Transposed Notes of Game: 18th of May, 2019 - The Battle of Castle Rend
The night is dark. The townsfolk of Gravesford hang about inside the castle. Everyone seems on edge. A nervous energy hangs in the air, just like before a thunderstorm. A rumbling can be heard in the distance.
The team stands guard over Castle Rend. Watching. Waiting. Their allies stand guard in the forest and in the clearings beyond, ready to take on the troops marching their way. A regiment of orcish archers had been stationed amongst the pines, and the levies that had been so meticulously trained lay in wait, camouflaged and armed to the teeth.
Riders from a distant barony also stood, out near the front lines protecting the forest edge, their horses pawing at the ground. Their old ruler was no more, and they had arrived only the day before to pledge service to this new company.
Lastly, the Salamanders, Rodrick’s personal handpicked battalion, stood in wait, their dragon-like full plate gleaming in the dim light of their flamethrower pilot lights.
The armies of Kotowari, having arrived by boat, traveled by foot to reach them. But their Lieutenant was missing. They knew he would try to strike the castle separately, thanks to their friends from The Clock. They hoped to split the team on two fronts, but they had a sore fight ahead of them.
One more quiet moment passes, before Lieutenant Hitokira, a strong, roguish looking fellow with greased black hair and dark eyes, bursts from the western forest like a shadow.
He wears a large mech suit, a little taller than how a man stands. It has a strange backpack-like apparatus with a single smokestack coming up. Smiling wickedly from the cockpit, he looks to have some light guns and climbing hooks attached to the mech’s arms. It races toward the wall.
Little does he know that he’s running straight into a minefield. The first mine goes off under him. KABOOM! He is blasted back 10 feet. The mech suit is hardy and sturdy, made of firm stuff. Although it is scorched and bent and dented, it is not altogether destroyed.
Instead of running toward the wall, he takes a hesitant step forward and makes his way slowly. Knowing he needs to alert his assault team of the danger hee, he aims one of his mech arms up into the sky, firing a reddish orange flare into the air. PSHHHOOM.
As she and her teammates hide behind the barricades, large wooden tank traps and rubble piles surrounding the castle, Armella hears this mecha heading toward them.
Contemplating the best plan of action, she takes initiative and acts first. She races up the rubble to get a better look at the smoking crater where the mine was detonated, eying the damage done to their enemy.
A courtly looking man in rich Wuxian garb steps forward from the southern corner of the forest. He raises his arms out in front of him and shouts, “The courts of Kotowari send their regards, peasants!”
Hikaru growls loudly, “Who are you calling peasants, fool?!”
The seer known as Mortum Wa raises his hands toward where he heard the voice, concentrating all the energies of his mind. Armella, Hikaru and Delilah all enter his psychic vision.
Armella feels something enwrap her mind, in something akin to a mental vice. She feels it clamp down and it holds her in place, but she’s able to shake it off.
Hikaru grips his new rifle sprite tightly as he pops over the edge of the rubble with Armella. Aiming right where he could hear Mortum Wa, he loads a newly charged lightning shell into the gun.
He shouts, blessing the entirety of the battlefield to his God, “In the name of Lord Balgor, lay down and die!”
Then he fires. It rockets toward the seer, slamming into him and electrocuting him at the same time. The light from the shot easily identifies him to the others in the darkness. He buckles, but stands back up with an evil grimace.
Delilah, holding on to her hummingbird gun with a handful of explosive rounds at the ready, clambers up another mound of rubble and stone. She moves slowly, hoping to remain unseen.
Peering over the top, she spots what she knows without a doubt to be a cultist of Mephistopheles, creeping out of the trees of the forest. He’s a tall, menacing figure and sports one of their daggers in his hand, an automatic rifle at the ready, and the stark ochre robes she’s all too familiar with.
Her eyes narrow and she levels her gun at him. With an expressionless face, she says, “The shards of dusk will find you.”
The shot hits its mark and explodes with a fantastic fireball, along with the smell of Firelord’s fuel. The cultist is blown backward off his feet and sent sliding across the ground ten feet away.
Delilah quickly ducks back down, hiding behind the stones. She moves a few paces along the rubble, looking for another vantage point.
Deep in the woods, a pair of eyes watches. A cold voice hisses out through another cultist’s teeth. “Did my little mouse bring her rats? Does she have a rat’s nest? That’s good…”
The cultist Cyrus takes a couple of steps forward, staying in the tree line, having just watched an explosive… something, hit his comrade. He glances at the man, prone, several feet away. He smiles as he raises his hands.
Several magic missiles come flying out from the forest, spiraling down at the ground in between the combatants. The attack detonates several of the mines in a large area, creating a huge explosion and a wall of smoke and dirt.
As the smoke clears, Firelord is standing in the middle of it. He has Infernus in both of his hands, the point of it on the ground. Once he is visible, the blade ignites. FWOOSH.
The prone cultist staggers to his feet, shocked at the sight of the large mech in front of him. He stumbles back into the forest in hopes of hiding.
* * *
Out in the forest, the orchish archers, known locally as the Needles, draw back their heavy bowstrings back and let their arrows fly. Sharp, razor like arrows slice down through the front lines of the Wuxian clockwork riders, sending the machines and several of the riders to the ground, dead.
The Wuxian gunners coming up from the left side of the horsemen see the attack issuing from the tree line. They raise their clockwork repeating rifles and fire a barrage of bullets, kneeling down to take better aim and protect themselves from incoming attack. The bullets whip and break through the branches, sending a dozen orcs to their death. The others quickly duck back into hiding, hoping to block the barrage of bullets by the trunks of the great pines.
The Riders of Arhau, the newly pledged allies to the castle, sound a horn as they ride down into battle. Spurring onward for the clockwork riders heading their way, they have their swords at the ready and rifles in hand. They go in and try to break the line of the enemy but it fails. Forced back, they turn and circle around for another charge.
The Salamanders leap up from their spot chosen for them by Rodrick, in hopes of surprising the Wuxian company of foot heading in from the right side. They lurch forward into the army men, but their enemy lifts their shields and pushes them back. The Salamanders retaliate, spewing flame and gaseous material from their flamethrowers, but it cannot break through the defense of the enemy shields.
The other side of the Wuxian soldier battalion charges into the forest, spotting a few of the levies hiding amongst the trees. They begin to cut them down, slicing through them with their swords drawn as well as firing on them with their pistols. Screams and shouts can be heard as the battle rages.
Further into the forest, a score of Redclaw Demon Runners is lurking toward the castle. Gnolls from the Korosvye Helots, they were hired by Kotowari to aid him in this battle against his nephew. Focused on their destination, they don’t seem to notice the townsfolk hiding in among the foliage, dressed in the outfits Rhys had helped them make.
They look out at the gnolls with their guns ready, peering from behind bushes, trees, and fallen logs. They strike, viciously and quickly, before immediately retreating back into the trees to hide. It causes a mass of chaos and confusion among the Redclaws, who scramble around their dead trying to catch what happened.
They do not remain unscathed though. The gnolls grab ahold of several townsfolk trying to escape and run their serrated daggers and swords right through them. More screaming and howling can be heard for miles as they do battle together.
* * *
Back at the castle, Armella takes a moment to withdraw an alchemical pouch from her pocket. With the confusion of the explosions going on in front of them, she tosses the pouch up in the air over Hikaru and Delilah. The material of the bag opens and lets loose a large dusting of a golden powder, leaving the two of them invigorated and alert.
Mortum Wa continues to focus his psychic energy on the three humanoid minds in front of him—perceiving them despite them being hidden behind the rubble. He smiles slightly, un-phased by the explosions across the battlefield. Despite the residual crackling of electricity making his body twitch. He takes a deep breath and thrusts out a huge psionic wave of power toward their direction.
Armella stumbles, a huge pressure and weight in her head. Hikaru’s mind throbs with a massive headache, feeling like his head is in a vice. Although they remain in control, Delilah grabs her face and screams, feeling the weight and a fog come over her vision. Blood drips from her ears. Gasping, she stumbles down the rubble. Barely holding on to herself, she manages to push the other entity out of her mind by sheer willpower alone. But the effort is so taxing that she falls dizzy and unconscious on the ground.
Rodrick, having heard the scream coming from his friends near the castle, turns to see Delilah fall. Without hesitation he shadowsteps outside of Firelord and emerges from his friend’s shadow. As he flies out of it, he sees that she is still alive. Relieved, he pulls out this little device from his belt and aims it at her. The nanite surge beam radiates over her body, healing her from some of the massive mental damage she suffered.
Rodrick looks around, trying to sense the magical, arcane or mental energy in the air that caused such an affect. He realizes this attack was not a magic attack at all, but rather a psionic attack, very similar to what affected him as Rolland in the church in Alwyn.
It’s difficult to pinpoint, but he’s able to sense another mind on the battlefield. Pushing through that person’s defenses, he enters into the mind of someone he was not expecting. He has many of the powers a mindflayer has, and yet, he is not a mindflayer.
Rodrick, defensive, hides his own mind and tries to find out what he can about his enemy. From what he can tell, this being seems to possess multiple psychic abilities—this mental attack being the chiefest among them.
Gritting his teeth through the pain in his head, Hikaru raises his rifle and channels red lightning down the barrel, aiming it for a spot near the forest.
A swirling energy forms above the chosen spot. The red lightning arcs over, striking and igniting it. Electricity crackles and rains down, rumbling through the trees, splitting wood in fiery explosions, and lancing across the ground toward his enemies.
Hitokira is unable to dodge the maelstrom in his mech, worried of detonating any further landmines. He braces himself, the electricity channeling down through his machine, grounded in the earth below him. Mortem Wa is not so lucky. He takes a bolt of energy right to the head and with a silent scream, falls down to the earth. His corpse smokes, red crackling energy surging over it.
A voice rings out in his mind—Ryuu—coming from the rifle.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
“He tried to kill Delilah!” Hikaru responds angrily. “Ass.”
“YOU’RE an ass!”
“I am an ass! What’s your point?!”
Ryuu grumbles loudly. “Yeah. I’m not wrong. I’m never wrong. I’m always right. Ass.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever.” Hikaru shakes his head.
Delilah bolts upright, conscious again. Her hidden daggers trigger almost instantly and are in her hands, ready to fight. Then she suddenly wretches, stumbling as she tries to stand. She has a massive migraine headache, but stabilizes herself to her feet. She has a very strange look in her eyes, far off and wild.
She stalks up the mound of rubble, a strange gait to her step as her head swims. Delilah stares out over the battlefield, only seeing the large mech that Hitokira is controlling. Raising her gun, she hisses out the word, “Greatness…” and fires.
BANG. An explosion rocks his machine and he stumbles back a step, surprised at the attack.
Nearby in the tree line a voice comments to itself. “Oh… The little mouse has come out of her rat’s nest. What a wonderful reunion…” Cyrus smiles.
Cocky and sure that he cleared the field, he steps out from his place among the shadows, making his way towards her. Unbeknownst to him… he triggers a landmine he missed.
Feeling it depress beneath him, his eyes widen as he tries to leap out of the way. Tumbling aside, the explosion rocks the battlefield as he is knocked prone, ten feet away. Unconscious, he lays in a pool of blood, his left leg all but gone.
Delilah stands there breathing heavily, blood dripping down her ears and her face. She has a gleam in her eye and holds her gun limply at her side, staring into the forest where she could have sworn Cyrus just was. Mumbling, she doesn't look like she's aware that she's standing up in the line of fire.
Hikaru stares up at her incredulously, running over. "Delilah. DELILAH!"
His voice pierces through the oppressive fog in her mind. Delilah's head snaps up and her eyes refocus like being slapped in the face.
"Get down Delilah!"
She immediately scrambles to get down the rubble toward the castle at his command.
"What were you doing?! You were gonna die!? Again?" He looks terrified.
"I—I—" She can barely find her voice. She looks equally terrified. "I didn't-- I wasn't--" She grabs her head like it's going to split, tears running down her face.
He slings Ryuu on his back and grabs her shoulders hard, and pulls her into a hug.
"I... I can't lose you again.”
Being pulled into a hug surprises her. She buries her face against his coat to block out the sounds of war around them.
"I wasn't meanin' ta, I am really tryin'—I don't know what happened, I—" She looks up shocked, seeing how badly he's fairing, too. They’re both rather worse for wear.
He holds her tightly. His fear is for once completely selfless and he looks like he's going to cry.
* * *
Meanwhile, the armies continue to rage against one another. The Needles volley off another attack against the Wuxian gunners, drawing their arrows back hard on their longbows. Some of them stick in trees, as the bullets that are returned upon them.
The Salamanders force their way forward through the Wuxian foot soldiers again, bursting through the line. They spark their flamethrowers left and right, relentlessly knocking their enemies over and scorching them—scattering them.
The soldiers disengage with the Salamanders, pulling back and crash into the Gravesford levies. They attempt to slaughter these people, but they have been trained well by Hikaru Kenta. They rush into the bushes and the trees, hiding easily from the sight of the army.
The levies that are further in the forest are still engaging with the Redclaw gnolls. They turn to strike the beasts, anger in their hearts. They are determined to defend their families, their home. They clash and roar, hiding and striking, fast and deadly.
The Riders of Arhau slam into the clockwork horsemen again, cutting down several more riders. Half a dozen of the Wuxians see the carnage of their comrades and become disheartened. They turn to flee from the vicious attack, realizing they are outmatched and outgunned in this fight.
* * *
Armella, gripping her head, pulls out a vial and takes a swig. The pain in her temples subsides a bit and she readies a shot from her hand cannon at Hitokira, who is still making his way toward their castle.
BOOM. The ball rockets toward him, slamming into his armor plating. She ducks back down behind the rocks again. Taking a deep breath and another swig of her drink, Armella feels its invigorating properties almost immediately.
Hitokira takes another step forward, turns, and takes aim at the large, fire-wielding mech Firelord. His two, large, clockwork repeating pistols pepper across his torso.
Firelord lets out a bellowing laugh. “That was weak, and pitiful. Try this on for size.”
He slams the ground and a huge cone of fire erupts from the impact, spreading out across the field toward his enemies. Cyrus’ body is engulfed in the blaze of the shockwave and it lashes across Hitokora’s mech, sending him sprawling backwards.
The remaining cultist, still hanging back in the trees after watching his commander’s body immolated, screams in anger and lashes out with a powerful magic blast. A disintegrating spell lances up Firelord, crackling and eroding the metal in large bursts of energy.
The mech creaks and groans as it is being destroyed. The sound echoes loudly, and all eyes turn toward Firelord.
Upon reaching a critical level of damage, the fuel cells being held in the reserve tank on his back…all ignite at once.
There is a huge explosion of energy, almost like a nuclear blast, where Firelord once was. The searing hot flames engulf everything across the battlefield within forty feet. Several of the landmines suddenly go off from the concussion of the blast.
Before the fire hits him, Hitokira blanches and sends up a white flare. That means… run. The Wuxian Company of foot soldiers and the Redclaw Demon Runners see the flare, knowing of the demise of their captain. They turn and flee as quickly as they can.
The ground rocks and shakes. Many trees fall over at the sheer violence of the explosion, and many more are set ablaze—there is a large forest fire raging around them. The clearing lights up for a brief moment, almost as bright as day.
Delilah’s heart almost stops as she sees the blast. The wave of heat and fire rushes toward her and Hikaru, and without thinking she grabs him, turns and lunges, tripping and stumbling as she falls forward into the massive shadow being created behind them by the light.
Suddenly they appear some distance away, emerging from another large, shadowy mass cast by a collapsed section of the wall. She stumbles holding onto him tightly, almost knocking them over. The reverberations from the explosion rock them.
Her stomach flips and she stares at him, eyes wide and looking around. "Wh--where...?"
Hikaru is surprised by her shadow jaunt. "How did you....?
"I-- I'm not sure how I did," She sheepishly laughs through her tears, both terrified and grateful, "But I'll tell you m--more about it later."
"I just... we were... you were..." He kisses her quick.
Delilah’s eyes go wide and she stares at him for a moment in shock.
He goes bright red. "I mean... stay alive!" And he runs off, slinging Ryuu off his shoulder.
Suddenly, a Rhenese Imp mecha lunges from the tree line, with one of its .205mm cannons aimed right for the wall… and where Armella is currently guarding from. It seems these new attackers did not see the flare in time, and are determined to take down the castle.
She hears a noise and the whistling of a shell flying through the air. It wizzes by her ear and slams into the wall of the castle behind her. BOOM! It rocks the stonework, blowing aside several pieces of masonry.
Armella scrambles across the rubble, keeping herself low and behind cover. Seeing Hikaru running over nearby, she quickly digs through her supplies. Pulling out a new type of salve, she clambers over to him and offers to help him.
Slathering it on his injuries, Hikaru feels almost immediate relief from the scorches and burns. The alchemical smell of it seems to fill him with a strange new emotion. For once, he doesn’t feel afraid. He readies his rifle and starts to fire at the mech without abandon.
Another clockwork mech bursts from the trees, heading through the clearing toward the castle. He aims and shoots with his long gun, right where Armella is protecting the prior blast to the wall. The round flies over her head and right into the keep.
A third and fourth mecha emerge from further south, taking shots just like the others. The blasts from the .205mm cannons shake the stones, knocking away a large portion of the wall. The rocks and mortar crumble away into the keep, bits and pieces falling around the battlefield like dusty rain.
Meanwhile, Rodrick stands safely behind the barricade, staring blankly at where Firelord once was. He slumps down and sits by the pile of rubble. He slowly places his head in his hands, holding it. He sits there for several long moments, holding his head, mumbling to himself, lost to the world around him.
Delilah, having not moved since she arrived in this spot, sees the mechs from her hiding place in the shadows. She is content watching them from her safe vantage point, the wall helping shield her from the flying rocks.
She loads another shot into her gun again and, recklessly knowing she might give away her position, fires off an explosive at the closest mech. It slams into the metal, a small fireball erupting across the cockpit. She ducks back into the shadows as quickly as she can, hoping they didn’t see her.
Armella scrambles forward behind the partial cover, aiming her hand cannon at where one of the mines is hidden. It instantly detonates, exploding under the left, front side of the mech over it. The four-legged metal opponent lumbers forward, one of its limbs damaged.
She scrambles down further along the barricade, hoping to spread out and make it harder for the mechs to target her and her friends.
The first mecha continues its approach, trying to get closer to the wall. In its rush to advance it triggers several mines at once. They detonate, instantly overheating the machine’s boiler. It overclocks and de-stabilizes the mech, blowing it sky high in a blaze of glory.
The new explosion has started a second, raging fire circling down to the southern forest. Most of the landmines now destroyed, the smell of smoke and burning pine sap fills the air.
One of the other Imp class mechs finally realizes what is happening, seeing the other blow up. It blasts one of the several horns on it in a sequence, indicating for the big mechs to flee back into the woods. It starts to turn around, hoping to flee itself.
Delilah hears and sees this. She ducks from the shadows and crosses the short field to the barricade near Armella, firing another explosive round at the machine. It slams across the side of it, scorching all the paint off and heating up the boiler. Armella holds her weapon to her, watching and waiting as the machine flees the battle.
The battle of Castle Rend has been won.
Nearby, Rodrick continues to hold his head, motionless. A shifting energy has come over him, and his body contorts and forms into the bearded, morose figure of Ragnar.
Delilah tentatively approaches him, a hand to her head from the still splitting headache. “Rod—Ragnar?” She kneels down, touching his shoulder. She leans in to give him a big hug. “We won.”
He continues to stare quietly at the ground, hardly moving or saying anything.
Hikaru turns, kicking the ground several times in rage, before walking off. As he does so he drops his rifle, and Ryuu transforms back into a human. He stares at him incredulously. “Why’d you drop me, you dumbass?”
The foxkin doesn’t make any answer, and after a long, awkward moment, Ryuu follows after Hikaru.
Ragnar eventually turns to look at Delilah. He has a sort of sad grin on his face—a very strange expression. He says, “Well… Rodrick said it’d be a big boom. But he never said it’d be that damn big.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re okay. That everyone’s okay. That’s all I care about.” She mumbles a bit in response. “Yeah… everybody’s okay. Ya ain’t hurt, are ya?”
“Well I’m a little singed, but it ain’t nothin’. I’m used ta it. Blacksmith and all.” He gives a small smirk. “And don’t worry about Rodrick. He’ll build another one.”
“Oh I’m sure he will…” She smiles.
“Might take ‘im a while. But he’ll build a new one. That’s the third one he’s ‘ad, anyways.”
At that very moment, the flames part.
A huge, bearlike creature, massive in size, towering over the trees, with antlers on its head and a long tail, ethereal in nature… phases in and out as it charges toward them.
The three of them stare in shock at the beast as it approaches. Ragnar seems to be the only one who is not worried.
He stands up, holding out his arm and contorting his hand into a calming gesture, and cocks his head as he looks up at this thing.
“And what d’you want?”
This thing continues forward coming closer and closer. Delilah backs away, extremely nervous. Armella holds her position several paces away, watching and waiting to see what happens.
Ragnar continues to stand his ground. The huge, ethereal bear tramples its way through the rubble and stops, its face, the size of a school bus, right in front of him. It blows hot breath onto him from its nose.
Ragnar’s face contorts into a giant smile and he reaches out with his other hand to pat it on the nose. “Aah, yer a biggun, aren’t ya?”
It pulls back, rears on its hind legs, and lets out a bellowing roar that echoes across the entire valley. ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR.
“Calm down now, I’m not gonna hurt ya. You’re a hearty one, aren’t ya?”
Eventually the creature comes back down onto its four paws with a large, BOOMFH. It stands, breathing in front of him.
Ragnar leans to one side, as if to get a better look at the forest behind it, and says, “Sorry we kinda… set yer house on fire.”
The beast lets out a low growl, as if to say, ‘Fix it.’
“There was some bad people tryin’ ta come get us. Um… I’m not quite sure what we kin do about it. Other than, maybe…”
He contemplates, starting at the beast; really analyzing what he can about it as it phases in an out. It is definitely not a natural creature. He can tell it is definitely a magical creature, and reaches out again to touch it.
“Ya know, magic is pretty broken here, and yours seems pretty broken, huh? That’s not nice. That’s just… not nice. I’m sorry that ‘appened to ya.”
The creature lets out another low growl, this time with a hint of pitifulness.
Ragnar can sense the moroseness from the creature. He thinks back on the stories he heard from his father of the old world. Of the old gods. Of their names. He’s pretty sure he is looking at something that is 3,000 years old, and by the way it is phasing and blinking in and out, he thinks it is split between two places… Two realms of existence.
Still holding his hand out, not quite touching the bear creature and waiting for it to make the final contact, he says, “Ya know… I think me dad told me about you. Once or twice, when I was younger. He lived a long time ago. Well, he’s still around, but… you probably know him. He has a lot of names. His actual name is Nerezza.”
At that there is kind of a recognition. The bear’s eyes go wide and a small shockwave emits from the bear. Not a physical one that could knock him over, but a spiritual shockwave, one that resonates within him.
“And I’m guessin’ you’re Kalijah.”
The bear looks up with its mouth open in a silent scream and disappears.
When it disappears, it is such a forceful disappearance that there is a huge wind that blows through. A gust so powerful and so massive that it lifts Ragnar off his feet. He scrambles to grab on to something but fails to do so, tumbling across the grass.
Delilah also gets caught in the wind and tries to lay flat, digging her hands and heels into the earth. Her fingers end up grabbing ahold of something more silk than soil though, and she realizes she’d latched onto her own shadow by mistake. Her eyes widen a bit in surprise.
Armella hurries to grab something as the intense wind hits her too, failing to make it in time. She’s picked up off her feet and tumbled down a line of landmines, barely missing where they are buried in the ground. The tank, near the other end of the clearing, is even shifted a few feet as well.
With this massive wind that blows through the area, the fire is instantly suffocated and quelled. All that remains is the billowing of residual smoke.