After the Slaughter of Xinjin
| Creasur's Stand
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| Roleplay from Aibhlidhn Dubhaine |
| Message sent to Everyone in Daishi Faith |
| The Queen's Royal Fusileers filed sombrely through the Great North Gate from the road to Xinjin, their armour battered and covered in crusted ichor of varied hues and indeterminate origins. Overhead their banners stood proud, displaying their many storied battle honours, but it was clear from the silence in which they marched that the grievous losses they'd suffered in recent days had dented even their steely resolve.
Aibhlidhn was herself no less battered and bruised than her loyal bodyguards, always in the midst of the heaviest fighting as was the Agyrian way. Even her famed leechcraft had been stretched to its limit, the festering wounds inflicted by the Necromancer's cursed weapons defying all but the most powerful charms. The only consolation was the knowledge that their stand in Xinjin had bought a little time for many of her knights to slip north for what she hoped would be a swift refit.
"Excuse me Majesty," a messenger came panting up to her as she was dismounting, a youth of no more than thirteen or fourteen years by the look of him with a sheaf of parchment in his hands.
"Can't it wait?" Captain Caedberga was being particularly protective of her mistress today.
"It's alright Cae, the lad's just doing his duty," Aibhlidhn drew two silver coins from her purse and handed it to the messenger as she accepted his precious cargo, "Spend it wisely."
"Yes Majesty!" he doffed his cap, face beaming at his good fortune, dumbstruck.
"Well off you get!" Caedberga pantomimed cuffing him and he fled, his beaming smile out of place in the besieged city streets.
"Hmm..." Aibhlidhn's brows knitted as she worked her way through the messages.
"Bad news?"
"Irondale's Noctan Legion can't march until Spring," the Queen kept her voice low so the news wouldn't be overhead by anyone else.
"Creasur will likely fallen before then," Caedberga let out a heavy sigh.
"That's a distinct possibility," Aibhlidhn shared her Captain's concern. They'd shared many perils in all quarters of Beluaterra and there were few officers who knew their business better than Caedberga.
"Worse still the war between Reven and the Vales isn't any closer to its conclusion."
"So no help from either then?"
"No troops from either that's for sure," the Queen's tiredness was all too apparent in her voice. They'd none of them slept properly in a week or more and she really needed a bath and a soft bed to crash in. She didn't even dare think of the other matter. She couldn't decide if the hare-brained scheme dreamed up in Gethsemene would make their situation better or worse but that could wait until tomorrow. |
| Aibhlidhn Dubhaine (Queen of Ar Agyr) |
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| Report from Aibhlidhn Dubhaine |
| Message sent to Everyone in Ar Agyr |
| I've finally made it as far as Ippetimbal and at sunrise should arrive in Wudenkin where I can board a ferry to Jyl. It'll be good to be back in Ar Agyr even if I'll probably only be staying long enough to refit and hire some fresh recruits to the Royal Fusileers.
I've left an agent in Creasur to keep an eye on things in our absence. The Daishi gathered there are making plans to open a Portal with the intention of channeling its power against the Necromancer's besiegers. I'll admit I'm far from convinced this plan will solve the crisis but it may buy us time to mobilise in greater strength.
Irondale has promised to send its Noctan Legion to assist once Spring arrives and that will help. Meanwhile Light Bringer Hendrick of Reven is offering to concede all the claims made by Emperor Ehrich and if this turns into a formal peace we may see each realm send additional forces to assist.
That leaves only Queen Eowyn of Thalmarkin to declare her position. |
| Aibhlidhn Dubhaine (Queen of Ar Agyr) |
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| The Wrong Side of a Wall
Through the night, the light continues to spread slowly along Creasur's northern border—and when it reaches the eastern and western edges of the border, it continues spreading, west along Ypsilanti's border and east along Eg Tutnu's. As it spreads, the vibrations gradually soften, and the words within the cacophony of undead and monsters become more and more indistinct.
By dawn, there is a shimmering curtain of pearlescent light stretching from coast to coast just north of Creasur.
And there is an army of undead marching through a dozen breaches in the city's wall.
As the massed ranks of desiccated corpses push through the streets and begin slaughtering the populace, the portal stones rise into the air and begin to rotate slowly, drifting gently northward as they do so. The stones shift their angle by 90 degrees so that they are oriented vertically, the column of light, though fainter now, still stretching from them to the curtain on the border. Then, without further warning, they fly to the border, bringing the light with them.
The stones stop when they hit the border as if they have struck a wall of packed earth and embedded themselves in it, no longer spinning. The glow of the curtain of light at the border strengthens, and though animals can be seen moving through it, and it bisects a number of trees with no apparent ill effects, when a stray monster in Ypsilanti charges heedlessly up to the border with Jaekind, it strikes the curtain of light as if it were a solid barrier and bounces off, landing with a yelp several feet away.
The north of Beluaterra is, it seems, somewhat protected...but at what cost?
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| Report from Ryosuke Guile |
| Message sent to Everyone in the Nocturn Conclave |
| Fellow Rulers of the Isle of Monsters,
Irondale still stands committed to aiding in the defence of the South, but we are unable to send our legion anywhere until things are a bit more secured on our own borders. The desert has seen an increase in the size of rogue spawns, and I very much doubt that any of our neighbours wish to get blindsided by marauding orcs or trolls whilst they are busy in their wars, or the vital work of defending the south.
In the coming weeks we will be implementing a stricter militia requirement on our frontier regions, as well as increasing our mobile force strength further.
On the first day of the coming spring, Irondale's Noctan Legion will begin marching to wherever the mustering will be at that time.
I hope that the Masked One has a positive outcome for us all in these trying times, only through his understandings and mystery will we truly triumph over this bedamned Necromancer. Creasur remains in our prayers, across the Dale, and by members of all three of the important faiths of the isle.
Strength and Honour,
Vox Noctis, |
| Ryosuke Guile (Hierophant of Irondale) |
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