03/10/2024 -- Operation Fort Galax Part 2

Date: 9 Chy-sa 715AR. Starring Elise (commander), Talisman (quartermaster), Ari (lorekeeper), and Storm, Armand, and Seth.
We start on the morning of the battle. All of us are getting ready to engage in a last stand. Our mission is to take and hold the enemy armory, to prevent the enemy from getting their stock for a ritual.
Elise goes to talk to the Maiden, who’s getting ready for combat. She and the Maiden introduce themselves to each other, and she says she’s heard the Maiden’s good with healing. She says she ran into the Banker, and he put a tumor in her brain. She asks the Maiden to fix this.
The Maiden gently presses two fingers against Elise’s forehead, and Elise feels a warmth from head-to-toe. The Maiden says she thinks she got it, but says she might need to look at her again once or twice. Elise thanks her, and the Maiden apologizes that she had had to deal with Nicholas. Elise says she keeps running into him on missions, and the Maiden says she shouldn’t have to deal with him for a while, because she sent him to the rats.
- Elise says she doesn’t like Nicholas, and the Maiden says he has problems, but he was once very nice. When Elise asks, the Maiden confirms that she knew him a few thousand years ago. She says Nicholas had always been a bit nervous, but he’d liked helping the people of the Hollow, and he’d really liked to cook.
- Elise says it sounds like he was a nice person, and she can’t imagine what happened or what he did to become that. The Maiden says even nice people make mistakes, and Elise apologizes and says this must be really not nice for her, but thanks her for the help. She agrees to come back a few times after the battle to make sure everything’s okay. They part ways to get ready for the battle.
Talisman goes to the medical tent to talk to Anahi, who’s also getting ready to join the battle. Talis says he has news, and Anahi asks if it’s about the Speakers in the camp, which Talis confirms. He tells her he was formally inducted into the Speakers, and he’s not an Initiate anymore. Anahi says he’s still an Initiate, because they were excommunicated by Corania herself. Talis reminds her of the amphetamines lab under the camp, and says there’s something weird going on, but Anahi insists they have to follow Corania’s guidance. Talis says he’ll talk to her more after the battle, and she tells him not to die, or use dark magic. She hugs him, and he leaves.
- As he leaves, he asks her if not doing dark magic or not dying is more important. She calls them 1a and 1b.
Talisman and Ari go to Lucky Eight’s, and Armand goes to the Rat Races. Storm goes to the watchtower, and is joined by Elise. She recognizes him as one of the members she’s assigned to take the armory with, and asks if she can join him. He agrees.
They chat a bit, and when Elise asks, Storm says he’s been here only a week or two. Elise has been here since before Tpres, and originally tried to join up with the Chosen Lions, but Zetian tricked her. Storm says he seems pretty good at that, and Elise agrees, and says she wants to hate him, but he’s really good at his job. She says it technically all worked out for the best, because the Chosen Lions are gone, and she’s still here. Silver linings.
- Elise says that if you’d told her a few months ago they’d be fighting for the very existence of the Ring, she’d have laughed. Storm asks if she thinks they’ll win, and she says yeah. She lost a lot, and she has to think it’ll be worth it in the end. She asks what Storm thinks, and he says he doesn’t know. He’s technically with the Brigade, but he’s part of the Ard Magos, and they’re there by circumstance. They’ve lost enough getting here, so they may as well try to see it through to the end. Elise asks what the Ard Magos is, and Storm says they live on the moon with the god Magion. Elise hadn’t known people lived on the moon, but she grew up in a monastery. Storm hadn’t known either, until he started living up there.
- Storm asks if she thinks the fight’s going to go well, and she says yeah. It’s not gonna be an easy fight, but she heard Helmuth and Lavatera took down about 12,000 soldiers the other day. As long as they hold the armory, it’ll be enough to draw out Gaston, and our best soldiers can take him out. Storm says twelve thousand is the number to beat, and they both make a toast to victory.
  - Elise gets +1d6 mental, Storm gets +1d6 physical.
With us ready to go, we head back to the mouth of the camp. Squads are already beginning to form up. We’re officially introduced to Armand.
- Armand (Jonah) – a six-foot tall man, mid-thirties, with carefully-cut black hair, pale blue eyes, and rather pale skin. He carries himself with grace and general etiquette, like a noble would. He has a cold, distant expression on his face.
A woman rushes by, bumping into Armand – she’s wearing a bit of armor over a white shirt, black trousers, and has short-cut black hair, with just the faintest bit of fangs. She tells him to watch where he’s going, and he apologizes. She apologizes too, and asks if he knows when we’re leaving. He believes it’ll be rather soon, and she thanks him, and says she hasn’t seen him before.
- He says he’s been here and there, and introduces himself as Armand De Lacroix. She runs away immediately, and he watches her for a moment, before continuing on his way. He joins the group.
Helmuth walks up to the front, and straightens his back, looking out at everyone. “Win, and you are legends. To battle, now.” And he leaves. We set out on a short walk through the mists, and we see Fort Galax, a massive black fortress built during the war of great succession, now corrupted and taken over by the Impure. A secondary mist has begun to fall over the fort, and we look out, seeing the main gate beginning to open. Helmuth raises his blade and shouts to charge, and the surprise attack against Fort Galax begins.
We assign roles – Elise is the commander, Ari is the lorekeeper, and Talis is the quartermaster. We don’t get other roles. The quartermaster chooses to bring grey oil. We begin mass combat.
The commander rolls 2d6+2, and the enemy rolls 2d6+4. We get 13 [rolled: 5, 6], and the enemy gets 7 [rolled: 1, 2]. The enemy is driven back with ferocity, and our squad begins to move. We find an emerald lying on the ground from an explosion (+1 emerald!). Seth is in front of the armory, clearing out some stray Blossomed zombies – we see a bloodied, scratched-up werewolf, howling in success. He looks similar to Damon, and Ari asks if he is Damon – he says no, he’s Damon’s brother Seth. He’s also on this mission, but came earlier to scout and take out some Impure.
We get 2 minutes to set up. Elise uses Magical Transformation, and Seth uses a 60-ft length of rope to tie a tripwire between some barricades. We take position, and enemies come in from the west and south. Some Howlers also enter the scene. Round 1 begins.
Seth tries to attack some enemies, but it doesn’t pan out. Elise flies 50 ft into the air, and uses some of the electric charge already there to throw a giant lightning bolt at a cluster of Blossomed. She’s only able to hit one of them. The energy and magic in this area feel odd to her, and she flies back down to take cover.
Armand tries to shoot water at a Blossomed, and does 2 dmg. He points at it, giving all creatures Benefit I against it, and yells to get that one. Ari blink strikes over to attack it, and takes out a health block, but the eyes of all the enemies land on him. Talisman makes a wall of fire to block off the entrance to the armory.
On the world’s turn, the air fills with Lavatera’s lightning, and there’s a massive charging effect. All creatures outside at the end of the next round will take 50 lightning dmg with Sheer I. Some new enemies also arrive. Round 2 begins.
Storm takes two health blocks off one of the red-group Blossomed and kills it, cutting into it before driving his hand crossbow into the back of its head and firing. Seth runs through Talisman’s wall of fire to get to safety, taking 28 fire dmg in the process, but is able to open the door of the armory and get inside. Elise asks Ari if he trusts her, and when he says sure, she picks him up and flies them both over the wall of fire and into the armory.
Armand opens up his pocket dimension under Storm, who is too focused on the battle to try to avoid it. Armand then dives through the wall of fire to get inside, and also takes 18 magical fire dmg. Talisman lops off the head of one of the Crows, and makes his way inside.
The red-group Blossomed dash into the armory, one of them making it all the way to Ari. The first attack misses, but the second does 4 dmg and adds 1 corruption. The Howlers also make it inside, but everything that crosses the wall of fire takes the damage and loses a health block.
On the world’s turn, lightning descends down, obliterating all the blue-group Blossomed and yellow-group Crows. A dice is rolled for Storm’s safety [1d6, DC: 3], and he gets a 5. He’s safe from the lightning in the pocket dimension (but is crying). Jamie rolls 2d3 for the next world effect, and gets a 2. A corruption storm forms outside of the armory, giving any creature in its radius on the next world turn 2d3 corruption. Some Spitters arrive outside. Round 3 begins.
Storm uses a background action to crawl out of the pocket dimension, then runs to the threshold of the armory, attacking one of the Blossomed. He yells for us to pull him into the armory. Elise off-hand attacks a Howler and misses completely because of her Detriment VII, then supercharges her fist with lightning and punches the Howler. She does 28dmg, removing a health block.
Seth moves into a side room of the armory to look for weapons, but gives his combat ability to Ari, giving Ari an extra success on his next save or dmg roll in the combat. On Armand’s turn, he uses his combat ability to give all creatures Benefit I against one of the Howlers. The Spitters have their turn, and all spit at Storm, but get Detriment III because of the wall of fire. They deal him 8 points of acid dmg, and +2 corruption.
Talisman pulls Storm inside, before using his background action to close the door partially, since the Blossomed in its path prevents it from closing fully. On the turn of the Howlers, one of them pulls the door open again, and drags Talisman outside into the corruption storm.
On the world’s turn, Talisman gains 3 corruption from the corruption storm. Jonah makes the world roll, and gets a 4. The ground begins to shake, the Ring undulating like a sea. The Impure seem fine, since they’re in-tune with the ring, but players are given a DC 2 physical save to avoid being knocked prone. Ari, Seth, and Armand fail.
Storm shoots one of the Spitters, taking a health block off of it. Elise tries to create a wall of electricity across some Blossomed, and fails her roll, but is able to obliterate one of the red-group Blossomed. She kills another with her off-hand. Armand uses his movement to stand, and opens his pocket dimension under one of the other red-group Blossomed. It fails its save, and falls in.
A Spitter walks through the wall of fire, losing a health block. Talis and Storm take dmg and corruption from its subsequent attack. Talisman attacks the Howler with his ax, doing 40 dmg and taking a health block.
On the world’s turn, Caleb rolls for the effect, and there’s another earthquake. A new creature shows up, one we haven’t seen before – Callix, the Ripper. Round 5 begins.
Storm cuts a Blossomed in half on his turn. Seth opens a chest on his turn, and finds a lot of strange roots, weird carved stones, etc. Lots of items for magical effects. He fails a mental check trying to figure out what could be useful, so he just grabs a bunch of them.
Ari loses a health block on an attack (Detriment I on dmg rolls and skill checks), and then another (Tired I for 3 days). The Ripper runs on all fours, and attacks Armand, taking 2 armor blocks. Ari flees into the side room to hang out with Seth, and Talis drops a fireball on the cluster of Blossomed Ari had been in the middle of, spreading the damage out between them and killing one. The Gloom-Weaver attacks Armand, giving him corruption.
On the world’s turn, Ryan rolls a 5 for the effect, and gets another lightning storm building up. Some Crows arrive, but they’re too far to do much. Round 6 begins, the last round we need to survive.
Storm kills a Spitter, carving up diagonally through it. He shoots at the Gloom-Weaver, but misses. Armand loses a health block, and for his minor injury, gets a harmless but nasty-looking wound. He’s able to spend stamina on the next attack, but when the Ripper attacks him, he loses two health blocks and is ripped in half. As he dies, he inverts his pocket dimension, dumping out all the water in it and turning the floor into rough terrain for the enemies.
The Ripper attacks Talis next, and he sacrifices an armor block and a health block (minor injury: Detriment I on dmg rolls), and +2 corruption. The Gloom-Weaver phases into the side room to give Ari +3 corruption, but this is also the last turn of the round – the sounds of battle grow, and we hear quaking and the sounds of magic, the lightning storm increasing outside. The Impure turn, heading towards the center of Fort Galax, and for now, we’re alive. The mission ends here.
+1 level for everyone above level 7, +2 levels for anyone at 7 or less. The difficulty of part 3 is greatly reduced.