It’s another summary of the updates from Empire LARP, this time for the rest of the Winds of War for the second event of the year. These winds are focused on the battles with the Jotun and the Grendel, while the previous one was all about the Cold Sun, a magical army from the Realm of Day. You can find out more about that from this post.
Empire is a LARP run by Profound Decisions here in the UK, it is a fest LARP and regularly draws crowds of over 3000 people to events. I go as often as I am able, and write up these summaries before every event in order to help my own memory and give people who don’t enjoy reading as much a bit less to do!
If you find this summary useful please leave a comment and a like, and check out my new novel Hack & Slash if you like my writing.
Below the Red Rock
The Lasambrian Jotun have invaded Kahraman again. However, unlike last time, the territory is defended by Isaella’s Dance Army, the Red Wind Corsairs and three magical fortifications. Their movement has been slowed, but they are still gaining ground, they are now four-fifths of the way to conquering Gambit.
Meanwhile, the Lasambrians also have back up in the form of Yegarra (humans fighting under the orders of Stephen of Sarcombe and some new warbands. There are no banners of the self-styled warlord of Kahraman, Geht Aran, adding fuel to the rumours that they were slain seasons ago and their second in command, a war magician, has taken over.
Much of the season is taken up by repelling raids from the Lasambrians, they seem particularly interested in the Damatian Cliffs as well as the labourers attemtping to build the roads and defensive buildings known as Kamkrags. No labourers have been killed, nor have their resources been stolen, but no more work has been done on the building project. However, the Great Mine has lost 6 wains of mithril, and the Cliffs have lost 7 wains of white granite to the raiders this season.
There is a battle between the two forces West of Rojota, the Empire does hold them off but the price is high and there are many casualties. In fact there have been a lot of casualties throughout the region this season. The deaths of Imperial soldiers numbers around 1500 while the Lasambrians have only lost about half that.
Regrow the Lands Heart has been cast over the territory, it brings peace to many of the soldiers and the civilians, but its primary task is likely to stop the Blight in neighbouring Madruga from spreading. It has caused a great deal of new healthy plantlife to grow on the hills, which has brought hope to both the Empire and their foes.
Sea-wood Fed With Copper
The Golden Axe, Winter Sun, Seventh Wave, and Towerjackshave been joined in Mareave by the Citadel Guard.
The Bone Nautilus and the Hamsin fight alongside the Brine Turtles, with the red-sailed ships of the Samal providing valuable naval support.
Last season, the Empire used a conjunction of the Sentinel Gate to send their armies to Mareave and cause problems for their enemies. Some of the guilds that rear the famous war beasts of the Grendel were bought off, while others had their creatures slain, the Seventh Wave paid for important information on fortifications, while the North Mareave Trading Company sold many of their slaves to the Empire, where they were promptly freed.
Thanks to the information that the Seventh Wave bought, they were able to quickly take the fort known as the Gate of Storms, or Rucraic’s Aerie. The castle falls in less than an hour, the garrison slain, and the last pieces needed to conquer Eoradal fall into place. Within a fortnight of the Winter Solstice, Imperial forces control three regions of Mareave.
The Imperials then push into Clisearn, this area is very wealthy with many mines and estates. Most of the “nobility” flee ahead of the armies and only around half of the mercenaries in place to protect the estates will defend the region with the armies without their bosses telling them to do so (and paying them to do so). A few of the mining estates have forced labour, but those ones rapidly fall to the Empire as the slaves fought back against their oppressors. The rest are mined by professional miners and many of them fight to preserve their jobs with the Grendel.
None of this is able to stop the Imperials, however, especially as the Grendel generals apparently have some problems working together, unlike their Imperial counterparts. The Empire takes the small town of Fundindelve and the great mine it supports. With its capture, the whole of Clisearn quickly falls under Imperial control.
Next the Imperials move into Fleisardh, the ancestral lands of the Brine Turtles. The Brine Turtles fight hard but they are no match and are gradually pushed back, until, just before the Spring Equinox the Empire is nearly half way to conquering the region.
Throughout their fight across the territory the Imperial armies have made sure to keep some prisoners alive so that they can send messages to the Salt Lord, offering them the chance to negotiate. Finally after Fundindelve they receive an answer, the former Salt Lord is willing to negotiate. Not a surrender, but they are willing to become a neutral Foreign state separate to the rest of the Grendel and to whom those Grendel that do not wish to join the Empire may flee.
They will send orcs to Anvil to negotiate, bringing several peices of information with them. First they have released their slaves, apparently with the Liberty Pact’s work of the last few years owning slaves was becoming very expensive. The second piece of information is that the former Salt Lord is prepared to hand over information that will help the Empire defeat the Brine Turtles and fully conquer the area with less bloodshed.
Enough regions of Mareave have been taken by the Empire that it is now officially Imperial. It can become a part of any Imperial Nation and the mithril mine of Fundindelve can also be assigned as either an Imperial or a National bourse seat.
A further note, apparently there is no mithril at Fundindelve because a group of mercenaries employed to protect it instead scarpered with the mithril into the mountains south-east of the mine.
The Cry of Gulls
Last season was a busy time for the Grendel and their Asavaean friends, they tore down the Salt Guard, conquered Lightsea and and Free Landing, and would have taken the Lyceum too if they could. Luckily a shroud was placed over the Island the college of magic sits on, or else 400 years of the Empire’s magical studies would have gone to the Grendel.
The Shining Pillar has also been destroyed, and Siakha’s calling for victims and blood seems to have been met because her heralds are more vigorous than ever. A “maelstrom of chaos and destruction that births monsters to ravage the Brass Coast” has formed where the Shining Pillar once stood.
The Freeborn National Assembly has not allowed their people to grow bitter in the meantime, however, instead instructing them to work at saving the trading ships that travel across the bay of Catazar, saving them from the pirates of the Grendel.
The Fire of the South, the Bounders, the Drakes, the Strong Reeds, the Burning Falcon, and a small band of Marracossans march to the first battle at Calvos. There they meet the armies of the Grendel, plus their many mercenaries and the many ships just offshore from the Grendel and the Assavaeans. The Imperials fight the Grendel and their allies until they are forced back and away from Calvos, but there is a massive amount of death before that. Thousands are dead, both orc and human, but the city stands.
There is a sudden attack at this point from the sea, Heralds of Siakha attack with unexpected violence, some of these soldiers have fought them before and there is something new and even more terrible about them now.
The Grendel fall back to the town of Quzar, in particular there is a hard fought battle in and around the Parador of Salt and Sand. The Grendel, led by Sky Mage Faireoir fight until they know they must run, and then they cast a ritual which causes the light of the Empyrean Spheres to fall on everyone in the courtyard where they stand. It is an indiscriminate Mass Paralyse which freezes both Imperial and Grendel soldier, but gives the Magician time to get away with whatever loot they could haul out of the Parador.
They cannot hold onto the town, and are pushed out by the Imperial armies. But those who try to escape by sea are met with a terrible fate, as the last three Grendel ships are overcome by heralds of Siakha in both shark-like and storm-like forms. They kill everyone upon the ships and attempt to take the town too, but they are killed before they can commit any more atrocities.
Garrisons of soldiers are left in both Calvos and Quzar to protect them from the Grendel and the unexpected enemies from the sea.
There is more fighting as the Grendel are fought ever onwards and more blood is shed and lives lost.
The Freeborn and the Marchers have made minor inroads into Siroc Plains but the Grendel are still firmly in control. But in Madruga the Empire controls Torres, Calvos Sound, and Lightsea. The Grendel hold Siroc Plains and Free Landing.
Or at least that is what was thought until various Grendel prisoners are interrogated and another story comes spilling out. Apparently, when the Shining Pillar fell something happened. The stories are muddled, Asavaean Priests are said to have been fed to sharks, of the very waters turning against the Grendel, and of the priestess of the largest known Siakha temple ordering her followers to attack everyone along the coasts of the Bay of Catazar.
Some fo this is proven by a visitor some days later. She is a heavily scarred orc pirate captain of a ship covered in chains and the dead bodies of both orcs and humans, and she tells the waiting Imperials that, “The Bay of Catazar belongs to us. It has been sanctified with blood and the High Priestess claims it as her domain. Not for the Salt Lords, or for the people of Attar or the Broken Shore, but for our mistress. For the Queen of Reefs, the Devouring Maelstrom, the Thunder-that-Roars, the Blade of Seas. For the goddess of storm and slaughter. It is hers – it is ours as it always should have been. From shore to shore it is ours, and whether you are Empire or Grendel, you cling to its borders only as our prey.”
Then she turns around and goes back to her ship.
Overall the season has gone relatively well for the Empire, many regions are back under their control. However, the Brass Coast armies are still in decline, as detailed in A beacon of smoke. They need one more prosperous coastal region to prevent this.
Player Participation
If you sent a military unit along with the Fire of the South, you may have taken a boon from the Knights of the Bound King. The boon works like an enchantment so you can only have one of them on you at one time.
A character who controlled a military unit that supported the Fire of the South this season may choose to have accepted a boon from the Knights of the Bound King. The boon works as an enchantment – meaning it will be removed if you receive a different enchantment. Otherwise it will last until the end of the Spring Equinox. While it persists it will allow you to make two uses of unstoppable each day as if you knew the skill without spending any hero points. It also brings with it a roleplaying effect: you find it difficult to show mercy to your opponents; it feels good to execute fallen enemies on the battlefield, and easy to find excuses to do so. If someone flees or surrenders you find it difficult not to continue to press your attack until they are all dead. In social situations you are likely to lash out at anyone who you think is threatening you or your friends, and will feel the urge to draw weapons, defeat then, and then execute them.
OK, well that looks to be it for today! The Grendel do not seem to be having a fun time. But do you know who is having a good time? Me! With all of the Winds of War done there will be loads of Winds of Fortune due any day now, which is good because we have like a fortnight and a bit left until E2.
Stay safe and don’t get eaten by shark monsters,
K
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