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Session 9: The Eleventh Hour, September

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Session 9: The Eleventh Hour, September Empty Session 9: The Eleventh Hour, September

Post by Popdart5 Wed Sep 14, 2016 6:00 pm

A session recap as told by Merick.

Now a lot of the stuff you're about to read I had no part in whatsoever. Absolutely none. But as part of my punishment or, as Thorgrim put it, training to not be a git, I need to record everything that went wrong yesterday. I'll add some more in later when the damn dwarf stops fiddling about with his chain and causing a racket and Forza stops fingering his damn gun like he's about to pop me when I sneeze. I'll get you f@#khead, just you wait.

Anyway...

Day 1

Things got started with a bang. I mean that too as part of Honour wall just straight up exploded around about midday yesterday. A great cloud of dust and smoke rose and billowed across the lower part of Northwatch, smothering a whole bunch of places and crushing others with the debris. I saw it all from my point on Courage wall. It was a nasty business and anyone who says it was my fault are either lying or crazy.

Anyway...

So one of the places that got hit bad was a fairly central area of Northwatch. The hospice and the Fat Lady tavern were completely inundated by dust; so much so that people could barely see further than a few metres in front of them. Chaos everywhere. The hospice had already had a bad run of it with the plague and all of that but apparently things got a whole lot worse. Petra, a soldier that had already had a few rumours going on about some sort of "secret mission" or something, was recovering in the hospice when things turned nasty. To hear her talk of it afterwards, she was just putting on her boots when the orderlies started acting really weird. Whispers and huddles between a few of them suddenly turned into knives and daggers getting drawn and people getting stabbed and sliced. Petra, in her words, f@#ked out of that s@#t and started crawling to a back door when she swore she heard freakish chanting and howling screams. She turned back for a moment and saw black wisps of magic swirl around one of the hospice matrons before they surged out and hit the plague victims. Bones cracked and bent while skin tore like paper as the dead rose. Petra made it out the back door before slamming it shut just as one of the undead monsters slammed into it. The screams and groans from the hospice grew in volume before a lot of people fled in fear.

But some people didn't, you know. There were a bunch of people in the Fat Lady tavern next door that didn't run away. Most of them had already had a few rumours about them and that "secret mission" thing. Others just managed to get caught up in the mess. They were the humans Arter, Jacque, Willem, Alphonse, Beaufort, Henri, Michel; the elf Fiorel, mum of Torvus; and the Mul Dusk, whom is now called Dusk Hammerspear. Their actions were the stuff of heroes as they held their own against a seemingly unrelenting tide of undead monsters. There were losses too as Willem, Henri, and Michel did not survive the onslaught but they stood where others had fled. According to what some of them were willing to share, Jacque claimed credit for felling the witch that controlled and empowered the undead. Arter was willing to sacrifice his life to save Petra from the ravenous horde that poured out of the hospice. Fiorel apparently imparted her skills to Torvus what with her deadly accuracy. Alphonse and Willem held the undead back for as long as they could and Willem was overcome in the surge of death. The greatest hero apparently was Dusk. The story goes that a three-headed monster of dead flesh and magic burst out of the hospice and crashed straight through the wall of the Fat Lady and nearly cleaved Arter's arm off. Dusk came in with a spear that pierced into the monster's back before smashing it clean through with the keg hammer and killing the creature. And that's how he got the name Hammerspear.

While that disaster was happening around the hospice, Thorgrim and a band of Silver Wardens, including Desine the Sinti, were returning from their "secret mission" beyond Coward's Reach. They arrived at the Fat Lady moments after the fighting ended and Thorgrim commended the soldiers on their bravery. The group of Wardens and soldiers moved to the lower area of Northwatch to report on the undead that had risen as well as the results of the "secret mission". They all saw Hothgar Olgar, the commander of the Silver Wardens, use his magic to move house-sized chunks of rubble and debris to help clear the destruction from the explosion. Thorgrim said that he informed Hothgar of the mission's success and that 'the bell was no more', whatever that meant. Hothgar ordered the soldiers and the Wardens to help rescue survivors and to clear rubble while he ordered Thorgrim to follow him. Hothgar told him that Eadwine, Torvus, and one of his Wardens were in the area tracking down the missing cluster orbs when the wall exploded. Thorgrim organised a rescue party and began working with Hothgar to move towards the hole in Honour wall.

The day was a bit of a crap day all around and Adrysse said it was an absolute balls up everywhere as she tended to the wounded at Vigilance. She had been dealing with the plague at the hospice and once the wall exploded she rushed back to Sir Bellemy at Vigilance to confirm what had happened. Bellemy apparently had sent Torvus and Eadwine as his agents to investigate the theft of the cluster orbs before the explosion happened and he was concerned that they may have been caught in the rubble. Bellemy mentioned that things were desperate and he wanted his agents found now. He ordered Adrysse to follow and they descended deep beneath Vigilance to the dungeons of Northwatch.

Bellemy, for some reason, had three Iron Mandrakes chained up in his dungeons. Adrysse heard that they had seemingly come delivering a message or gathering information or something. I tried asking his guards or finding one of the Mandrakes to ask them why they had come to Northwatch but all I got was variations of "piss off" and "you look like a juicy steak".

Anyway...

So Bellemy released the Mandrakes from their cell and ordered them to find Torvus and Eadwine in exchange for their freedom. The Mandrakes took off fast, like a thief running from the City Watch but even faster than that. A few soldiers up in Vigilance said that they dashed past them as if they were barely there and raced towards the destroyed part of Honour wall. I don't know anything about what happened next cos I didn't get to ask the Mandrakes what they did but I did manage to get their names. There were two humans: a man called Royce and a woman called Maelyr. There was also an elf called Argel'tal and I don't want to be anywhere near him if he ends up like Dante. Elves and Mandrakes seem to have a bad history together.

The next thing that I can manage to put together was when Torvus got rescued. Apparently he was near the centre of the explosion when it happened as he had been hunting down one of those Disciple of Dread fellows and one of them had taken a tumble right in a whole warehouse of gunpowder with a cluster orb. See! It wasn't my fault at all! I can't write stuff like that without getting in trouble so I'll just say that it was the Disciples of Dread who were idiot enough to bring explosives into a powder keg. Torvus had been trapped under the rubble but fortunately he hadn't been crushed or exploded. He says he heard what sounded like small gusts of wind and footsteps on the rubble near him when he called out for help. One of the human Mandrakes almost literally popped into the small space just outside Torvus' little hole and asked him he was Torvus and whether he was as good as his brother. Bit of an odd question if you ask me but apparently the two human Mandrakes, Royce and Maelyr, managed to teach Torvus how to mimic their little popping trick but with some sorcery instead of whatever dark magic they used. While the Mandrakes could jump around with their magic like shadows with little sound at all, Torvus had to make do with some black powder magic that exploded himself out of his trapped circumstances and back out to safety. And when I say exploded himself, Torvus explained it as using the energy from the gunpowder mixed with a bit of aether to propel himself, body and soul, through solid objects with nary a scratch. So basically cheating normal stuff with magic. Again.

Royce and Maelyr told Torvus that he was to report to Bellemy but Torvus said he had to go and find Eadwine as he'd been near the explosion. Everyone took off towards the cache that the elf Mandrake, Argel'tal, had sensed people inside. The cache itself was apparently where Eadwine and a Silver Warden by the name of Clarence had become trapped by the explosion. They were also in the dark as their lantern had been shot by a crossbow bolt by someone still inside the cache. Eadwine said that the cache was filled with forge equipment and supplies but nothing that really helped them against a shadowy villain that was ready to kill them. Especially when Eadwine said that the shadowy villain called out in a mischeve- miskie- Damn spelling- evil voice and seemed to talk to itself from the ceiling. Eadwine swore that it was just his personal demons toying with him but that didn't give him much relief when the ceiling detonated in another blast. While there was a bang, the ceiling did not collapse so Eadwine assumed it was one of the Disciples and returned fire. According to Torvus, that bang was him popping into the cache to rescue Eadwine. I wasn't there but Eadwine's reaction to fire a crossbow at the exploding danger was probably smart and fortunately he missed Torvus.

Both Torvus and Eadwine said that Disciples of Dread commenced firing on them and it was only after they were rescued did they find the bodies of six of the bastards. Torvus said that he missed the usefulness of his bow but that the Mandrakes lived up to their reputation. Eadwine said that Clarence proved quite the strong lad and managed to capture one of the Disciples alive. This Disciple is apparently held captive in Vigilance but no one would say what had happened to them. After the fighting died down, the rubble that had trapped Eadwine and Clarence in the cache was removed by the Silver Warden commander, Hothgar Olgar, and everyone was saved by a rescue party led by Hothgar and Thorgrim. The Mandrakes disappeared at around this point although some have said that they returned back to Vigilance to report on their success.

It seemed that, despite things going tits up, everything ended with not too many people dying. I mean sure, some people died in the explosion and the undead thing but everyone got their s#$t together and sorted things out. A makeshift recovery area was set up around Vigilance and Thorgrim, Adrysse, Eadwine, and Torvus made their way there to rest a while. Dusk, the Mul hero from the Fat Lady, found himself helping the quartermaster and sorting out what supplies still existed and what had been blown up. And I apparently was released from my imprisonment on the wall and taken to Vigilance to be judged. Well, I don't really know what I was judged on 'cos I never heard what my crimes were. Bellemy came out afterwards and ordered my release on the grounds that I was a Ghenrean and that I would serve the kingdom or else I would die. Bellemy said he had spared me when the Wardens wanted my head so I guess that was nice of him to do that.

After everyone made their way to a tent in the rescue area, the agents of Northwatch and I talked about a few odd ends and things. Nothing really too important to report aside from Thorgrim saying that one of the bodies at the Fat Lady was a witch and that Adrysse could use one of the witch's fingers for her bonding ritual. There was some back and forth type stuff that I didn't really understand or listen to and Desine opened her Sinti trap when she popped by but apparently it might be dangerous to use it in the ritual if they weren't sure that it was actually a witch's finger. I didn't understand any of the magic talk so I just ate and slept.

The morning after was much the same and thankfully the dust cloud had settled. Thorgrim kept rabbiting on about a large white owl early in the morning and both Eadwine and Torvus said that the bird he was describing couldn't possibly have flown by during the night. Anyway, that was this morning and not much has happened since then. Thorgrim won't let me out of his sight so I now have to hang around writing this stupid report while he tries to do something with that chain mail. I had a small mishap with my pistol but that's not important. The Warden alchemist, a smug prick by the name of Forza, apparently wants to kill me but he won't get that satisfaction as long as he lives. Eadwine swung by a little while ago and is working with the alchemist in preparing a few elixirs or something after he had found some materials in the rubble of Honour wall. The Disciples appeared to have a base in one of the caches and Eadwine said he had found some alchemy supplies that could be useful. I wasn't really paying attention. Just keeping my head down so that Forza doesn't blow it off 'cos I looked at him funny.

Anyway, I'll add a bit more tomorrow. Thorgrim says that this will be my punishment for a little while longer.

*****

Well I figure now's as good a time as any. The undead army is on the horizon and we've scrambled up to the wall. Torvus took a shot with his new rifle but there ain't much for me to do but wait until the undead get here. F#$k it, figured I write some more.

Not much more happened yesterday. Adrysse spent some time with Desine and Hothgar ensuring that her ritual preparations were ready for the siege and that she did indeed have a witch's finger. The answer to that question was no one was sure and nobody was game to try it. Oh well. Torvus received a nice gift from Cassandra the scout in the form of a new gun. It's one of those long rifle type ones with a looking glass or 'scope' as he called it. It looked nice but it looked a bit odd in Torvus' hands after seeing him with his bow for so long. The Fat Lady got back into working order so everyone had a last night drink and a bit of a cheer before all of this dreary war business. Getting woken up at dawn to go to battle was not a fun experience, let me tell you.

Anyway, I'm up here with Torvus on Courage tower near some of the ballistas and getting ready for the fight. I think Eadwine, Adrysse, and Thorgrim are on Honour wall somewhere but I'm not sure. All I know is that I can't run from the fight 'cos otherwise I'll get shot for being a coward by the Wardens. F#$k those guys. I'll show 'em that I've got courage. And besides, running from a fight you can't win isn't cowardice, it's being smart.

Some harpoon like things with massive ropes have been shot into the wall and what looks like eight siege towers are rolling towards us with thousands of undead things lining up behind them. And there are three huge creatures as well. I guess those are the grave giants Cass told us about. A horn just blew behind us and people are going over the wall on ropes to try and cut the harpoons off. I just heard someone say they recognised a sigil on one of the undead banners looked to be of Sir Gylliam of Van'tese. That can't be right though as Sir Gylliam is at Le'Ghentel guarding the cathedral. Unless he died and got raised by the undead to do their bidding since we last saw him a few weeks ago. I don't know if that's true but all I know is that I need to kill or be killed to get out of this mess.  

------------------------

Experience for Everyone:

+ 100 for Playing
+ 100 for Roleplaying
+ 300 for Danger
+ 100 for Wisdom

Experience for Heroism:

+ 100 for Lucy (as Petra) for holding the door against the undead horde
+ 100 for Bennett (as Arter) for saving Petra from the horde
+ 100 for Reece (as Dusk) for spearing and then hammering the undead monster
+ 100 for Blake (as Alphonse) for holding the window against the undead horde

Influence: (Apologies if I got this wrong)

+ 2 Influence for everyone except Merick for contributing towards the defence of Northwatch against the Disciples of Dread and the undead.
- 4 Influence for Merick for being responsible for the Disciples of Dread uprising but partially mitigated by his good sense to stop being a jerk.
Popdart5
Popdart5
Level 3 Sojourner

Posts : 299
Join date : 2015-01-06
Age : 32
Location : Brisbane

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