We started this week by picking the combat up where we left if last time and ended with various people scattered across shadow.
This also turned out to be the last session before peoples holiday plans, mine included, enforce a couple of weeks break.
This does however mean it gives people a chance to plan how they're going to get the armies they need for which the following will be useful..
We ended the session at approx 18:00 Oten 20 Nusome Ji’tal (Elysium local time), 08:15 30th Savich Amber Time. Troops are required to be in Elysium for Tor 10 Terong Foo’Pil which is approx 13:00 on the 1st Otavich, meaning people have approximately 6 Amber days to find the Troops and return. Now given the return journey will be considerably slower that the outward journey that means they have just over a day in which to hellride to locate them, and 5 and a half days to shadow walk them back...
In terms of what you're looking for .. liken it to needing to Garrison Minas Tirath against a siege, but gun powder works, but nothing better does (you may find a little lateral thinking needed here). Cannons are slow and heavy, and mortars are even heavier. Cavalry might work but they require a lot of upkeep. The description to the changes in the Shadow might give you a few other ideas.
Now just to keep you all on your toes I might have another little twist to throw in just before we get to that.. not 100% sure yet.. we'll find out in 2 weeks time ... and don't necessarily bank on Cordelia being available to help ... she might have other things that she needs to do.
Okay some more GM hints as nobody seems to have been paying much attention to Time and Time Relativity despite me stressing it and when not paying enough attention myself having to correct things..
The Shadow Earth the family are all familiar with is about 72 hours continous shadow walking from Amber - for a few people (upto about 7). Shadow walking speed is considered to be 4mph. So anything with approximately the same time ratio which is a Shadow Earth is going to be about the same. Amber to Carnelian or Amber to Elysium is approx 224 hours, Amber to Ygg or Ygg to the Courts is approx 168 hours, Carnelian or Elysium to Ygg is approx 148 hours. Elysium to Shadow Earth is approx 190 hours and Shadow Earth to Carnelian is approx 160 hours. An army of more than a few hundred can do about 40 miles a day(24 hours) but they only spend about 10 hours on the march. The time ratio of Elysium to Amber is 8:1, Carnelian to Amber is 4:1, and Ygg to Amber is 6:1.
Allanon casts his chain lightening spell seriously wounding the three demons closest to Cordelia, although given she is hidden somewhere in the Dark Mist no one actually knows where she is. The three demons closest to him, Damon, and Sorcha, make slow progress towards the edge of the mist circle.
Damon tells everyone to back up so he can use another area spell and starts running backwards to give himself enough room to cast it. Fane stops attempting to close on the demons and parallels Allanon's course. One of the demons breaks out of the circle of mist but is unable to get out of the area of effect before Allanon casts the meteor spell, killing all three of the demons. The demons in the middle of the mist now start looking for an escape route.
<need to remember how the three were killed before Allanon cancels the mist spell>
Allanon cancels the mist spell revealing Cordelia lying flat on the ground about 15 feet from the demons, and Kohaku about 30 feet beyond her. Fane closes the distance to Kohaku whist Cordelia gets to her feet and scans the area looking for other potential hostiles. She spots a group of airborne demons closing from the direction of the city.
Unslinging her one of her rifles starts taking shots at the incoming demons. Allanon tries to copy her with his high-tech rifle but finds it doesn't work. Fane also tries with his black-powder rifle but also finds it doesn't work.Kohaku now conscious enough to unleash her Mogwai does so, and Static begins taking down demons. After half a dozen shots Cordelia drops her rifle and switches back her sword whilst she makes preparations for the demons to arrive.
The demons spread themselves out amongst the available targets, although 3 target Cordelia. The only problem is that when they attempt to dive bomb the spot where she was, she's no longer there, but about 15 feet away. Fane kills the one that attacks him then turns his attention on the one that's attacking Allanon. Damon blocks the one attacking him but has nothing that he can damage it with. Sorcha kills the one attacking her, and Cordelia kills the first of the three that tried to attack her as they try to recover from their collision. Fane kills the one attacking Allanon and then moves towards the one attacking Damon. Cordelia kills the second of the three and the last one starts to make a run for it, but it's cut down by another bolt from Static. Fane kills the remaining demon.
With a semblance of peace restored they move to patrolling the area, as Sorcha takes the Book of Selheim from Damon and begins the first part of the ritual. With the stones revealed she moves to the second part which as it progresses constructs a golden cage of force between the stones and an opaque field shielding the interior of the grove from the outside world.
Shut off now from the outside world she now begins the summoning part of the ritual. The first indication that the others have that something is happening inside the now obscured and inaccessible grove is that the temperature begins to drop and the wind starts to getup. As the ritual progresses the air becomes more and more turbulent, the sky begins to darken, and storm clouds start to gather and circulate above the grove. Cordelia begins to get nervous and asks Allanon if this is normal. He has no idea and they all move further away from the grove. The storm continues to build and by the time the lightening starts to arc down onto the cage Cordelia has moved such that there is more than 500 feet between her and the grove. As she moves further away so do the others but it proves to be insufficient, and with a final crescendo as the ritual culminates they are all rendered unconscious.
Fane is the first to return to consciousness as he feels himself being picked up. He voices a complaint at which point the person attempting to pick him up lets him go and tells him to suit himself then. He relents, and is picked up and hoisted onto the shoulder of some large black demon. The group of them, there are about a dozen, grab the rest of the party members, and set off in a hurry down the black road, seemingly unaffected by it. The unicorn, the true form of which Fane caught a fraction of a second glimpse, follows.
After about an hour the group turn off the black road and approach some form of residence. As they do so Sorcha starts to regain consciousness. With a lot of effort the demons change their appearances to be more human and arrange to leave the party there, before departing themselves.
Where Dierdre's tower once stood at the edge of a vast grey plain boarding the Abyss, it now stands high on a bluff almost forming the eye at the end of the inner bailey, formed by a nearly circular ring of 6 200ft towers, 100ft walls and 150ft tall gate house in the southern wall. Offset from the tower by a good 100ft stood another tower, some 250ft tall and 90 feet in diameter, although being octagonal the reality is a little less than that. Abutting it to the south-east is the great hall, 150 feet in length and 50feet wide, it's ridged roof rising some 120ft to its apex. Abbutting the gatehouse to the east in the south wall are a full set of stables, whilst to the west of it an to the southwest of Dierdre's tower is what would appear to be an Officers Quarters, Mess, Infirmary, and command centre. Additional buildings line the interior of the exterior wall of the bailey.
Below the inner bailey stands walled city each wall 80ft tall and spaced at 500ft intervals with 120ft tall guard towers. The 7 rings of 30 feet thick wall are spaced at approximately 800ft intervals, with a paved main thorough fare of 30 feet in width traversing each section. Each section is accessed via a 120ft tall gatehouse, and traversing from one section to the next requires travelling the 300 degrees of thoroughfare to the next gatehouse. Each section of the city lined with houses, squares, courtyards, taverns, inns, and business premesis of all sorts that echo to the virtual images of the thronging population yet to be present. The city walls end about a mile and a half away away in a vast canyon, seven miles across and a mile and a half deep. A road is barely visible on the other side of the canyon descending to the canyon floor.
Into this changed landscape, brought by a trump call from Cordelia to Dierdre, Cordelia, Damon, Allanon, and Kohaku arrive, although by trumping into Dierdre's tower they are not immediately aware of these changes. Dierdre informs them of the changes wrought by the serpent and suggests that to really appreciate what has happened they see for themselves. To this end she transports them outside. Taken a little by surprise by the changes, Cordelia leads them in the direction of the gatehouse, where they ascend to the roof to view the changes to the city.
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