Report on the Martial Guilds' Campaign, 1110 Upon arrival at the guild house at Merrinhault we were informed that the transport beacon that the team of archers guild rangers had taken in had not yet been activated, and so we would need to go in by boat. In the absence of any of the guild leaders, Doctor Morgan of the Militia was placed in command of the mission, with Aeneas of the Vipers and Brother Agnus of the Armourers provided military leadership.
Just after dusk, we approached the shore in the small 6 man boats and were immediately attacked by demon soldiers. After establishing a foothold on the beach we began to advance up the cliffs, sustaining attacks from demonic scouts and assassins hiding in the treeline along the paths. We entered a small clearing part way up the ascent but could not continue any further, as a magical barrier, somewhat like a faction ward, barred our path. In the centre of the clearing, and on the path the other side of the barrier were demonic nodes, which appeared like 1-foot diamater red stones. When struck with weapons, the nodes periodically sent out waves of chaotic energy, and when destroyed lashed out with a wave of destructive high magic. In order to quickly destroy the node on the other side, we sent a planar bane sword through the barrier with someone who could traverse faction wards. Once the ward was down, we advanced further up the cliff, undergoing attacks from both the front and rear, with more demons occasionaly striking from the flanks.

Eventually we followed a series of booted humanoid footprints into a clearing filled with demons. at the same time we were attacked from the rear, and had no choice but to advance into the field and attemt to eliminate the demons. While this was eventually successful, and bought us some breathing space, the group in the field were at times cut off from the group still entering the glade and we lost a member of the vipers during the fight. It was then decided to push on and try and discover the location of the rangers, whose tracks we presumed we were following. The tracks led to a large clearing with a small pavilion set up in one corner.

once again, we were attacked by demonic troops, and when the last had fallen it was decided that we should make camp in the glade for the night. Bae'll and I briefly scouted the local area, and came across another demonic node which seemed to be corrupting a large tree in the middle of a nearby glade. It appeared that there were a number of tracks surrounding the tree, although the poor illumination from the moon meant that I could not discern anything more about them at the time. We decided to return to camp and report our findings, and then return to the glade with a lantern and the armourer's planar bane sword in order to destroy the node and thus hopefully limit the damage that was being done to the land. We returned to give our report, and it was decided to wait until daylight before returning to the tree.

When morning came, multiple scouting and cartographic teams were sent out to investigate the local area. Bae'll and I located a number of archaeological dig sites, 8 chaos portals, 2 lookout points from which it was possible to draw a map of sections of the surrounding area, the bivouac of the rangers and several more chaos nodes. We also came across a tomb by one of the digsites with what appeared to be a magical ward blocking the door. While we were scouting, Icarus of the Vipers was able to assemble a complete map of the area. Fragment of paper were discovered at the dig sites, some written in Common and some written in the Fae tongue. The papers suggested that the area we were in contained the ruins of an ancient Loresti elven city, and also hinted at a powerful artifact of law that had been created nearby and possibly was still buried in the city. Tracks around the ranger's bivouac implied that the rangers had been attacked by demons and taken through the nearby chaos portal. The transport beacon was nowhere to be found.

When the teams returned, a trio of beastkin came to the camp to ask for help in getting rid of a tree that was tainting the rest of their tribe and turning them into footsoldiers for the demon army. a team was sent to investigate the tree, and when we arrived in the glade we discovered that a group of tainted beastkin were camped around the tree. a number of the group members peacefully approached them and began to examine the tree, which gave Pilllow of the Bards and Imperror Starcraft of the Vipers tentacles in place of one of their hands. While we were in the glade, two of the three beastkin that came with us full under the influence of the tree and started to attack the fellows. They had to be subdued and then the tainted beastkin took them as their own. Bae'll and I then took the armourer's planar bane sword and proceeded to destroy all the chaos nodes that we had discovered to that point except for the chaos tree.

A rite was performed on the ward in order to remove it, but the rite failed and it was surmised that there were additional nodes somewhere powering the ward. The entire force then combed the area to locate the remaining nodes, and also proceeded to destroy the node attached to the chaos tree. The tree was examined after the node was destroyed and it was discovered that it was intact except for possessing an aberrant pattern. after resting in the glade briefly we were again attacked by Corail's demon soldiers, and fought a fighting retreat to the warded entryway, where a rite was performed by Rath von Kaiserstein to draw the Chaos energy out of the portal and send it to the Chaotic ancestors of Erdreja. The rite suceeded this time, and a small team entered the tomb to investigate. A short time later one of the team members came back out of the tunnel and asked for the entire force to follow him in as the had encountered a large force of demons in a cavern.

At around the same time Grandmaster Garret of the Militia arrived, having previously been marshalling the armies of the Martial Guilds so they would be ready to attck when the transport beacon was in place. Upon descending through the tunnel we entered a large cavern filled with demons, with a door at the other end sealed with some form of puzzle lock. After bypassing the lock we entered the ruins of the inner hall of the old loresti courthouse, which was filled with more demons and also a stone set into the floor in the centre of the hall. a small group of demons was gathered around the stone and two chaos nodes set next to it, performing some form of rite, presumably to corrupt the stone and give its power to Corail. After destroying the demonic rite team, the rest of the force held of the demons while a small group performed a rite to take the stone away from Corail and bind it to the pattern of Imperror Starcraft.

When the demons where defeated it was suggested that we remain in the courthouse overnight as it was a reasonably defensible location. However it was pointed out that there was no other exit from the hall, and that it the demons attacked in large numbers we would not be able to retreat. Therefore we returned to the surface, and began to pull back to a glade nearer the path down to the beach as our healers were running low on power. On the way we encountered Dr Tapper, Lifemaster of the Healers Guild, carrying the Armourer's healing box and his guitar. Feeling more confident now that we had additional healing support we returned to the pavilion, and built up a campfire in order to relax while it was quiet and rebuild morale listening to songs around a warm fire.

While we were gathered around the fire a small group of pirates arrived, bearing demonic amulets and claiming to have passed through one of portals. Thier patterns were badly aberrated, but based on information we recovered earlier in the day we theorised that if a rite of transport was properly performed on a group bearing the amulets, then non-demons could pass through the gate with aberrating their patterns. By the end of evening we had located eight of these amulets, and decided to send teams through in the morning. Around the same time we were met by a pair of Loresti healers who had come to find out our intentions in their land and lend their aid if we were there to fight the demons.

The transport beacon was eventually located by a member of the Percy family (I believe it was Rose Percy), and a rite was performed to activate the beacon. Colonel Fama of the Vipers performed the rite, assisted by Morgan and Garret from the Militia, Rowena and I from the Armourers and Aeana from the Archers, and the beacon was named Garret's Call. Cosaint of the Bards and Hengist of the Lions arrived through the beacon a short while later, but unfortunately had to leave around noon the next day. Late in the night a rite was performed by Doctor Morgan, Aeneas and I to scry through one of the portals to find out what was on the other side.

In the morning a team was gathered to close the gates, with the brief go through the portal, kill any demons on the other side, destroy the node that was powering the gate, and return through the gate before it was fully closed. The first portal we went through led to an oasis somewhere in a desert, and the moment we were through the gate we were set upon by a pair of demons wielding paired daggers who very nearly ended our mission before it had even began. Luckily, one of our healers remained conscious and was able to pick the rest of us up and get us back to health. We proceeded on and found the node in a small glade filled with demons. After killing the demons and destroying the node we retreated back to the gate fighting off a few demons before passing through the gate. The gate seemed to be closing right behind us as, and as we appeared out of the other side it expelled us with a wave of chaotic energy.

We moved on to the next gate, swapping out our healers for those with more available power, and stepped through the next gate. This other end of this gate appeared in Port Star (on North Star Isle in Mauritanja), and we were met by a pair of Corail's pirates, who believed we were scouts for Corail's forces and happily led us to the nodes and the war demons that were guarding it. We promptly killed the pirates and the demons, and destroyed the node. When we reached the gate it was almost closed, and I had to use my own power to hold it open and allow us to transport through instead of using the residual power of the gate to perform the transport.

We moved on in force to the next nearest pair of gates, but found that we were unable to approach either of them as they were emitting waves of chaotic energy and demons were beginning to appear around them. It was thought that Corail had managed to throw up some form of defense in the remaining gates, but I believe it could also be that by closing two of the gates we had somewhat destabilised the entire network. If that was the case then his forces may take even longer to muster in the Spine. We began to pull back to the glade containing the beacon and the pavilion but during the fight two of our number, Rath von Kaiserstein and Gale Force Winds (both of the Vipers) were captured. In an attempt to retrieve them, we assaulted the demons gathered in the adjoining glade. This went horribly wrong, resulting in many of us (myself included) being left to bleed out on the ground. If the demons had not been more interested in the beacon, then we may well have all been killed. We were able to push the demons back from the beacon temporarily in order to give us enough time to perform a rite to place a ward around it to prevent Corail's forces from tainting it and using it to assault the Merrinhault guild house. We then withdrew to the boats with no further casualties.

The tide was with us and we were able to swiftly exit the range of the demon archers and return to the main ships which brought us back to Merrinhault. Upon reaching the Guild house we were informed that the armies of the Martial guilds and also the Gryphon nation were soon to be moving in to the demon controlled area now that the barrier that had prevented their ascent up the cliff had been dropped and the beacon activated.

I have been informed that Garret will be updating everyone on the battle against Corail's forces at 7pm on the Friday of the Norscan moot at the militia guild tent.

All Works are © Original Author

(OC Author - J Tansley)