They are learning to fear you, but this is a lesson you want to hammer into their bones. Lurrothel continues to rampage through their dreams, showing them a thousand nightmares, as they dream of giant monsters babbling curses and shattering their bones, of their dead families rising up and shredding them, of innocent shrubs hiding deadly nooses of poisonous thorns.
And you begin to torment their sleep, disturbing it at random intervals as you fly high above their encampment. Fire rains down from your hands, catching a few unlucky souls and burning them alive, but mostly igniting random patches of flame the men must scramble to put out. Horns blare, shocking them out of sleep they have just entered. Darkness swallows sections of camp, and those inside are tormented by the sound of chewing and the revelation that one of their friends has been turned into a gnawed skeleton. Soldier go mad, turning on each other. Illusory phantoms swirl at the edge of their vision, threatening attacks which never quite manifest…until they do, and men of the Barrow Bows leap out of the bushes, taking advantage of the Legion’s exhaustion to gain an element of surprise. Arrows are fired from hidden warriors, as the harassment goes on and on and on. The officers try to keep up morale, even as their own courage begins to falter. Even the commander begins to bow under the pressure of nightmares and exhaustion and lingering terror.
And as their morale begins to fray, you leave them with a brutal hammer blow. In the dead of night, just a day away from Southbend, you raise one hand and a wave of arcane energy stretches out to embrace their tethered horses. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to get all the horses – they brought plenty of remounts – but a brief wave of chaos runs through the camp, as men awaken to find their horses growing hideous fangs and bone spurs jutting through their flesh. Many have to be put down, but a few manage to escape, and will run wild through the slowly corrupting forests.
With that final blow struck, you return to Castle Southbend, and quickly make contact with your various followers to ensure all is well. Kreth continues to make slowly but steady progress corrupting the land, while Caliwick has continued to teach some basic magical theory to your mages. The Avar Society continues to make great progress, while the Ceaseless Consumption struggles somewhat as the city council members try to use them to consolidate their power. A dream from you is enough to clear up the relationship, but is temporarily curbs their activities. The Order of the Changing Way continues to improve the productivity and loyalty of your realm, slowly improving a road that stretches towards Canord.
And with those matters taken care of, you array your army. The mages and archers position themselves behind arrow slits, the brutes and crushers stand just back from the gate, the soldiers and undead forming a semi-circle around them. You stand atop the parapet, Caliwick and the Demon-touched dwarfed by your sheer malevolence, which rolls off you in waves. Gresh-spawn buzz around you like angry hornets, their half-human, half-insect faces twisted into grins. The deathless knights, led by Duthrax and the Godslayers, conceal themselves to the south of the castle, ready to strike at your command.
The Legion marches forth, looking ragged, exhaustion evident in the way even the officers slouch and stumble, but their weapons are sharp and their ranks steady, except for in the back, where a hundred dismounted horse archers finger their bows and stare up at you with a mix of anger, terror, and exhaustion.
They halt just outside of arrow range, and you prepare yourself. The world slows, and the words echo.
“Men of the Empire. You came here to fight a foe you cannot comprehend, to conquer a nation you cannot defeat, to wage a war you cannot win. Your distant masters sent you to die for their false, pathetic gods, caring not for how you suffered, or whether you lived or died. And all the while they let you believe in them, let you follow them for no reward but empty praises and carven stones you will never see.
But it need not be this way. I can offer you power, pleasure, and endless rewards.”
As you speak, demanding their surrender, laying every word with incredible magical power, you can see the will of the soldiers beginning to weaken, snapping in places as many sheathe their swords and begin running to you, their comrades looking on in horror. A small force begins to retreat from the castle, consisting of the priests, a few of the spearman, and all the cavalry who still have their horses. What do you do?
Name: Klx-Dryklfx
Time: 8.75 months
Physical Might: 121 +6 ( -6 leakage,- 15 horse mutation, -14 speech + 32 worship)
Mental Might: ] 121 +6 ( -6 leakage,- 15 horse mutation, -14 speech + 32 worship)
Cults
The Ceaseless Consumption
Members: 7 seducers, 1 high seducer, 3 Shapers, 397 peons, 2 members of the city council in Avendor
Resources: 0
Power: 20 (, 5 spent worshipping)
The Avar Society
Members: 1 seducer, 25 peons, 19 merchants, 11 artisans
Resources: 2 (+5 donations, -3 party)
Power: 4(4 spent throwing parties)
Fortresses
Canord
Strong walls (45), Deep moat (25), Thorn Wall (25), Weak wards (15), Traps (15) Demonic crops, plentiful mines, Strong aura of domination.
Avar
Basic Walls (25), Living Ward(15), Demonic Mud Moat (20)
Castle Southbend
Strong Walls (35), Strong Wards (30), Moat (20), Gargoyle Guards (15), aura of reanimation
Demonic Realm
2400 Peons
1 Doom-Seer, 2 Doom-Seekers, 317 Slaves, 4 Dark Priests
75 resources
+26 power/week, + 20 resources/week
Slight corruption
Demonic Armies
11 Reavers, 2 Doom-Seekers, 50 thralls, 100 zombies in Canord
The Broken – 821 chaff (46 thralls, 441 zombies, 227 skeletons, 17 wisp wights, 89 weeping sores), 598 light infantry (297 Spear-Thralls, 2 Spear-Thrallherds, 297 Sword-Thralls, 2 Sword-Thrallherds), 269 heavy infantry (27 Demon-Touched , 1 Demon-Touched Thrallherd, 199 wisp-wretches, 42 heavy swordsman), 230 ranged (212 Archer-Thralls, 2 Archer-Thrallherds 17 slingers), 30 mages (2 Doom-Seers, 28 Doom-Seekers), 334 heavy cavalry( 5 mounted god-slayers, 329 deathless knights), 23 Infiltrators (18 Hunters, 5 Night-Stalkers), 28 support (15 Dark Priests, 1 Dread Priest, 12 Shapers), 10 siege (8 armored brutes, 2 crushers), 17 incorporeal(17 specters), 180 scouts (rangers), 17 flyers (17 Gresh-spawn) in Southbend
Barrow Bows – 164 scouts (rangers), 33 light infantry (bandits) in between Avar and Southbend
Champions
Kreth Woemaker
Physical might: 23 (+10 worship, - 8 corruption)
Mental might: 23 (+10 worship, - 8 corruption)
Other: Magic Cloak, worshipped by the Barrow Bows
Duthrax Soul-Render, First of the Thrall-Herds
Physical might: 9 + 1
Mental might: 5+ 1
Other: Duelist, skilled commander, zombie horse, Herald
Lurrothel, Weaver of Nightmares
Physical might: 3
Mental might: 8
Other: Necromancer, skilled at wards and dream magic, pregnant with your child
Caliwick the Arch-Necromancer
Physical might: 2
Mental might: 11
Other: Necromancer, Soulbond, Living Legend
Artifacts
Desecrator
+6 physical, +6 mental
Bringer of unholy rot, Reanimator, Focus of Power
Magic Cloak
Unknown properties
Herald
+2 physical, + 2 mental
Inspiring song, crimson regeneration