Player Progression Story Wicker Men Of Change

Discussion in 'Progression Events' started by MonMarty, Aug 25, 2018.

  1. MonMarty

    MonMarty Thotdodger Staff Member Server Owner

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    In the Regalian Archipelago, the Harhold declaration of war slowly starts rearing up. While Harhold troops are being mobilized and the many smithies in the land turned to producing weaponry, the lack of actual industry in the southern Anglian region makes arming the peasant hordes very difficult. While Harhold’s personal legion of rabid peasants has been well armed, the local forges simply don’t have the manpower or the resources to produce weapons on an industrial scale. In the Anglian Veer meanwhile, von Hauger also mobilizes his troops, though positions them in a defensive manner to re-arm the coastal defences built last time Harhold and von Hauger had a diplomatic dispute. Across the landmass in the Sorenvik lands meanwhile, Sorenvik Skaggers reinforce the Indelingsverknet built by the Sorenvik family over many years, arming the statewide alert and redeployment network. Furthermore, King Krumme of Nordskag as well as the Hedryll Kingdom send several detachments of Velheimer troops under the auspices of “reinforcing the peace in Drixagh, to which these nations have cultural ties”, though it is pretty obvious to outsiders that Sorenvik requested aid from Regalian Empire subjects in the event of an invasion.

    No further news is worth reporting in the Regalian Archipelago, aside from the fact that the Gourd is suddenly experiencing a major boom in production and sale price.

    In other places however, more personal matters led to less of a stalemate between parties. Recent news from Jorrhildr had confronted the Howlester family with substantial losses to their mercenary forces. For many decades, the Silverwolves were a stable mercenary force supplied with Howlester forged steel and rented out to the highest bidder in foreign wars. In more recent times, the Silverwolves had been used in the conflicts raging on Jorrhildr. The frozen temperatures did not deter the hardy mercenaries, Blackmark nearly all, who were used to fighting in inhospitable conditions. Like usual, the Silverwolves scored early victories against the Baal-Url. In this case, the Maw-Throngs were waging war on local Lord Härterfeerland, a Regalian Baron who had established himself on the southern coast of Jorrhildr as a colonial governor. The small-time Baron had few troops himself, but a valuable gold mine in the local rivers, which provided the finances for him to buy troops. The Baal-Url obviously saw the local Regalians as impeding on their territory and started raiding them before long.

    With the arrival of the Howlester Silverwolves, the Red Banner Mercenaries and the Black Fist Legion of Orc Mercenaries, the formidable Url were pushed back into the Svallå region, further away from the civilized coastline. Here however, it became more obvious that this wasn’t a simple native extermination mission, but rather a hunter turned hunted. The Url had been feigning weakness and defeat to read their enemies and pick the terrain that was in their favor. Exact details about the supposed battle itself were hazy, but the Url used fairly ingenious tactics and traps to pry open the Blackmark armors like brittle paper. Within a matter of hours, the Mercenary groups called for the retreat as they had sustained too heavy casualties, the Silverwolves in particular losing their entire leadership squadron in a counter-attacked breakout attempt, including the uncle of the Supreme Chancellor of Regalia. The Supreme Chancellor of Regalia himself had sat in front of the Red Citadel, the Guard Castle, to recruit volunteers to help his stepmother retrieve the corpse of his uncle.

    It was this uncle that a expedition funded by house Howlester and lead by Ania Howlester and Jared Kade hoped to find, though the others presumed it was more of a corpse retrieval than anything. They took very few supplied and armed men with them, opting instead for quick entry and exit over a major display of armed conflict. Accompanying Ania Howlester were Brynjar, Kaya and Gryft Sorenvik who presumably needed a vacation while their homeland was gearing up to defend itself in a coming war. Further assistance was provided by Serna Ashwood, Joasaie Lloablen, Jonathan Herran, Julius Peirgarten, Hamelin von Rahm, Vedrfolnir Berdalfsson, Beau Kra-zzla the Varran, Azra Min eazim and finally the only Url, Ike Mordekae. Hamelin von Rahm took charge of what little military forces they had taken with them, while Brynjar Sorenvik commanded the three ships Eskild, Hertbeer and Grunderwalde, retrofitted Howlester Transport ships. Arrival in Iteå, the capital of Lord Härterfeerland’s enterprise, was met with a cold attitude from the locals. All but the Lord did not speak common, leaving the Sorenviks to communicate with the locals as far as they permitted, while the others treated with the Lord.

    The Lord was uncooperative at first, but later on provided them with the basest of woolen pelts to shield from the frost where they were going. Their presence was unwanted by the locals and this became very obvious. Jorrhild acted like the last remnant of true natural Old Gods and Oldt Fayth worshipers in the world, pockets of religious preservation completely cut off from Regalian society and rule. Even though the Lord was Regalian and technically owned the land in the name of Regalia, it was not marked on any maps, and the locals did not see the Lord as Regalian at all. It was often that fringe Barons such as these only maintained very loose ties with the Empire and prized their autonomy more than anything. This Baron, despite being more legally tied to the Empire than say the King of Hedryll, was in fact more free than the King of Hedryll, and less of a bootlicker to Imperial demands than any other Velheimer state inside or outside the Empire. The Sorenviks were thus naturally disgruntled to find that the locals did not believe in their attempts to be able to relate through their faith, because the locals deemed them already tainted beyond repair, despite the Sorenvik’s many claims and attempts to steer clear of Unionism. With no help from the locals, the party and some guards ventured into the wilderness.

    After a trek of a few hours past some canyons and cliffs into the valley of Svallå, the group stumbled upon the battlefield. Joasaie Lloablen was struck down by the cold quickly, the frozen wind from the highlands shearing down the slope of the valley causing the very moisture in his Yanar flesh to freeze up. It was a very painful experience to be in an environment this hostile to Yanar, and it required Jonathan Herran and Julius Peirgarten’s Bloodcast cloaks wrapped around him to even stay conscious. The two Bloodknights opted to remain with Joasaie on the edge while the rest ventured closer to the center of the battlefield. Azra Min Eazim tried to pilfer through the corpses strewn about the field with her quick fingers in search for treasure (clues, officially), but found no bounty. The corpses had frozen so solid that whatever glittered was stuck in layers of frosted snow. Beau Kra-zzla remained as a lookout, circling around the ground to keep a sharp eye on the cliffs around them for any Url that might encroach them.

    As the remainder closed in on the center, they were greeted by a massive wickerman, easily as tall as the main mast of a Regalian battleship, entirely constructed out of Mammoth bones and twigs and tree branches of all sorts. It’s distinctive crow-like beak perched atop its main chassis which resembled a sitting man with legs crossed, various straps of colored cloth dancing in the frozen wind in its lap. Around the wicker man were sets of armor, ritualistically arranged in a circle facing away from the wicker man, each of which filled with a smaller wicker man standing up, so as to keep the armor upright. Upon closer inspection, Jared and Ania would find that the armors had been pried open, their cuirasses were cracked and bent outwards as if someone had used a very large crowbar to peel away steel. Each of these wicker men in armor suits had smaller memorabilia attached to them, a scarf here, a nose ring there, and an occasional necklace. While there were many corpses around this circle of armor suits, each with their armors still on, these were devoid of any humanoid presence.

    Serna Ashwood continued to inspect the other corpses with Hamelin von Rahm, finding they were mostly Ailor and Orcs, which complied with the descriptions they were given. The Orcs had all been impaled in their diaphragm, while the Humans had bashing wounds and cuts on their heads, avoiding most of their armor. The corpses were all positioned sporadically and without any pattern. Ike Mordekae on closer inspection was able to identify the massive wicker man as idol to communion with nature, but could not discern why the Baal-Url would be placing quasi religious symbols on the site of a battlefield, and what the smaller wicker men in armor suits meant.

    It was then that Ania Howlester noticed that the armor suits arranged around the massive wicker man were all officer suits, carrying the silver plaque on their right shoulder for the Silverwolves. She was able to use rough descriptions of the personal emblems that she had ever seen or heard her husband talk about to identify Captain Bolvar, Captain Wilthelred, Captain Stann, Captain Ulthromm and finally Commander Osric and Commander Hark. Jared inspected the other sets of armor and was able to identify leaders of the Red Banner Mercenary group including Tall John, Big Arm Brutus and High Helmet Timmy, whose helmet was in fact absent. Ike Mordekae noted that there were in fact no Orc suits of armor present in this arrangement, and all Orcs seemed to have died on the battlefield, with no survivors ever making it back to the towns on the coast. The group had thus found the Supreme Chancellor’s uncle’s set of armor, but the body of the Silverwolf Commander was missing.

    Continuing to filter through the remains of the armor suits, Azra Min Eazim eventually stumbled upon an earring lodged in the supposed eye socket of the wicker man which was inside Commander Osric’s suit, and tried to hide the piece of silver up her sleeve, but quickly had to give it up when she saw Jared Kade watching, who was considerably more freely dressed in his lack of caring for the biting cold. Azra eventually gave the earring to Ania, who identified it as Osric’s Silverwolf earring, a set of identical silver earrings made for all Howlester men, and identical to the ones worn and owned by his brothers. The group contemplated their next step for a few minutes until Beau alerted them that Url had appeared on the horizon. While the group were prepared to fight, Jared urged a retreat in the face of a foe which was clearly able to play games with anyone impeding on their territory. He reasoned that, they had found no evidence of Osric being dead or alive, merely finding his armor. The wickers gave a further clue to continue their search elsewhere, and there was no need to get anyone killed at this point since it would get no-one any closer to retrieving Osric’s corpse.

    The group retreated, picking up the Yanar and two Bloodcast along the way, and not a moment too soon, as just when they were leaving over the hill beyond the valley, they could make out numerous groups of Url in varying sizes, some terrifyingly large approaching the wicker men and setting the largest one ablaze with loud bull-like bellowed cries that carried far into the wind. The sound could both be described as beautiful and terrifying, like the howls of a dying beast in the frozen tundra carried by the icy winds far and wide. It was exactly this prospect, dying in the frozen tundra like some animal that is being wounded and hunted for sport, that gave the group the needed energy to quickly rush back to civilization to take their finds back to Regalia. On the way back, Ike professed not to know the details behind what was happening in the Maw-Throngs, but recollected that the Windhoof-Throngs might know. The Windhoof-Throngs were also a Baal-Url group positioned in Jorrhildr who maintained somewhat positive relations with the non-Url living on the coastline and respected the boundaries of their lands. These Url would prove far more approachable for talks, and better yet, some had migrated to Regalia and potentially carried the necessary knowledge for the next step.

    ((This Progression was more of an IC thing that came up spontaneously. Recruitment into these smaller progression missions happens sometimes IC, but they aren’t really predictable. Just keep an eye out for World Chat messages when they do come through. Take note however, all information in this progression is limited to the people who participated, aside from the first paragraph and the prelude to this expedition to Jorrhildr, which could be read in the newspapers))
     
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