Battle Report 1: Those Damn Natives
In the Southwest, engines of expansion stir within the desert. The great aqueducts grow at an ever increasing pace, spreading and branching to bring life to new lands. New lands brought to heel under the boots of the Alikai infantry.
In the
Blasted Craters, the campaign is slow and carefully pitted against the native tribes. The hot climate is something that every member of the Anirite Akibara, the armored infantry of the Anirite tribes, has known by heart every day of their lives. The strange eruptions of flame, the toxic air, the primitive masked tribes that dart among boulders and through queer ruins, those present some challenges - though the last is hardly a challenge. Thick-bladed axes of iron quell resistance, and the primitive weapons of the tribesmen only pierce the coat of scales worn by the Akibara when wielded by the truly powerful or gifted by luck. The local tribes learn quickly that speed is their only ally against the Akibara, and that only by outrunning the armored men, staying out of range of axes and hard-flung darts, can they pepper the soldiers with slung stones and simple bows.
Of course, that is usually when the mercenary clans are deployed to their fullest extent. Lightly garbed in armor of folded cloth, the mercenary clansmen are experts in the hit and run tactics that their primitive foes are only now being forced to adopt. With scimitar and hornbow the mercenary clans harry their foes, their fast blades striking where the heavy axes of the Akibara cannot.
The news travels like wildfire through the scattered peoples of the Blasted Craters, of an unstoppable force that rises from the desert, of conquerors coming, and of the beastly forms those conquerors take. For those from Alikai, the People of Luna, they do not have all the same faces and features of normal men or women. One may have the plates of a scorpion, another the eyes of a hawk, a third may bear the ears of a desert cat, but one and all they are marked by mutations that ken them to the beasts of their desert homeland.
In the tempestuous and rocky waters of the
Mossteeth, the advance of Alikai is much less impressive. With no formal navy, military expansion towards the shifting isles is driven primarily with repurposed merchant vessels and rough hewn coracles. Neither do terribly well, even in their home waters, and it is lucky indeed that no force other than nature’s own fury contests them here.
In the rocky and primeval wilderness of the
Devil’s Scab, the Akibara struggle to keep their pace- as even their moderate armor is a hindrance in the brittle and sheer terrain of the Scab. The mountainous terrain is unfamiliar to all involved, and while the mild temperatures are blessed by most, the sudden mountain storms and their rough downpours are just as furiously cursed.
While it’s a miserable trailblazing campaign for the Akibara, the mercenary clans perform exceptionally. They adapt well to the new climate, scouting paths through treacherous terrain from one raincatcher to oasis to the next. Replace the brittle, knife-edge stone peaks with desert sands and burning heat, and very little about their life has changed.
Far to the Northeast, armies muster in the Zehlin homeland. They have conquered the swamp, the rotting dampness that seeps into all things, the chill mist and all the horrors that it shrouds, and now they march to distant climes bearing the tidings of an Empire newborn.
In the warmer, verdant, and noticeably more solid land of the
Ghoulwood, the nascent campaign begins. The rank and file infantry of Zehlin, lightly armored in padded waterproof gambesons and trousers, reinforced and fitted gourdhelms, and tough but supple leather campaigning boots, are at first nearly taken aback by how soft the land seems. It takes only days for the land, full of burrowing insects, deceptively fast and poisonous plant life, and terrifying predators to change their mind. The natives of the land are primitive, existing in tree-homes and practicing all manner of strange wardings and gris-gris against native beasts, but they still resist the invasion initially. They’re convinced that their gods, the strange and terrible predators of the ghoulwood, will protect them in exchange for sacrifices of blood and bone.
Unfortunately, the people of Zehlin are no stranger to sacrifices of Blood and Bone. As the Spears of the Infantry join battle with the natives, corpses from either side are carted back. Communers call forth to the deep, beckoning entities to reinhabit the bodies, and in this manner bolster the infantry with undead legionnaires that feel neither pain nor hesitation. Such soldiers exhibit little intelligence, but they serve as meat shields and shock troops to spare the conventional infantry.
Whenever the enemy dares to cluster, making desperate stands to protect their villages or attempting to mimic the disciplined ranks of the Zehlin infantry with hastily formed militia armies of their own, the Zehlin bring their full arsenal to bear. Small clay pots, containing trapped and tormented souls from the deep, are tossed into the enemy ranks. They detonate with the sharp crack of breaking pottery and the groaning roar of being freed, releasing a detonation of dark energy which terrifies or partially paralyzes those in the blast radius and usually kills or completely incapacitates anyone directly struck with seizures, heart failure, and bleeding from the eyes and mouth. For the actual charge, the Zehlin bring out precious spears with heads of transformed gold soaked in sunlight. These spears are salted among the infantry, and are used to emit powerful blasts of light, in narrow cones approximately thirty feet in length, that stun and hurl those stuck backwards. Occasionally, the Zehlin have been observed using a secondary function, surrounding the golden spearheads in a nimbus of burning light before thrusting it (usually completely through) their targets.
Rumors and tall tales of the invaders fly southward, each one more embellished than the next. One common, and rather disturbing, common note is a rumor of Zehlin heroes in impenetrable armor, riding giant armored boars festooned with grim trophies- charging straight into the ranks of the enemy shattering them by tusks and by lance.
Progress across the
Stillreach is as smooth as can be expected. The Sea Chariots, shallow bottomed vessels pulled by mighty frillneck salamanders, make their stately progress across the sargasso waters. Soldiers on board the chariots see little besides water, sargasso, and the romping salamanders ahead of them. While armed with bows and arrows envenomed with the pain inducing secretions of the Frillneck, there’s very little for them to shoot. Either some leviathan from the still waters has decided it’s hungry enough (or dumb enough) to eat the bitter-blooded salamanders, or the journey is hot, boring, and uneventful. Neither case presents the common man with a way out.
In the cold reaches of the
Frostspire, the campaign is hellish. The infantry is used to the cold, but not to the snow and ice. Not to the ice worms that writhe around campfires and extinguish them in a mass of chilling fibers if not beaten back.
The undead are a grand blessing, with their Deep inhabitants able to animate them despite the frozen tissues, and they do much to lighten the burdens of the living when the pack animals are either eaten or sent back to the homeland after it becomes clear that they’re worse than useless in this dread environment.
In Summary Alikai Presented New Assets Of,- Scale Mailed, Axe and Shield Wielding Infantry
- Light, scimitar and Hornbow wielding irregulars
Catgirls Lots of strange, bestial, mutations
In Summary Zehlin Presented New Assets Of,- Gourd-Helmed, lightly armored, Spearmen
- Undead Soldiers
- Spears that fire sunlight blasts or burn through their targets
- Tormented Soul bombs
- Heroes on Giant Boars
- Small boats pulled by large and poisonous salamanders
AlikaiAlikai: 5/5
Zehlin: 0/5
ZehlinAlikai: 0/5
Zehlin: 5/5
Northwest Land RouteBlasted Craters-Terrain is rocky and hilly, with sudden extrusive ridges and deep craters.
-Unstable underground geology results in sudden sinkholes, poisonous gas seeps, magma fissures, and natural gas detonations.
Alikai: 1/4
Zehlin: 0/4
The Frostspire-Unnatural Cold permeates this region, emanating from the mountain and covering the area in permafrost. Terrain flattish, broken by sudden sheer faced eruptions of ice and stone.
-Mundane beasts become extraordinarily difficult to handle here, and there is no native animal life beyond swarms of endothermic ice-worms.
Alikai: 0/4
Zehlin: 1/4
Central Water RouteThe Mossteeth-Shallow, warm-water sea. Prone to vicious currents and sudden storms, the tempestuous weather is very difficult for large craft.
-Frequent abutments of vegetation covered rock both give the region its name and rip apart the hulls of careless vessels.
Alikai: 1/4
Zehlin: 0/4
Shifting Isles-Floating Islands that seem grouped roughly in the middle of the sea, capable of moving, but also somewhat repulsed by one another so that no large landmass forms.
-Exceedingly difficult to navigate and home to a bewildering variety of climates.
Alikai: 0/4
Zehlin: 0/4
Stillreach-A deep and vast section of sargasso sea which is known for its incredibly poor winds and burning sun. Very easy to get stranded.
-The depth and stillness of these waters make it home to many vast beasts.
Alikai: 0/4
Zehlin: 1/4
Southeast Land RouteGhoulwood-Very flat terrain, densely wooded. This area is idyllic with natural beauty and hypernaturally alive.
-Terrible, intelligent predators lurk in the woods- rapacious appetites taking advantage of the abnormal fecundity of these lands.
Alikai: 0/4
Zehlin: 1/4
The Devil’s Scab-Mountains of Hexagonal Basalt Pillars with ridgelike shale extrusions, the Devil’s scab terrain is all but impassible, deceptively fragile, and sharp at all times.
-Home to hundreds of small oases of rain lakes and thousands of species of bird.
Alikai: 1/4
Zehlin: 0/4
Author
Topic: FR20 - A Fantasy Arms Race With Odd Rules [Prologue 3 Out] (Read 5247 times)