Blackbog Keep

[TheDude51]

When the orders come in from the Citadel on the 13th, Dmitri begins looking up general information on Trias, with some focus on what kind of trade occurs there. He also tries to acquire and scribe Mind Blank, Ethereal Jaunt, Magic Aura and Alter Self into his spellbook.

[Zanaikin]

[Laharl]

Teodor spends the 12th studying the (intact and less than intact) shield generator pieces he's obtained in hopes of reverse-engineering them for his own use.

He'll start thinking about the 13th once his player has some time...

[Mr_Praetorian]

Derovarr is, alongside of his training, also spending what little time he has left reading books about vampires and their weaknesses.

((On a side note, how's Derovarr's training regime coming along?))

[Zanaikin]

[Zanaikin]

( well, I was hoping that Judson/Dave would give me the plans he had for Trias first... but apparently they didn't do that. So the first few days passes and I advance gametime to May 17th )

During the morning of May 17th, Lenneth calls upon another Captain's meeting in the Keep's main conference room. However, as soon as the meeting started, she announced that the meeting was called for a report by Cardinal Agnes Kerpen, whom she immediate deferred the spotlight to.

Cardinal Kerpen stood up from her chair. Unlike most officers around the table whom could only be referred as 'young' for their ranking, and extremely at that if compared to the military of peacetime forces, Agnes Kerpen was in her middle ages and starting to get past the prime of her life. A scholar by nature, she was pressed into military services out of the pure needs of the nation. It wasn't to say that she wasn't competent enough for the battlefield, but her personality simply doesn't belong there, for she was not one willing to personally take the lives of others. Still, her Brother Reynold, Lord Kovis, and the rest of the heavy cavalry were in need of any capable divine caster they could get, and she was surprisingly proficient when it came to riding.

In addition to serving as divine magic support for the Fist of Misalin and Kovis' flag squad, Agnes also leads the logistic units in Blackbog Keep and is the head of the loremasters, which seems to be the reason this meeting was called for.

"About a week ago, our instruments picked up a faint, but nevertheless noticeable reading that the flow of magic in Blackbog Keep and all across the surrounding countryside was shifted, and in one particular direction nonetheless. The pull in magical energy was similar to that of a war magic effect, or any other higher order ritual magic for that matter. However, unlike a war magic spell in the immediate vicinity, the pull was not a sudden or particularly strong one. It was slow at the start, gradually increasing but never reaching a point where any spellcaster could notice it in an obvious manner, but most of all, it lasted for a period of hours. No competent war magic caster across Penthiae would take such a long duration to finish a spell."

( anyone who beats a DC59 sense motive check can notice that 1. she's lying about something minor and 2. her glance around the table stopped at Kati for a brief moment, whom seems to have gave some sort of silent motionless approval of sorts ).

"The direction of the magical pull was points into the heart of southern Airindale, where their Capital and most likely the large major settlements of their population was located. We had wanted to acquire some substance to our findings other than pure guesses and deductions before this was reported, and had spent a week of time scrying whatever source of clue we could think of. However, we failed to achieve any results, for the elves have obviously deemed it a necessity to screen just about anything of importance from divination attempts. Unsurprisingly given our results, the elves detected our scrying. Thankfully, their response were not of a hostile nature. The fact that Naralan has bested us at diplomatics came into play once again, for Master Kilar's words of our goals and intentions had certainly spread to them."

"The Airindalian's response to our banner should be quite obvious. Despite being grant sovereignty, the Grand Duchy of Misalin never wavered in its loyalty to the Airindale crown. It is perhaps one of the most notable virtues of the Duke's family that never died during their rule. Since the Second Planar Crusade, Airindale has relied upon the Misalin Order heavily to provide them with but command and support on the battlefield, for where our divine casters and commanders specialized in coordinated action, their arcane casters focused on prowess and the sheer ability to wreck havoc on the battlefield. The fall of the Grand Duchy hurt the military balance of the world heavily. Before then, the possibility of the Archeronians launching an offensive into Airindale was unheard of. Yet the Archeronians won most of the open field engagements against the Airindale elves in the campaigns since the fall of the Grand Duchy, and was only driven back out by the incredulous power of Airindale's high magic."

"While we have yet to give any word to the Airindalians of our diplomatic intentions towards them, they have freely offered us the information we have sought hard for a week of time." said Cardinal Agnes will she pulled an illusory projector out and pushed it onto the table. The flow of magic was caused by the ritual casting of one of the newest epic high magics the elves have developed. Not since the Lich King's ... well, Cogaau's use of mass creation of liches had truename magic of such power been used. What was utilized was another creation spell, and this is the results."

Agnes turned on the projector, and the illusion of a single armored creature was displayed. This tall creature looks at once slender and deadly. Its generally humanoid body has thin legs and arms, and its features are concealed by tight-fitting metal armor. The creature’s movements are graceful and sure, yet they are sharp and angry at the same time. Swords, axes, and other bladed weapons spin around the creature in a tight cloud. These weapons look sharp and deadly, but none comes close enough to the creature that it risks striking itself. ( taken straight out of the MM3, for image - see Ragewalker in MM3 ).

"The elves have named them Battlemasters, which as you can tell from just their appearance, is obviously an appropriate name. The are apparently the pure magical manifestation of wrath, the wrath of nature, of magic, of an entire nation. They do not speak, they do not tire, and they exist only to bring death to the enemies of their creators. And the elves had created an army, thousands... tens of thousands of these creatures." said Agnes as the illusion zoomed out, showing a large column of these beings in a loose, but nevertheless a well organized, formation. "The reason for their existence, I believe, should be apparent to all. What Norinth did to our nation pales in comparison to how they wrecked Airindale. Almost the entirety of northern Airindale had been despoiled, the forests lay dying or dead and the water contaminated to such an extent that it was poison to anyone who tried to drink it. Not even mentioning that they laid waste to the Airindale capital and seized their artifact, Thoyion, the Orb of Truth and Knowledge."

The table was stunned at the news that a brand new, fresh, and particular powerful army had been brought forth into existence virtually overnight. The power balance across Penthiae had just been completely redone.

"The much more surprising news is that, having lost most of the competent commanders during the unsuccessful defense of the Kingdom, the Airindalians have offered us the opportunity to combine arms and lead their Battlemaster forces into combat, against the various tribes of the Fens, the Norinthners, their new Imperial allies, and anyone else who might stand in the way. Furthermore, we also have confirmation from Naralan High Command that the two military are planning to launch a join offensive, the gnomes' warforged forces from the East and the Airindale forces from the West, two spears heading straight towards Norinth."

"Of course, the Battlemaster regiments will still be controlled by their elven masters, and the elven commanders will obviously be coordinating the battles besides us should we agree to cooperate with them."

Lenneth soon took back the position. "This was an unexpected offering of fate, and one that could spell countless advantages and benefits for us. I would personally suggest that we do not hesitate to seize this offer. However, seeing as how this decision will affect all of us, I am also obligated to acquire the opinions of all my fellow officers. Keep in mind that should we accept their proposal, we will also find ourselves listed into their order of battle, and likely in the front of the line of engagement nonetheless. And despite their lack of numbers here and now, the aerial mages of the Gemstone Guard will be working alone with us. Whatever their other traits, I must say that I've heard from numerous first hand sources that their reputation for excessive... pride... is quite true."

[Mr_Praetorian]

(Sense Motive 70. Do I know which portion of her speech she was lying about)

"This is stunning news indeed. But, I feel that it has given a chance to definitively halt the advance of Norinth and the Imperium. For to long have the lords death and their extraplanar allies walked across our lands undeterred. But, now, we have the forces, and the opportunity to strike a blow that may halt their advance, at least for the time being.

Therefore, I propose that we begin to send messages to all of our allies, and prepare to launch a cooperative attack on the city of Trias. We already know that they are nearing completion of their massive teleportation gate, so the need to act quickly should be impressed upon all of us. However, whereas before, we could only reasonably plan a small surgical strike, we now have the ability to bring the entire city, along with much of the enemy's Southern support base, crashing to the ground.

If successful, we not only buy some of our allies time to regroup and rebuild, we also strengthen ties amongst the fragmented Southern Alliance itself. For too long have we fought separately against insurmountable odds or, in some cases, squabbled amongst ourselves. Now in the time to band together, and slay an evil that threatens us all." (Diplomacy 55)

[Zanaikin]

[Zanaikin]

Numerous heads around the table could be seen nodding in approval, or whispering to each other, during Derovarr's speech. However, as soon as he was done, Kilar saw it necessary to correct one misconceived implication.

"According to what the Naralanians tell us, they are currently organizing their forces, as well as finishing the training program for existing assembled units, in order to prepare for the upcoming campaign. They do not believe it shall be finished, nor them ready, within the next two weeks at least. Regarding the Airindalians I expect they'll be something similar. Creating an army is one thing, I expect they'll need to organize the command structure, or place a predesigned command structure into place, over the next week or so. The Trias Gate problems has been declared an immediate concern by the Naralians. If the information we have received confirms, I do not believe either side wish to delay that long until a strike is sent to solve the problem. Therefore chances are... Trias will need resolving before the campaign is ready to launch. The elves hasn't said anything regarding the matter, but I expect, given their coordination with Naralan, that they'll be involved in some form in dealing with Trias Gate."

[Mr_Praetorian]

"Very well, then lets begin sabotaging them as soon as possible."

Also, with the approval of his heavy assault teams, assume Derovarr begins hunting out candidates for it ASAP. He'll want them ready for the next big strike.

[littleangryman]

Jens raises a hand.　"Something I think needs to be mentioned, if I may. I'm not sure what kind of scrying the Norinthians are still working with, but there is the possibility that they may have learned of this too, somehow. If so, they may try to take advantage of the week or so of organization that Kilar was kind enough to mention, in order to deal with the new threat before it's fully coordinated. Shouldn't we have some plan to deal with this possibility?"

[Laharl]

[Zanaikin]

Konev asks Teodor to make a trip to Starik, so he may present in person ( and using his memories through an illusory projector ) what these missiles launchers he spoke of are capable of and where the exposed launch sites are.

XP to Teodor: 4,000XP (including bonus XP for skilled bluffing and discovering the missile launchers)

Completion XP – Trias Infiltration: 500XP

XP Totals: Derovarr (204,730xp), Jens (199,678xp), Ulrich (188,099xp), Dmitri (180,044xp), Kati (179,638xp), Teodor (173,500xp)

# Welcome to lvl19 Dave! Probably the most important level of your character's career! =)


Konev also offers you a bonus of 30,000gps

[Zanaikin]

[Zanaikin]

( I think I've waited long enough for people to post since the beginning of this ingame meeting )

After a while of scattered discussions between the attendees, it soon became obvious that virtually everyone was brought to the side of agreeing with the proposal. Thus Lenneth rose up once again and spoke: "Well then, it is apparent at this point that the views of everyone is favorable towards working with the Airindalians. Master Setari, Marshal Spekes, and Cardinal Kerpen, please make contact with the Airindale Gemstone Guard commanders and settle on an agreement. In the meantime, I would like to stress the importance of the next week or two, which will most likely be the final weeks of time we have available before the alliance, including us, launch a decisive campaign against Norinth that will determine the final outcome of the Second Alliance War. Everyone should make the utmost of the resource we have remaining, train as hard as you can, and prepare yourself, both physically and mentally, for our long awaited opportunity. Your lives, the lives of your men, as well as those of your families and every other citizen of our nation, may very well depend on our actions from this moment forth. And with that said, this meeting is adjourned."


remainder of week:
May 18th: Nothing much...
May 19th: Nothing much...