[h1][u]Act One: The Defense of Relouse[/u]____ __ _ _[/h1] [h2][u]Chapter Four: Linchpin of the Hinge[/u]_________ __ __ _ _[/h2] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/svEmFp5.jpg?1[/img] [hr][hr][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFoOZ4z-_ZA] 𝅘𝅥 [/url][/center][hr][hr] [color=D3D3D3][h3][u]The Witch Wood[/u]_________ __ __ _ _[/h3] The shockwaves of Horik's final explosion tore across the Witch Wood, burning and toppling trees, consuming the slow and the wounded, blinding and deafening others. As fire rolled into smoke and smoke cleared, they stumbled around dully in the aftermath, skin peeling, ears ringing, eyes bleary. Among them were three yasoi: Otios, Talit, and Lyen, who knelt towards the edge of the scorched ground, healing themselves with the blood magic of the Gift. Still, lay the forest around them: still and oddly silent. A persistent rain fell and thunder rumbled in the clouds, but the sounds of open combat had fallen precipitously away. In the trees and on the patches of dry ground, the yasoi allies of Parrence and elements of that new nation's Grand Armee exulted in their triumph. That the latter had overcommitted to the battle north of the town was perhaps clear, but they had achieved what they'd set out to do, or so they believed...[/color] [hr][hr][color=D3D3D3][h3][u]Kol, Death's Hand[/u]_________ __ __ _ _[/h3] Sometimes, the Gods demanded sacrifice before one passed through the great doors of Gronhalle, and they had demanded much of the Eskandr who had ventured into the Witch Wood. That they had been decimated was a certainty, now. The Parrench and their yasoi allies were even now gloating and glorying in their apparent victory. Yet the first of the raid's two purposes had been served. An inordinate number of Parrench forces had committed themselves north of the city and, by doing so, left the beach that much less defended. With what forces they had left, Kol and Vali, who had yet survived everything that yasoi and Parrench alike had thrown at them, now abandoned conventional tactical wisdom and raced across the open fields towards the Northwest Gate. On the way, they passed burning windmills and ruined farmsteads. The former whirling madly in the wind, their arms smoldering, phantasmal, against the dark sky, leaving sparks and black smoke to swirl away in the wind. The brave warriors of this much-reduced force had seen the massive beam of red light that had leapt into the sky and heeded it. All of their forces were ashore, but the king of kings had judged that an absolute victory was now in doubt and that the bold plan they had conceived of the week before was to be put into action. It fell to them to go straight at the less-defended gate and hammer it hard enough to make the Parrench panic. Meanwhile, Sweyn would strike with his lightning at the cathedral where many civilians would be sheltering, Thorunn would make for the Parrench camps, via trickery if needed, and set them alight. Hrothgar would gather the troops into a wedge to break through at all costs. The Nashorn would be used. Many were those who shuddered to think of that. The truth, however, was that, should this attack fail, the offensive itself would fail and the Eskandr might yet be hurled back into the sea. So it was that Kol, Vali, and the elite warriors and rangers remaining from the force that had scaled the cliffs and assaulted the Witch Wood had a purpose now, part of a larger plan: assault the gate, force the enemy to panic, force them to withdraw to the city so that the Eskandr might yet win the day. [hr][hr][h3][u]Under the Walls[/u]_________ __ __ _ _[/h3] Every Eskandr who was going to land had landed. Now it was simply a case of army against army, champion against champion. There were none greater than the two kings themselves, or so history would later record. Arcel the Blessed of Parrence and Hrothgar the Black of Eskand stood under the walls of Relouse and sized each other up. Arcel stood for but a moment, Sanguinaire incandescent in his left hand, steam hissing and rising off of it from the violent clash of heat and water. [color=00aeef][b]"Get your filthy hide off of Parrench soil, heathen. Your foul tricks are as nothing before the power of Shune's Light!"[/b][/color] He pointed the legendary sword at Hrothgar, the air around him crackling with arcane energy, and advanced. [color=00aeef][b]"Fight me!"[/b][/color] he bellowed. Hrothgar's glare fixed upon the young king and his lips formed a thin line. Wordlessly, he drew a dozen longships to splinters and stalked forward, the very fabric of reality seeming to roil and warp as he moved. So focused was Arcel on his adversary that he did not notice the blur that hurtled at him from the side until there was no time left to dodge it. Something plowed into Arcel with unbelievable force, so much so that there was flash and it continued unimpeded in the slightest. Hrothgar's energy instead went into a massive red beam that pierced the very clouds far above, visible for many miles distant. Then, the Parrench king was behind him, materializing as if out of thin air. Sanguinaire slashed for his head and only a massive, rapid drawing of Force from it was able to stall the murderous swing enough for the Eskandr to dodge. Meanwhile, the blur that had looked to have hammered Arcel from existence moments ago spent its energy instead on the shield wall of his soldiers, resolving itself into an unusually large and heavily-armoured man as it smashed through. Only, it was... not so much a man as an animal in the shape of one. The giant let loose an inarticulate howl and everyone with even the slightest notion of The Gift could feel a massive intake of Force energy. His colossal, rounded helm with its great, sharpened horn, his massive pauldrons, hulking breastplate, and brutal greaves, boots, and gauntlets clanked and groaned with the sheer power of it. Arcel paid him little heed. Hrothgar was trying to hit him with lightning but, once again, the Parrench king simply disappeared and reappeared quite far away. A wide, flat beam of brilliant blue-white light leapt from Sanguinaire, slicing at an angle through his adversary and the ground behind him. With a grin, Hrothgar dematerialized and appeared some ways to the left, unleashing a pummeling burst of Force magic that pounded into Arcel and caused him to stagger back even as he absorbed most of it. The giant Eskandr who had intruded on their battle was not finished, however. Putting the energy he'd gathered to use, he plowed back through the battle lines, decimating further Parrench fighters in addition to a few from his own side who were slow to remove themselves from his path. He came to a stop, smashing down a tree that had sprouted on the beach mere hours ago and shaking his head as if to clear it. The brute raised his arms, broken chains dangling from the manacles about his wrists, and continued to run rampant about the battlefield at extreme speed, plowing into people and objects alike, seemingly at random. The brave men and women of Parrence surged forward to try to plug the gap in their lines, but the Eskandr formed themselves into an enormous human arrowpoint and rushed through. So busy was Arcel fighting against Hrothgar that there was little he could do. The elder king found himself hard-pressed to ward off his younger adversary's rapid-fire attacks. The defenders of Relouse had also met with success, closing their lines, but a group of their enemies had already mushroomed through the opening. Instead of trying to attack them from behind, however, some of these gathered their Force energy and leapt, in a tightly packed group, onto the battlements near the Harbour Gate, aiming to wreak havoc. Others continued on, making a break for the Grand Armee's camp and the infirmary. [hr][h3][u]Thorunn Silverhair[/u]_________ __ __ _ _[/h3] Near the head of this group, by design, was Thorunn Silverhair, Princess of Hegelich and third among the Æresvaktr. Still, despite her healing, her side burned with discomfort where that Laughing Knight had speared her with his lance of light. Still, despite how easily she had killed many Parrench, she could hear his mockery: his hooting, hollering laughter. She had a job to do, though. She had targets. The battle would hinge on this and it would be good to have something to take her anger out upon. She made for the camp and the infirmary, already drawing all of the energy that she could and racing ahead of the others. Up ahead lay a small river and a series of tents beyond it. Thorunn did not bother with the bridges, where she might be easily intercepted. Spending a small portion of Force energy, she pushed off and leapt clear to the other side. [color=630460][i]The fox is among the hens now,[/i][/color] she thought, with a wicked grin. Soldiers were closing on her already. She breathed fire at their faces and watched them writhe and scream like human torches. Stalking through the camp, she drew so great an amount of energy it was as if the rain itself was not even falling around where she stood. Then, with a gleeful and girlish laugh, she unleashed, and things began to [i]burn[/i]. [hr][h3][u]The Nashorn and the Laughing Knight[/u]_________ __ __ _ _[/h3] The great beast of a man who had smashed the Parrench lines was known as The Nashorn, and this human rhinoceros was far from finished in his work. He charged about the battlefield, glorying in his strength and brutalizing all who tried to stand up to him. Lightning, he outran, Force and Arcane, he absorbed. Chemical only seemed to increase his fury. Nobody could get a fix on him for any sort of Blood drawing. Then, a knight in colourful armour appeared to his side and, by the time that the Nashorn had committed to swatting him out of the way, he was at the giant's other side and... all around him... laughing. [color=556b2f][b]"Too slow, big guy!"[/b][/color] he taunted, [color=556b2f][b]"too stupid!"[/b][/color] The Eskandr responded with a shockwave that left a crater in the ground around him, but the Laughing Knight absorbed the portion of the unfocused attack which would've harmed him and thrust a stiletto into the armour gap under the Nashorn's armpit. For his efforts, he was flung away like so much scrap, but he rolled and landed in a crouch, his massive opponent barreling after him. A blinding flash of light made the beast stumble, and then the laughing knight was gone. [color=556b2f][b]"Hoohoohoo!"[/b][/color] echoed his voice. [color=556b2f][b]"Hahaha! So weak!"[/b][/color] he taunted, [color=556b2f][b]"so predictable!"[/b][/color] The Nashorn continued to charge after him, being drawn ever further from the battle, for as long as Sir Rodric Danneman of Lindermetz could occupy him. [hr][h3][u]Sweyn Thunderspear[/u]_________ __ __ _ _[/h3] Yet, while some shifted [i]away[/i] from the battle, others moved [i]towards[/i] it. The Parrench found their northwest gates under attack and their camp burning as Thorunn Silverhair and a handful of her elite warriors of Hegelich moved through it. On the beach, their forces were still trying to recover the ground they'd had to give in order to plug the gap in their lines. Their backs were now against the river as forces came trickling in from the direction of the Witch Wood to reinforce them. These, however, had to fight their way through the Eskandr first and, for all the attempts of the knights to rally them to charge as one, they continued to crash, piecemeal, against the Eskandr shield walls and be spent. If Arcel had Hrothgar personally on the back foot, the Eskandr king of kings seeming to be in a desperate fight for his life, one sensed that it was only a ploy to lure the younger man into a dastardly trap. All throughout the battle, as the weather had turned foul and a storm raged, Eskandr shamans, warlocks, and druids had been drawing from its power, unleashing massive lightning attacks that blasted, burned, and spidered across the forces and fortifications of their enemies. Unbeknownst to most of the Parrench, however, was that the majority of this fury from the sky had come by the hands of one man, first among the Æresvaktr: Sweyn Thunderspear. Levitating through the air, it snapped and hummed about him as he neared the walled town from his hiding place along the cliffs. With a resigned sense of duty, he felt the energies of the thousands who dwelt within and, before long, had seized upon a large cluster that could only be a thousand or more souls huddled in one of those Quentic temples. [color=fff79a][i]Mother, forgive me,[/i][/color] thought the aged warlock, but then he drew from the storm, hardened his heart, and continued to draw until he swelled with such power that it [i]demanded[/i] to be released. He closed his eyes for a moment, felt for the structure containing those energies, and let loose. [hr][h3][u]Eleanor de Perpignan[/u]_________ __ __ _ _[/h3] Eleanor had felt it: dozens of lives snuffed out in an instant, within yards of each other, and she knew that a great wickedness was afoot. Battered and exhausted from a hundred fights - many of which had not been her own - the Queen of the Parrench hefted her shield and hammer and made for where she had felt the impossible surge of energy from. [color=f49ac2][b]"Echeran empower me,"[/b][/color] she murmured aloud, [color=f49ac2][b]"Oraphe keep me,"[/b][/color] she breathed, stalking forward, drawing on the Force of the rain to propel her body faster, and faster still. [color=f49ac2][b]"Dami guide me."[/b][/color] The Eskandr were on all sides of Relouse now, wreaking havoc, and it came to her clearly that they could be hurled back into the sea no longer. They city could be spared, though. It could yet stand if all committed themselves to its defense. That included her. That included facing down whatever Thunder-wielding monster was hurling lighting bolts into the roofs and walls where her people waited and prayed. The city could not fall. She would not let it. So help her, Pentad, she would fight to her dying breath and [i]after[/i], were it possible, to protect them. There, hovering above an open field between two windmills, she came upon him: the legendary warlock known as Sweyn Thunderspear and she was, once again, a twelve-year-old girl along with her father's embassy, watching a demonstration of his unfathomable power. Eleanor took a deep breath, counseling herself that fear would do her no service here, and casting about hopefully for the allies who would give her yet a chance of surviving this encounter. [color=f49ac2][b]"Sweyn!"[/b][/color] she roared, in Avincian that she knew he understood, [color=f49ac2][b]"This is madness! They are innocents! Have you truly fallen so far!?"[/b][/color] With a tilt of his head, the Thunderspear turned to face her. [hr][h3][u]Talit'yrash'osmax[/u]_________ __ __ _ _[/h3] Tali heard them faintly, at first, then ever louder: the horns, three blasts. Then, again, a few seconds later. It was General de Montblaise. He was... calling a retreat to the city. She'd been struggling to keep up with the others on this treacherous ground, enhancing herself regularly with Force energy as the tips of her crutches sunk into the mud. That sound, however, brought the one-legged woman to a stop. She reached out with her senses, turning on the spot, and she could feel it: Eskandr at the Northwest Gate. They had broken from the Witch Wood and run, using the haze of ambient energy from Horik's final detonation to cover their energies. They were exchanging fire with the defenders, harrying them, and it occurred to her that it was further diversion. It was part of their plan: give the impression of grater numbers and penetration than you actually had. It was not an Eskandr trick, in truth, but a yasoi one. Great-grandfather had taught her and her brother about how it had been used by their people many times throughout history. Talit fidgeted in place for a moment, taking a half-step one way and then casting about. [color=c4df9b][b]"Those Eskandr!"[/b][/color] she shouted, [color=c4df9b][b]"they're at the gates! They're trying to trick us, make us retreat! We need to get rid of them!"[/b][/color] She could not wait to see who came with her and who did not, however. The triple horn blast had already signaled a retreat to the fortified town, and hundreds of yasoi and Parrench would be pouring towards that gate. Her realization had come a minute too late. It was futile. These canny savages had extricated themselves from the nearly closed jaws of defeat and were perhaps headed even for a costly victory: a feat that she was all too familiar with. Waves of anxiety washed up and down the yasoi's body and she began to [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6DgFPdU9Rc]run[/url], feeling the wind whoosh past her ears, her hair flutter behind her, lashing at her neck and shoulders. Tali began to gather energy, to prepare herself to fight again. Yet, when she had drawn closer and reached out to sense the Eskandr, she could not find them. It was if they had run, blended in with her allies in some sort of ruse, or simply disappeared...[/color] [hr][hr] [hider=Summary and Action Opportunities][b][u]Summary[/u][/b] The battle has reached its seeming climax. Many of the major players have met in combat, with both sides scoring their share of victories. While the Parrench and allies have proven victorious in the Witch Wood, it is but one small part of a larger game/ Their energies temporarily covered by Horik's final blast, Kol and his allies have moved on to press the Parrench elsewhere at Hrothgar's signal. Hard-pressed on the beach, the king of kings has implemented his secret plan, calling in the powerful and nigh-uncontrollable Nashorn and putting a number of his elites into positions where they can have an outsized impact. Thorunn Silverhair ravages the Parrench army camp and infirmary, Kol harries the Northwest Gate, and Sweyn Thunderspear striked inside the walls at the cathedral where over a thousand commonfolk huddle in terror. With Hrothgar personally occupying the most valuable Parrench strategist in the form of Arcel, it has fallen to general de Montblaise to make the calls. Feeling that his forces are being overwhelmed, he has called for a retreat to the city. The Eskandr cannot be prevented from landing but, with a focused defense, it can yet be saved. 1) Thorunn is wreaking havoc in the camp and infirmary. Anybody in that area may stand up to her if they so choose. It is strongly advised not to try to solo her. Any Eskandr or allies may assist her. 2) Sweyn is facing off against Eleanor. She could use some help (so might he). 3) In general, a retreat to the city walls has been called. Have your characters react to it from both sides as it begins. How do they feel? 4) All characters injured in the previous round are considered healed by the end of this one if they recieve any attention. If not, they are at least conscious walking wounded. 5) The Nashorn and the Laughing Knight are engaged. Help the one who's on your side! 6) Help the wounded! 7) A group of Eskandr have leapt the walls. These are elite warriors with the Gift. If you're Parrench or aligned, fight them! If you're Eskandr, join them or aid them! 8) Kol, Vali, and crew are lurking near the Northwest Gate, but they've disappeared from people's senses substantially. What is their plan? What are they up to?[/hider] [hider=Fallen Champions] [b][u]Eskandr[/u][/b] 1) Horik the Golden: killed 2) Hrolf Bloodaxe: killed 3) Ulfhild Ulven: wounded 4) Olaf the Aged: wounded [b][u]Parrench[/u][/b] 1) Armand de Morilles: killed 2) Arnaud the Aheri: wounded 3) Lyen'Ivhere'Zulc: wounded 4) Caelum of Oraphe: wounded 5) Gerard Castello: wounded[/hider] [hider=Parrench Forces] Coming soon if needed[/hider] [hider=Eskandr Forces and the Æresvaktr] 1) Sweyn Thunderspear - attacking St. Defrois Cathedral, approached by Queen Eleanor de Perpignan 2) The Nashorn - engaged in combat with Sir Rodric, the Laughing Knight towards the beach 3) Thorunn Silverhair - burning the encampment and infirmary 4) Olaf the Aged - wounded in an inconclusive fight with Arnaud, the Aheri, almost fully healed 5 - PC) Kol, Death's Hand - harassing the West Gate as part of the master plan, suddenly dropped off of the radar 6) Gudrid Fangtooth - unseen this battle 7) Bjørn Coldfist - unseen this battle 8) Horik the Golden - killed in battle against Otios, Lyen, and Talit 9) Brunhilde of Hegelo - unseen this battle 10) Hrolf Bloodaxe - killed in battle against Camille de la Saumarre KING) Hrothgar the Black - engaged in combat with Arcel de Parrence PC) Vali the Twice-Born - harassing the West Gate as part of the master plan, suddenly dropped off of the radar PC) Ulfhild Ulven - at the far south end of the Beach, wounded and unconscious. To awaken and be healed this round. PC) Hildr the Red - on the beach, involved in the Breakthrough, generally at large.[/hider]