In the wake of this victory, you reorganize your forces, preparing to expand your power northwards, and take Avar. You assign the new soldiers and archers to lead squads of your best troops, personally introducing each to his new squad mates. The former Spears seem nervous at the prospect, the men they lead excited by the implications of your commands. You are…very deliberate in your wording to make certain of this.
The armor and weapons from the fallen Spears are stripped and given to some of your warriors, and they are sent out on missions of pillage and slaughter. As they march, rumors begin to fly across the city. The Spears were the bandits! The Spears blame us for the banditry! The Spears are marching on us in force! The news of the slaughter in villages only reinforces this sense of panic, and forges in Avar begin to ring with the sound of hammers as scythes are forged into polearms and wood axes turned into weapons of war.
The Seducers fan these flames, and they burn brightly. Henord Crossing, the rivalry forgotten, sends a small force of soldiers and volunteers, including several from your Seducer. They begin to help organize the defenses of the town, creating several small bastions within, while the Seducer within Avar begins to establish food stockpiles, fresh wells, and hospitals.
A rider is sent north to Castle Southbend. Your Hunters see that he does not make it, and deliver this news by nailing his head to Avar’s gate. And with this latest barbarity, the resolve of many who still had faith is shaken. The mark of the Spears was carved into his head! People discuss the possibility of escape or surrender, but it is half-hearted now, and many believe they have no option but to fight.
In the richer part of town though, at least half still suspect this is some sort of trick. Perhaps the Spears were no true Spears, but bandits who had waylaid members of the holy order? Your Hunters, patrolling the streets, make a note of houses where these thoughts are in evidence. Rather conveniently, they are the ones closest to the gate. Even the dreams which suddenly plague the population, vivid dreams of slaughter and brutality perpetrated by the Spears, do not shake their faith. If anything, it solidifies it, for they see it as proof that something has taken over and corrupted the Spears. Perhaps those rumors of necromancy in the West have more truth to them than it first seemed…
But among those who doubt, those whose faith is not so strong, these dreams are proof, plain and simple, sent by Andora to ensure they would be strong. Each bastion begins to reinforce their own shelter and stockpile, often at the expense of those without. They tear down houses to provide building materials, and feuds begin to develop, each carefully fanned by the Seducer, even as she works to offer compromises between them, all the while lacing her words with suggestions that they look elsewhere to find their faith. And some do, joining the ranks of the Ceaseless Consumption, marking their buildings with its sign, if only to take advantage of the benefits the Seducer offers them – better access to supplies, favor in negotiations, and other, more carnal things.
The remaining faithful, along with a large segment of the guard loyal to them, sequester themselves in a few manor houses near the gate, along with a great many refugees from the outer villages and from those who rejected your seducer
The rebels also sense the dreams, although they shift somewhat in the distance to change the locations and the names, they react with anger. The snow is beginning to melt, and already their weapons carry corruptive sigils, their catapults stand ready with plague-infected corpses. They are ready for a different kind of war now.
While all this is going on, you ensure your soldiers are unified and make preparations for your knights. For now, they will fight on foot, although Duthrax requests they and him be given some kind of mount. They will be assigned to be his personal guard, and their armor is corrupted, the prayers on it turned to bloodthirsty praises of your name which shift before the eyes of those who fight them. The armor will turn away most blows, at least enough to ensure most of the power behind the strike will be dissipated. They are far more effective against hostile magic, simply absorbing them without any difficulty.
And once more you march to war. No longer do any of your men bear the weapons or armor of the Spears, instead waving their own banners as they march to war. Some in the villages join your ranks, hoping for the opportunity to gain power. Some try to flee or fight, and are mercilessly cut down. Most you just leave, as they are not important right now. You will claim a second town soon…their walls are already in sight. You see a mass of people evacuating northwards, and you can sense the High Seducer leading them away, even as she further stains their souls. Do you have any last minute preparations before the battle begins?
Full status
Current Status
Name: Klx-Dryklfx
Time: 6.75 months
Physical Might: 77+6 (+12 worship, - 4 leakage)
Mental Might: ] 76+6 (+14 worship, -4 leakage )
Followers
13 Boneys, 37 thralls, 200 hundred Spear-Thralls, 106 Sword-Thralls, and 126 Archer-Thrall, 8 seducers, 149 peasants, 24 guards, 10 Hunters, 1 High Seducer, 15 Doom-Seekers, 2 Doom-Seers, 2 priests, 5 god-slayers
Servants
17 wisp wights, 8 armored brutes, 2 crushers, 317 zombies, 67 skeletons, 50 wisp wretches, 82 weeping sores, 18 specters
Cults
The Broken
Members: 13 Boneys, 13 Thralls, 200 hundred Spear-Thralls, 106 Sword-Thralls, and 126 Archer-Thrall, 15 Doom-Seekers, 2 Doom-Seers, 2 priests, 5 god-slayers
Resources: 77(-10 god-slayer armor +5/week demonic crops, +5/week iron mines )
Power: 22 (12 spent worshipping you, 3 spent slaughtering villages, 4 spent forging, 5 spent gathering resources)
The Ceaseless Consumption
Members: 8 seducers and 24 thralls, and 37 peasants split among 8 locations, 1 high seducer, 112 peasants, and 24 soldiers
Resources: 0
Power: 10 (1 spent worshipping you, 2 spent constructing bastions, 4 spent negotiating/recruiting, 3 spent spreading rumors)
Fortresses
Canord
Strong walls (45), Deep moat (25), Thorn Wall (25), Weak wards(15), Traps(15) Demonic crops, plentiful mines, Strong aura of domination
Champions
Kreth Woemaker
Physical might: 12
Mental might: 12
Other: Magic Cloak
Duthrax Soul-Render, First of the Thrall-Herds
Physical might: 5 + 1
Mental might: 3 + 1
Other: Duelist, skilled commander, Herald
Lurrothel, Weaver of Nightmares
Physical might: 1
Mental might: 6
Other: Necromancer, skilled at wards and dream magicNow you have my attention. What game are you writing for?
Author
Topic: The Rise of a Demon (Number of ritual wedding duels: 1) (Read 52366 times)