying to assemble a portable replica of the golemworks...
The warblers are sick...their eggs shells are brittle...
Khadagan moves in and starts nursing them back to health...with vigor...
AS WE TRAVEL...
Breaks dedicates himself to the mirrors...
Watching for threats from the Fade...
Which are clearly bleeding into reality through a nasty hole...
Squee runs for Hulagu, finding supplies, apportioning rations...
Helping the refugees get acclimated to life in the Ordu...
Ithunn starts a witch-hunt for possible assassins...
Finds some funny-dressed steppefolk and joins them for dinner...
Vadim almost hits on them...
Apparently he bathes in mares-milk...
Iron-Dear points out their yellow eyes...totally NOT steppefolk...
AND Ithunn and the Pasht start some kung-fu cat-fighting...
Khut, lurking, is terribly turned-on...
The rest of the cats fall asleep by the fire...
The Catgirl leader introduces herself as Mrin of the Mountain...
AND Squee appears out of nowhere "It's a kitty!"
Vadim works with Broketooth and Gormak to mount fireworks on spears...
Giving some anti-archer capability to our infantry...
We all go talk to the Gray Lady to tell her about the skystone...
Vadim tries to hook her up with Ellen-Dear...
Khut, scorched, offers to smuggle her in to see the skystone...
Vadim "Why are you on her side, she can't even breed!"
Ellen-Dear "Oh, she can breed!"
Khut explains the encounter in the skystone...asks to see her library...
Also, he looks very very burned...
And his yurt starts skittering away...
He runs back to catch it...or what he his in there...
Ado asks about invoking Ohrmazd Bay...
She suggests talking to the Malik Magi...
Khadagan chats with her about herbalism...
He offers her some black lotus...she accelerates the potato harvest...
Ellen-Dear starts discussing golem-craft with the Dworcs...
Barruk and Gan'baatar starts breaking the Malik up into squads of 25...
Training them in group-combat (non-Champion) tactics...
With Gan'baatar training them to incorporate Holy Mountain Beasts...
Which makes Hoargrim Whiteman really happy...
He nicknames them "The Iron Gorgons"...
Because Malik on Blood Warbeasts charging as a unit is awesome...
Iron-Dear takes some time getting to know the caravan...
Then goes scouting with the Nohai...
Whoever is out there is exremely good...but she has their number...
As the rocks change to salt-flats...
There is _something_ out there...
And its not just heat-shimmer...That ground is moving...
Ado removes all adornments...cakes himself in mud and dust...
Sits outside the camp with a broken warbler egg...
And entreats the Lord of Light and Life (Ohrmazd Bay)...
Going so far as to mortify himself with a cursed arrow...
"Against evil from outside and to secure victory in war"
The desert heat bakes down...
All he can see is the searing white light...
As he passes out...
He realizes he can see a patch of blackness against the sand...
Then realizes that he is looking at something pure white...
And the sand is made black...
He has caught the attention of a spirit of pure white light...
Iron-Dear comes back into the camp...
with a tattered bedraggled warbler...cradling a dead baby...
and they both say "LOOK UP!"
AND it's the biggest thunderbird we've ever seen...
Khut quick-shoots it and pushes it away from the herds...
Sorqutani calls on the fire mother and blasts it with a witch bolt...
drawing its attention...
It dives and grabs Khut...
The thing...was clearly a thunderbird...at one point...
But has black feathers and stiched-shut eyes like an EC Warbler...
Khut stabs it in the foot...It drops him...
And he is snagged out of the air by a Juvenile Thunderbird...
HIS NEW FRIEND
Ithunn leaps 60 feet into the air...
grabs Khut's ankles...gets flipped towards the bird...
grabs a wing and wrenches, causing it to lose serious altitude...
and proceeds to beat it out of the sky with her tusks...
WHERE Vadim ropes it with a steel cable...and lashes him to a wagon...
Barruk leaps on an exploding outhouse...
Onto the head of the blackcrow-thunderbird...
And SMITES it...and SMITES it again...with the sound of rolling thunder...
Ellen-Dear fires an acid arrow strait in its teeth...
Melting the bindings holding its mouth and eyes shut...
And its eyes are completely black lifeless pools...
Khadagan leaps in with the claws...and tears its lungs off...
And Squee viciously mocks it...
Breaks tells everyone not to kill it...
Then looks more carefully...
points out that it is not undead...just soul-less...
Decides that its not a thunderbird...
Touches its forehead...and kills it...
Khut flies back to his yurt and tucks in his little friend (Littlewing)...
Then walks back to the downed Fade-Bird, cuts off a chunk, and chows down...
Ellen-Dear starts researching turning it into a Golem...
Hundreds of Dust marks the bird as unclean to keep the nohai off...
AND she and Khadagan return to their tent to get it on...
We have a long chat about whether or not to head into the salt flats...
We head north into the salt-flats to meet the Fade-turned Old Empirers...
Everyone vanishes [Nat-20 Stealth plus Pass without Trade]...
Ripclaws (and Littlewing) circling silently overhead...
Except Barruk...who walks alone through the desert...
Bearing the standard of the West†
† golden pole topped with a double-headed ripclaw...
We come upon a crater...
In which there is a black Gith...with shining black teeth...
Emanating a miasma of darkness...bearing a sword of liquid starlight...
Barruk plants the standard and faces him...alone?
The Gith greets him in clipped, cultured, High Malik...
Barruk makes...confused...complicated introductions...
He introduces himself as "The Fifth Blade of Shan-yu"
Well known as the general who won the greatest, most mismatched battles of all of military history. Beating armies of 200K with an army of only 30K. Burried another alive. More than 2000 years ago.
Apparently he is digging up the burried army...
The ground around him is swarming with salt-zombies...
And there are a lot more just on the other side in the fade...
Vadim stands up out of the sand...covered in fur...and asks...
"Do you breed?"
Nope...they are "Faded"...they are gone...
But their memory can still impact this world...
Squee appears and asks "Can I have a tooth?!"
Khut presents the Sulde of the Altan Ordu...
Which apparently hurts his brain...an empty place in his mind...
We negotiate...and offer them the city of Ahura Mazda in exchange for their salt
The Gray Lady (who came with us)...switches to old imperial...
And asks for the opportunity to discuss philosophy with them...
Offering the knowledge of an ancient kingdom
To trade for knowledge "that your folk alone possessed"
Vadim - "I'm glad I hit the shit-house and not the library last night"
Squee, convinced the Gith cannot see or hear her, scrambled up him...
Trying to steal a tooth...
Iron-Dear tries to grab her...fails...
Breaks cuts a mirror off the top of his hat and presents it to her...
She refuses...
Iron-Dear tries to put her to sleep...fails...
She climbs him, trying as hard as she can to extract his teeth...
But it just doesn't work...
She bangs on his head...and he doesn't even notice...
THEN she steals his sword...or tries...
She touches it...grips it for a moment...
But knows that if she unsheathed it...she would have no future...
The sword apparently severs you from the Verge...
And she goes back to desperately trying to pry a tooth out...
AND We've offered them a city...
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