Post by Dead Greyhawk on Sept 8, 2006 6:39:17 GMT -5
Meeting with Sir Highrider
Raven and Otto are invited to take part in Sir Highrider’s council, to represent the Company of the Blue Sun and any other groups that will follow them. Sir Highrider’s council is a mixed one. Richard Coldheart appears to lead the Keoish army unit. Killain Anvilsplitter now leads the Keepers of the Peace, his former commander having entered Moridin’s embrace. High Priest Wernack speaks for the Temples. The heads of three other mercenary bands, Thomas O’Shaelee, Madeleine von Essell, and Launir Netherander, round out the meetings. None of the mercenaries seem as competent as you’d like them to be, but all seem competent enough. The council meets several times a week, or whenever Sir Highrider needs particular advice.
Sir Highrider lays out the facts. Even including the mercenaries who have joined them from across the river, the situation is grim. Less than two thousand fighting men are organized within the city. The Army garrison makes up four hundred men. The remaining Keepers of the Peace are three hundred strong. The merchant family guards, never dependable in a fight and of questionable training, make up another seven hundred. The mercenaries are another two hundred. The Temple guards are mainly destroyed. Arrayed against the city are roughly two thousand orcs, two hundred giants, and an ever growing number of undead. While Sir Highrider has enough men to defend the city, he does not have enough to mount an assault in the field and defend the city at the same time.
Sir Highrider’s plan is to continue to ship in supplies and reinforcements from across the Javan river and wait for relief to come, either directly from Niole Dra, from Loftwick, or from Flen or Cryllor to the north. So long as Sir Highrider’s forces are increasing, he is content to defend. He posits disease and shortness of supply weakening his enemies as they camp in the lands outside of the city.
Both Raven and Otto have doubts about the overall plan, but see no fatal flaw. Raven wonders whether the city’s increase in men outweighs the opponent’s increase in undead. Otto’s questions are more practical, asking in detail about troop strength and placement. Sir Highrider, clearly not pleased to be questioned in his own castle about his strategy, only grudgingly replies.
Sir Highrider snootily informs Otto that the cavalry is essentially no more. Only a hundred trained horses remain, under the control of the Army, and that they will be used to break any enclosed infantry action inside the city. Sir Highrider had been preparing Longspear for combat for months now, hearing the news coming out of Sterich, so most of the merchant guard is armed with crossbows, but they, of course, are the major losses during the siege, as they are exposed on the walls to the enemy fire. Catapults are all but useless, as the giants catch the weapons and use them against the walls, and ballistae, while effective, are primary targets for the giants’ boulders.
The relationship between the merchant guards and his direct control are ... touchy. Sir Highrider could conscript them all into the Keoish army, but they would need to be reorganized and drilled into squads and teams. Without such training, the men would be no better than raw peasant militia. On the other hand, inviting any single merchant family into his coterie of advisors brings dissension from the other families. Inviting all of the families to advise makes meetings unbearable. As it stands, he issues orders to the merchant family heads and, usually, they follow the spirit, if not the letter of them.
Sir Highrider rises into a frothing rage when asked about wizards. Madeleine von Essell and Launir Netherander excuse themselves from the table to get some water while Sir Highrider rants about the infidelity of the Silent One, who has removed himself from battle when the city needs him most. Sir Highrider rants for a good fifteen minutes, turning redder and redder as he does, until you fear he will have an apoplectic seizure. He claims he will raze the Silent One’s residence to the ground and petition King Scotti, his cousin, to expel all members of their order. The sight is quite startling.
Launir whispers to Raven over a blueberry scone that wizards are a sore point with Sir Highrider and suggests not raising the issue again. Between Launir’s and Madeleine’s troops are three wizards capable of the destructive magics of fire and lightning. Besides them, no other battle-class mage has stepped forth. Launir’s language is odd, Raven never having heard the phrase “battle-class” used in front of him while he was in the militia, and slightly inflected. Raven files the information away for further contemplation.
After Sir Highrider dismisses his meetings to attend to other things, Otto and Raven hobnob with the three mercenary captains. Thomas O’Shaelee leads a contingent of horse archers, The Red Riders, from the Grand March. His horses are stabled on the other side of the river, under the guard of half his men, but the rest command groups of archers on the walls of the city. Madeleine von Essell hies from Perrenland and leads a corps of spearmen, the Keuzberg Pikes. She confides that several of her men are capable of minor magics and that her main advisor, Kerren Loreweaver, is a mage. Launir Netherander is somewhat evasive in his answers, saying that his small group of men happened to be in the area looking for someone and decided to pitch in. Otto points out that his small group contains two mages, but Launir reminds him that the Company contains three.
Questioning the Prisoner
Raven, Diego, Otto, and Dell meet with Killain Anvilsplitter when the prisoner is to be released. The Keepers of the Peace take many precautions against the casting of unholy prayers and surround the statue of the man. Raven warns them that if he is killed, his spirit is unreachable for questioning. Dell takes out the cold-forged mithril circlet dug up out of the ancient tomb and places it on his brow. He stiffens and begins to glance around the room, taking in the look of each person there. He takes the circlet off, and says, “Ready.”
When Dell releases his spell, the priest is mobbed by a veritable horde of dwarves who beat the man unconscious. “We’ll take it from here,” growls Killain. Otto presents a short list of questions to Killain to be certain they are asked. Killain mutters something about not being a servant or a fool.
Regardless, Otto and Raven are the ones who are summoned almost three weeks later to meet with the Anvilsplitter. He has much to say to the two of them, and some concerns as well. He had the priest, Pek Brimmiden, asked many questions, including those the Company asked, but now he thinks this may have been a bad idea. He’ll voice his concerns after he’s told the Company the answers he got.
Pek Brimmiden no longer worships Erythnul, even though he wears characteristic garb of a sub-sect of the god. Instead, he claims that he worships a new god, Tharizdun, bringer of the future dark. Killain Anvilsplitter makes the hammer of Moridin when he says the god’s name. According to Pek, Tharizdun rules him as Tharizdun will rule all and through Tharizdun all things are possible. Pek Brimmiden is remarkably persuasive when speaking about his new god.
Pek Brimmiden claims that Tharizdun directs all of his troops like fingers on a harpsichord, playing them all directly to make a beautiful sound. No one deviates from the chosen plan and the cold gaze of Tharizdun rests on all of the blessed.
Killain started with easy questions and found that the magical armor is weakly protective and the boots make Pek Brimmiden fleet of foot. Of course, the word of an evil priest should always be checked.
Killain was able to establish that no enemy forces are hidden from sight. The orcs and the giants are those living forces that are available. Pek Brimmiden and his brethren convert the fallen into zombies and skeletons to augment the living with the undead. What disturbed him more though was what Pek said about the forces yet to arrive.
A large mass of undead are moving from Sterich towards Longspear. Pek Brimmiden, his brethren, and his zombies came ahead to pave the way. The undead that are coming are self-replicating, unlike the zombies and skeletons here. Ghouls, wights, wraiths, and spectres make up the undead horde. They will replace their own losses.
Until that horde arrives, the orcs and giants are to merely hem in the city. The more troops that come into Longspear, the more undead that will eventually be made. If people flee, the horde will catch them eventually, or their corpses will be disinterred to be made into skeletons. Tharizdun cares not how one serves.
The taking of the temple district was done by the orcs and giants before Pek Brimmiden arrival. The exact manner by which that was done is not known to Pek Brimmiden. He assumed some subterfuge was performed, since the army was upon the city with little warning, but the exact manner is unknown to him. Pek Brimmiden showed a cavalier lack of care about the state of the orcs and the giants, stating that, in the end, they will all be fodder for Tharizdun regardless.
Pek Brimmiden knew that the giants have supernatural allies, minions of the new god, strange mists that took many forms. Pek Brimmiden and his brethren possess a Hand of Glory through which they can call upon supernatural aid. His brother, Diajani Innabryl, used it as a distraction during the destruction of the fonts and altars of the Temples in Longspear. The undead horde itself bears many powerful undead and needs no other aid.
When the undead horde arrives, attacks will take place on all fronts. The river is no barrier to the undead. The air is no barrier to the undead. The land will be blanketed in a sea of undead, and Longspear will be submerged in it. “Pek Brimmiden was a little creepy on this point,” says Killain.
When asked about tunneling or the use of the catacombs or sewers, a strange look came over Pek Brimmiden’s face. It was as if he was a puppet, and his strings suddenly were being yanked. A much deeper voice, as if that of a stern older man, came from his mouth. “Sewers and catacombs? You ask about such trivialities! Kneel before your Master!”
“It was at that point that I realized what I had not understood before,” admits Killain. “It was there before us the whole time. Pek Brimmiden did not give up his old god and take on a new one. He was taken by a new god from his old god. Pek Brimmiden is a conduit for Tharizdun. It knows what Pek Brimmiden knew, and now it knows me as well.”
When Killain realized this, he ordered his men to slay the priest. Surprisingly, one refused to do so, beginning to argue with Killain. These Keepers of the Peace were among his best men, his most experienced. No normal pleading by a prisoner would have swayed their hearts. The voice of Tharizdun coming through his priest must also work some ill magic, sapping the spirit and will from those who hear it. The affected guard has been late to his post since then, and has been remitted to the care of the priests of Phyton.
Sir Highrider’s Plan
After explaining the results of his questioning, and answering any remaining questions, Killain escorts the Company to Sir Highrider’s office. Sir Highrider has a plan to deal with the oncoming threat. He has sent for all of the priests in the nearby area, no matter how weak or strong, to come to Longspear. All crown towns and lords should respond to his summons or face charges of treason. If the current orcish army can be displaced, the undead can be met by circles of priests, combined together to be as powerful as possible. With the Pelorites leading the way, even spectres can be made to flee, if enough priests can be collected.
To move the orcish army will require an all-out assault by Sir Highrider’s forces though. He has heard that the Company has a dwarven warrior in the hills capable of leading dwarvish troops from the Little Hills. He has also heard that some of the merchant guard bear some strange allegiance to Raven, and that they are outside of the city. He wishes Raven to bring those forces to bear on the orcs at the same time that he strips the city of all fighting forces in one great attack. He believes, absent supernatural intervention, this would not only splinter the orcish horde, even with their giantish support, but that surprise and equal weight of forces would lead to a rout of the orcs, forcing them back into the Little Hills.
Of course, with the priests of Tharizdun and their undead and the possibility of the cloud giant summoned demons, the battle could go very poorly. Therefore, Sir Highrider wishes the Company to assault the priests directly. Sir Highrider can provide a map of the Longspear catacombs that will lead to within several hundred feet of the priests’ camp. The catacombs are not safe, per se, but nothing should be so dangerous as to stop the Company, even without Raven’s expert leadership and Al’s steady axe. Sir Highrider even has men in the catacombs, good, solid Keepers of the Peace, watching for potential orcish or undead attack. Once the assault on the orcs has started, it should be simple for the Company to pop out of the catacombs, slaughter the priests, and hopefully the cloud giant, and then flee back into the catacombs again. If successful, the battle for Longspear will be assured, if not, the attack will likely fail.
Sir Highrider understands the Company is performing magics and miracles in preparation for future battles, so he does not need to know immediately, but soon would be good. He expects the priests to arrive from the back country within the next week. If the orcs are still besieging the city when the bulk of the priests arrive, then there is a good chance that surprise will be lost, or worse, the priests attacked and slain. Thus, the assault on the orcs must happen between ten and fifteen days from now (Day 29 to Day 33 of the training schedule) for the maximum chance of success.
Raven and Otto are invited to take part in Sir Highrider’s council, to represent the Company of the Blue Sun and any other groups that will follow them. Sir Highrider’s council is a mixed one. Richard Coldheart appears to lead the Keoish army unit. Killain Anvilsplitter now leads the Keepers of the Peace, his former commander having entered Moridin’s embrace. High Priest Wernack speaks for the Temples. The heads of three other mercenary bands, Thomas O’Shaelee, Madeleine von Essell, and Launir Netherander, round out the meetings. None of the mercenaries seem as competent as you’d like them to be, but all seem competent enough. The council meets several times a week, or whenever Sir Highrider needs particular advice.
Sir Highrider lays out the facts. Even including the mercenaries who have joined them from across the river, the situation is grim. Less than two thousand fighting men are organized within the city. The Army garrison makes up four hundred men. The remaining Keepers of the Peace are three hundred strong. The merchant family guards, never dependable in a fight and of questionable training, make up another seven hundred. The mercenaries are another two hundred. The Temple guards are mainly destroyed. Arrayed against the city are roughly two thousand orcs, two hundred giants, and an ever growing number of undead. While Sir Highrider has enough men to defend the city, he does not have enough to mount an assault in the field and defend the city at the same time.
Sir Highrider’s plan is to continue to ship in supplies and reinforcements from across the Javan river and wait for relief to come, either directly from Niole Dra, from Loftwick, or from Flen or Cryllor to the north. So long as Sir Highrider’s forces are increasing, he is content to defend. He posits disease and shortness of supply weakening his enemies as they camp in the lands outside of the city.
Both Raven and Otto have doubts about the overall plan, but see no fatal flaw. Raven wonders whether the city’s increase in men outweighs the opponent’s increase in undead. Otto’s questions are more practical, asking in detail about troop strength and placement. Sir Highrider, clearly not pleased to be questioned in his own castle about his strategy, only grudgingly replies.
Sir Highrider snootily informs Otto that the cavalry is essentially no more. Only a hundred trained horses remain, under the control of the Army, and that they will be used to break any enclosed infantry action inside the city. Sir Highrider had been preparing Longspear for combat for months now, hearing the news coming out of Sterich, so most of the merchant guard is armed with crossbows, but they, of course, are the major losses during the siege, as they are exposed on the walls to the enemy fire. Catapults are all but useless, as the giants catch the weapons and use them against the walls, and ballistae, while effective, are primary targets for the giants’ boulders.
The relationship between the merchant guards and his direct control are ... touchy. Sir Highrider could conscript them all into the Keoish army, but they would need to be reorganized and drilled into squads and teams. Without such training, the men would be no better than raw peasant militia. On the other hand, inviting any single merchant family into his coterie of advisors brings dissension from the other families. Inviting all of the families to advise makes meetings unbearable. As it stands, he issues orders to the merchant family heads and, usually, they follow the spirit, if not the letter of them.
Sir Highrider rises into a frothing rage when asked about wizards. Madeleine von Essell and Launir Netherander excuse themselves from the table to get some water while Sir Highrider rants about the infidelity of the Silent One, who has removed himself from battle when the city needs him most. Sir Highrider rants for a good fifteen minutes, turning redder and redder as he does, until you fear he will have an apoplectic seizure. He claims he will raze the Silent One’s residence to the ground and petition King Scotti, his cousin, to expel all members of their order. The sight is quite startling.
Launir whispers to Raven over a blueberry scone that wizards are a sore point with Sir Highrider and suggests not raising the issue again. Between Launir’s and Madeleine’s troops are three wizards capable of the destructive magics of fire and lightning. Besides them, no other battle-class mage has stepped forth. Launir’s language is odd, Raven never having heard the phrase “battle-class” used in front of him while he was in the militia, and slightly inflected. Raven files the information away for further contemplation.
After Sir Highrider dismisses his meetings to attend to other things, Otto and Raven hobnob with the three mercenary captains. Thomas O’Shaelee leads a contingent of horse archers, The Red Riders, from the Grand March. His horses are stabled on the other side of the river, under the guard of half his men, but the rest command groups of archers on the walls of the city. Madeleine von Essell hies from Perrenland and leads a corps of spearmen, the Keuzberg Pikes. She confides that several of her men are capable of minor magics and that her main advisor, Kerren Loreweaver, is a mage. Launir Netherander is somewhat evasive in his answers, saying that his small group of men happened to be in the area looking for someone and decided to pitch in. Otto points out that his small group contains two mages, but Launir reminds him that the Company contains three.
Questioning the Prisoner
Raven, Diego, Otto, and Dell meet with Killain Anvilsplitter when the prisoner is to be released. The Keepers of the Peace take many precautions against the casting of unholy prayers and surround the statue of the man. Raven warns them that if he is killed, his spirit is unreachable for questioning. Dell takes out the cold-forged mithril circlet dug up out of the ancient tomb and places it on his brow. He stiffens and begins to glance around the room, taking in the look of each person there. He takes the circlet off, and says, “Ready.”
When Dell releases his spell, the priest is mobbed by a veritable horde of dwarves who beat the man unconscious. “We’ll take it from here,” growls Killain. Otto presents a short list of questions to Killain to be certain they are asked. Killain mutters something about not being a servant or a fool.
Regardless, Otto and Raven are the ones who are summoned almost three weeks later to meet with the Anvilsplitter. He has much to say to the two of them, and some concerns as well. He had the priest, Pek Brimmiden, asked many questions, including those the Company asked, but now he thinks this may have been a bad idea. He’ll voice his concerns after he’s told the Company the answers he got.
Pek Brimmiden no longer worships Erythnul, even though he wears characteristic garb of a sub-sect of the god. Instead, he claims that he worships a new god, Tharizdun, bringer of the future dark. Killain Anvilsplitter makes the hammer of Moridin when he says the god’s name. According to Pek, Tharizdun rules him as Tharizdun will rule all and through Tharizdun all things are possible. Pek Brimmiden is remarkably persuasive when speaking about his new god.
Pek Brimmiden claims that Tharizdun directs all of his troops like fingers on a harpsichord, playing them all directly to make a beautiful sound. No one deviates from the chosen plan and the cold gaze of Tharizdun rests on all of the blessed.
Killain started with easy questions and found that the magical armor is weakly protective and the boots make Pek Brimmiden fleet of foot. Of course, the word of an evil priest should always be checked.
Killain was able to establish that no enemy forces are hidden from sight. The orcs and the giants are those living forces that are available. Pek Brimmiden and his brethren convert the fallen into zombies and skeletons to augment the living with the undead. What disturbed him more though was what Pek said about the forces yet to arrive.
A large mass of undead are moving from Sterich towards Longspear. Pek Brimmiden, his brethren, and his zombies came ahead to pave the way. The undead that are coming are self-replicating, unlike the zombies and skeletons here. Ghouls, wights, wraiths, and spectres make up the undead horde. They will replace their own losses.
Until that horde arrives, the orcs and giants are to merely hem in the city. The more troops that come into Longspear, the more undead that will eventually be made. If people flee, the horde will catch them eventually, or their corpses will be disinterred to be made into skeletons. Tharizdun cares not how one serves.
The taking of the temple district was done by the orcs and giants before Pek Brimmiden arrival. The exact manner by which that was done is not known to Pek Brimmiden. He assumed some subterfuge was performed, since the army was upon the city with little warning, but the exact manner is unknown to him. Pek Brimmiden showed a cavalier lack of care about the state of the orcs and the giants, stating that, in the end, they will all be fodder for Tharizdun regardless.
Pek Brimmiden knew that the giants have supernatural allies, minions of the new god, strange mists that took many forms. Pek Brimmiden and his brethren possess a Hand of Glory through which they can call upon supernatural aid. His brother, Diajani Innabryl, used it as a distraction during the destruction of the fonts and altars of the Temples in Longspear. The undead horde itself bears many powerful undead and needs no other aid.
When the undead horde arrives, attacks will take place on all fronts. The river is no barrier to the undead. The air is no barrier to the undead. The land will be blanketed in a sea of undead, and Longspear will be submerged in it. “Pek Brimmiden was a little creepy on this point,” says Killain.
When asked about tunneling or the use of the catacombs or sewers, a strange look came over Pek Brimmiden’s face. It was as if he was a puppet, and his strings suddenly were being yanked. A much deeper voice, as if that of a stern older man, came from his mouth. “Sewers and catacombs? You ask about such trivialities! Kneel before your Master!”
“It was at that point that I realized what I had not understood before,” admits Killain. “It was there before us the whole time. Pek Brimmiden did not give up his old god and take on a new one. He was taken by a new god from his old god. Pek Brimmiden is a conduit for Tharizdun. It knows what Pek Brimmiden knew, and now it knows me as well.”
When Killain realized this, he ordered his men to slay the priest. Surprisingly, one refused to do so, beginning to argue with Killain. These Keepers of the Peace were among his best men, his most experienced. No normal pleading by a prisoner would have swayed their hearts. The voice of Tharizdun coming through his priest must also work some ill magic, sapping the spirit and will from those who hear it. The affected guard has been late to his post since then, and has been remitted to the care of the priests of Phyton.
Sir Highrider’s Plan
After explaining the results of his questioning, and answering any remaining questions, Killain escorts the Company to Sir Highrider’s office. Sir Highrider has a plan to deal with the oncoming threat. He has sent for all of the priests in the nearby area, no matter how weak or strong, to come to Longspear. All crown towns and lords should respond to his summons or face charges of treason. If the current orcish army can be displaced, the undead can be met by circles of priests, combined together to be as powerful as possible. With the Pelorites leading the way, even spectres can be made to flee, if enough priests can be collected.
To move the orcish army will require an all-out assault by Sir Highrider’s forces though. He has heard that the Company has a dwarven warrior in the hills capable of leading dwarvish troops from the Little Hills. He has also heard that some of the merchant guard bear some strange allegiance to Raven, and that they are outside of the city. He wishes Raven to bring those forces to bear on the orcs at the same time that he strips the city of all fighting forces in one great attack. He believes, absent supernatural intervention, this would not only splinter the orcish horde, even with their giantish support, but that surprise and equal weight of forces would lead to a rout of the orcs, forcing them back into the Little Hills.
Of course, with the priests of Tharizdun and their undead and the possibility of the cloud giant summoned demons, the battle could go very poorly. Therefore, Sir Highrider wishes the Company to assault the priests directly. Sir Highrider can provide a map of the Longspear catacombs that will lead to within several hundred feet of the priests’ camp. The catacombs are not safe, per se, but nothing should be so dangerous as to stop the Company, even without Raven’s expert leadership and Al’s steady axe. Sir Highrider even has men in the catacombs, good, solid Keepers of the Peace, watching for potential orcish or undead attack. Once the assault on the orcs has started, it should be simple for the Company to pop out of the catacombs, slaughter the priests, and hopefully the cloud giant, and then flee back into the catacombs again. If successful, the battle for Longspear will be assured, if not, the attack will likely fail.
Sir Highrider understands the Company is performing magics and miracles in preparation for future battles, so he does not need to know immediately, but soon would be good. He expects the priests to arrive from the back country within the next week. If the orcs are still besieging the city when the bulk of the priests arrive, then there is a good chance that surprise will be lost, or worse, the priests attacked and slain. Thus, the assault on the orcs must happen between ten and fifteen days from now (Day 29 to Day 33 of the training schedule) for the maximum chance of success.
