Negotiations continue with the various tribesmen. You play the kindly, understanding fellow, even as such…simpering boils your blood. You didn’t even kill anyone of them, or transform them into horrible necromantic abominations for the fun of it! You are glad you are the only true demon on this world, because if another saw you, they would surely die laughing. Of course, you would then get to feast upon their essence, but it’s the principle of the thing!
Fortunately, although the tribes are wary of closer ties with a demon, they are also wary of offending one, and when you offer them a mortal champion to fight the honor duel in your stead, none of them are willing to refuse. And so a bandit from the Barrow Bows who has already killed four men in duels steps forth, wielding a heavy steel mace and a buckler painted with your sigil and a large skull.
The other champion is a brother of one of the women you asked to marry, a deadly warrior in his own right. He stands confident and relaxed, seemingly the only person – besides you – who is unconcerned by this duel. This is just part of the ceremony, and one of little consequence. Everyone else seems utterly terrified. They watch with quiet intensity.
The two warriors step into the ring, the grass flattening and withering away at your command to allow the duel to take place on even footing. They circle, mace meeting ax meeting shield, each one testing each other. Then, as the desert champion passes you, he darts forwards, smacks your champion across the head with his ax hard enough to knock him off his feet, and darts towards you, drawing a dagger from an engraved sheathe. You can feel a faint spark of power in it, but not enough to truly harm you. With a sneer of contempt, you start to rise from your seat, your true form beginning to appear beneath your flesh.
But your champion throws his mace. Whether by luck or skill it flies true enough to shatter the other man’s shoulder before you can unmake him, and he falls to the ground. Several around the circle let out a shriek of horror. Everything happened far too fast for them to witness, but they can see their champion has lost.
The woman rises from her seat. “The gods have spoken. There shall be a bride-price.” She says woodenly, and a chest is brought out, and opened to reveal several fine sapphires which are offered to you. You accept, and the wedding begins. It’s a long ceremony, invoking many gods and spirits of the desert, with lots of water poured over the two of you. There’s a lot of subtle crying and angry looks, but no more assassination attempts. Finally, it ends, and you prepare for the next step of your war against the monks.
Working with Kreth, the two of you begin to raise an enormous earthen dome over the temple. The power flows easily through you, and you shape it, making the earth ripple before great stones rise out, thickening as they flow like water in response to your will, closing off the temple from light of day and star, the rock hovering above their skulls in oppressive silence. You hear the sounds of people trying to break through the dome.
Sand scours it, and you see the star that is a knife slashing against it, but the stone has withstood wind and root and storm. Only your strength of will could make it bend or move. Mortals, even mortals with magic taught by an angel and holy relics made from its flesh cannot defy it. And so they begin to suffer and starve, trapped in their dome, and you turn your attention to other matters for the moment.
Tribesmen have begun filtering back into the desert, but many have offered you their aid in exchange for yours, and they will not break their word. So they wait with you for the next battle in this war.
In Avendor, Lurrothel’s ritual preparations continue. The cult has begun to throw all its efforts into it, determined to complete it as soon as possible. And Henord Crossing gives itself more and more to you every day.
Name: Klx-Dryklfx
Time: 11 months
Physical Might: 201 +6 ( -14 leakage, -20 earth moving, +40 worship)
Mental Might: 201 +6 ( -14 leakage, -20 earth moving, +40 worship)
Cults
The Ceaseless Consumption
Members: 7 seducers, 1 high seducer, 3 Shapers, 578 peons, 3 members of the city council in Avendor, 1534 Civil Guardsmen, 6 priests, 117 merchants, 37 mercenaries, 299 beggars, 29 thieves, 7 mages
Resources: 5( -20 ritual, +10 theft and corruption)
Power: 51 (15 spent worshipping, 10 spent keeping order, 20 spent on ritual preparations, 5 spent acquiring resources)
The Avar Society
Members: 1 seducer, 27 peons, 27 merchants, 22 artisans
Resources: 12
Power: 8 (4 spent throwing parties, 4 spent holding services in temple)
17 mutated spies, 15 Voices of Change
Fortresses
Canord
Strong walls (45), Deep moat (25), Thorn Wall (25), Wards (20), Traps (25), 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 (-4 slaves/week)
Henord Crossing
Basic Walls (15), Moat (5), weak aura of domination, desecrated ground
Demonic Realm
2400 Peons
1 Doom-Seer, 2 Doom-Seekers, 273 Slaves, 4 Dark Priests, 446 zombies
405 Light Cavalry
270 resources
+28 power/week, + 45 resources/week (farms, mines, mills, trade), -10 resources/week (upkeep)
Mild corruption(8/50), Road Network, Demonic Shrines
Domed Island of Purity
Demonic Armies
11 Reavers, 2 Doom-Seekers, 250 thralls, 100 zombies in Canord
100 zombies, 100 skeletons, 30 weeping sores, 100 Spear-Thralls, 1 Spear-Thrallherd, 50 Archer-Thralls, 100 deathless knights, 43 Greshspawn, 90 rangers, 6 desert drakes in Canord/the south
The Broken – 793 chaff (245 thralls, 343 zombies, 128 skeletons, 17 wisp wights, 59 weeping sores), 676 light infantry (301 Spear-Thralls, 1 Spear-Thrallherds, 372 Sword-Thralls, 2 Sword-Thrallherds), 273 heavy infantry (27 Demon-Touched , 1 Demon-Touched Thrallherd, 199 wisp-wretches, 46 heavy swordsman), 282 ranged (274 Archer-Thralls, 2 Archer-Thrallherds, 18 slingers), 31 mages (3 Doom-Seers, 31 Doom-Seekers), 215 heavy cavalry( 5 mounted god-slayers, 210 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), 90 scouts (rangers)
Barrow Bows – 183 scouts (rangers), 67 light infantry (bandits) in between Avar and Southbend
Champions
Kreth Woemaker
Physical might: 27 (+11 worship, - 8 corruption, -2 corruption)
Mental might: 27(+11 worship, - 8 corruption, -2 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
Caliwick the Arch-Necromancer
Physical might: 2
Mental might: 11
Other: Necromancer, Soulbond, Living Legend
Firstborn
Physical might: 0
Mental might: 0
Other: Baby, living nightmare
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