Editing WS:Chapter Two (section)

===Session Fourteen===

Sunday, 30th April, 10.30<br>
Game date - 14-16th May<br>

====Synopsis a la Red====
Thodric continues to manage the army, setting men to collect the bodies, and setting aside time to properly bury them.  Morale is low, and any effort that might improve such is of value.

Lictors circle the camp, very few seeing even the faint traces they leave as they move, but that feeling of something evil watching, waiting, leaves men nervous.

Mi Shang continues to try and quiz me of the location of the great mage, but, while not lying, I continue to not to answer too specifically.  I have vague memories suggesting my current state would be cause for death, regardless of the mind inhabiting the rakshasa body.

A day or two after the gargoyles were driven off, a cry comes from the sentries facing towards the castle.  A huge creature is approaching, moving slowly and harmlessly, a flat white lictor.  It is soon obvious it means to parley on behalf of whatever mind controls the demons.

A couple of us approach; the Baron as titular head of the campaign, and the owner of the lands upon which we stands, Thodric, Aeskil, of whose status I am quite uncertain and Mi Shang.  We stand before the beast, looking up at it's chest, upon which is written text.  Alden recognises the text as elven, but even he cannot understand it.  Someone made a suggestion about talking to us in Irolon, and the text changed.  One word, "Parley".  Sadly, or intriguingly, and happily considering what we saw next, the beast would not respond to High Kartaran.

After a moment of insufficient negotiation, it was agreed a small party of us would follow the demon into the castle after we retrieved our weapons and armour.  I grabbed my ex-Lictor-claw blade but there was, I'm starting to suspect not surprisingly, no reaction.

=====We're off the see the wizard=====

Alden's castle was amazing.  The demons have extensively re-built and re-designed it, the grand tower higher still, the walls scalloped and more organic, doors and openings guarded with sphincters.  The few remaining gargoyles flew endlessly above the highest point of the castle.  The smell was fairly bad, all rotting meat and unidentifiable filth.  Occasionally the mouth watered a little as a particularly piquancy rolled over us.  Some of the others were starting to go a little green.

We entered through what I think used to be a sally port, and was now... anyway.  Inside, the walls were lined with resin and bodies, bodies disassembled only to be re-built in patterns and usages of bizarre alien mindset.  It took a couple of minutes until I realised that some of the body parts were still alive and, perhaps, functioning.  I saw a series of arteries, a bright warm web, still pulsing with blood forced through by a heart hidden somewhere.

It was actually very disquieting.  Killing humans is one thing, this was just wrong.

I thoroughly lost my bearings as we were lead through the remodelled building.  Eventually however, somewhere deep in the bowels of the castle, or possibly in diggings extending the original basements and dungeons we were let into a room containing the ... mechanism that would communicate with us.  It was a child, a young girl seated upon the floor with the back of her skull covered with some kind of bug.  One has to assume she would die without it, but still the urge to rescue even this human young was strong.

Basically the demons required some 800 tonnes of sentient bio-mass, in other words, human or elven or Kartaran bodies, preferably alive.  It offered weapons, magic and possibly other things for this, and guaranteed it would leave when the raw material was received and processed, presumably built into the castle.

...

We discussed some of the details with the girl, and then left to discuss the matter.

Some were in favour of feeding the incoming Bayern army to the beasts, others, Thodric, to shovelling Zylistani into this evil maw.  However, all these evil thoughts aside, it was eventually realised at a minimum, whether we were going to feed them to the castle, or use them to attack the castle, the Duke of Bayern's army would have to lie under the control of Thodric and Alden.

So, a little travel.

=====All Your Army Are Belong to Us=====

After buying a little time from the mind, we rested.  Actually, I spent the evening bouncing around a little, using the teleport cloak the dark elves gave us to find the approaching army.

Next day, we went and took it.  It was almost that easy.  We approached as evening fell, intimidated in a little way a sentry to let us in to see the generals of the army and they believed the letter of marque.

A fellow identified as a nephew of the Duke of Bayern, but wearing an amulet that pretty much marked him as a dark elf, insisted upon communicating with home to check what may have happened with Constantia et al, but that communication was enough to convince him he was in a bad place.

He left, taking with him half of those we'd identified as elves.  Now I come to think of it, we didn't exactly search the personnel of this new army to ensure there weren't other elves buried somewhere in the rank and file.  Oops.

Now Alden and Thodric have bi-i-ig army.  Thodric really wants to kill Zylistan with it.  I think he'd lose personally.  Too many raw recruits.

=====On the Horns of Two Lemmas=====

Having a grand lot o' men mostly surrounding the castle, although I suspect many of the soldiers are on the verge of running away from the stinking building, the demons, again sending a white lictor, so cool, agree to surrender and give Thodric forces to help collect the biomass they want.

I can not help but feel that, given these forces and no further opinions, the rightful margrave, Thodric, would very likely have tried to wage war, upon Zylistan to begin with, damning his soul by dealing with such demons.

Fortunately, there '''were''' other opinions.  Especially Mi Shang and I when the silly little human starting talking expansionist plans.

So, they agreed with the mind, which offered like 10 lictors, some big mage-types and a swarm of littler demons, oh, and some monstrous huge carnifex things, fully intending to ambush them a day or two away from here.

Here's me just hoping that their entire army doesn't just rout, or start deserting en masse as soon as they see the demons, or plain old lose, although that might leave the demons with their 800 tonnes anyway.  Okay, what I really:  I hope I don't die.  After all my effort, I'd be seriously annoyed.
=====GM Synopsis=====
[[WS:GM's Session 14 Notes|GM's Session 14 Notes]]