The battle for Whitewall is not one that will be a victory for the forces of the living. It will be a rout. A total rout. The characters will need to come to that conclusion if they are to save the people of the city, it will not be through battle.
The Enemy:
The Thrice Dread Achiba and Marama will announce that they, the rulers of the East and the West Fell have united their rule with the destruction of the Holy Road and the corruption of the Jewel of the North shall consummate their Union.
The Attacks have been brutal and far reaching, and it turns out that the barbarians near Whitewall have been gathered in support for the forces of Undead; they have attacked from the North and have burned the fields that were not yet ready for harvest which drew the forces out of the walls for the Undead to attack and destroy.
When the attacks began, the assault involved skeletal trebuchet and unholy ammunition that exploded and burned with green fire that lit the marble aflame. A terror weapon that only one in ten hit the wall, the rest ignited the city in a seemingly random fashion. Accidentally striking garrison buildings and shrines many places of great sentimental meaning for the populous. After the initial barrage was done, the city was burning but the walls were intact. Moreover, things were looking up for the people of Whitewall, in their time of need the Unconquered Sun seemed to decide to defend his City and no less than Fifteen Solar Exaltations filled the city with the their light and filling them with hope…
This should send the Characters into a cold sweat.
Although multiple Shadowlands have opened within the city, they expect to have these closed soon and since the walls have held and there are no breaches, these shadowlands offer no strategic beachheads to the Underworld. Yet.
When the Characters arrive, the city that was optimistic has become a city in ruins. The attacks that seemed to be random within the city have resulted in a deflection of the essence through the city and the ineffective attacks against the city were designed to weaken the Geomantic stability of the walls and the fifteen Solars betrayed the city attacking the city and its forces at key places. Five were in the conference with the Syndics at the time and the Syndics have not been seen since
Stage is set.
The enemy launches its second attack in a coordinated strike against the city from within and from without. The first assault only finished a few hours before, the Holy Road has been compromised, but the assault was repelled from the the city by the exaltation of numerous Solars. The overjoyed Syndics are meeting with five of the new Solars when the second attack begins. The plan was to destroy one or two of the Syndics, hoping to remove Yo-Ping first and then the others, but since the Syndics appear identical, that is unlikely. Tired from the recent battle, Luranume, falls quickly in the battle and is destroyed. Surprise does not last long and Yo-Ping is able to evoke the sign of Peace and this battle ends, he and Uvanavu flee before the Abyssals can destroy them too. This battle was coordinated by the Black Sun as the city was assaulted a second time. The ineffectual attacks against the wall in the first battle weakened it enough that the attack from within causes the wall to breach and the breach breaks the holy protections on the city and the shadowlands link through the city with the outside. When the characters arrive on the scene, the battle appears to be untenable, but a number of actions seem to suggest that victory is still possible, it is not.
A quick assessment of the battle will lend to three possible strategies:
A victory is still possible, if the characters decide that this is the only option, to fight then let them fight. The Black Sun IS on the field and he cannot be defeated in personal combat by any of the characters as of yet. With a wave of his hand, any being with five or less permanent essence, will be slain. Demonstrate this before they try to engage him: Glacier leads a force of spirit blooded and militia before the Thrice Dreaded Achiban and his mighty Soulsteel Gore-Maul rises and falls many times on her assorted foes, as he obliterates one he stares into her eyes across the field, she crumples and dies; her hungry ghost rises to lead her now dead forces against the living.
If the characters choose this action it will be a battle where they must avoid directly facing the enemy and destroy his leuitenants only, the Abyssal Exalted. If they engage the Deathlord directly, they will die.
Character death.
The second option is to recognize that all is lost here and flee. Whitewall will be turned into another concentration camp and the populous will be slowly put to death, spreading Marama's Fell all the way to Gethamane over a few months and from there to the Haslanti league in less than a year. The Slave States will fall well before that, a million undead joined the ranks will be slaughtered easily, but the entire North will be lost, which was the Black Sun's only goal. Creation will sputter and cough. The other Deathlords will be forced to act.
Smart characters will realize that neither option is a good one.
There is a middle road.
They can accept that the battle is over and Whitewall has been killed, but make the victory empty for the Black Sun. Fight the forces of the Black Sun, but not to engage its leaders but to delay the eventual defeat. Accepting that the forces that fight against the Black Sun are going to die, and that they will fight to allow the bulk of the citizenry to flee and escape. The city is a city of artificers and has the highest levels of education outside of the Realm, but really since the end of the First Age. It might occur to them that they could bring the populous to Denandsor.
Practitioner: bring the populous to Denandsor and fill the City of Makers with people that can make things. He will have to devise a spell that can do this for him. He has to move 5-600k people in one move. When The Black Sun realizes this is their strategy, it will personally try to stop him. And it can and will unless the Black Sun can be delayed.
His salvation will be Rakši she will have discovered his movements and seen that he will be low on power and that this will be her time to pounce and destroy her nemesis, only when she arrives in Whitewall she will see a greater danger and she will step up and defend The practitioner at a critical moment. The Black Sun cannot outright kill Rakši and so they will battle and provide a reprieve for him. When the actual casting of the spell is ready she will return, nearly dead and will pass out at his feet, but just before she will reveal that with an act of will he, possessing the gift of Brigit, can sacrifice years of his life to grant him success at a sorcerous endeavor beyond his means. Which is why Brigit died many years before her time, a mystery of the First Age. She intends on being there when he exceeds himself to pick up her Gift from his corpse. He can buy success with his lifespan. Feels his age when he uses it, a wisp of white hair, sore joints which go away except when it rains etc.
Vael: sorcery quest, humiliation, romance quest. He must lead the people to the site where the spell is to take place, he must lead the huddling masses to safety. He is met by a woman, a blonde woman, ash covered face who is shepherding a group of orphans from the city through the under ways. She insists that she needs to go with him every foray he makes points the city, she knows where the people might be hiding and, "Stop being silly. I know this city better than you and I know the Language too. " It might be Bertrod.
She claims some heritage as a grand daughter of a Solar, they are not as rare in Whitewall as elsewhere.
Deepwater: battles everywhere that need being faught. Engaging in battles with roaving foes in battle formations leading against the foes of Creation. Pick up battles rear guard actions moving behind large groups of refugees, attacking when necessary and moving with her charges and then moving back into the city. Or moving behind the enemy with some beleaguered allies and pulling off a victory that causes the enemy to pause and shore up its lines, allowing more refugees to make their escape. Abandoning those troops or leading them to defend some crucial junction against the hoarde. This battle is both demoralizing and necessary occasionally it will become clear that the foe she faces is the Black Sun, who will kill her if she fights him. As Marama, the ghost punches her sub commander and she sees his ghost punched out of his corpse and begin attacking his troops, experienced Dragon Blooded officers…. Her option to flee and fight another day or to die fighting a foe she can't defeat.
The Nameless Wolf: he will try to save Whitewall at all costs, so it will be tricky. The Black Sun sees turning his former Solar Soul to be the greatest achievement, but we also is not blind to losing sight on his goals. If the Nameless Wolf becomes too much of a hinderance, he will decide that he could begin again with a younger less jaded Solar and kill him outright. If it comes to that, he will have one last chance to fight another day, the Green Lady will step out and interpose herself and take the brunt of the attack saving Nameless. She will turn and say, he is a foe beyond your power right now, Fly you fool! For all their power, there are foes beyond their measure.
When he kills someone with Essence, the body falls like their bones were removed, and from there a ghost rises defiant against the Deathlord, but over seconds the ghost bleeds from their eyes and takes on a deathly pall and turns on its former allies and begins to grimly scythe through the ranks. Iron Siaka, Ayed, any who oppose him, Lunars, all. When he encounters a higher essence Creature, they take a knee, staggered by the attack but they then rise shaken and continue unharmed, but only just. This is a warning shot at the character in question that they are out classed here.
If he chooses to fight the Spirit blooded commanders and Iron Siaka will die in the assault. As with Ayed. Cut scene to the office of Lytek working away in his office polishing a letter to some Godling about what he learned from Stalking Jaguar. There is a sound, a plinking as a soul shard drops into his "IN" basket, he is startled and he gets up to take a look. A second and a third plink fall into the basket as he reaches it, he withdraws a golden light of a Solar SoulShard and another of a Sidereal's. Cut back to another character going last to The Nameless.
If the Nameless, gets this in the end he can sit in key locations and aid the retreat by picking off leaders
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Prep work, a list of names, names of Solars in the fight and Sidereals and Lunars. A list of Abyssals. a list of spirit blooded. Cast of notable characters in other words. A list of notable locations and key sites, places where battles will be fought and lost.
Betrôd Kawai of the Dancing Sun Beam, mother of a little boy with golden hair age 1, named Lupis. The child is Nameless's but she does not acknowledge him as the father. Lupis is popular among any of the citizens of Whitewall.
Commander of Guardians Western Province: Steadywater Hammerhands. essence 3 Daughter of a local Glacier now a commander in the Militia
Antdrin Meltyl Lightsteel Hammerfast, Cheif Smith of Whitewall. Essence 5 in times of war Antdrin is called to lead a force of Militia.
Jafar the lunar guild trader
Gerd Marrow-Eater essence 4 of the Haslanti League, comes down to support because he knows that the league requires trade with the South to sustain the League.
Shepard of the North Star Essence 4, native to Whitewall.
Iron Siaka, essence 4. With the party when they enter Whitewall
The Green Lady.
Ayed, Khan of Dawn with the party when the worst happens essence 4
Rakš enters the fray to save? The Practitioner
A bunch of Lunars, god blooded and a couple Sidereals. Plus a few Solars that headed the call to come to Whitewall— the Solar Propagandist and her group, Orixia and three others. Nix informs that she is on her way but is three days out. They will all die.
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This is a truly horrible and costly loss for the players and Creation, but it is also a rallying point and a place where the forces protecting Creation realize that they are fighting a common foe and their foe has been preparing for a very long time. The next few sessions will be about meeting the factions and putting aside amenities and starting anew. The Sidereals will feel that there is a lot to discuss, but they will begin by opening up the vaults of Heaven for the Solars that are on side. And they will give up some of the artifacts that are associated with each SoulShard. They will still hold back some of these artifacts because even after some 1200 years of research, some of the artifacts have unknown qualities, but these have known effects and are well documented from early in their life. If pressed they will say that some of the artifacts have mixed Soulsteel and Orichalcum, some where made by welding the souls of third circle demons to them….
The Practitioner will have a constant companion of Rakš who will bide her time suggesting things that he could do that would cause him to expend his soul faster so that she might recover the artifact empowering his spells. He will also have an artifact in the form of a staff, that doubles the essence recovery of the wielder but reduces the essence recovery of others. It also creates a bubble that automatically deflects missile fire when held and magnifies the power of any hearthstone in some way. Armour and a weapon
Deepwater Siaka, has her new sword of The Practitioner's creation, will be given Armour that increases her appearance dice and effects by half her essence, but intimidation by her full essence, reinforced Breastplate, a goremaul that when swung scatters water that burns creatures of darkness and flowers sprout where the water lands. Game effect causes aggravated damage and counters Shadowland creating effects, used in shadowlands it heals them in a minor way.
If Jaguar is called to the meeting and she is awarded her own artifacts she will give up the ones that she has taken from the Black Sun's rebirth site, the cloak of shadows, Mask of Eternity, and Last Cut. The Sidereals have no artifacts for the Nameless, because they could not be recovered. Last Cut is a knife. When used against any creature and essence is expended equal to the victim's essence, their ghost appears before him and can be absorbed to allow perfect interrogation. It allows the user to know what they know as long as the essence is committed. Must be used as a coup-de-gras. It has no weight and once attuned will appear in the owner's hand when it is needed. Mask of Eternity allows the owner to assume any form that he has killed. Used with the blade even the magical detection will fail. The loom of fate will even record the user as the person he is playing. The appearance in not superficial, any artifacts that the victim was using will be created and can be used. Special innate powers are also replicated, such as dematerialization. The Cloak of shadows quick travel through Creation by entering a realm of shadows. It is Creation but appears different. Movement is between shadows and all senses can be extended through these shadows. Due to exposure to the Neverborn Void of Desires and the creator of these artifacts, these artifacts are cursed. They are the type of things that Chejop would disallow and keep from the Characters. Using these artifacts leaves the character open to the whispers of Void of Desire in the least bit.
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Timeline.
Dawn: Arrival in the city
The city is celebrating and festive. There is smoke hanging over the city and there are parts of the city that are still burning
The meeting with Leaf, his description of the attack on Whitewall.
• loss of the Holy Road
• the Coordinated attack by Barbarians and the Dead
• the catapults that fired green fire into the city that burned the stone
• how the walls held
• multiple small Shadowlands opened up, but none breached the walls and so no beachheads were formed
• how the Unconquered Sun came to the rescue of the city by choosing citizens as Solars, 15 of them that drove off the attackers and saved the city.
• how the Syndics are meeting with some of the Heroes of the Darkest Hour!
Zenith: The Real Attack
Once there is panic about the Syndics meeting with some of the 'Solar Exalted' that saved the city the real attack begins.
The attack is three pronged from outside the city,
• there is a second assault by the Barbarians from the North-East,
• an attack from the South-West led by Marama herself,
• and an attack from the South-East led by the Thrice Dread Achiban.
• There is also a quiet attack on the gates from within led by five Abyssal Exalted disguised as Solars.
• five city units are being led by fake Solars and are acting to cause disruptions in the ranks and attack other units.
The attacks from the North and from within are stoppable, the one from the north is not even by Barbarians, but by ghosts and zombies that died recently they are led by a Dawn Caste Solar, one of the surviving Companions and they appear to be charging the undead.
Shortly afterwards if no one is still heading to the Syndics place, smoke will be seen rising above the palace. Otherwise the encounter proceeds as normal.
The remaining five Solar impersonators are leading the largest battle units against the city's enemies.
Hard events: 1) Marama and the Thrice Dread Achiban succeed in their assault and breach the Walls, any PC that stands against them will be joined with two or more Exalted Types that will die, and one that won't.
2) it is clear the city is without Leadership, one or more of the Syndics have been murdered.
3) the intent with the catapults is finished, to create a disruption to the essence gathering of the city, the city is broken.
Additional effects include:
•possibly the Gates being breached,
•a force scales the walls— the barbarian walking dead or they enter through the gates
•troops in chaos in the city
Twilight: Cut scene to Lytek's office:
Plink.
Plink, plink.
Plink, plink, plink, plink, plink, plink
Back to characters leading the assault on Marama and the Thrice Dread Achiban. They see the effects of a direct assault by a Deathlord. Up close and personal.
The Choice: to Flee, to Fight, or to save the people but lose the city.
Flee the city falls. Everyone dies, the characters live.
Fight the characters die a Hero's Death, and the city is destroyed.
Save the people. Fight to delay, fight to slow the fall of the city, while the Practitioner creates a spell to move the city's inhabitants, some where else.
Night: Best Laid Plans
Arrival of Exalted of the North, Lunars of the Haslanti League and other points near
If they chose to fight, make it clear They Will Die. Kill Leaf, Sister Estella, Jafar characters that mean something to them.
If they persist, they die.
They can re-choose saving the people, but instead of 500k survivors, 300k survive.
They need to direct the defense of the city and attack to slow the invaders while still evacuating the people.
Nameless an assassin who can pick off enemy commanders
Practitioner who needs to cast the ritual spell
Deepwater needs to pull the defenders to key locations to die or live
Messenger needs to rescue and lead refugees through the Underways to safety with a guide, Bertrod, who speaks Air Speak and knows where people might hide.
Complications:
• Moving between locations where a Deathlord might be
• Rakš lands on the ground next to the Practitioner just as a Deathlord arrives to disrupt and kill him, destroying the groups chances.
— she then reveals to him that the artifact allows more than what he thinks. He can channel his life essence to succeed at sorcery, in exchange, she gets the book when he dies. Brigid had a much shorter life than she should have and her writing talked about how she aged noticeably during the war and afterwards went into seclusion.
Communication with Nameless and Deepwater can only be facilitated by Messenger, so he wears two hats, rescuer and messenger in truth. Sorcery quest, dawn.
Eventually, Black Sun becomes aware that he is losing his prize, striking unoccupied sections of the town, assaulting minimally defended choke points finding less and less inhabitants stymied by the characters becomes enraged and starts leaping through the streets trying to find the elusive characters.
Eclipse: spell is cast
Denandsor The Empty City, empty no longer. The Assault was launched and the city captured and enveloped by a Shadowland. The Ghost Marama and Achiban declare their joint rule of the Fell. Everyone in Creation and the Underworld knows something momentous has happened, but nothing for sure. The characters know. The Bronze faction knows. The important people know. The cost has been high. Of the 8-10 Solars, four survived. The Sidereals suffered two or three deaths, the Lunars suffered the worst with 20+ dying, Gerd, and Several other un-replaceable leaders. It becomes clear that if anyone less than 6 essence, dies against a Deathlord.
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That was the planning
All the planning in the world, like when making a battle plan, goes out the window when the first player hits the ground.
The players skipped the initial stage where they found out about what had happened in the city and ran right to the encounter at the city center, where the Abyssals pretending to be Solars paid their respects to the Syndics. The battle was a fixed encounter and going early started the second battle early. The Syndics were attacked just as the players entered the palace and the God of Peace dropped a peace bomb ceasing combat just as the characters entered the room. The God of Five-Fold Luck in Battle was dead, but the Peace bomb allowed the god of health and the god of peace to flee. Of the three, the loss of the God of Luck, was ironically the luckiest thing to happen. When the players entered they attacked the Solar impostors and surprised them, killing all five attackers. The players then opened up the portal of the god of peace to his sanctum and bade him return to the city as a symbol for the people. They were convincing.
Next the players went to fight the four pronged attack on the city. They split up and launched attacks on the Thrice-Dread Achiban, Marama and the Undead Barbarians, leaving only the bombardment of the city to continue. The Messenger assassinated the barbarian leader and Deepwater engaged Marama, and The Nameless against the Achiban. They noticed that the two seemed to gain power to destroy people at will and turn them into ghosts and figured it was the Deathlord assuming their forms and using them to tear apart the forces of Whitewall. They co-ordinated their attacks to attack the hosts when they were both not being possessed. They used the Nameless's and Messenger's enhanced hearing to do it and it succeeded. Deepwater Siaka armed with ghost killing power even permanently wiped Marama out.
The Practitioner who had been holding the center on hearing that there was another force in the city trying to open the front gate, rushed to stop it. The first session ended with Marama throwing open the front gates of the city and leveling a death curse at The Practitioner. I let him sweat a bit. This was the Deathlord appearing in person. At that moment Rakši, the lunar that had been stalking him dropped out of the sky and interposed herself between him and the Deathlord. She yelled in fury, "He is mine to kill, not yours!" and then to Practitioner, "Run you Fool!"
The next session was a private interlude between Rakši and the Practitioner, where she explained that she had learned stuff about the Artifact that had possessed him, that it can be bequeathed on his death and that it could use his life force to power his spells to do the extraordinaire.
The players regrouped to determine what they could do to save the city, to save the people if the city were lost. The practitioner determined that he could do either and elected to save the city, but he would need time to do so. The others went off to halt the advancement through the two holes in the walls and the wide open main gate. Holding back the armies was only part of the goal, they had to also remove all the city inhabitants from the path of the armies. One of the locals decided that she would do this if she could get some protection. Messenger volunteered. (This was to be his Dawn quest for Sorcery, humility and it would introduce a romantic subplot meant to give him reason to reform). Bertrôd lead him around the city picking up stray citizens and escorting them to the meeting point. When things got difficult he could call down attacks from The Nameless Wolf. He was suspicious of her and when his resonance broke and his presence began to injure the people, she held him and told him that he was a good person and that he would deliver them from this disaster.
Deepwater battled through the masses and fought with Solar allies beside her, but one by one they each were killed by the Deathlord. Some heroically throwing themselves away to slow the progress of the Deathlord. Much of the city was in a Shadowland and much of it was overrun. At last the Practitioner completed his spell that removed the bulk of the undead from the city and the surroundings. Faced with no army, the Deathlord retreated.
The city was dead. The people living in it just did not know it. It was surrounded by shadowlands, many in the city itself. The lands around were scorched. The crops in the field, rotting or burned, churned into the earth. Most of the people saved, but the city was cut off completely to the south and the North was in deep trouble. The holy road was still destroyed, Wallport was still occupied. Things are bleak. They have stores of food for a month, maybe a year if the granaries are carefully sifted through.
In the end the Sidereal Exalted led by Chejop, open the stores of Solar equipment taken and hidden in Heaven and gift it to the surviving characters, because although they firmly believe they will destroy Creation, they are the only thing standing before an earlier demise from the enemies of Creation.
