The mongolian death worm is seriously dead...
And the battle is on...
Our cavalry crush their archers
The enemy cataphracts charge, but are routed by burning cursed khort
The Titan Mushrooms confuse the cataphracts...
causing them to attack the enemy scouts
A group of enemies break off and charge the Titans
We jump in to intercept them...
The cataphracts are being PWNd by the nohai archer's cloth-yard arrows
Myconid titan spores confuse everyone on the field...
Then a single old-empire cataphract on a blood warbeast breaks through...
AND gets blown off his beast by a point-blank shot from Khut...
AND it becomes clear that he is not at all alive...
Massive amounts of friendly fire occur...
no one else actually aims for the bad guy it seems...
Except Sorq who fireballs the bastard...
Khut puts another arrow right through its sturnum...
Khad jumps in and begins handing out the beatings...
Followed by Ithunn who tears him a new one...
AND then it retaliates and chops Ithunn and Khad up a bit...
He launches Ithunn into the air, then teleports up and whacks her...
AND one of Ja'lin's flunkies tags him with a lightning bolt...
Ado heat-metals his armor...melting it all over him...
making him REALLY dead...
Meanwhile, Baijou's infantry attempt draw our archers out...
Who are more than happy to rain arrows down and wipe them out to a man...
Then follow up and wipe the floor with the cataphracts...
Then Baijou's camp followers try to poison our archers...
But poison the infantry instead...
Then get driven mad by some spores...
AND GENERAL SQUEE WINS THE DAY!
There is an announcement from the four Heralds...
each carry a Sulde from the various Ordus...
"All armies must withdraw from the sacred space...
no weapons, no armor during the Khurutai (coronation)..."
A blood warbeast is missing...
Vadim follows it into the dispersing armies...
Vadim makes friends with the Warbeast...
Ja'Lin's diviner points out the food wagons looking "off"...
Khut sneaks in and notices that the wagons "klink"...
apparently smuggling weapons...
Ja'Lin's diviners notice that the drivers are from the far west...
Subotai's district...
Barruk punts the driver and steers the wagon out of the way...
Ado wanders over and has some tea with Baijou...
implying that "his brother does not take a loss well"...
Baijou warns us of more violence yet to come...
The fortresses of the hidden ones in the west still stand...
why are they still alive...
Khut sets fire to another wagon that looks...too different...
Ithunn spots a Pasht assassin roll off the wagon and vanish...
When they choose a king, they seat him on white felt and raise him thrice...
Then they lift him, carry him around the tent...
set a golden sword on his lap...
The assassin comes out of the crowd, poisoned blade in hand...
He launches...and is tackled mid-air by Khadagan...
Khad pins the assassin and holds his own dagger at his throat...
Ithunn strikes some pressure points...
AND Squee turns an assassination into a Joke...
But he thinks its not very funny...
The assassin's eyes flash with insane purpose...
He pops his shoulder out of socket trying to break Khad's grip...
AND is stopped cold...
The corronation proceeds...
The party swear oaths of fealty to the Jalin's Golden Horde...
(or Vadim, Ado, Sorq, and Khut at least)
From the side, the Malik, led by Barruk charge Subotai's contingent...
Jalin rises from his throne and speechifies...
And gives us the Sulde of the Altan Ordu...
to carry forth the vision of unity, tolerance, and empire...
"I place my troops and my people at your disposal my generals..."
"We may not hear...call us through boldness, through random chance..."
Vadim pats Khut on the shoulder and says "Show Subotai our clemency..."
AND Khut drops a poisoned arrow right between Subotai's clavicles...
AND they all fade...
AND we're all bat-shit crazy...
AND Jalin's gardener opens the door to let us out...
There are some things on the floor...
10 Champion (L6) Warbeasts
Tea prepared by the Khagan's own hand (potion of mind reading)
A scroll of Rary's Telepathic Bond (puffing myconid spores as a component)
2 Potions of Invisibility (composed by the Khagan's hand)
"reverse halucination" -- everyone ignores convinced you're not real
Writings -- The Secret History of the Altan Ordu
Prayers/Scriptures of the Altan Ordu:
Incendiary Cloud
Regenerate
Commune with Nature
The golden sulde
Spear with a disk around it with long golden hairs...
Khad comes back with some plants:
Black Lotus
Green Lotus
Purple Lotus
Ironwood
Good Berries
Spuds
and a handful of Myconid spores
Khad communes with the Gardener and sets him to work planting...
Outside there are two encamped armies...
one of ours...and nearly twice as many Malik and Naiman...
We ride in...chat with Ganbaatar...the head over to parley...
Barruk points out that some of the Gond troops are steppes Malik...
Everyone makes with the thunder, lightning, fire, ice, water, and dust...
They are duly impressed...mostly...
They say "Join up or die"...Ado says "That was our idea..."
Barruk introduces himself as being of "The People of the Fallen Star"...
Who are apparently loyal soldiers of the Gond...
Their captain asks Barruk to swear to the Shashahar he'll call off the fight
and take us on as "irregulars" in defense of Gond Shahar...
Barruk swears as Irregulars to fight the Empty Circle...
but not "under the yoke" of the Shashahar.
We return to our camp to prepare the troops to head south...
Vadim makes nice with the Gray Lady (who has finally joined us)...
AND gets her to quicken 60 landshark eggs...which we plant behind us...
Barruk heads off into the Gond to seek out the other Fallen Star...
All of whom are integrated into the 3 Gonds of the Eastern Marches...
Champions are good in a battle, poor in a siege...
He starts trying to assemble "a proper herd" among the Malik...
Ado marries some warblers as a way of entreating Drowned River...
Sorq encourages the nohai to breed...and we've got 40 more puppies...
Khut grabs one of the champion warbeasts ("Arrow")...
goes in search of the Black Crows...hoping to talk to the Sureshafts...
gets spotted...kisses the mammoth and runs south...
And rides like the wind with another army on his heels...
Ithunn starts a military/survival academy for the kids and teens...
Squee makes up some flyers to advertise for the school...
A week later, we approach Vohu Mana...
An Empty Circle column is coming in from the east....
(sans scouts who we PWN'd previously)...
Barruk convinces the Gond leader to seed all 60 landshark eggs...
AND the entire northern column is DEVOURED by landsharks...
Or at least halted after the first couple landshark attacks...
We arrive at Vohu Mana a day late...
It is burning...top to bottom...
Very few (~1800) refugees fleeing to the west...
A huge array of slow, fortified seige engines...
Sorq drops an Incendiary Cloud on the seige weaponry...
AND summons a modron pentadrone to wreak havoc...
Ado drops Commune with Nature...
The Empty Circle seeks that which is not at all natural...
They try to drive despair before them...
use their prayers to find whether or not there are gods...
send "prophets" to egg refugees on into praying...
There is a large, living, pulsing body of water under the enemy forces...
The most valuable thing in the city = The blessing of Qormusta Tngri...
Khut rides into the city at breakneck speed...
To a dais, upon which the Empty Circle are holding a feast...
atop a deck of those who groan and die...
The defenders of Vohu Mana are stacked beneath the dais...
being crushed to death...
Khadagan prays to Odqan Talaqan...
she takes the city in her warm embrace...
As if it was not burning enough already...
Squee sneaks in, dumps food, and steals all their plates...
AND their commanders rise up and look menacing...
NEXT TIME:
A battle on a pile of people...
Every time Josh says "Seige Engine"...
-- Sorq says "I set that crap on fire!"
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