Blackbog Keep

[Squall255]

Ulrich stood up immediately after Derrovar ended his speech.
"Most of you may know me. For those who don't, I commeend you for your ability to avoid injury. (Ulrich smiles, and surveys the gathered group) I am Cardinal Ulrich Helge. I know first hand how the Proclaimers work, for I was almost one of Anstruns puppets. The Proclaimers aren't evil, for the Gods still give them power. Nor are they exactly liars either, for they would pass through a Zone of Truth unhindered. However, their fault is that they desire power for themselves. They have forgotten Pelor's lessons of humility. The Gods do not grant the power they desire, for Anstrun will hardly be happy with Misalin's current borders. When it suits the God's purpose, do they grant individuals the power Anstrun seeks, and never to one who seeks it, but to one who they choose. Even the God's hold council and keep the balance of power, and peace between the forces of good. I had to be reminded of this, for I was almost led down the path of the Proclaimers. But with Pelor's grace, and Commander d'Rothwyn's guidance, I have returned to a better path. We do not seek to destroy the church, merely to return it to the balance of power where it belongs. That is why it is with Honor that I am able to call this path my own, and stand beside such a good friend as Derrovar under the banner of the Grand Duke of Misalin.
Diplomacy

[Zanaikin]

[Zanaikin]

[NOTE: Thanks to getting Lenneth out, including Bliant Argyle, the following items will be finished crafting this week. Since it's a military-support structure, he is currently working with Maester Glorard. You may assume any crafting requests will be forwarded to both of them.]

MAY 8th: Fly Upgrade to Derovarr's Golem Armor
(thus, you'll have it in time for the battle. Note the speed penalty of medium armor)

END OF WEEK: Kati's Gloves, Kati's Belt

[Zanaikin]

(May 8th...)

The officers assemble again in the same room, and Lenneth starts the meeting after everyone's arrival.

"Good morning everyone. I hope everyone somehow managed to have a good night of sleep despite everything that has happened and is still happening."

"As I've said yesterday, I would wait until today for you opinion regarding the whole issue on our stance in the Misalin front. I am looking forward to hearing it, but I make clear that I wish not to pressure you into making a decision should you find yourself unable to do so. This is a choice I'd like everyone to select with thought and responsibility, and certainly not with haste or indiscretion. If you are still undecided or have doubts, do not hesitate to declare so. Anyone else who has a problem with this can answer to me." declared Lenneth as she scanned around with stern and serious eyes. "and furthermore, I will not tolerate the mistreatment of another because they have chosen in opposition from you."

However, it would soon become obvious that the last line was not needed. There was little hesitance from almost all the officers, who outright declared their willingness to follow Lenneth's decision. Only a few showed indecision, and none of them any sign of outright rejection regarding the whole idea.

"Very well," said Lenneth as she retakes the spotlight. "I may claim to the rest of you that I have an official confirmation from the heir of the Grand Duke. Although it is still a secret I wish to keep quiet for now, given the dangers it represent to said person, and the lack of gains we may acquire from it in the current moment. However, I can tell you that he or she is amongst us, and all of you should know me well enough that I do not lie, or even bend the truth, on matters such as this. The truth will be revealed in due time, I can promise you that on my honor as a paladin, and I see only that you have faith in the meantime."

"In the meantime, our top priority is to make our cause known. No one will follow a banner they have never seen. No one will support a cause buried under century old books. We need to make our cause known, to the international community as a first priority, and through that channel spread the news into Misalin. In such a case, the nations of the world shall be our witness, and through them our words shall be far more easily accepted as truth, in comparison to the political propaganda that Anstrun spreads."

"Therefore, it is imperative that we strive our hardest to better relationships with our allied nations during this dire time of need." she looks at Kilar, "and Master Kilar, I shall leave the diplomatic out-bringing of our cause in your capable hands."

"Aye, milady."

"Given we seek to retake Misalin, it might be unavoidable that we reach conflict with the Misalin Guard elements under the proclaimers control. I, and every one of us I believe, will try our best to keep away from that, or at least keep it to a minimum. However, it should be noted by every one of you that even should we retake control of Misalin without bloodshed, we are responsible for the even greater task of being its protectors in their time of chaos and conflict. Therefore I emphasize that everyone should do their utmost to train for the inevitable battle, whether it be against the Guard, another nation, or beings of another world. Currently, here at Blackbog, we have a valuable resource, and that is time. I do not expect it to last for long, but I pray that every one of you make use of it while it's still available."

(unless someone would like to bring up an issue... to be inserted here)

"With that said, this meeting is adjourned for now. I will call upon another a few days into the future."

[Zanaikin]

Late at night (May 10th), a message from Naralan was forwarded to Kilar, who immediately called upon all the highest level officers and individual command squads within the keep to a general meeting.

The message was from Naralan high command. It was an emergency call for aid from their allies. The contents were simple due to the haste in which it was assembled and dispatched. It said that the city of Skor'lungaer, one in the heart of the Nation of Naralan, had fallen under a surprise attack by multiple units of Imperial special forces, which quickly tore apart the city's defenses and began an all out assault on its industry and the warforged training grounds nearby. The city is a heavy industry site, one of Naralan three largest, and is current responsible for a significant percentile of their overall Warforged and warforge-operated Assault Walker production. Thus it is essential for the military strength of Naralan that immediate aid be sent to the city.

After a general round of voting amongst the commander, the decision is virtually unanimous - the Misalin Guard here at Blackbog shall response to the call of their allies. All four command squads (including Cary's, Kovis', and Lenneth's) soon began departing for the teleportation keep, the casters raising buffs while they're moving along the way...

Meanwhile, Kilar was explaining the situation from an illusory projector he held up. Somehow he had a map of the city at hand, which he scanned it in while the officers were still gathering for the meeting.

( map provided later )

Kilar: "According to my latest information in corresponding with the Naralan high command, the Imperial/Norinth combined attacked through two sides. A group of Blacklore mages and Shadow raiders, accompanying by liches and dracoliches, struck in from the northwest, where they broke through the garrison's compound and virtually annihilated the three warforged static companies posted within the city and all their fixed weaponry. The latest news is that they just launched an all out attack against the city's industrial sector, which makes up for other half of Skor'lungaer's area."

"In the south, a second group completely comprising of Imperial troops attacked the warforged training facilities to the southeast of the city, where over two regiments of Assault Walker pilots and their vehicles are currently being housed. The Imperials are lead by their massive walker-type assault vehicles and supported by aerial infantry. Thus far, reports has it that the warforged units are not doing well, and gnomish mages in the area claim that the Imperial walker-vehicles seem to all field an AMF. Naralan high command says their own reinforcements are currently in route towards this position."

"The teleportation coordinates they have sent us will bring us directly south of the city, just outside the vicinity of the city's lockdown field. It is of equal distance from both fronts of engagement."

[Zanaikin]

Note: Given my laptop is still with IT leaving me no way to scan in a map (and my paint skills aren't good enough to make up for it), I'll have to give up on my promised map.

Here's a description of the city though.

City Name: Skor'lungaer
Location: Naralan mainland plains, there are no significant terrain features nearby.
Size: The city is pentagonal in design, with a rough radius of 1 mile and a total coverage of ~3 square miles.
Population: ~10,000 (nearly half the populace being industrial artificers)

Fortifications: The main city walls comprised of reinforce masonry and reinforced by earthen ramparts. The format of the fortification is relatively new, with a roughly pentagonal design with each corner capped by a crownwork bastion which extends outwards from the main city. Triangular ravelins are further built outside the main walls. (see ).
There were two methods of entry into the city, through the northwest and the southeast. Additional light fortifications have been constructed in the southeast around the large warforged training camp.
The city fortifications' only fixed weapon emplacements are light and heavy scorpions with explosive-shots. However, there are various turrets and crenelations designed for the positioning of heavy weapons left empty for the use of the garrison.

Districts: The city was simple in design with only four districts. The military (garrison) district was situated next to the northwest gate. The residential and merchant district are placed side-by-side next to the southeast gate. The industrial district, significantly larger than all three of the other districts combined, occupies most of the city's central area.

Garrison: Sadly, the city's garrison had been spread thin by the demands of the front lines. The current garrison included three static companies (300 warforged), armed with a combination of repeating crossbows and wand-gattlings. Each company also had heavy weapons squads who operated staff-gattlings.
The city's militia boosts another ~3,000 organized and combat capable people, almost all of them artificers whom work in the city's factory forges.
The training camp to the southeast of city boosts another two regiments of warforged light assault walker units (2,000). Each of these walkers are operated by a single warforged, with an armored chassis, a speed equivalent to heavy cavalry, and armed with a single wand-gattling cannon. The camp is also supported by a unit of roughly 50 gnomish drill instructors.

[Zanaikin]

After all of the separate squads teleported to their provided destination south of Skor'lungaer, a scan of the horizon was enough to give everyone a general report on the situation at hand.

The city was engulfed in combat. Parts of it were already consumed by an inferno, which trailed from the northwest towards the city's center. The fire was growing outwards, and particularly in the direction of central city, where Fire Storms continued to rain down from an altitude of about two-hundred feet into the streets.

To the east, the warforged training camp was in a similar state of chaos. Squads of metallic Naralan walkers maneuvering about to engage the Imperial vehicles could be seen even from here. Flares and explosions rocked all about the camp.

The Misalinians were currently just over a mile away from either battle...

Lenneth took in the situation and made an immediate conclusion: "I believe our current objective should be to reinforce the city. The attack on the camp is most likely a diversion, not to mention to entangle the nearby forces from coming to the city's aid. Either way, Naralan's forces should be able to hold their own for a while. In the meantime, the city has nothing except militia left. Fighting against elite mage units, that would be pure one sided slaughter." she proceeded by casting her trademark spell, as invisible waves of "magical courage" literally began pouring off her.

Kovis followed: "Not mentioning we should certain fare a lot better against the undead attacking the city. We are paladins after all, and dealing with antimagick'd constructs simply isn't part of our training."

( the meet begins ... )

[Zanaikin]

[Zanaikin]

Mid Game Update:

The battle with the liches has gone to Misalin's favor thus far. However, not all the other squads were as lucky as Derovarr's, where his golem armor managed to absorbed much of the damage for everyone else. In Cary's squad, High-Captain Lennart was already confirmed dead, and Flag-Captain Tristam also from Lenneth's squad. The lichs have learned far earlier that only a total kill could keep a warrior of Misalin down, thus they followed every knockout with a Destruction spell, sealing the fate of the victim. Kovis' squad had only been lucky thus far from his relentless use of weaved Indomitability wards.

Aelle was also nowhere to be seen, but she claims to be alive through the telecomm.

The suddenly, in the distance, a prismatic sphere was first seen popping up in the skies, radiating light at two hundred feet altitude. Then, like the center of a blooming flower, petals of magical power spread out from it. The atmosphere changed, and Misalinian mages could feel the sharp pull of magic in that direction... a tactical spell was being formed.

Lenneth: "Blasphemy! They're about to raze the city!"

Cary: "Why wait until now? Why not..."

Kovis: "They probably thought to first kill anyone who might be able to counter the spell or offer some protection to the factories. Either way, that spell is being cast a good quarter mile away, around 2000ft I'd estimate. There's no way we..."

Lenneth: "Yes we can! Form..."

Kovis: "You can't be serious! We're in no shape to rush off into whatever defenses are covering that tactical spell squad! You'll only rush into a pointless death!..."

( ... end cutscene, back to battle order ... )

[Zanaikin]

[Zanaikin]

AIM MEET #29 (Reinforcement to Skor'lungaer)

XP Each:
Derovarr & Jens: 4,500XP
Ulrich & Dmitri: 6,364XP
Teodor: 9,000XP

Completion XP – Skor’lungaer Battle: 1,000XP

XP Totals: Derovarr (204,730xp), Jens (199,678xp), Ulrich (188,099xp), Dmitri (180,044xp), Kati (179,638xp), Teodor (169,000xp)

I don't believe anyone is leveling up.
Yes, I'm sad too (I thought it was enough, but XP from CR20s vanish fast when you have 5 party members). However, I hope the loot makes up for the effort spent.

Other Notes:
NPCs KIA:
High-Captain Lennart Warming
Flag-Captain Tristam Windisch

NPCs who Gained A Level:
Flag-Captain Aethel Cocoran
Flag-Captain Rikard Cocoran
Flag-Captain Karin Plauen
Flag-Captain Aelle Osweald
Flag-Captain Coric Zomeg

[Laharl]

Before the party leaves Naralan, Teodor will poke around the Warforged Academy battlefield to see what Imperium equipment he can scrounge up.

[Zanaikin]

( I'll update once I have time but... )

Teodor can find a lot of... really random stuff in the battlefield of the warforged training camp. For the most part the casualties on the Imperial side doesn't seem heavy, and whatever obviously useful equips were already salvaged by the gnomes, like plasma carbines, dual-barrel plasma rifles, triple-barrel heavy plasma rifles (which also fires grenades), pistols, gravitonic packs, little metallic blocks you know to be EMS generators, and some stuff you haven't seen like a huge METAAC plasma blade or a huge diamondsteel shield. Most of the junk lying around is just... well junk. Random pieces blow off Imperial war machines. From stories you hear the Imperials also fired against any machine of their own that was disabled in the field in order to destroy them.

[Zanaikin]

most of early May 11th was spent helping the Naralans clean up the mess and stay on guard against any secondary Imperial/Norinth attacks. By the time everyone came back to Blackbog they were exhausted, and Lenneth declared to push any debriefing meeting until tomorrow.

( I'll quite busy + tired so I'll make this general )

During the debrief meeting, Lenneth thanks everyone for their efforts in Skor'lungaer. Although they were unable to save the city, they were able to save many of its citizens and a good portion of its artifice forges, which greatly reduced the damage dealt to Naralan's war effort.

Kilar tells the group that when talking to the Naralan gnomes after the battle, they thanked him greatly again for the help the Misalin forces of Blackbog were able to offer. He decided this would be a good time as any to formally announce Lenneth's decision on our group's political standpoint. The Naralanians declare that they can't make a decision of this scale without deliberating with the rest of the Executive Council, but they can at least guarantee a certain degree of equipment support (sales) to the supporters of the Grand Duchy. In addition, the gnomes claimed that the latest battle more than proven the Guard's worth on the field of battle, and announced that the Naralan Executive Council has determined to begin offering their allies in Blackbog a military war loan with no interest rate, up to a limit of 25 million gold for now, payable in ten years of time once the war was over. Kilar notes that this would be a valuable opportunity for us to equip our existing forces with far better equipment to help make up for their lack in numbers.
( No, the 25mil war loan is not designed for the party, think of the poor minions =P )

Kovis then tells everyone they've confirmed during the battle that the assault into the city was lead by Miros Hallerak, the former reserve general of the Blacklore Guards, whom joined the Imperials and was given the rank of Field Marshal and the title "Reaper", how appropriate. Due to their losses and fatigue, him and Lenneth were unwilling to engage with Miros' unit after the release of the Tactical Spell where there were no longer anything to gain, and it seems Miros' forces were of a similar mind. Miros however did claim that the Misalinians killed the last of Norinth's lich doomguards, and thus was... actually impressed (Kovis expressed this cynically). From the information he gathered from the Naralanians, the attack on the city was lead by 11 liches, and he guesses that the other 2 were probably downed by the garrison during their desperate battle. He doesn't believe there's any reason for Miros' to speak of such a fact and then lie, but it would certainly be good news if that were the last of Norinth's numerous liches, a 'supply' which was thought to be near endless during the war and greatly demoralized the alliance forces.

[Zanaikin]

Time progresses:

This Week:
May 12th: Kilar makes a two day trip to Naralan for a number of things, including 1. selling loot acquired from the battle, 2. getting the Naralans to begin construction on the Prismatic Generator (single layer for now, maybe more later), and 3. amongst other things.

Next Week:
May 13th ~ May 19th

May 13th:
---Kilar returns from Naralan. He informs everyone that according to Naralan High Command's information, although even they're not sure on how reliable it is ( given NHC lacks their own intelligence network and mostly contracts others to do it for them ), the Imperials are coming to their final steps on the construction of Trias Gate. The structure and technological components of the Gate are already finished. The only thing remaining left undone is the Permanency Generator that'll feed continuity to the Teleportation Circle. They've asked the Citadel to assist them in confirming this information, and that if possible, the Misalinians prepare an attack with the aim of knocking it out.
---Dmitri and Teodor receives orders from High-Captain Grigoriy Konev at the Citadel in Kharva of the same information from Naralan, with a mission that they ascertain this information, as well as provide up-to-date information on the city and defenses of Trias itself. He assures the two that they won't be the only Citadels working at this mission, given its importance. However since it's an infiltration type mission, he obviously can't reveal the names and information of any other unit assigned to the task, only that Dmitri and Teodor be aware they may bump into other elements of the Citadel while in Trias. Furthermore, acknowledgement and honors is only granted to the unit that acquires the best information in a most time-effective manner. Best of luck!

May 14th: Nothing

May 15th: Nothing

May 16th: Nothing

May 17th: Lenneth calls upon another meeting from all the Captain or above ranking officers. This time, she does it in place of another: Cardinal Agnes Kerpen, whose loremasters and diviners have discovered something obvious to report. ( This'll be written up later once I get time ).

May 18th and on ... will be delayed till later. Things to get done in the meantime.